001Everybody else set? >> Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call the December 17th school board meeting to order at 6 PM. If everyone could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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, Carmen Barski, Suzanne Bower, >> Mark Cardazano, >> Elizabeth Day, >> Michelle Felisetti, Anastasia Ferguson >> here, >> Eric Garrison, >> Dodie Lane here, Jennifer Mayo, >> Amy Morrison, Wes Finny >> here, >> Adam Tangway, >> Judith Val, >> D Vigliata, >> Zoe Anthony, >> Walker Vivian here. We have a quorum with 16 directors present. Before we get started on the rest of our agenda, I'd like to
002ask for a moment of silence uh for our neighbors at Bonnie Eagle who experienced an unimaginable tragedy yesterday. So, our thoughts are with them and their community um during this very difficult time. Thank you everyone. Um I do I would like to make a motion for one adjustment to the agenda. Um we will be adding a nomination. We'll make that number one under new business. Is this is for um an athletic director for the district. So we'll have Dr. Marqueis speak further on that when the time comes. Uh can I get a second on that motion? Anast to be you. Any discussion? All those in favor? That motion carries. Thank you. Uh consent agenda. Do we have a motion to accept the consent agenda? We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the
003consent agenda? All in favor? That motion carries. public comment. Do we have any public comment this evening? We do not. Board chair report. Um, I have just a couple things for you this evening. I first wanted to uh recognize Elizabeth Day. Uh, as of this month, she has served on the school board for three years. So, thanks Beth. >> Um, I have a couple of unofficial recognitions. I have two recognitions um that I wanted to speak about because we didn't have any on the agenda, but um so a few weeks ago scrolling through Facebook like we all do and came across a slideshow from the ugly sweater 5K that the high school did that the National Honor Society puts on. And I'm scrolling through the photos and all of a sudden right in the middle
004this photo of Zoe and Walker standing side by side popped up and it just brought such a smile to my face and such a sense of pride that we have these students that rec that represent the board so well and our student body and our community. So that's my unofficial and official recognition and celebration tonight for both of you. So thank you both so much. And on top of that, I have a very exciting announcement to make. Our very own Walker, Vivian, has been accepted to Princeton University. >> Okay. >> Congratulations, Walker. That's fantastic. >> I got all emotional when I saw it. Okay, that's all I have. I'm going to turn things over to Dr. Marquee for the superintendent's report. and we'll start with Walker and Zoe with the student report. >> All right,
005good evening everyone. Uh, first I'd like to um thank you for the congratulations and the uh continued um support of the board. Um Zoe and I really really appreciate your uh you know your continued support um of everything that we do. So thank you for that. Uh recently everyone in the RSU57 community enjoyed a 5-day Thanksgiving break and that break was partially extended on Tuesday, December 2nd when the first snow day of the school year was called due to a snow snowstorm throughout the day that pushed the new last day of school to Monday, June 15th. And on December 6th, the first trimester of the school year ended on Wednesday, November 19th and the 20th, Alfred Elementary had their well attended fall parent teacher conferences. after the school day. And uh during those days, the
006school gym was decorated in a celebration of learning where classroom teachers and the school improvement team put up examples of student work and projects that parents were able to see and students were proud to share this hard work. Uh in their guidance lessons, students have been learning about career awareness. And during their library time, they've been learning about how animals prepare for winter, reading and discussing non-fiction books, and uh learning about digital citizenship. Alfred uh again hosted their much-loved annual elf extravaganza on Tuesday, December 9th. Students were able to shop around and purchase holiday gifts uh priced between$1 and $3 for their family members. There were volunteers at the event to help students shop and wrap gifts for them. And all of the money raised goes to supporting uh students through field trips and other
007fun activities. Remaining items were available the following Wednesday for any student who was absent on Tuesday. On Monday the 24th of November, Alfred had a flannelage spirit day where everyone wore green, black, brown or camo. Uh the next day they had another spirit day where students and staff were encouraged to wear a flannel. And the recent family bingo night was a success, raising hundreds of dollars for the PTSA and willing and able uh families have been encouraged to donate to the school's giving tree. Uh the school's PTSA will soon be hosting a February calendar raffle where there are exciting prizes up for grabs and they're currently seeking donations to fill out the rest of the calendar. Wyman Elementary recently had a family STEM night and families were given uh limited materials and parameters to build
008a structure and everyone had a fun time at the event where there were over 100 in attendance. Uh the school recently had their book fair and parent teacher conferences and 27 students were recognized as model Mustangs of the month month and had a special lunch with the principal. Waterborough Elementary held their PTO holiday fair on November 15th. lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. It was a fun time with a kids store, cotton candy, popcorn, temporary tattoos, face painting, bake sale, 50/50 raffle, pictures of a Santa, and an online silent auction. It was a fun day, and the school spent the month of November focusing on gratitude, and they had a sports day themed spirit day on the 19th of November. Uh, Lion Elementary had a um we'll have a movie night on the 19th
009of December uh where they'll be watching Elf. They had a weather at your school on November 25th and families had to arrive at 5:40 a.m. Uh, and the event ended around 7 and the weatherman did a presentation for the entire school at 9:00. A third grade class at line has created a thankful tree displayed in the school and the uh school has partnered with RSD graphics to do a line elementary gear fundraiser. They recently had a bingo night and a book fair and those were uh fun events that were well attended. Um Lion had a gratitude spirit week beginning on the 17th of November. Uh the themes included hats off to kindness, teamwork Tuesday, cozy and kind PJ day. uh thankful threads and give back Friday. Each day had different activities that students completed to
010learn about what gratitude meant and how to express thankfulness and gratitude. There was a lot of participation from students, excitement, and school pride throughout that week. Uh at line, there's also been interest in forming an odyssey of the mind team. That's a creative problem solving program that encourages critical thinking, teamwork, and innovation among students. uh the program wouldn't be school sponsored. So, the school is gathering family and community input to see if there is enough interest and enthusiasm to bring an Odyssey of the mind team to line. And as this is the last meeting of this calendar year and before the holidays, I'd like to wish everyone a merry Christmas, a happy holiday, and a great New Year's. And I'll turn it over to Zoe for the second half of our report. Thank you. >>
011I will cover the second part. And I also first just want to thank you all for also being so um like accepting of all of our accomplishments. And so we start off shopping memorial students have been focusing on gratitude as well. They were sent home activities to show their parents that were then brought back home brought back to school to hang up around the school. They also had a cozy holiday spirit day and shop will also have a giving tree. the link um there will be a link provided on their newsletter for families to purchase items for their wish list. Staff Memorial High uh Memorial School also is doing a color basket fundraiser where classrooms were given a color and a basket to fill with items like blanks, blankets and socks and lotion. Um and
012they are baskets that will be raffled on December 14th at the holiday food and cookie and cookie walk. The PTC for Shappley is seeking cookie donations as well as food um for the backpack program pantry and Shappley's food pantry. Um also with Shley memorial they had a fall family night with a book fair that was a huge success. Over 271 people attending. Um this was just having fun and connecting with others exploring books. And they also had parent teacher conferences on November 24th. Masabisc Middle School had a penny war fundraiser where there were six competing teams earning pennies and they were able to raise nearly $500. Um the school student council placed 168 American flags in front of in front of the school to honor the veterans and the eighth grade STEM team will be
013working on an engineering challenge building new amusement park rides where they will be presenting those presentations to a panel of judges. Students in eighth grade in discip Students in eighth grade have been touring buildings to create their green space proposals. Seventh graders have been writing realistic fiction stories and sixth grade students have been learning about ancient history. Their first dance of the school year is coming up. It will be coming up and they have a winter chorus concert happening on December 16th. uh Massachusett High School's theater put on It's a Wonderful Life on December uh 12th, 13th, and 14th. There was a hu there were huge success by the way. There were many, many people, more than we ever have. Uh as well as Hudson University will be visiting the school on December 15th. Um
