001Good evening everyone. Happy new year. Welcome back. I'm going to call the January 14th, 2026 school board meeting to order at 6 p.m. If everyone could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call. Megan Arshambo. >> Melissa Bacon here. >> Carmen Barski. >> Suzanne Bower. Mark Cardisano >> here. Elizabeth Day here. >> Michelle Felicetti. Anastasia Ferguson >> here. >> Eric Garrison. Jodie Lane here. Jennifer Mayo. >> Amy Morrison. >> Wes Finny here. >> Adam Tangway. >> Judith Vel. >> Amy Morrison. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. D Vigliata. >> I'm back up to the previous line. Uh Zoe Anthony Walker. Vivian. We have a quorum with
00216 directors present. Are there any adjustments to the agenda this evening? Um, can I get a motion to uh accept the consent agenda? A motion by Anastasia, second by Beth. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor? That carries. Thank you. public comment. Do we have any public comment this evening? Thank you. We can move on to my board chair report. I I have nothing to report. So I um I will have some things for the next meeting. Um you know uh schoolboard member anniversaries and those types of things. Um but for this evening, I'm going to go immediately to the superintendent's report. So Dr. Ricky. >> All right. Uh, good evening everyone. Um, so this was a pretty uh long student representative report. I believe the longest that I've uh
003authored or co-authored. So Zoe and I will be doing our best to uh get through this pretty quickly. Um, but as always, there is more detail in the report. So, on Monday, January 5th, students and staff returned to school after a 12-day break, and their vacation began a couple of hours early as Tuesday, the 23rd of December became an early release day due to the forecasted inclement weather. Uh, the return to break on January 5th, uh, mark the fact that there are only three weeks left in the first semester of the school year, um, which will, uh, end um, on Wednesday, January 28th. uh that was uh changed since the report was uh put out and uh after just two days back school was canled on Wednesday January 7th due to the weather conditions. Alfred
004Elementary families received their RSD graphics orders in early December and the school's elf extravaganza was for another year a great success. Uh the event raised over $1,500 and student staff and volunteers alike all had a fun and exciting time. The school hosted a PJ day on Monday, December 22nd, and an ugly sweater day the next day. Also on that day was the school's annual holiday singalong. Each class had a different song that they practiced throughout the month and then performed in front of the school and an audience of their friends and families. And the 1-hour event was rescheduled to start at 9:30 due to the weather caused early release. And I remember um back when I was at at that age uh participating in that. And uh you know it was it was very fun
005to learn the songs and then you know I was uh very excited to be able to you know perform that in front of my family and everyone else. So that is always always a really fun event. On the 17th Alfred had a schoolwide assembly from Ned's resiliency ride. Students enjoyed magic storytelling humor and yo-yo tricks while learning about Ned's three key messages of never give up, encourage others and do your best. Alfred will have their winter reading NWA test on January 22nd and their math test on the 27th. The school will have a bingo night and will also be holding a canvas painting night on Thursday, February 5th. Participants will be guided to paint a fun scene during that event and in their guidance lessons during January. Students are focusing on their empathy unit. Uh
006at Alfred and Alignment, students were reading holiday titles and focusing on holiday themes during December. and alignment was able to support numerous families in their community through their giving tree, holiday baskets, and other programs. Waterborough Elementary had three spirit days in December, which were holiday headgear day, ugly sweater day, and PJ day, and students focused on the theme of stewardship that month, and they're learning about honesty this month. Fourth and fifth grade students at the school recently sang the national anthem at a school assembly. It began with just four students asking to sing a song to the principles and then grew to over 40 students who practiced once a week during recess and then sang the national anthem in front of the entire school and over 60 guests who came to see the performance. The
007school's uh library and art programs recently collaborated to create a fun interdisciplinary learning experience. Uh students read an annual book about the history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then students uh spent time designing and building their own marionets. the puppet precursors to balloons. In an art class, students learned a lot about backgrounds while creating a detailed replica of an of the NYC sky line. And then a hallway parade was made with the marionets hanging from the ceiling and the skyline students made pasted to the walls and students were able to walk through it and see their hard work displayed. And this strengthened uh connections between literary um aspects and art for students and gave them a deeper understanding and appreciation of this long-standing iconic national tradition. On January 16th, uh the Waterborough PTO
008will be hosting a movie night. The NWA testing window at the school has opened. Uh students will be engaging with CMP uh for lessons about energy and electricity and fourth grade students will be taking a field trip to the Merrill Auditorium. Uh on March 29th, Waterboro will have a high- five tunnel and a fundraiser at a main Mariners game and tickets are on sale now and part of the proceeds will go to the school's field trip fund. Waterboro's fifth grade student helpers have not only been helping within classrooms but have been making broader impacts on their local community. uh students who were selected through an application process had a big s during the school's holiday fair and afterwards they decided to put those funds towards purchasing Christmas gifts for local families in need. Uh they
009had a field trip to visit a retirement community before break and they carolled and spread holiday cheer. Two days after visiting Alfred and Ned's resiliency ride went to Waterborough Elementary and yo-yos were on sale in the main office following the assembly. Line Elementary School had two spirit days before break which were a green and red day and a pajama day. The school announces winter NWA test dates which will be from the 21st of January to the end of the month. Shley Memorial School learned uh about respect in December and they will be turning their lessons to empathy at uh during this month. Just before vacation, the pre-K and kindergarten classes took a ride on the Polar Express where they all got to create their individual conductor hats. Um, the second and third graders participated in
010an annual ornament day and students were able to make their own ornaments and then bring them home for their families and display them on their Christmas trees and in their houses. And winners were chosen for a coloring contest that happened right before break. And the winners had their pictures hung on a bulletin board and were given art supplies for their victory. And I'll turn it over to Zoe for the second half of the report. Thank you. >> Good afternoon. As Walker said, this is quite the lengthy the lengthy report, so I will try to cover as much as I can. Um, at that um the readers theater readers theater students collaborated to read uh a story and they actually performed the three little pigs. They uh the group is meant to collaborate and read a
011story, plays or scripts. Um, also grade four and five students uh did a cool thing where they put uh like tablecloths over their desks and they had like this campfire atmosphere so that they could read and make it more fun and exciting. They also had their first annual singalong right before break where they performed holiday songs as well as Mustang Mustang winners. There were 40 46 students who earned perfect attendance and other sorts of things like that. Um they also had a presentation from CMP for electricity safety topics. Um and then on January 9th this the school will have addressed like an like an annual spirit day. The uh the first elementary math meet was hosted here in this building um which was fifth grade students as well as a four a few fourth graders.
012Each of the five elementary schools participated, a few students from each um as well as a few parents in attendance. Um the top scoring scheme teams were recognized. Alfred ear in first place, uh Waterboro in second, Elman in third, line in fourth, and Sharpie landed in fifth. Um and then there were going to be three more mathletes that are currently on the calendar. The next one being February 12th. The custodial team at RSU57 has created a new way to recognize students. Um when they notice that rooms are particular particularly clean, organized or welcoming, uh custodians will um give them the reward of a pizza party to the class that they see no that they notice that with. Um, and then also at MMS there was a holiday door decorating contest much like at MHS. Uh,
013same thing. They were created their own designs and were rewarded for it. The best one was rewarded. Um, and then there was also a spirit week and prep and uh, prep rally leading up until the winter break. Um, as well as they had a few spirit days. They had a sweater sweater weather flannel forever. I don't know why. Okay. Long day winter team shirt. Um wear team shirt, team color. Yeah. And then MA MMS chorus performed in front of the school again for families. Both concerts went very well. On December 18th, uh there was also a winter wonderland dance at M M at MMS. uh winter two sports opened uh for wrestling, swim, track, indoor track, volleyball, and unified basketball. And then there will also be a spelling bee in early January. And on January
01413th at 7:00 p.m., the band will hold a winter concert as well as the law enforcement club had just started has just started collecting bottles around different stations. Uh the sixth grade social studies students have been writing have been learning about writing systems from like ancient uh times and they have been making their own clay tablets. The school newspaper Spilled Inc. just put out their December um newspaper. It includes all sorts of things like weather forecasts, sporting events, music, music reviews, word searches, and it's all written by students. Um, as for the MHS music department, they just had a winter concert winter concert which was a huge success. I was actually me and Walker were actually both at that and it was great. Very large, very big audience. Um, as well as MHS having a
015holiday door competition and they were earned and they earned treats for um, the best ones. Um, finals week at MHS is starting on January 20th. um that has a schedule so that all they're alternating white and green days as usual and then the first two days are finals for three and four and the second two days are for finals for um one and two. Um there will be another on the spot admission day at MHS um for Southern New Hampshire University on February 3rd. Um it's very similar to the one from uh Hudson University uh where they'll have a a representative come and talk to students individually. And there will also be a student workshop in MHS on January 15th from uh the representative from that school. Mustang Theater, I know about this one, put
016on a put out a cast and crew list. auditions being on the on January 5th and then anyone that wanted to be a crew leader went to a meeting on January 6th. Uh also in MHS there's a new opportunity to go and build and test out water drones so that students students will build them and then go and compete at a competition at the University of New Hampshire. Uh the master music adult community masterpiece adult and community educated has uh their driver's ed program just has new um sessions available from Janu from January to July. Uh those classes start at 2 p.m. right after school and last until 4. Those uh classes prepare students for their permit test and gain much experience from it. uh with 2025 closing and opening 2026, there's so much more
017to come. Uh we see it, we are always seeing it. There's so much more happening in the buildings. Um there'll be new opportunities throughout 2026. And reflecting back on 2025, I think we're looking I think we're looking for something good. And that will conclude our report. Okay. So, I think now it's working, correct? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, um so great job on the student report. Uh typically when we have um anything that might come up with like OCR, we don't necessarily provide a statement, but um this time it's a little more unique. So I'm going to read a statement that I've been providing to various media outlets. Um, so that members of our community, if they're watching this and they have not yet watched the news, um, so earlier this afternoon, RSU57 received notification
018from the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, commonly referred to as OCR, that a complaint has been filed alleging discrimination. OCR has indicated it is opening an investigation. RSU 57 does comply with all state and federal laws related to discrimination and harassment and provides a safe and inclusive learning environment for all of its students. RSU 57 will provide OCR with the information that has been requested and looks forward to resolving this matter. I'm not going to add any further statements at this time, but I wanted to bring that to your attention. Um I I really don't have a lot more to add because uh Walker and um Zoe did such a tremendous job sharing what's happening within our schools. I can say I did attend uh some professional development this afternoon at
019the high school and it was nice to see the high school staff collaborate collaborating on um really how we can continue to refine and improve and consider the social emotional learning needs of our students. So, I did see that in action today. Um, over the next couple days, um, Dr. Doyle and I will be attending the winter convocation, which is a meeting of all superintendents for the state of Maine, where we're talking about, um, the most up-to-date, um, uh, things that are happening in education um, for the state of Maine uh, and York and Cumberland County. part of that meeting uh tomorrow will be just the York and Cumberland County meeting that will begin first and then the the larger meeting with all superintendents and assistant superintendents from throughout the state. Um want to again
020um thank you all for everything that you do for our students. Um today's uh community newsletter highlighted uh the open and ongoing invitation for our community members to engage and become informed uh and provide their thoughts around budget development. As a reminder, the finance committee will be meeting except for on snow days if we have any or during school vacation weeks. uh will be meeting every Tuesday night in this room at 6 pm to help uh refine and develop a budget that the board will present to our communities um in May for the ultimate vote in June. So really the the more folks that participate in that process uh the better for all of us. That concludes my report at this time. >> Thanks so much. All righty, moving on. Standing committees, we will start
021with policy. Beth, >> our last meeting was canceled due to the storm. Um so our next meeting is um February 4th. >> Right. Finance and facilities. Wes, >> good evening. Uh the finance committee met on January 6. um major focal point was the development of the budget. Uh Dr. Marquee provided opening remarks. Um he informed the committee that he was looking at RSU57 to be developing a needs-based budget with alignment to the district strategic plan and that some of the challenges with flat enrollment percentages and significant increases with property val property valuations continued to be one of the biggest challenges for uh for the budget development. five elementary school principles all made their presentations together on each of their schools. Um it was a great evening. They did a great job. Just reminded us how
022remarkable our school administrators are. Uh Dr. Walsh, doc director Walsh Colin just got a degree he didn't have. um gave an overview of future presentations and um that he was going to be working as hard as he could with us to help develop a flat budget with non- labor uh costs uh if possible and that would would be the focal point for him and uh the budget committee uh made it clear that that was our focal point as well as a goal. We met again on January 13th. Uh again, the major meet of the financial finance committee meeting was geared toward budget. Uh Massabises High School and Massabes Middle School principles Kai Thurlo and Kelly Grantham both made presentations. our curriculum and instruction director Tiffany Twitchell, special education department Tim O' Conor and adult education
023department Adam Goat all made outstanding presentations and um again every time we meet with the teams that work for us you know they do a remarkable job presenting um that would be my report for the finance committee u unless anyone on the committee would like to add or Dr. Marquee, >> just one quick comment. >> I I just want to say that um in our meetings with all five elementary school teach uh principles with the middle school, the high school, special ed, uh continuing ed, we are absolutely blessed to have such dedicated professionals working for us. Their their commitment um to the students of this district just shines through >> in a way. I've been in education for a long time. I was in education for a long time. These are remarkable people. We're very
024lucky to have them. >> Thank you both for those really thoughtful comments. I know our administrative team truly appreciates it. Uh especially when when there are times where school can be really challenging and that's really um heartwarming to hear the positive comments. There was one element that I added to the that meeting and it was when we were talking about transportation and um and safety security. Um as you know um transportation, school transportation is always our top priority. School student safety is a is a priority, right? And um in this time period um the stress on our drivers has never been greater and uh and really in some degree there are there are people that are just being really challenging and and they're doing their very very best. Um so last night I shared a
025concern that I have and uh really more of an open plea to our greater community. um if we want to get kids safely to and from school, we want to um do so in a manner that's conducive, that supports our drivers. Um but there's one notable thing that that I'm not sure our greater community is really grasping and it's just the sheer number of individuals that are um driving in our community and through our community, right? They're not all residents obviously who are not following basic laws and the most critical one is when a school bus has its lights flashing. We have a significant number of individuals that are racing through red lights on buses and we've even had individuals as they're doing it are giving the bus driver we have on video the finger
026which is just really really concerning. So, um I know that our parents and our community want to do what's right and I it's it's a it's a very few minority, but it's something that we're really concerned about. And uh my hope is anytime we have someone violating that critical law that we will be putting forward to the deputies office, the sheriff's office, um a hope and a plea that they they um respond accordingly. I wanted you to know that because um at no point in my career I've have I seen so many complaints about bus drivers. I'm not saying that they're not all all without fault at times, right? But collectively, I'd say our transportation department is um second to none. And um I just wanted you guys all to know that. So thank you.