014as we just mentioned, the National Honor Society sponsored a sixth a sixth annual ugly sweater uh 5K. It was on November 30th. All the proceedings went to purchase gifts for the giving tree in all the RC57 libraries. The and as we mentioned before, the race was a huge success. Um 10 MHS athletes were selected to participate in an annual SMAA leadership summit. Um these were chosen based off character, integrity, leadership outside, inside and outside of the sport. On November 24th, MHS basketball team took um took on a lineup of staff members from both MMS and MHS and the all the winter sports teams will be had pictures on November 24th as well. Um, seniors from MHS have been asked to send in their their photograph and senior quote before December 21st. And on December 6th,
015MHS band will beo hosted a mattress fundraiser, as well as two uh spirit days before Thanksgiving break. One being to dress for your for your future job and the other one being to wear college gear or clothes to support a local business. buildings will will close at the end of December from December 24th to the to the 5th of January. All we have much much more to come. Events, fundraisers for every school. And as the holiday season approaches, we'll have more and more. Um after the holiday break, there'll only be a few weeks before the semester of the the first semester of the school year is completely finished. Um and yeah, that will conclude the student rep. Thank you both very much. Always a pleasure. Um what they share is really just a glimpse of
016all that's happening. And uh I'm going to share some additional ones. Some are a little bit of a duplicate, but um I want to draw special attention um to Mrs. Thornton um over at the middle school uh sorry Thorn um for her STEM work um on the 20th and 20 sorry the 21st 22nd I was there judging their competition and um Miss Thorne did a wonderful job with her students um the fact that they're really doing so much with design engineering concepts and uh I think the passion around the new programs I've already shared with you all I think is leading to uh really some preferred um ends. Recently I stopped by to visit um one of our new teachers uh Mr. Hammond at at um Alfred Elementary and um while visiting his class, I
017was really um taken by a project he's been working on that I think is uh a project that kids will remember likely for for many many many years to come. He actually um uh as a way of getting kids to write they are all they all wrote I believe it was eight letters to minor league baseball teams and independent baseball teams throughout the country. So, in his classroom is a large map of the United States uh with pins from all of the various teams that have responded and sent shirts and hats and bobblehead dolls and letters and um and in at least one case um an individual who's playing um out at uh out in Washington or Oregon, I can't recall which, had attended the University of Maine and then wrote about growing up in
018Maine and playing baseball now as a professional. Um, following that visit, I was actually on on on a Zoom call with um the New England School Development Council. There are two superintendents from each main state and I had shared um the excitement about a couple different things that day as part of our um meeting agenda. and the executive director who was a longtime superintendent, teacher, coach, um then reflected and said, "That sounds exactly like my um experience as a third grader and um in the early 70s where uh they wrote to NFL teams and created that partnership." So, I just wanted to draw attention to Mr. Hammond for doing an excellent job. Um, I saw Zoe and Walker the other night at the the play It's a Wonderful Life and um, Mrs. Levit and her
019students were just absolutely exceptional. Um, I've been to many shows and I think it was the uh, most crowded of any show that I've attended and the support provided by the number of kids that were there. I was actually quite surprised how many infants and babies were in the audience. Um, I have not experienced it at that level. So, great job to uh our our theater troop and uh and I know that Zoe's a big part of that. Um, yesterday we had our first our district's never really had a strong presence in Southern Maine Math League. So, under the direction of um Dr. McKinnon and Mrs. Graham, our two gifted and talented teachers. Um they have developed math teams at each of our elementary schools. And yesterday um all of those mathletes converged on this
020uh in this building for our first district math meet. Students um competed with one another and as teams, individuals were recognized, teams were recognized, and um there will be two additional math meets here in the district. And then ultimately we'll be sending students to the Southern Maine Math League um meet in May at the Portland Expo where they'll join. Um I'm not sure how many teams are in it now, but I know that when when I um oversaw or was connected to math teams, there were 32 schools that represented um at those events. And um now that we'll be adding five additional schools, I I'd like to think there will be at least 37 schools. Um so great job to them. Last night I attended uh girls basketball game. Place was packed. Unfortunately I was
021unable to stay um until half when our fifth and sixth grade um youth program kids were going to be playing at halftime. I had to race over to the middle school concert. So our girls last night um were prevailed over Noble uh which was a really nice win and they they played quite well. Um, speaking to the concert at the middle school, Mr. Hullbrook, uh, the coral um, director at our middle school did an absolutely wonderful job. The place was absolutely packed. Um, fortunately I was able to pull in really quick, walk in, and I usually stand on the side and uh, I noticed that there were loads of seats up in the front. So I walked up and ironically Mrs. Levit was there in the front row and there were a couple seats and
022then there was I think five in a row right behind me so I grabbed a front row seat. It was not saved for me. Um but uh so it was good to good to see that. Tomorrow night we have another big concert. Um it'll be at the high school. Uh Mrs. Ferington and uh Mr. help dearis our our uh coral and performing um instrumental directors will be leading that effort. I share those sorts of things because there's always something almost every day in this c on these campuses whether it's here or at our elementary school a few weeks ago I saw board member at the STEM event over at Lyman. It was a great event. Um I if you get the opportunity to get into our our schools and see these various events, it really
023is a a refreshing uh experience. Um where else can you see kids doing their very very best and I'm really excited about the STEM things that are happening, our math things that are happening, our visual and performing arts, our athletic offerings. we're starting to see success and success builds on on further success. Um, I had a few other things that I want to share, but I'm going to actually cut it short here in a second. Um, but I want to share one. You never know what kids are going to say and I always talk about that. So, while visiting a school recently, um, I just had one of my regular um, pullovers and I had my laptop and I had my little green book, which I walk around with a lot. And most times people
024think I'm a coach because of my lanyard. So I had a boy that was in Mrs. Bear's class walking down the hall and I said, "Hello." And the first thing he says is, "Hey, are you the health inspector?" So that's a new one for me. And uh but so so those are the the pleasures and the joys and um and just spending time in prek or K classrooms are always a hoot. So there's so much good happening in this district and I and I really want to applaud the board for your stewardship. Um our administrators, our teachers and support staff who day in and day out are doing the very best they can. and uh a community that really wants uh us to succeed. So I um similar to Walker and Zoe, I'd like to
025wish you all and our our greater learning community, our students, our staff, parents, and uh caregivers a wonderful holiday break. There are two additional brief portions, but I'm going to stop speaking. In a moment, I'm going to have Mrs. Twitchel uh speak about a question that was asked about um uh hold on let me just think I don't want to say it incorrectly uh math for me update based on a question from the board and then Dr. Doyle is going to um share some information and um I'm not certain it needs board action but it might need board action um related to um uh outreach support that we always want to do. So, >> you have a question. >> Um, no. >> Okay. >> No, go ahead. >> Um, I wanted to say that I
026also got to see the the play on I went Saturday night with my husband and it was phenomenal. You guys did so good. Um, and there's always a million things going on in the schools, but we also had the NJOTC um area manager inspection. My husband was able to go. I I had to work um and it went phenomenal. I don't know if you had a chance to meet with them or anything, but um those kids, the pictures are just amazing. They did such a good job. So, that's another event that happened with all those kids, too. So, want to throw that out there. >> Unfortunately, I didn't attend. Actually, I wasn't aware of it. Um and I and I do try to attend as many things as possible. Um >> I'm sorry that I