027Um, additionally in relation to finance, um, at some point in the very near future, Colin, um, and Dr. Marquee will be having a forum, for lack of a better term, regarding state subsidy and the ED279. Um, when Wes and I spoke to Colin last night, we had, please don't put this in stone, but we had discussed Monday, February 2nd as a date to do that. We will have a more definitive date by next week's finance meeting. and get that on the calendar and get the word out to you all. But um I would highly encourage you if you are available that night to attend and get um really a detailed rundown from Colin um and Dr. Marquee as to how that funding works and how state subsidy works and um a real deep dive into
028the ED279. So tentative for the second, but we will firm that up. I just wanted to put that out there. Uh, next up, human resources. Anastasia. >> We met on December 17th. Um, we had some conversations about our scholarships that we award to the senior class. Um, we decided that we would up our scholarships. So, our two $500 are now going to be $750. Now, our $1,000 scholarship will be 2500. Um, we changed some dates around so that the high school has plenty of time to get the applications out to the seniors and get them back to us so we can award the scholarships. Um, we finalized some schoolboard newsletter components. We had some big discussions. We're going to utilize the Facebook page for our meetings. We also discussed putting signage put up signup newsletter
029in and items will go to Jodie. And we had an executive session regarding a contract, a CBA. And our next meeting is January 21st at 6 PM. >> Perfect. Thank you. Any questions regarding any of the committees? I didn't ask every time, so I apologize. >> I forgot just one thing. Our next meeting is going to be next Tuesday, January 20th. Uh, I think you heard that in the superintendent's report. We meet every single Tuesday until the budget's done at 6 pm. Love to see any the rest of the board attend. Thank you. >> Yeah. And next week we'll be hearing from, let's see, technology, athletics, operations, uh, superintendent office. So, and that the budget schedule as to who's presenting that's right on the RCU 57 website um with all of our budget information gets
030posted there quite regularly. All right, old business. We have none. So, we will move on to new business, which is an initial presentation of the RSU57 enrollment and facilities review. >> Okay. I I believe that um Principal Grantham will be coming in on screech probably to uh to this meeting. Um but I'm going to I'm going to jump in. So, um and do some of the intro and then if uh if needed, I'll continue on. She actually has the document that she was going to hand out to you all um as part of our planning. Um so uh principal granthm is completing her internship uh to be a superintendent and part of that internship I believe is trying to work on authentic projects that um u an individual can learn really systems planning systems thinking
031and um it's really a fitting time to really do a deep dive on a number of scenarios that would allow us to look at how we balance enrollment how we look at our facilities and facility usage. Um really looking at a number of complexities as we um develop the budget for the coming year, but really what are those levers that the board could consider 5 years, 10 years or beyond. So there's some immediate things that we're exploring and there are some more distant. I want to stress that we're not adding value to the things that we're researching in the fact in the point of owning one decision or over over another. What we're trying to do is find out what are some options that the board could consider that look at a variety of variables
032and which would then allow you all to say nope that's not going to work. But there are a few that we we firmly believe would likely not be during our lifetimes. Okay. This is a stall tactic. >> Well, we have a question. >> Yeah, you can take a >> Yeah. Um, so I've been pondering this and I have a tendency to look back into history to figure out, well, how did we get there? And I was I've noticed in the 1960s partly with the baby boomers, all these schools got built across our nation. It seems like everywhere we have all these buildings that are in their 50s, 60s, you know, 70s. Was it property taxes that paid for it back then or did the federal government pay for those buildings to go up? I was
033just totally curious. Does anybody know the answer to that? It was it was a combination of funding. >> Okay. >> Um the funding formulas have changed over time. >> Yeah. >> But um and in Maine, enrollment was vastly higher in 1975 than it is today. Our state's population is up by about a half million. But our student population is down by about 100,000. So we are now the oldest per capita state I believe in the United States. If you were to look back on if we were to go back in time and look at 1994 as an example, I think within a few um the enrollment of this district was around 3,800 students. And you have to also consider at that time um many families did not engage in kindergarten. So the um attendance and
034and you might not have had full day. So essentially half of the kids maybe 70% of the kids um typically at that time had the ability to have K. A lot of places didn't have full day KK they had half day Ks. So the K numbers are going to be skewed and there was no preK. So let's just arbitrarily say 300 kids that would have likely been in school at that time as compared to today. So we would have been over 4,000 students. Fast forward to 2026, January 14th, we're at roughly 2800 and 2900ish. So there has been a decline in enrollment. So it's for those reasons as property values increase, funding is going to be the issue. Where the value judge judgment come in is nobody wants to close a school in their own
035town. No one wants to extend the bus length, keep schools open, but realign geographic regions, right? Um, some people will say a large school, an economy of scale is better for instruction. Others would say no, it's not because, um, I love it that everybody knows my kid. So, um, and in any given year, you could have some fluctuations in births, right? So, I found this one kind of interesting because we were always talking about Shappley and Shappley's enrollment. Um, and uh, I never really picked up on it. I have all the birth data for um, going back 25 years for every every town up through 2023. 24 is not yet vetted. 25 is certainly not vetted yet. Who would have thought in 2019 that Shappley would have had the most births, second most births behind
036Waterboro in this district? >> You guys, I bet there's not one person in this room that would have thought Shappley that year had 40 births. >> Number two, u I believe Water was 84 that year. Um, so as a result that kind of creates some unique challenges. So we need to look at enrollment. We needed to look at boundaries. Kelly's going to go over some of those things. Um, they were interviewing at the middle school. So I'm not, it might have been a really intense debate and maybe some confusion about meeting start time 6 to 7. I don't know. Um, so so we're looking at all those things. What we're hoping for is kind of share the seven or eight scenarios that we're initially looking at. Again, some of those might be things that we
037could start to implement immediately. Some of those are are very very um intensive to consider. Um and uh and then through this process, we're not we'd like you to kind of marinade your marinate your thoughts if there are things that we haven't considered cuz this is really like a work in progress. And what we're hoping for is to provide some of those kind of decision points that we're looking at. And then um something I was going to be asking uh the chair of the board is if we could actually have a more full-blown workshop in the summer to really look at some of these scenarios because some of them would be so time inensive and likely would not be something the board would want to consider if that makes sense. So um any questions thus
038far? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I had a twopart question. Uh first part is is there any data that you know of of the like where kids may be going instead of staying within their own district. >> Um I think the so there are there are a number of drivers right? So you have your resident attending population. That's a really good question that you've asked. So, um, in the state of Maine, I don't know the current number, but typically about 5% of all students, um, sometimes it's been up to 8%. Might attend, um, through homeschool instruction. >> And those are those are folks that it's for their own philosophical beliefs, their own um so we do have a number of people that are homeschooled. Um we do also have students that um make choices. Um so