027was unaware of that. And and I'm I what I share is more of a spattering Um, and there's so many other things, but there's just a lot. And, um, you know, any given night there's middle school athletics, there's there's so much that you all should be proud of as we're growing our opportunities for our kids. So, thank you for sharing that. Any other questions? Awesome, Mrs. Twitchell. >> Hey, so I wanted to come and give some updates about math for me. I know that came up at a previous board meeting and just to give you a little bit of information about that program that's happening at Waterborough Elementary School. So, math for me is a program um in collaboration with the main department of education. And it's a three-year whole school project uh designed to
028support all educators, classroom teachers, special educators, edtes, and interventionists. And um it's designed to implement evidence-based professional development to increase math proficiency and inclusionary practices for students with exceptionalities and improves instructional practices for educators of all students. Um it's the way it's designed. There's a an embedded teacher of influence at the Waterbell Elementary School. That's Julie Nent who is an ISN teacher in collaboration with the main department of education math forme coach which we had Sue Hogan who came in and actually participated in our family engagement night and did a a little booth there. And then the next day I went in and she was going in and doing um some demonstrations in classrooms and then meeting with teachers afterwards to talk about some of those math practices and math routines to really build problem
029solving skills in those math classrooms. And so there are going to be in-person training, site visits, virtual meetings to really build capacity within the building around math instruction for all students. There is information on the main DOE website if you Google math for me. Um they have a logic model. Um and you can find a lot of more information. Um but it's some another exciting thing that's happening in the district to really improve instruction and experiences for all students educationally. Question. Um I just have a question. Why did Water Bro get picked? And is this something that it's like kind of like a not prototype but you know starting at one school? Yeah. Pilot program. >> Um from what I understand it was an application process. Okay. >> And so Julie Nent has um some
030background and connections especially in the area of math and so found out about it and was encouraged to apply for it and applied amongst other schools and then was approved. So, um I I don't 100% know if it's a program, how much longer it's happening or if the application process happens every year, every three years, but I know it's sometimes it's it's one person in a building who finds out about something. And I think that that there has been success with it. And I would definitely support other other buildings um jumping on board if there's an opportunity to do that. And we're also trying to make sure even again building capacity within the district. So even if Waterboro Elementary School is learning about that, having Mrs. Nent share that with the other ISN teachers in
031the other other buildings to help spread that those instructional practices. >> Awesome. >> Are there any other questions for Mrs. Switchell? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Tiffany. Um, so I wanted to switch to talk a little bit >> I wanted to that's okay. I wanted to switch to talk a little bit about outreach. And before I begin with the information that I wanted to share tonight, I just wanted to make a general statement about outreach. As you might recall from late October, we did um push some information out related to a food drive. And I just wanted to make the general comment that we have received an unbelievable amount of support from our community both on the level of nonprofit organizations, um, businesses in town, private individuals donating a wide variety of
032things, whether it's goods, diapers, um, clothing, food items, uh, cash donations that we use to be able to provide our students with some of the outreach activities that we do. It has been an overwhelming response and we are very, very grateful for this. We're also grateful for the community volunteers, um, students and staff who help assist with the processing of all of this stuff. As you might imagine, we have to store it and move it and sort it and determine where it goes, distribute it. And it's really been a team effort from a community scale um, in order to get those items distributed to the folks who really need them. That said, I would also take the opportunity to remind folks that on the district level web page, if you look in the menu, there
033is a community resources page that we seek to regularly update with all the resources that are available to everything from mental health supports to um places for rental and housing assistance, um food assistance, hours for local food banks, and just a wide variety of supports is available to folks on there. So, the reason that I had asked to speak briefly about outreach um tonight is that we did have a member of the community reach out to us and share that Partners Bank would like to support an initiative um with our outreach program as the beneficiary. You'll notice that I've provided you with a copy of a handout that they're proposing that they have present in their branches locally to um request support. The brochure and its contents have been vetted by our outreach coordinator. The
034QR code that is listed here would direct folks who scan it to an Amazon wish list that is based on the items that are listed here in the outreach wish list. Those items would then be shipped to Partners Bank and delivered to us as a district for redistribution throughout the outreach program. Um we would certainly welcome all of these goods. We know that there's no greater time of need for our community. Um and restocking those shelves is important. things come in really quickly and they go out really quickly. So, um, in that piece, we thought the board should be aware. Certainly, if there are materials that are out in the community and might appear in businesses, we would want you to be aware of that. And as Jod mentioned, not sure whether we would want
035to seek approval. Certainly, any questions or feedback, I'm happy to either answer or research for you if you have further question. >> Any question? Michelle, >> would this be something that could be sent to like town halls? >> Because I really like I I think you they could even send it out email to their people who are signed up for emails, newsletters, and you'd get a lot of support from your communities that way too. >> Sure. I think um this is one that Partners Bank had looked to distribute and like I said, this particular wish list goes directly. um if that's something that the board would support for us. I think we may also seek to augment something that would just chip directly here rather than add to the burden at partners bank that would
036be my recommendation. But we could certainly pursue that pathway if you think a broader scope of that awareness campaign would work. We could look into that for sure. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Any other questions regarding this? Um, oh, while you're thinking of that, so our our policy regarding public gifts and donations um allows for the superintendent to be the school board's designate for gifts with a value of 1,000 or less. Um, there is on this policy, there's nothing that says what happens if it's more than a thousand, but typically what happens is the school board will make a motion or the finance committee will make a motion to accept the donation. So where this one is kind of an ongoing um I would anticipate that you know when all is said and done
037the value would be more than a thousand. So um I always like to heir on the side of making a motion and having the school board approve something versus not. Um but I'm happy to you know answer any other questions or if there's any more discussion on it. um you know, but I did want to let you know about the policy in regards to public gifts or donations. Uh Anastasia, well, I was going to ask about the policy, but if if we do a motion for it, how we do the motion? Are we doing a blanket amount or just allow the superintendent and Dr. Doyle to do what they need to do with it to keep our students, the community, however this works, functioning. >> Where it's a little different than say somebody wants to
038donate $2,000 for X reason, what we're really talking about here is likely a lot of $5, $10 gifts. So um though in aggregate it will exceed I would anticipate similar to to Jody that it would exceed a thousand. We're not talking about someone trying to get the reason why those thousand provisions are in policies are typically so that there's not an um a bias or someone's trying to promote something. This is really just about the the social good of a community. So I don't think the discussion is really about going over a thousand. It's more like do you support ongoing effort of an organization that might have a broader reach in some ways than the typical reach that we have when we communicate with families about supporting those in need. >> And these flyers, are
039these going to be in the in the branches of the bank? Is that the the plan? >> They were developed by Partners Bank. You'll notice that all of the content is consistent with our communications and it lists Megan as the contact. She's our outreach coordinator and I'll add her um title >> to that as well. >> Okay. Uh >> um I just had like a clarifying question about the partnership with Partners Bank. like is this um because you said that that they're going to sponsor this um program and then like things could be shipped to them to then ship to us to then shipped out to other people. So, is there any concern or questions about like how mainstream those goods can actually be provided once they're purchased and donated through so many steps of
040contribution? Um, I think about it, I'm not sure if I would necessarily use the technical term of partnership, but essentially I would look at this as a similar way to the way someone might do a food drive. Mhm. >> So they might put a box in their lobby and say that here's a food drive and here's the beneficiary of that and then deliver those goods to us. >> Um this is their proposal for how they want to do that and I think they're leveraging the Amazon delivery but there is a contact person the community member who brought this forward to us is the person who would be delivering those items on behalf of them. >> Okay. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's um I guess my only concern is like if
041it's going through so many parties, >> like how quickly will the goods be provided to the to the people in need of those goods? >> I I don't know that I can speak to that specifically, but what I can tell you is that this particular person who is facilitating the transfer um has visited us on numerous occasions within the past period of time. um as soon as they have items from a different nonprofit. So, there's another nonprofit we've received goods from, that person is helping to assist and has been pretty regularly in communication with us with some pretty significant um donations of a similar kind. >> Great. Yeah. >> To what I would expect. >> And you're still But like I know as you I think what you said earlier is like obviously you guys
042are still accepting things in person as well. >> Absolutely. >> This is just like another >> source of donation. >> Yep. Okay, cool. Thank you. Yeah, >> I just played with it while we were talking and it's it's super streamlined. Um, you just scan the code and all of a sudden you're at Amazon and there's um, you know, granola bars and you hit purchase and instead of coming to you, they go to the bank, >> right? >> So, I mean, that's that's about as streamlined as you can get >> like from the bank to them and then to them. >> Yeah. But it it to me it seemed like a great idea. And you're not donating money. You're you're purchasing I I look I just quickly look homes, food, a variety of things they have
043in the wish list. >> Um this is kind of nice. You know, people like for things to be easy and that it couldn't have been easier. I you know, as I said, I did it as we were talking, right? >> So I would I would support it. >> Anything else? Any other questions? Sure. I'll just take a moment. >> I make a motion to allow um the district to accept donations from Partners Bank based on this um what they're proposing. >> So, we have a motion and a second to accept the donations and this uh program that Partners Bank is looking to get going for us. Is there any other discussion or questions regarding that? All those in favor opposed. All right, that motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Can I say one more thing?
044>> Yep. >> I just want to clarify one misstep in my my report because I'm sitting here thinking, "Oh my god, I can't believe I did that." So, when you work for a school sometimes or you might use that I'm going to go with Cindy Thorne, Mrs. Thorne from the middle school. When I said Thornton, when I was typing really quick to make my notes, I used to work at Thornton Academy and so I wrote Thornton when it's Mrs. Thorne and I knew it. So, as I was speaking, I had shifted from Thornton to Thorne and I'm mortified that I messed up her name because I know she does a tremendous job and I'm really impressed with everything. It's Mrs. Thorne, in case you didn't catch the variations that I was using. All righty. Next
045up, standing committees. We'll start off with policy, Beth. >> Okay. We met last week. Um, we are finishing up the D policies. We do have one coming forward for our first read. Um, and then we began the E policies, which are environmental, health, and safety. Um, those we will go through uh February. So, there may be more to come on those. And so we actually have two policies coming forward for a first read tonight and I'll go over those when we get to them next meeting January 7th. Any questions for Beth? All right. Finance Wes. >> Good evening. Uh the finance committee uh met on November 25th. Mark chaired it that night for us. I was north and then we met again on December 9th. Um finance department's been doing an awful lot of uh
046work and budget preparation as we get close to starting the budget process. Um and that'll start our first meeting in January, January 6 at 6 p.m. right here in this room. Um at the 25th meeting uh the beginning of how this whole process of the budget uh development is going to take place was discussed. A schedule was set and the finance committee is uh looking forward to u uh gathering information um having an earnest discussion about that information that we assemble. There'll be presentations, analysis done and uh the budget will go through a process of being formulated to bring back to the entire board and uh we're looking forward to that process as we always do. The budget committee meets weekly uh once January starts. So if you have interest in being down here, there's
047anyone out in the public listening tonight, we certainly would love to have you participate. Um also at the 25th meeting uh the new modular issues were reviewed uh by the finance committee and uh a settlement that's going to be positive on behalf of the district has been being taken care of by uh finance director Colin Walsh. uh the meeting on the 29th, most of the meeting was spent with capital planning updates and that was the primary work of the finance committee. Um there were thorough discussions conducted of priorities were being discussed and reviewed. Uh more of that work will be completed as we go into the budget process itself. Um, that's pretty much the priorities that were discussed on the 25th and on the 9th. Thank you. >> Any questions for Wes? >> Um, at
048the beginning of the like I I was early fall um the finance committee talked about doing um meetings out in the public. Has there been any more word about that? out. >> Yes, we we discussed that uh December 9th uh and uh Colin Walsh uh Dr. Marquee and Dr. Doyle are going to be u going out in community and having discussions around fund balance, state subsidies, and those sort of issues. uh it's in their court right now and uh um we're anticipating uh that that will occur at some point here in the near future. I don't know if uh Dr. Maki or Dr. Doyle or Colin want to say anything on it, but they're planning on doing just that. >> You can during your presentation. >> Okay. We'll have Mr. Walsh address that when he
049reviews the budget process. Okay, sound good. Uh anything else for Wes? Not a question. >> HR Anastasia. >> We have not met. We did not meet in November, but we are meeting tonight after this meeting. >> Marathon. Any questions for Anastasia? >> All right. Old business. We do not have any old business this evening, so we can move on to new business. First up is a nomination for a district-wide athletics director, uh, Mr. Alex McCormack Kumman. Um, so I'm going to ask Dr. Marque to speak to that a little bit and then uh we'll look for a motion. >> Okay. So, thank you for allowing me to make the agenda adjustment. Um that was really based on um scheduling and and having to go through uh some unique uh and critical steps to the hiring
050process. It's with pleasure that I bring forward a candidate um tonight that I'm going to talk a little bit about and then talk about process as well. Um, I do want to take this opportunity to once again um acknowledge and thank Mr. Lawrence um our departing athletic director. He did a remarkable job uh moving our district forward over the past uh two and a half years during his tenure. Um we're deeply appreciative of the work that he's done to help some support a smooth transition for our students and for our uh our coaches and our administrative team. So just thank you to Mr. Lawrence for for your time uh and energy that that he put into this district. Um when we posted the position, I was actually um quite worried that we wouldn't have a
051uh a deep and strong poll and that actually did not uh prove to be accurate. Um I did share with the board um more as aformational process, but I'd like to share more publicly now. We did receive um over 30 um individuals that were interested in the position and um and we've actually received additional interest in the days since I updated you. Uh in total um over 30 people expressed interest um over 30 started the application process. 19 completed um applications in full plus a few after the fact. We then whittleled the the 19 fully uh completed applications um down to six candidates. Um we did that through um three individuals, myself, Dr. Doyle, and um Mr. Thurlo going through and and looking at specific criteria we were looking at. We then um forwarded that
052on to an interview committee of eight. I was not part of that initial interview committee, but I think we did a really good job trying to get a sense of the community. Um, from the board, we had Mr. Finny was on the committee. Um, we had, um, Mr. Labby, who's our culture and accountability coach at the high school. He's also the head football coach and, um, was recently, uh, an assistant wrestling coach, but, he's taking this season off. We had Mrs. Blair, longtime teacher, educator, and coach. She's our head cross country coach, also our head track coach on the committee. We had Mr. Tut who is a community member and uh coaches softball in his all things athletics. Last night he was announcing our girls basketball game and uh he's really a lynch pin behind