039there's um whether it's parochial type programs or um tuition paying programs. >> We also have students that um might for whatever reason apply for what's called the superintendent transfer or superintendent agreement. Um I'd say one of the bigger ones is um this district does not have a significant change in the upward uh direction or in migration. What I mean by that is a family builds a home or they they um move into a home, they gain some equity. this district experiences more outward migration once you have some means and then you might have um you might have families move towards like Cannabank or Scarboro or York or wherever that might be. So when you're geographically and and I don't have all sorts of data about this but this is I believe it very strongly in
040this assumption and I did a little bit about this during my doctoral program about rural fringe when you're five miles beyond the turnpike on each side but typically north >> right until you get way up north then it's still five miles because the way the turnpike or interstate go um folks tend to move towards the turnpike once they have some equity in homes and things like that. So in my last school when we did um uh enrollment projections, my school had a multiplier on the town of that I was working in of 1.42. We had um from birth to grade I think it was three we actually increased by roughly 42 43% >> of inward migration >> right >> we actually have more of an outward migration. >> Yeah. Uh my part two question uh
041uh to that is do you guys have any sort of protocol within the district of entry and exit interview style questioning or even survey of uh what brought you into this district or what is bringing you out of this district? >> Um we we haven't our focus has been really more on when you're here how can we support you? Um, and um, the hard part with that sort of survey, you're getting into personal beliefs and you're getting into religious context. And um, I I I don't personally believe that we're going to get a lot of value uh, information out of that. Doesn't mean completely. >> Um, but folks move and and change for all sorts of reasons. A common one at the high school level is might be athletics. they might want to pay tuition
042to go to a school for athletics or they might want to um we have students that I don't have the current number but a few years ago I provided to the board I think we had students that were attending whether it was parentally placed um or through a superintendence agreement say their parent was teaching at Westbrook or something um there's like 30 different school districts >> right yep thank you So, um, so tonight we're not, it's not necessarily a ton of questioning. It's going to be, um, I did a little bit already. So, Kelly has been working on her internship. We've been looking at a number of scenarios. She's going to provide you with a list of some of the things that we're looking at. Afterwards, we're hoping to collect additional ones. We're not here
043to necessarily say, "Nope, we're not interested or we are interested or we do want to collect that information." So, you can send it to to me or to to Kelly afterwards. And then some of the key questions that we want to drill down into with respect to those initial things and and again, we're not going to place value. It ultimately is the board's decision on how we address these sorts of things. >> Yeah. Um, >> can I give a little background on what has So, as you all I've been on the board for a long time, so this is not certainly not the first conversation that the board or any of the committees has had regarding enrollment and and district layout. So, just for background for those of you that have not been on the
044board um for as long as I have and Anastasia and Jen and Judith um there was so I joined the board in 2014 and was on the public relations technology committee for a long time and that committee spent um a very long time talking about um elementary school specifically and at that point in time it was coming right off the heels I joined the board right off the heels of a conversation about closing chapley there was but Alfred was a little full and so we started talking in PR tech about how do we fix this and what we really had so so many conversations about was let's change the name of the elementary schools no more town elementary schools you have massive sick elementary north south east west central and kids go to the school
045they're closest do regardless of what town they live in. That was not accepted by the public. So, back to the drawing board and kind of looking at some other options and technology. I mean, think about the changes in technology from then. It was really difficult for us to even nail down would that make a huge difference in transportation and placement if we did that. Would we be able to have less bus runs? would be be able to, you know, have the students be, you know, where where they are closer and and how would we grandfather keeping, you know, if if one child is in fourth grade in Waterboro, but they live closer to line, do we want their siblings going to like there was a lot of so a lot of discussion that ultimately ended
046up with, okay, we're leaving our five elementaryaries, they're staying with town names. So, and then you know things sort of started to even out and then last last year Colin during finance during enrollment talks brought up that he because Chappley is reaching or has reached capacity was having the conversation about potentially needing to put a modular up at Chappley, which is amazing because that was the school that we had considered years ago. Um, so that's when we really had to come back to the drawing board to say, we have room in this school, we have room in this school. What do we do? It doesn't make sense to spend the money on a modular when we have room in our buildings. So, what can we do to make that realignment? And so, I started talking
047with Dr. Marquee and kind of threw out a couple ideas. We've talked about it off and on for the past several months. Um and then he said that he was going to really do a deep dive with Kelly. So that's kind of past like what has happened in the past 10 years on the board. This is not a new conversation, but we've really really come to the point where we have got to make some decisions because of budgetary issues and Dr. Dr. Marque has said it several times that five elementary schools um you know can be pricey and this is something that we'll be we'll be speaking about during the uh the subsidy conversation about what we get subsidy for. A lot of that is based on enrollment and not based on the number of
048buildings that you have. Um so that's a little board background that I just for those of you who weren't around um might be interested in. So, I'll turn it over to Principal Grantham. Thanks so much. >> And I think you can um understand that even at that initial conversation about what might we do, it immediately branches into other options and ideas and then from that spawn the necessity to create some sort of framework by which to look at all of these scenarios. Um this is not intended to be an engineering analysis. It's not intended to be a full scope or um a you know fiscal pricing of actual RFPs and all of that. This is an initial look at our enrollment, our facilities through a lens of some really important criteria that we would want
049you as a board to look at objectively or as objectively as possible. So, I'll just I I always hesitate to read what's right in front of you, but I want to um just in the interest of being able to slow down and then um sort of capture what we've done so far. Um so, again, this is a preliminary enrollment and facilities review and looking to evaluate potential long-term solutions to uneven enrollment across our elementary schools. The primary goal would be to balance elementary enrollment in a way that is fiscally responsible, instructionally sound, and responsive to demographic shifts while minimizing disruption to students, families, and staff. It would be intended to support long-term sustainability, equitable access to educational programming, and effective use of district facilities. It is also intended to private provide initial information and not