053everything that we do. We had Mr. Brooks, who's our facilities um uh director who oversees all facility use and operations and and um so he was really a critical person to have involved in it. We had Mrs. Grantham given the the need of oversight of the middle school. We had Mr. Thurlo as principal of the high school and then Dr. Doyle. From there, the six candidates that were interviewed were whittleled down to two or finalist interviews. And um ultimately we have before us tonight um someone that comes with a great deal of experience, wherewithal, passion, and energy around athletics. Um Mr. McCormack Kuman has um relevant experience. He's in his fourth year as the assistant athletic director for Noble. Um, and Noble's programs have really flourished in recent years. And I I believe strongly that
054he'd be one of those uh reasons about that. Um he works heavily with middle school with lots of oversight at the high school um with coach supervision um coach hiring um game management and uh has a strong support network of um existing athletic directors given his experience here in Maine. Prior to coming uh or prior to being employed by um the Noble School Department, he served in Bington, New Hampshire as the recreation department um coordinator program oversight and also was the um athletic game manager for athletics for the New Hampshire Institute of Technology. Um he has a bachelor's of science in um sports management from LEL University and is a certified U main athletic director which is actually quite hard to achieve. So we're we're really pleased that he comes in fully certified. part of
055his application process was to develop a wellthought and organizi thought out and organized transition plan that has benchmark outcomes and um so it's with great uh pleasure that on behalf of the selection committee and myself um that I present um Alex's nomination before you tonight um so that we can continue on the fine work that uh is underway here in this district. >> Thank you. At this time, I would look for a motion to accept the nomination. >> Like to make that motion. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to accept the nomination for Alex McCormackum for athletic director. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? That motion carries. Thank you so much. Welcome. >> I I asked uh him to share a few words with you all and then if
056you have any questions, he'd be happy to answer them. >> If you can push that button on the right hand side, I can turn that mic on for you. Go ahead. >> Good evening. First, thank you Dr. Marquee for the kind words and thank you to the board for allowing me the opportunity to introduce myself this evening. Um, as you've heard, my name is Alex McCormack Kumman. Um, I come from a southern Maine school. I grew up in southern Maine in Wells. Um, and if you ask me about who my heroes or mentors are, uh, it's going to be my coaches and my athlet athletic administrator that I had during my time there. Um, I have always wanted to, ever since I hung up my cleats as a player, wanted to be that individual for
057the next wave of student athletes. And I'm very ecstatic to be in offered this position here as serving as your ne next athletic director. Um, getting to hear Dr. Marquee and Walker and Zoe talk about all the positive things that are going on within this district, not only around athletics, but also just extracurriculars in general. Shows me that this is a really special place. And I'm very excited to be a part of that and grow upon the strong foundation that you guys have set here and continue celebrating our students both on the courts fields, but also in the classroom and in the community in general. So, thank you again for your time this evening. I look forward to getting to know you all well in the near future. have a happy holidays and a fantastic
058evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, Alex. Welcome. >> Any questions, comments? >> No, that's okay. No, you're good. You're good. We are very happy to have you. Welcome, welcome, welcome, D. >> Uh, I grew up in Wells as well, so go Warriors. Next up, Massbik High School program of studies. So, this is typically something in previous years that has come before the curriculum committee for review. So, um after the curriculum committee was um disbanded and I believe that this is something one of those real advantages to having this come to the full board versus just the committee. So, um, Allison Ellis, our dean of academics, is here to review the significant changes which were included in your backup. Um, and Principal Thurlo is here also to answer any questions. So, come on up, Mrs. Ellis.
059All set. Green means go. I like that. All right. Good evening everyone and thank you for having me for the program of study update. Um the bringing the program of studies in front of the board really marks uh my start of the master schedule and uh so it's a process that we look at with um course selection with our students. uh within the next couple months they'll be able to start picking classes for next year and then we start the big puzzle of where classes end up in what color day and what block. So if anyone really likes puzzles um I'd welcome anyone with that uh I like to use post-it notes myself. Um, so for our new program of study, um, for the next school year, we did some general updates, uh, language updates
060regarding our new, uh, grading scale. And so that was throughout the program of study, uh, subject areas, looked at their prerequisites, um, during the October inservice day. And so they really looked at um, the pathway for classes that students are going to take in order to access their courses and update those. So with those updates, um you'll see a prerequisite guide for most of the subject areas. Um some of them are pretty straightforward, English one, English two, but there are some different pathways throughout the different subject areas. So that guide is there for um parents and students and faculty. So to help with those updates and changes as far as by department, um I'll quickly go through each um update. The English department is going to add two courses, foundations English one and two. We
061are actually um not offering US humanities and world humanities next year, which was the combined English and social studies class. Um, we've done a lot of talking. Um, and what we've decided is we're going to pull those apart into separate courses to continue working on English skills, but also working on those English skills in social studies content area classes to extend the amount of time working on skills, but also learning the content of the two different subject areas. In math, we're bringing back accelerated algebra 1. And so this is a course that we offered in the past. When we moved from block scheduling to a uh six block schedule, we didn't offer it and so we're bringing that back now that we're back into a block schedule for green and white days. In science, we
062have three new courses. We have a YCCC YCCCC bio course, which is the overview of anatomy and physiology. So this is going to be a concurrent enrolled course with partnership with YCCCC. We also are going to have accelerate physics A and B. So currently we have CP or college prep physics A and B. So we'll add an accelerated level as well as continue offering the AP level. So there's a lot of different options um for students who are looking at those four-year science pathways or going into engineering um or going into the science realm. So they have a lot of options their junior and senior year. In social studies, we have a English and social studies co-taught combined class, but we're putting it under social studies because it's really about volunteering and the community. So,
063it's Mustangs on the move. So, this is going to be a code talk class which looks at our community um looks at community projects and uh the two teachers who are going to be running this course are really excited to really get out into the community and bring our students around um and really investigate and build projects based on what they find. And so I'm very excited to see and give an update hopefully this time next year to tell you what they've done with their projects. technology probably has the most updates. So, we are adding adding a joinery and furniture course. So, this is for our students who um may not uh get into SRTC for vocational placement. So, a lot of students want that advanced level technology class and woodworking class and this allows
064them for that opportunity. It is going to be a smaller course. We also have accelerated engineering design and this is based off of our current teachers working with the middle school and their updates in their STEM technology and building an accelerated version of STEM into our classes because we have had a lot of students come in with more STEM knowledge. And so we are shifting it over to add more STEM and engineering design. Finally, for computer science, we're looking at a computer skills course and a computer science class. The computer skills is really focusing on making sure students have the skills necessary for any job, whether it's looking at Google Docs, Google Slides, forming a email and sending it out. All of those little nitty-gritty things that we use with our computer on a day-to-day