050to be an in-depth or thorough analysis. So, a range of potential approaches have been identified for analysis, and the purpose of this evening, like Dr. Marqueis said, would be to identify any other scenarios that you feel would be worthy of consideration. These scenarios span adjustments to attendance boundaries, changes to grade level locations, consolidation or redistribution of programs, and long-term capital solutions. Collectively, the scenarios vary in scope, complexity, and level of impact on student, staff, facilities, and the broader community. Some approaches focus on maximizing existing facilities, while others consider reconfiguration or expansion to meet future needs. Rather than advancing a single preferred option, intentionally maintaining multiple scenarios allows for comparison, flexibility, and responsiveness. You should see the table that we've been working on on my computer, like literal data table. So the possible scenarios that have
051begun to be reviewed and are currently um working in that in that big uh review or document that I have um adjusting internal boundaries for school attendance. So that would be similar to what Jod shared, looking at using software to adjust our town boundaries and then the send the receiving elementary school, relocating fifth grade to MMS, relocating 8th grade to MHS East and fifth grade to MMS, relocating preK to MHS East, closing an elementary school building or buildings, consolidating elementary buildings, or going to bond for a new elementary school. When I say those, you probably have a lot of questions and are already thinking of, well, if this, then that, if this, then that. And of course, we are too as we work through this. So um it really necessitates a framework by which we
052look at each scenario individually and almost as a silo because we know that any one scenario is also going to have broader implications um beyond the scope of whatever may be constructed as a part of this particular project. Um it is a process that will need to be worked through but we need a framework. So um evaluated on a preliminary basis using a consistent set of criteria to ensure informed and transparent decision-making. So those areas so far include enrollment distribution. So assessing how each scenario balances enrollment across levels or buildings using enrollment trends, birth rates, DOE projections, and the New England School Development Council projections, facilities and operations. So evaluating building capacity, space utilization, operational feasibility, including impacts on specialized programs and shared spaces. So trying to capture uh the size of our buildings and
053what programs would move, be displaced, need to change, what would need to happen there. Transportation and technology, considering transportation routes, um more impacted with certain scenarios than others, and technology needs the financial impact. So estimating short and long-term costs including staffing, required renovations, facilities modifications, transportation and potential capital expenditures, instructional and programmatic impact. So the con considering the continuity of curriculum, access to programming, teameing structures, impact of programmatic relocation, staffing implications. So reviewing staffing needs, potential reassignments and administrative capacity required to support potential changes, student safety and well-being, examining physical safety, developmental appropriateness, social emotional impacts and transition between school levels. And finally, community impact and alignment. So considering community identity, family experience and alignment with state requirements and local government processes, governance processes. So I will pause there unless Steve you want me to
054kind of just do next steps here and then Yes. Okay. Um so you as a board may choose to use an initial framework to compare these scenarios, identify tradeoffs, determine which options warrant further development. This process can inform potential recommendations, further analysis, and support future engagement with stakeholders in the community. And as a result of that, we would recommend doing so at a board workshop in July. There's a lot to consider. >> There were things on this list that I had not thought of. Um, I think that it's great because I've kind of because of the conversations that we've had, I've only kind of thought of those two things, the, you know, border realignments and the fifth graders. So, um, I appreciate so much having some other, um, options or things to consider there. So,
055let's see. D, >> hi. >> Hey. >> Um, I know this is preliminary. So when what is the time frame of when you want actual decisions to be in you know be engaged with actual processes and decisions. So what we are looking for is if we missed any items that you think should be considered and um I think we have a pretty good understanding of what some of the challenges are going to be. Right? If you move prek you have to worry about bathrooms for example >> because there are some requirements if you were to close a school there are some requirements that the board would need to understand. So we would prepare all of those sorts of things. for example, you actually have to go to vote uh to close a school. And if
056a municipality um if the district were to vote to close a school, but a municipality wants to keep it open, they would pay the incremental costs to keep it open. So, that's way you you really try to look at balancing the cost of of um any of these decisions. So, specific to your request today, it really is we don't want to go off and do all sorts of work. um and miss something that and maybe a week from now or two weeks from now you're driving and you're like, "Oh my god, that'd be a neat idea to explore." Um we don't want to go down a ton of rabbit holes. Like an easy one when I said some things could be implemented pretty quickly, we need to look really closely at the lines. We talked
057about it at budget development for the elementary level um because uh Shappley will not be able to maintain um without portables for much longer. We did do the division of the multi-level program with um three class splits, but um we're really worried about next year's K1 already uh based on those 2019, 20, and 21 births. Those are going to be K and PreK kids. Um, so if there are non-negotiables, somebody would say, "Well, geez, what about three elementary schools, an east, a west, and a north, and you would actually look at three existing schools that wouldn't require bonding. There are so many different scenarios, right? I actually believe that that might be the best long long term um if you're looking at cost efficiencies because um it's expensive to operate small schools and but there's
058some benefits and challenges, right? Well, like with this list that you guys already um made, there's a few things that you could double up on that would that would probably um be a good solution, not just one thing isolated like we're only going to do this one thing. There's a few things on here that you could do at the same time and then um >> you know create a framework from there. And and that's why it's important to look um you can't look at a blip in time as well, right? So when we look at it, the enrollment trends um a solution that works for three or four years actually won't work immediately following. An example of that could be our our our current um the births right now um our last year was 240
059uh 22 was 243 23 was 232 right um a few years prior to that it was 203 and 204 prior to that it was 240s so it's it's like this so we don't want to be in a situation where this board sells a a belief in a decision on a community where you want to have a high level of confidence to make an informed decision that would actually support several years rather than jumping kids around. I worked in a district about an hour from here that had several configurations over the five years I was there. Um it was it was like pingpong of this school of this school of this school and they were changing literally every year and then ended up building a ginormous school that took in four schools. Um so your task
060is to let us know if we're heading down the wrong road. Um the one that would require the most time would be bonding. Um, but the thing with bonding is if you um you would look at how does that equalize enrollment? Rather than having classes of 22 or or or 10, right? You'd actually be able to equalize, which does have some costs benefit, you might not need to have so many teachers teaching X, Y, or Z or administrators or school nurses, right? um just look at the school funding formula. It doesn't really align with operational um aspects. This district though, and you'll we're going to give you more information through the budget process, is um uh depending on the scenario, um like a top five efficiency district for economically disadvantaged in the state of Maine.
061And in some of the areas, we're number one. We're very cost-effective, which is really shocking given our geographic separation where it costs a lot to provide, say, specialized instruction in small locations or the cost of transportation. We're really kind of an outlier. We're probably in some respects like an Oxford Hills. So, we are going to provide you information and try to not place value. We're going to give you a lot of yes and no. It's like a T-chart. What are the Positives and challenges with this. We don't want to weigh in on it. We want you to help us educate the community and what the board wants to go forward. Kelly, what did I miss? >> Nothing. I think it's only to say the um if you can envision what this looks like it's not
062T-chart but like the the x-axis so along the top of this table will be all the various scenarios and the y ais is all of the um components for analysis and what you can probably see when you envision a scenario is that even the components for analysis one impacts the other impacts the other. So this work over the course of this year is compiling information. So I've been starting to compile a lot of information talking with different folks in the district. But again is an initial look. So some assumptions that we may make about facilities and space and use and programs and locations all the things that we think may be true. I was surprised by some of the things we have started to find and there's still more to uncover too. So it'll be
063cursory information looked you know these scenarios looked at it through a variety of lenses and we want to be sure that it's comprehensive. We also want to be sure that it's objective. You know that who you know what what role I represent in addition to doing this internship on the side. um you know the so it is it it is not only in my best professional interest for it to be objective but I want to be able to provide you along with Steve all of the information that you need to make an informed decision that you again can you know talk about to the community and really get behind because a lot of these ideas will take time to build too um it's not something that will happen quickly um to use the example of
064even just switching boundaries It sounds like something that would be really simple. Um, and in certain situations, you know, in talking with some of the elementary principles, there are uh new enrolling families who may request, I live closer to here, I see the bus go by, but that number is not large enough to impact the enrollment that we see. So, to really stabilize enrollment. So then you would become in a scenario where you may have an upper, you know, grade person here and another person here and you really do have to understand sort of the the full scope or I want to be able to pro provide to you the information so you can understand that um those would be tough conversations with your constituents and we want to make sure again that it's something
065that can be applied to everyone and that we would have if that were the avenue that the board would want to pursue that then we would have procedures to deter determine whatever it is that we might need to do next. That makes sense. >> There's another component that again when we say it's like an onion, just lots and lots of layers. So, if you were to look at when the middle school were to open in 2006, I'm just going to use you as an example. We didn't discuss this ahead of time, so I apologize for highlighting your school. Um, >> bring it on. So when the so at the time if we were to go back to planning documents u of which I can't really find a lot right now for the middle school and
066which is interesting um the enrollment capacity at that time would be different than the enrollment capacity today. And you say well why would that be? Well over the course of the last 20 years there have been changes in requirements. We've also brought back students that might have been in and out of district placement. We need to have specialized program spaces. There's a lot of things that So then that's a school that's 20 years old. So then you look at a school that's say 50 or 60 years old. They weren't designed for the instruction that that we have today. So if we looked at those planning documents, it would say that school has capacity of X. Well, that was the capacity at that time. And now you need to have bathrooms and that changes when buildings
067were getting retrofitted. Um, so the needs change over time. That's where bonding though expensive and I'm not suggesting that's where efficiencies come in with heating, pooling, all sorts of like we used to always say at a place I work um oftentimes with old old schools you put good money on top of bad. >> You know everything has a life expectancy and you guys have heard me talk about that a lot. >> All right, Beth. Um, in case anybody hasn't been watching the finance committee meetings, also I think everyone should know that prek it's coming in the next several years, the four year olds, three year olds. >> Yep. >> Um, so that's also something to be thinking about when we're looking at this long term. Um, is that >> we'll be taking on a lot
068more kids in the next five years plus. And there's also the consideration they were talking when the elementary school principles were talking to finance, they were talking about these great things that they've been doing where they've been bringing like all the first graders are going to one building and have this having this shared experience. And I kept thinking in my head like if they were all in one building all the time, they could have those shared experiences every day. Um, but that's easier said than done obviously. But I just kept thinking like, yeah, that is so great that they can do that, but boy, I wish they could do it all the time. Um, Adam, >> um, just two quick things. One, um, a question, you kind of answered it, uh, Dr. Marque, but just
069the the what's the time frame, our best estimate of if we do nothing that we, you know, reach a point where we, you know, we have to have made a decision say for a modular or something or we won't have space for the students. I I think that um thank you for asking that question because um in meeting with Marissa um yesterday or the day before everything's a mush right now in my mind. Um it really became pretty uh notable when we look at the births of um 1920 2122. Uh, I think that Shaffley will be fine in the coming year, but we're actually might be in a position where we actually have to kind of retrofit a space if we had to add. It's what's really interesting is well, it's pressing for Shappley pretty
070much immediately and it's going to be even more pressing at the start of 2027. And what I noticed by really digging deeply into the numbers yesterday or the day before is you can have two schools with the essentially the same um enrollment. And it'd be easy to oversimplify that Shapley and Alfred have the same enrollment next year within a couple kids, but it's a different enrollment. And you'd be like, well, what do you mean by different enrollment? Well, what's different is at the prek, well, at K1, you don't want classes of 22 or 23, right? So, Alfred's numbers are on the older side and Shappley's are actually just coming in and they're on the younger side. So, um, it's not so simple as saying same size, they need the same number of classrooms, they need
071the same number of teachers, and it's pretty notable at the youngest ages because of all those younger births. So, 27 is going to be challenging, I think. And related to that one, not my other item, but just how long would it take if we had to we decided there was no other option. We had to invest in a modular uh as the solution. How long ahead of that before you can put in students in for education? >> Um I think that the modular process here at the high school >> is tells me that we never want to go down that road. >> I agree. Um it was um uh I always like to say we were um ahead of schedule and under budget, but we were over schedule and uh over budget in some ways,
072right? We you guys have heard about those things. Um, I think that and Kelly and I will get in far deeper in the weeds and it's going to be I would think that we're the level of education to community members um because we haven't even got into the layers of okay you you blend boundaries but what if I already have two kids in that building right so you have to have some sort of grandfathering structure you need to and then also um we have some kids that live far closer to one school than the other but there's the historical context text of I'm from Xtown, I go to that school. Uh I I think that we'll likely need to really if nothing else, we are going to have to blow up some of the boundaries
073um between all of our elementary schools. >> Yeah. >> It's not simply look at because you might need to move some kids from say um that currently attend line or would potentially in the future attend line. maybe they go to Waterboro and some kids that go to Waterboro currently, maybe they go to Alfred or to Lyman. Again, we um we need to look closely at that. >> Yeah. And the I guess the point I'm trying to get at is making sure we as the board have kind of the know what the the line in the sand date is to, you know, have to have made decisions and be moving or, you know, we're stuck with the worst case. scenario. >> So, we want to make sure we're acting timely. I understand that. >> I think
074we'd be able to dig deep enough into that for a a July um workshop. Um I mean, like the existing portable at Chappley is not designed to really uh be expanded into a different configuration. We would have to look at the engineering of that. Um I'm not sure if it came the way it did or not. there's one classroom and then a bunch of carved out spaces. So, um that's something that we're going to have to look at because um that structure doesn't work to add a class. So, then we'd likely have to look at the small little um library space as say a a K classroom. >> Gotcha. So, um, we would like to, uh, those are the things that we really need to give you some solutions, um, this summer for sure. So,
075that it's really part of the early conversation, um, and would have to be part of a a budget process. And the other thing it was just when you talk about adjusting internal boundaries will you be looking at um you know I guess one option is just fully um optimized for the what you have here but you know another consideration would be can you get there without um say without doing what um we mentioned earlier about having kids go to different schools and up and looking at where groups of like just coming in is and I guess be able to look at that data too to say can we could we reach a solution in that way because this >> you know just says in you know the the boundaries but it doesn't say are we
076going to look at there's multiple ways I guess to do that >> and that and that might not give us the solution we need but I just want to make sure we'd have that information so we could answer to it >> yes and what's what's tricky about that as we work through it yes that is adjusting internal boundaries really can include the smallest scope. So any incoming, brand new families, prek families, people who are brand new to the district or can include something larger. And really what we hope to provide or be able to capture really because that it it's that particular situation is so nebulous because you set up a system um your boundaries are relatively malleable and then a family moves within the district and then you need a process or a procedure.
077Well, now you're you've moved here. You're technically possibly closer to here, but on these boundaries that we have determined. So, I think there's a complexity to it where um yes, we will do our best to absolutely capture those those different pieces of what that could look like. All of which would necessitate a process that hopefully would get us to the end. Just sustainable balanced enrollment, I think, is what in a fiscally responsible way. You know, I I think we we would I would want to be able to for anything that is could seem reasonable to our communities to be able to say, "We've looked at this. Here's the, you know, >> Yep. >> here's why this wasn't something that was manageable or whatever or is." And >> Yep. >> Agreed. >> Thank you. >> Yeah.