065basis. computer science is going to f focus on coding and also use a spiraled curriculum that includes the web design and mobile apps that we started this year. And so what we found is that that spiraled curriculum allows to have touch points in all those different subject areas in order to access uh students to have access to more content information for computer science in world language. Um there's two courses that they're adding. It's an introduction to French and Spanish. Um, it looks at world cultures and speaking cultures. So, the social former social studies teacher me looks at this from a sociology lens and looking at the culture of language and how language is derived. And it's really exciting for our students who want a stepping point into language versus starting immediately in a world language
066class. And so it really introduces world cultures with language in that department. And finally, our special ed department, they focused on a lot of different classes that they want to offer and revamp. Um so one of the things that they want to look at is a 21st century skills course which looks at some work readiness standards. They also want to um update their s uh sorry acronyms in in uh the education realm student directed instruction English classes one through four and look at the progression of English classes to build off of the our current classes and skills needed um for postgraduation. We've also looked at a spiraled math curriculum for math one, two, and three in the special education department, which looks at algebra concepts, geometry concepts, and then ends with personal finance. That's about
067a 500 foot view of our updates for the program of studies. I'm sure you guys have all looked at the big document. It's a it's a very nice document, but I do recognize how long it is, but uh I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about courses and the general updates. >> Any questions for Mrs. Ellis? Um I'm very excited about this Mustangs on the move. >> Me, too. >> Um can we book you for next uh maybe this time next year? >> Absolutely. for an update because that one sounds fantastic. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Uh Dr. Doyle, >> I just wanted to take a minute to um thank Miss Ellis for her leadership and also the teachers who engage in this process of trying to reinvision what the curriculum can look like
068and also engage in that vertical um conversations with the middle school to be able to build on that so that students see a seamless transition when they come up. What I noticed as you review changes um is a focused effort on the Mustangs on the move for example really speaks to the work in our strategic plan getting students out for those community connections. I see that as a great springboard. Additionally, some of the STEM offerings I think really do help fill a gap for our students. Um whether the schedule is not is the hurdle for them engaging in SRTC or admissions, those are certainly competitive programs. Um it's really nice to see a response on the school front to some of those places. So, I commend the staff for that work. I also commend you
069for the work with YCCCC. Those are ambitious courses. Biology is an ambitious course to begin with. Um, and I've seen success in other places with those YCCCC courses. That's a really fantastic opportunity for our students and I hope they will take us up on the opportunity and you'll have some healthy enrollment in those courses. That's what I would hope for most. So, thank you to you, Mr. Thurlo, and the staff. >> Thank you very much. >> Mustangs on the move. Yay. I've been talking about this I think since I got here. Do you know like I know they're gonna be doing local stuff and when your update are they gonna this is local government so is it going to be like your town halls are going to like partake in some of that a little
070bit? >> That's their goal. Um I they're in the planning stages now getting ready for next year because um I my hope is that we're able to offer a section if not more um each semester. So they're in the building stages now. So that is um part of their ideas and planning and so >> it's fantastic. I just the whole thing's fantastic. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Very excited for those. >> Yeah, we've been speaking a lot at HR about community engagement and local government. So having that I was like she must have been listening to HR meetings over there. Um Mark >> also kudos wonderful job. Um is it going to affect staffing in any way in terms of new staff. >> Um, you want to answer this question? >> Pass the
071mic. >> I knew if I asked the right question, we get him up there. >> Uh, so Mark, that's a that's a great question. Uh, one of the things that we talk about in terms of the new proposals for courses is exactly that. Where are we squeezing other opportunities? And so these two teachers came to me with this idea back in September. uh super excited about the prospect and started the conversation off with we will not have a study hall in lie of doing this. So they're giving up an opportunity um to have you know say 20 students in a in a classroom where they're managing their homework and they're managing their sort of executive functioning skills to want to take on an additional prep. So um you've used the word Dr. Doyle commend. I
072commend these two teachers for taking on an additional prep um which is which is a big thing because they see the value of of this particular opportunity. Um they wanted to actually develop a leadership course with a leadership title but found very quickly that they wanted to incorporate the community to actually facilitate those leadership opportunities which is a perfect way to to sort of segue um that curriculum with our community uh goals that are happening at HR. So yeah. >> Yeah. So, additional prep, additional compensation. >> No, this is a choice that they make. >> Yeah. If you if you if you give up your study hall to teach a course, it's a choice that you're making. Um, some teachers have five preps by choice, some teachers have three preps by choice. >> Okay. >>
073Yeah. So, this is not a contractual CVA issue whatsoever. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Very exciting. >> Dr. Doyle, >> before you walk away, hi. Um, just a thought that I had. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Generally speaking as well with these new offerings in the program of studies, it's often dictated by student interest. So where you might have interest that moves you to a different place, one thing would run, maybe another section in that department might fall away as a way to balance your staffing as well. So generally speaking, that's part of why we review the program of studies at this point in the year is to allow for that ample time to assess student interest and get the scheduling underway and determine what runs and what doesn't given the staffing constraints.
074So you often have some fluidity and some control in that as well. There's usually a two to three year cycle with some courses. Um run for a few years and then not run for a few years and pick it back up depending on the interest of the students. >> And Mrs. Ellis, before you say, can you give us a timeline um on I I think that you previously share this with the curriculum committee. So like when's the program of study going out? When are kids making their selections? So um after after uh the program is study does get approved, we start uh talking about the schedule for next year. Um immediately we start our course selection process. Um our goal is to always start after February break. So that's when we go into English classrooms
075um and do presentations. And then we have a time where we're meeting with students doing the course selection process and we have the current 9th through 11th grade. Um our goal is to have all the course selection sheets in by the beginning of March to start that part of the master schedule. And then at the end of March, we have our step up night uh for our eighth graders who are going to be our future ninth graders. And their course selection sheets are due in April just before the break. And then their schedule is built as well. And that's all kind of assessed together and then we run the schedule to get the best percentage possible um with the amount of sections and where everything lines up. >> Great. Fantastic. Uh any other questions or
076comments regarding the program of study? >> It's not about the program of study, but we don't envision any new staff. I just want to be clear about that. We're going to be graduating a class that's 222 roughly. Um, and we'll be bringing in a class of 220. And Dr. Doyle was correct. Some of it's just some movements and looking at current sections. But if we find that as this develops, it is a budgetary question, we would revisit that because we want to make sure that we're looking at it. At this point in time, I wouldn't envision an ad because I think it's going to be an interesting budget process already before any additions. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Great job. >> Um, so >> I would look for a motion to approve
077the program of studies. Make >> a motion to approve it. Anastasia Melissa. All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the program of studies. Any further discussion? All those in favor. That is approved. Great. >> Right. We don't have >> Next up, review of the budget process. uh column wall. So good evening. Um part of your responsibility as a board which you delegate a fair amount to the finance committee is to develop a budget annually, monitor that budget. Um, but part of that is really to develop what is the budget process that's going to be used in order to build the budget and vote on the budget and then have it approved. And so tonight, we're going to briefly go over this. Um, you have it in your packet. The only thing