078>> Uh Michelle, um when when it comes time for the workshop, will you have um like go to bond for a new elementary school? Is that one elementary school? Because again, we have a lot of them here and I know you're talking possibly north, south, east, west. >> Will that be more clear at the workshop whether you're talking one elementary school that kind of absorbs one or none or are you looking at one elementary school that is like all the districts in one, which would be I did the numbers really quick just for the heck of it. And high school and middle school to combined, which they're not, I know they're not, is,400 thereabouts. All the elementary schools together is about that. It's like um >> within 48 kids of what two total for those
079are. >> So wondering if we're going to have more clarity in what you're talking about for element is it one element of school to like what you're looking at there. >> Um and like how fiscally that would break out like is that something that's going to kind of be shown to us as the fiscal responsibility portion of these things or is that >> where it stands now? Michelle is uh really the I've looked at the statutes that surround new school construction. I think there would be so many steps if if that were where the board wanted to pursue more information. I think I don't know, Steve, unless you you disagree. I don't think we would have that in July. But what we will provide you with is what would need to take place in order
080to go to bond for a new school. So, um, statutewise, um, just timelinewise, and then I think just I don't know if it would be one school probably, >> um, >> building two. I I don't know, >> replacing one elementary school and that's >> it. It it it likely would you probably want to think about it in terms of that you'd have a couple scenarios. You could say a new school and a renovated second school that could hold um say uh 700 students each. >> Okay, >> similar to what like SACO is doing some of that sort of stuff. Um the there are a number of school districts that are totally redesigning their configurations. Look at Noble for example. >> So um if you were to go to bond, you have to go to the
081main bond bank. you got to do. There's all sorts of elements. Um it likely would be locally funded. So then you'd have to have u informed decision of what are the incremental costs over time. Um and then how would that impact taxation there? You know, other scenarios that that you might want us to explore is um because high school enrollment has declined. Maybe another scenario would be you move 8th grade here, you move fifth grade there and uh to the middle school and you redesign boundaries and you close one or two schools with some modifications >> is >> so there's so many scenarios. We're just looking for you to you're going to chew on a lot of this over the next few weeks. um the sooner you kind of can provide. Don't feel um badly
082if if we're going to try to find the good, bad, and the indifferent and anything that you might suggest because that's what we're really designed to do. We're not wedded to any decision. But I will say I will tell you because I I think you guys know this. I will tell you what I think would be um the better options and things that I think would be really challenging and then um you will select what you want to do. >> I know it was a long time ago but I went to parochial school before I came to Maine and we had it where kindergarten and first grade were together >> in one huge room and actually first actually I think through third sat that on that side of the room but we all sat at
083tables when it came for lessons. Has there any thought to combining prek and K together? Like I know Lyman has a test class that's doing that right now and I didn't know if that would be >> can't be combined but we do combine in a number of places K and one and two and three and four and five. >> There are different statutes around preK class sizes bathrooms. >> So is the model combining K and one looked at as well or is that >> we already have um several classes that are K1 right now? That's Shappley's three K1 classrooms right now. >> Oh wow. Okay. Already done that then. Okay. >> Two pages. You've created a plethora of questions. >> Well done. >> Just wait for July. Mark, >> but I'll only ask two. It
084sounds to me is it the intention to create an ad hoc committee? Um who's doing the lifting on all this research? the two of us. Just the two there. There's no intention to pull in other >> No, very much so. So, I have I have to pull in other people. So, um consulting with Ben Brooks about floor plans, square footage, um consulting with Holland eventually when it's not, you know, high budget season about some prospective costs, but um doing walkthroughs with Mr. Thurlo. So, Ty and I walking. So I have to bring in other stakeholders but again the information that I'll be sharing is initial. It is not the in-depth analysis that you will need eventually. So what I could foresee happening and you may disagree just as a board but in July the initial
085information is shared. You all may decide to narrow it down. You know you may eliminate some. These are non-starters right now for our community for what we see as being effective, beneficial. Um, these are ones we'd like more information. And then when it's beyond me, it's beyond me. So, this is using our internal capacity now to gather some baseline information recognizing that that's just a starting place. >> Okay. So then my only other question is what I'm hearing and I know I put you on the spot last night in at the committee meeting but uh this we're not looking to make any of these changes other than the fact which we are already doing some internal border adjusting um by request or you know um that we're not aiming for 2627. No, all of these
086I mean initially especially when we've had some side conversations the board has had conversations just about moving fifth grade what initially seemed like an easy move over is not actually. Um so none of these solutions are something that could happen overnight or would be something that I would be able to do myself. So any of these scenarios would require a lot of board input because they're wide reaching to all of you in your community. So 26 27 No. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> That's that's >> Thank you. Steve's assessment of Chappley Elementary School is right right on. We have no room over there. gymnasium is used for all sorts of uh classes and extracurricular things and um the library is just about the only space which is a very small
087space to try to reconfigure and our modular and chapley has been around for a while and I can't imagine trying to put another one in over there. I I think one of the most interesting things as we listen to all of this is how do we project future things? Th things being like we know right now that most a lot of our elementary schools are challenged with drop offs and pickups. Something that when the schools were built were never considered. So, what are some of those things in the future that we need to identify in this process um that that are going to create changes? Um that's one of our biggest problems at Alfred Elementary School. Uh when you drive by there right now, Route 111 is full of traffic, is one of the most
088unsafe highways in the state of Maine, and we have our parents and our students sitting on that highway trying to get in and exit uh that location. And and I know that we have other challenges on drop offs and and um and and and people discharging. We made some great solutions over at Waterville Elementary School. So, it's not like the administrators in this district haven't made good decisions to try to change those things, but a lot of it's cost- centered as well. So, I'll be interested in seeing what are some of those projected changes that we might see in the future that could create even greater obstacles for us um that that we should address in a process like this. Thank you. Um just in consideration of like other districts that have comparable or higher
089populations, has there been a consideration of um creating a primary and an intermediate school um to kind of break the lower level grades up um using existing space that we have within the district but just creating isolated schools for those grades. es, you know, prek through 2, 3 through 5. So then you're not affecting the upper class, the upper schools, um, but you are addressing the situation at hand of space. >> Um, and trying to find a cost-effective. >> We, um, uh, one of my first there were more scenarios initially. Um actually um one of the challenges with that is you have to then start to consider not that we're going to vet every one of these things but um just as for your information uh you have to start to consider the length of
090bus ride uh and those things with say a young um preker who's three years old on a long bus ride bathrooming needs and all sorts of things and also in the schools themselves the requirements of the facil phys physical space, square footage requirements, bathrooms. Um, so all of those are are kind of in consideration. As I'm speaking, I want to come back to Mark's question because I think it's a good one. Our objective is to get a bunch of scenarios, do some of the initial leg work, do a um a board workshop, and then from that um really a task force or a subcommittee to really drill down into the ones that can. Otherwise, we're going to be spinning our wheels on 20 different scenarios. So, we'll present and do some of that heavy lifting,