078that has changed from what's in your packet to today is on that front page where the date changed from December 10th to December 17th. Everything else that you received in your packet is identical. Um, I'm going to go by page numbers, which are faint, but they're in the lower right hand corner. It's very faint. Um, you won't see it, but you might see it and you cut it, Michelle. Um, so it's really important to understand what is the process that's being used in order to develop the budget. The finance committee discusses this a lot in the fall typically, as they did this year, and they have used and determined to use a very similar process to what was used last year. So, for new members, um, I'll go over this briefly, but I'm happy to
079answer questions either tonight or outside of this meeting or in the finance committee meetings. Um, if you have questions and you can certainly direct those to either Wes or Mark. Um, but I'm going to go briefly through this and really talk about on the second page, Shane, the overview gives you really the bullet points and they're in progressive order. is to communicate, define the timelines, gather information, review um just like Steve just said, review with leadership, the public, the board, the finance committee, um staff, what are our needs, how do those needs fit together into the next bullet, which is the overall budget. And then on the next page, Shane, it's ensuring that it aligns with the strategic plan, which is the overarching document that guides the work in the development of the budget. And
080then the presentation of the recommended budget from the superintendent and the finance committee to the school board. From the school board, it then goes to a public budget meeting, which typically occurs in May, and then a validation referendum that occurs in June. And then the final stage is what the finance committee does throughout the year, which is implement the budget, but also monitor the budget and hold myself accountable as the finance director to ensure that we're following the budget that the public voted on. On the next page, I'm not going to go through all of this, but this is kind of one of those first bullets of who's involved in the process. And you can see there's a multitude of stakeholders in this process. Um, some of these are in order, some aren't, some are
081overlapping. Many things are happening all at the same time. Back to Beth's question earlier, one of those is communication with the public, which falls in this section. Um, what we're envisioning right now is to get past the holidays and in January, probably early February, we're going to be looking at outreach in multiple different ways. Two of the topics that came back last year without getting into the weeds too far was how does the district budget and use its fund balance and then also how does the state subsidy work. I am happy to do a whole what do you call it trimester of state subsidy course. If you want to take that course I would love to do it on your free night. um and for the public because it is important to understand. It is
082a very complex formula. But in all seriousness, um those are two things that came out of last year's budget from the public that were important. So, we're going to hold more forums about that specifically to answer your question more around the um mid late January, early February. And we will still do additional communication like we traditionally do in March and April, but we're going to frontload that a little bit more on the front end. On the next page, Shane, the next bullet is the timeline and this is what the finance committee has already developed, already approved and is already posted on the website. Having said that, tonight's presentation is obviously um streamed. It's also recorded and posted and this presentation of the PDF of this will also be on the website come tomorrow. Um so
083full transparency is important. Talking about transparency, all of the documents from the last two budget cycles are also on the website. They have not been taken down. Anything that you want to see in the development of the 2425 budget and the 2526 budget still remains on the website. Um, free to see 247 if you really want to fall asleep. That's good reading material. Gathering of the budget information is on the next page. Again, I'm not going to go through each bullet, but it really outlines for you the key factors and how information is gathered. Like I said, information is gathered from multitude of sources at a multitude of different times. And that sounds like it's confusing. Well, at times it is. Steve may be working on the staffing along with Amanda and myself, along with
084finance committee. We're working on operations at the same time. So, there's a lot of parts that are moving at that same time. Um so that's an important part that is the most time consuming part of the whole process. Next is to then take that information review it gather it and put it into a larger budget process and the overall budget. And then on the next page is a continuation of that where the overall budget is produced. um each line item in the budget and there's roughly 120 pages of budget line items with probably 20 or so budget lines per page. You can do the math on that and that's defined as a lot. Um and that is what is developed in the budget that is also online. You can see the historical budgets online for
085the past two years for every single line item. It is there for your pleasure and viewing um to be able to look at, interpret, ask questions about um flipping a page and going to the presentation of the budget. Shane, one more. Um this is what we're talking about. When we start to get the final budget, it's presented to the public. It's presented to the school board and it's out there. And that presentation is really important because we are a government entity. We do have local and state tax dollars that fund everything we do. Um, that's about 98% of where our money comes from in order to pay the bills. Therefore, full transparency is really important. And I think you can see that by looking at what's on the website. The next page is the voting.
086And for those who aren't familiar, it is, like I said, a two-step process. The public has an opportunity at the public budget meeting in May um to come and listen and have input and vote on every warrant article there is to adopt the budget. That is by state statute. It is not something you as a school board develop or that myself or the superintendent develop. That is defined by state statute and presented in that way. The public then has an opportunity to ask questions and then vote. That is not the final step in the process though. When the budget is voted on at the budget meeting, there's one more vote which is a public vote at the polls and that vote occurs and people say, "Well, I don't see the budget." That occurs at the
087budget meeting. You see a summary of the budget at the polls. And that is again by state statute. That is not something you as a board define. We're following the law. And that vote in June says, do you approve the budget that was most recently adopted at the district's budget meeting? That's the same question we all ask. And then implementing, I'm not going to go through that's mostly the finance committee's role um in how they follow the budget and how we hold accountability um internally as well as with the finance committee representing you on behalf of the board. questions. >> Did you have anything you wanted to add, Steve? I saw >> I thought you did a tremendous job. It's succinct. It's provided in backup. Um, but if folks have questions, please let Colin know.
088He shared that he was going to do this in 10 minutes, and he actually did. That was amazing. >> I think that was less than 10 minutes. That was amazing. Yeah, nice work, Colin. And as a reminder, starting uh January 6th, Tuesday nights, this is a place to be. 6 PM every Tuesday >> and for the public as well, if I can add. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> I mean, those meetings are open to the public and that's part of the process. >> Yep. >> Perfect. >> Thank you, Colin. >> Uh let's see. Next up, we uh have a couple policies coming for a first read. So, I'm going to turn this over to Beth to speak about those. >> Okay, we have two policies. The first policy coming in front of you is which order
089do we have? EBBD. So, this is legislation that came out um I think last year uh that just said every school district needs a policy regarding temperature temperatures in schools. Uh there was no direction. So, we uh I say we loosely um Colin, Dr. Marque, Dr. Doyle um and uh Mr. Brooks um kind of went through and looked at everything possible out there and um this is what we came up with. So read it, enjoy it. Um if you have any questions on it, come back to us. Um but it was vetted fully by um the the crew to to these are standards that they can actually do or um and some of them were are vague for a reason. I guess it's just read it and then let me know if you have any
090questions on it. Um or ask Colin. He's an expert on it. Um okay. And then moving on to Are we Do we do them all at once? Yeah, we can do them all at once. >> Okay, great. And then DJ-R. So, this policy has significant language changes and they these are all recommended changes um by Drummond and Woodsome um to they're changes to existing procedure and they are to be in compliance with federal procurement policies and regulations. It says at the top of the MSMA um recommend recommended policy not to change the wording that is now out there uh without contacting legal. So read it, ask questions. If you want any changes made, we have to go see a lawyer. So um there are very few policies out there that are that are like this.