091but then really the the leadership of the board will then assume some of that direction so we can weed through some of the other items. Does that make sense? Um, >> and if I can just go back to your question, D, um, the scenario of consolidating schools could be interpreted in a bunch of different ways and I hope to capture that as I kind of work through it. So consolidating um, as the grade levels stand possibly just based on proximity um, or by different learning spans. So prek one, two, upper um, >> all of those could be considered. All of them would have different impacts just like every single one of these scenarios. >> Right. Right. And there would be so I mean no matter what solution we all like you guys come up with
092and we all decide together there's going to be so many policies and so many procedures and I mean you make a decision to capture a but as you said the domino effect you kind of have to you get to the last domino and you're like >> and and that's where the tough work of the board comes in >> because if you're if you are getting um push back say for budgets you're trying to respond to that. That's really what drives this, right? We want to look at programmatic needs, student safety needs. Alfred is an example. Um, it's not the only one. Shapley tough drop off there as well >> and what our community will accept >> and what the community will accept. I think that uh all of these are really tough choices, but there
093are definitely people and I'm going to share it because it's like the elephant in the room for some folks maybe here or that might watch this. There were a lot of conversations in the past about closing a school. And those conversations um were challenging, but I can tell you the enrollment was far higher then when there was conversation of closing schools than it is today. just to put it out there. And I'm not suggesting, I'm just trying to inform you. If I tell you everything you want to hear, that's not going to be all the helpful. I'm going to try to tell you things you need to hear because that's what you're going to hear on the back side. What's up? >> Um, it's my presumption that any pretty much any of these um are
094going to have to go in front of the board, but then eventually are going to have to go out into the community and are going to be answered to by our community constituents. So, I guess the biggest comment that I have about any of these is how it's going to affect taxation because that's what the constituents are going to want to know. They aren't going to care about bus ride distances. They aren't going to care about how many schools we have operating. They want to know how it's going to affect their bottom line. So, can I I'm going to remind the board of this that our constituents are the staff, the students, and the facilities in this school. We come from our towns, but we don't represent our towns. And that's a really hard distinction.
095So while we have a responsibility to the community to be fiscally responsible, we need to make our decisions um in the best interests of the people in these buildings and the buildings themselves. So I caution the the use of the word constituents when you're talking about >> the taxpayers. But that is not I am in no way saying that we should not make those considerations while we're um discussing these things because that is really important and I I completely hear where you're coming from that a lot of people are just going to look at the bottom line >> our we need to look at the bottom line and also the effect that it has on the people that we're taking care of. >> Agreed. >> Because that is what matters to the board. But I
096think my my statement is just that if this is going in front of the community members, call them constituents, call them community members, call them whatever you want to call them, if it's going in front of them, we have to be aware of what is really going to matter to them. >> So, I I just I I just feel like that's going to be a a major um piece of this. And I I feel like that has to be on everybody's mind. >> And so hopefully what we'll be able to capture and the the financial impact is even just that initial estimates in terms of costs of um portables or renovating or even if we don't have a a monetary value attached with a portable, we know roughly what that could look like. If that's
097an avenue that the board decides warrants more information and a subcommittee, there would be more uh concrete numbers attached to some of that. We would have to get estimates and and hard data. Um but hopefully we're able to just capture some of the initial capital needs that would need to take place for some of these scenarios. The the harder ones are things like transportation costs because any one scenario may impact positively or negatively transportation depending on where boundaries are set >> or both or both. it may offset and that's that's difficult to um ascribe a number to at this stage but at least if we can kind of um we meaning Steve and I and throughout the course of this work just get some initial information and capture what the impact could be then we'd
098be able to um attribute some other data to it eventually. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, I have three more hands up and I'm going to ask that we are quick quick quick um so that we because we do have some other things to take care of tonight and we will definitely have the opportunity opportunity to have a much deeper discussion about this um at the workshop and if you have any thoughts to follow up you can always um shoot an email over to Kelly and Steve. So, you're next Anastasia. I just had a question regarding the prek and the eighth grade coming to the east building. If we did that, what is the enrollment in this building currently? >> It wouldn't be both. You wouldn't have the little mustangs and >> you could have
099little mustangs but not all studio. >> Okay. >> Well, you could, but with renovation, all of that. Yes, you're right to ask. I'm just concerned that okay, we're shifting students and then all of a sudden we have this building that is now overflowing with students. We're right back to square one. >> Yeah. And an important piece of all of this is to recognize that if we do this then we do this. So if we do this then these programs are elsewhere. Where would that elsewhere be? Not sure. So like that will all be on there. It'll all be included. >> All right, Mark. >> Mark, I just wanted to I want to take a second agree with Melissa. uh the community is going to be huge and uh taxes yes they're concerned about but we
100can't um forget about that emotional component. I had lunch today with a lifetime u Limmerch resident and she said how's uh how's school board going and I said well you it's hard to run five elementary school we got into that discussion basically this discussion and her attitude was uh you know you're going to close my school over my dead body uh and I think we're going to face that so we really do have to be well aware of the community's emot monetary concerns and emotional concerns I No. Uh, >> you got to turn your mic on. Turn your mic on. Turn your mic on. >> 1300 miles from the school that I went to. I went to and I I would defend it to this dying day. You know, I don't even live in the
101same state. So, I I get that part of it. And that I I think is also something that we are going to have to take because as we've spoken about in the past that was a big component of the last >> discussion and I I mean it is one of those things that if we put these scenarios out to say this is what we can do you know if we have your support if we don't get that support then then then the community needs to realize what the effect of of that is. So, all right, last one, Suzanne. >> So, um my la my question is, and I think you can go about this objectively, um for the elementary school ages, is um is it healthier to have smaller schools, smaller class sizes, or it
102just doesn't matter? You could have a gigantic elementary school, 30 kids in a class, and it just makes no difference. I don't know the answer to that. Intuitively, I like small and that's just my preference. If you saw the way I educated my kids, small, small, small. But I just think that as a piece of information is important that we need to know >> because maybe it doesn't. I don't know that. >> I think there's strong research on both sides. >> That one would be a tough one because there's strong research on both sides that believe that their side is the correct side. So I I don't I don't have the answer to that. All right. Anything else, Kelly? >> Nothing for me. >> Thank you so much for putting this together for us and
103giving us all kinds of work to do. We appreciate it. >> Oh, I closed my folder like we were done. We're not done. >> We're not done. >> All right. Next up, I would uh look for a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a student matter pursuant to one MRSA 4056B. Who was the second? Melissa. So, Anastasia made a motion. Melissa seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? We are in executive session at 7:32 Yep. Are we back? Are we back? Okay. What is the direction of the board? >> So, we do have a motion to expel student A indefinitely with a road mapap, a re-entry plan to return. Is there a second? Suzanne. So, Anastasia made the motion. Suzanne seconded. Is there any discussion? All in favor? That motion carries. Administration is going
104to get with you on next steps. I'm going to take this All right, that is all for this evening. Our next uh full board meeting January 28th. Thank you all. Um, and we are adjourned 8:07 p.m.