091>> This is one of them. So, uh, but if you have any questions, obviously reach out, let us know. Colin is very, we didn't need to him to talk about it tonight, but if you have any questions, he can answer all of them. >> Yeah, he was our special guest at the last policy meeting. Um, >> passionate. So, to clarify, so EBBD, this is a brand new policy that is not in place. Um, the other one is just changes. So, if you have any questions or suggestions, those would need to get to the policy committee by January 7th, which is their next meeting, because we'll be bringing these back for a first read. Um, I'm going to put them on the next agenda for January 14th because we have to be cautious with that 8week
092window and potential weather delays. So, we want to get it um on that next uh agenda. So, I'm going to look for a motion to accept the first read and then we can have discussion about it. >> Motion accept first read. >> Melissa, was that you? >> All right. So, we have a motion and a second to accept the first read. I will open it up for discussion and we will start with Mark. >> Um, reading the temperature standards for schools makes me miss policy so much. You're always welcome to come. They're all open to the public. >> I was thinking to say, >> but on a serious level, um, are there temperature standards for athletics? They're not included in here or do they exist at all? In other words, when the temperatures on the
093turf field exceed a certain number, do we have policy on that? >> Oh, hold on. I'll admit I'd have to do a little bit of research to see our standing policy, but I can tell you in terms of regular practice, typically that is um dictated by the MPA regulations and so we would be in compliance with whatever those policies would be. >> Okay. >> Yeah. If there isn't already >> I didn't know if we had our own standards. >> Hold on. >> Um so the this policy came out for specifically inside schools. So, um when it comes to being too hot, too cold, um we have it more so a lot um in our schools with second floors, um when it comes to heat and then cold obviously if our furnaces break, but there's obviously
094already things in place when that begins to happen anyway. So, we already have um standards that we go by, but this is specifically for inside schools. >> Thank you. Beth answered one question. Who devised these guidelines for the temperatures? Like the 82. To me, that seems awful warm. Even though I'm putting my coat over myself right now cuz I'm freezing. But 82 seems awful warm for a classroom for students to physically function. answer. >> So, the policy is really designed to provide guidance. It doesn't mean that we're going to let the temperature go to 82 degrees. It's to provide an upper and a lower standard of what you would commonly um accept as a threshold before you took other action. Before we ever get to 82, we're taking a multitude of other steps to get
095there. Anyhow, um what the law requires in this case um is exactly what Beth said earlier. It's building temperatures inside to provide guidance and direction under the law. Um doesn't mean that we're not pursuing a lot of other avenues already procedurally inside of buildings um either in the spring or fall when it gets warm or during the winter when it's cold. So, we wanted to leave enough space within the policy to not get hamstrung, if you will, to be able to do the operational things we're already doing. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um, I just had a question. Will there be a subsect or maybe an establishment within this policy of like a time frame of um addressing temperature issues within the maintenance realm of each building? So if a building is staying consistently
096in the bad zone like will there be a a you know a time frame where they the school has to meet the fixing of that problem. The historical trend with policy is to provide an overarching concept and goal to drive the leadership within an organization to make decisions at that point. And certainly then just like snow days, then it's ultimately up to the superintendent to say Ben and I go to Steve and say, "Here's what we got for our situation. Here's what we're facing. Here's what the staff and students are facing. What do we do?" And then that's an operational decision at that point. That becomes very fact-specific. >> Yeah. >> Um as to what's going on. So the policy is really to provide guidance. The operational is really for us to then use common
097sense for lack of a better term to say okay that's not reasonable even if it follows policy >> right >> that might not be a reasonable thing in the operations of what we do and then that's a communication internally with myself than um Steve and Amanda >> okay >> and principles if you know with the specific building >> is there uh opportunity I think this is I guess this question might be more towards Steve but have you guys ever had the experience or would there be an opportunity of like moving kids around if issues are becoming? >> I I can speak to that. Um I can only speak to my 17 years as a principal and eight years as central office >> apart from teaching years. There are many times in the fall and many
098times in the early um in the late spring where schools all over Maine are extremely hot. >> What typically happens is and again I'm just going to put on my exper my own experience. you open windows. You um in both hot and cold, uh you're going to close windows when it's obviously cold, but you're going to keep doors open on the interior of a school if it's really cold, so you're moving air all the time. You're going to um limit light usage when it's really hot. You're going to um move to designated places that are cooler. and you actually would then kind of prioritize if a certain corner room on the second floor is the hottest, they would likely be the first room to say move to the library, which is an internal space. So,
099we're always navigating that. What folks might not realize is we've dealt with hot buildings and cold buildings for a century, right? And an easy answer would be, well, let's get some cooling, air conditioning. On the on the cold side, we need to make sure our facilities are working. And that's where we that's part of just ongoing maintenance, right? Capital maintenance. When we talk about hot though, we also have to be mindful of if it's 85 degrees in a school, but we're using some mitigation strategies. Our principles would know because we've talked about this and I've given them some examples in the past and others have shared with other principles. We've had a lot of dialogue about heat simply cancelling school or going outdoors. We have to also realize in many in instance in instances it's
100hotter outdoors. We're also don't want to necessarily cancel school if it's 90 degrees because of air quality because we have kids that are going home to places and they're outdoors and there are some issues or they're in um buildings that are far hotter than our schools. So, we're always trying to be mindful of those things. I think the reason behind this law is um I don't know all the reasons, but I do know that there'd be certainly a lot of companies that would love to have uh the market on air conditioning for schools in Maine as an example. Um so we're always trying to balance these things. It's nothing new and and uh but I don't see us outfitting at probably a few million dollars air conditioning in all of our schools. I'm far more
101concerned about when temperatures drop in a school. >> Yeah. And some schools in their policies they're citing the OSHA standards which are far like the the range of temperature for the OSHA standards is I don't know it's like 40 to like 110. Don't quote me but it's it's really that much of a span. Yeah. And and it's likely around 40 or something on the low end. It's some districts are using that. They don't say the temperature, but they just say in accordance. >> It's a dumb question. Are there actually temperature gauges in every room? >> I I I've never looked in my son's classrooms. >> No, not in every room. We do have controls in place um through the our operations team to know what the ventilation and what the cycling is. Um, but depending
102on which school and what we have for a control system in the school, we don't have a specific thermostat in every single room. The one behind you, for instance, we do. Um, in a lot we do, but in some we don't. >> And it's quite cold in here right now because so that you can hear each other, the air handling is shut off. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hear. And so, we're we'll try to expedite. I'd also say just I don't want to belabor it too long, but for anyone who's gone to a conference at a hotel and you sit there for the day and you look around the room and there's some people with sweatshirts and sweaters and long pants and coats and mittens, there's other people in t-shirts and shorts. There's people
103in between. We try our best from an operational perspective. Schools are no different. And especially older schools, we're trying to manage all of that. as best we can to reach as much commonality and comfort for all. But it is a challenge and I just use that analogy because everyone can relate to it. Um so we really do try to meet that to kind of answer your question a little more definitively. Um but you don't want all of that in policy. The policy should be the overarching guide. I want to commend um everyone who worked on creating this to bring it to the policy committee because the guidance was so vague. It correct me if I'm wrong. It said like have kids do jumping jacks if they're cold. I mean it was really >> vague like
104>> right and the law is simply or the statute was simply like you have to have a policy. It didn't say >> anything else. That's that was >> that was it like you have to have a policy. So, >> so it it does really leave it kind of open. Thank you, Colin. >> Thank you. >> Um, all right. So, we have a motion and a second to accept the first read of both of those policies. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> All right. So, we'll bring those back for a second read uh next month. Next up, I'm going to make a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a student matter pursuant to 1 MRSA 4056B. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. We are in executive session at 7:30 p.m. ready
105to take action wants to hit their microphone button. I will um All right. What is the direction of the board? >> Make a motion we read student A. All right, we have a motion and a second to readmit student A. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? That motion carries. Welcome back. >> Calendar and announcements are at the bottom of your agenda. Thank you all so much for coming in tonight and for coming in after we uh postponed last week's meeting. And I apologize for that last minute postponement. Um, happy holidays, happy new year. See you next year. >> HR, stick around.