001Good evening everyone. I'm going to call the September 24th meeting to order at 6 PM. If everyone could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you. Roll call. Melissa Bacon here. >> Carmen Barski here. >> Suzanne Bower. >> Mark Cardisano. >> Elizabeth Day. >> Michelle Felisetti. Anastasia Ferguson >> here. >> Eric Garrison. >> Jodie Lane here. Jennifer Mayo here. >> Amy Morrison >> here. >> Wes Finny >> here. >> Adam Tangway >> here. >> D Vigliata >> here. >> Judith Vel >> present. >> Zoe Anthony >> here. >> Walker Vivian >> here. >> We have a quorum with 15 directors present. >>
002Are there any adjustments to the agenda this evening? No adjustments to tonight's agenda. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? Motion to >> Anastasia. Do I have a second on that? >> Second. >> Wes, any discussion? Amy, >> um on the minutes, I just had one correction. >> Um under the opening of schools report and it lists out all the um schools and then all the principles. Car's doesn't say principal after. So, I don't know if we want to add that. >> Oh, >> other than that, that was it. >> All right. Good catch. Thank you. Any other discuss? We have a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda. Is there any other discussion? All in favor? That's unanimous. Public comment. Do we have any public comment this evening? Just
003a couple things for my board chair report. Um, for those of you that are attending the MSMA conference, please let Caitlyn know um so that she can get everything registered and get the travel arrangements made. Uh, a reminder that the policies that came forward at our last meeting for a first read will be coming back for a second read on October 8th. So, if you have any questions or suggestions on those, please direct those to the policy committee so that they can discuss them at their meeting next week on October 1st. That's all I have. So, we will move on to the superintendent's report. Dr. Marquee. >> Uh, good evening. We'll start with Walker and Zoe giving the student report. >> Uh, I'll start with a little bit about the first day at MHS. It
004was on Tuesday, September 2nd. Um, the first day had a few things. had a welcome in in the gym, comic distribution, uh building tour, scavenger hunts, things like that. Um the custom schedule allowed the ninth graders to get used to the school without the 10th, 11th, and 12th graders there. Um the next day was also a special schedule. It was a run through of all classes, green and white, and then lunch was by grade. The ad drop period lasted 10 days, ended on September 12th. before that deadline, they could students could just send in an online form and request a schedule change and recall down to the office or guidance to make that change. Uh there are a few changes to the schedule. Blocks are a little bit longer. Block one now being from 7
005from 7:45 to 9:00 now goes until 9:05. Shifting all of them blocks plus lunches moved around a little bit. Um, home room is still the same, 7:30 to 4:30, and there's no longer any Mustang time. MHS theater started right off with a bunch of meetings um and auditions for It's a Wonderful Life for September 11th. Eligible juniors and seniors received applications to apply for National Honor Society. Applications are due early October. Um the people um able to apply are people that fit that fit the four pillars of scholarship, service, leadership, and character. And then MG NWA testing was today on September 2 24th from 7:30 to 10:15. Uh ran with a special schedule. Lunches were by grade and activities a few activity meetings occurred. Um, and there's a now a new requirement that students that
006don't take the test will not be able to attend homecoming or the pep rally. And a breakfast will be rewarded to home room with the highest growth in participation. >> Okay. >> That's okay. Okay. Good evening everyone. Um, I'll be covering the second half of the student representative report. Um, so homecoming week is from September 29th to October 4th. Uh, there are spirit week themes every day. There's PJ day, jersey day, which could be interpreted as sports jersey day or New Jersey day. There's uh there's USA day, denim day, and then class colors. Um, there will also be a pep rally taking place on October 4th. Uh the theme this year for Hulk Way decorating is around the world where each class will pick a city from somewhere in the world and the annual homecoming
007dance lands on Friday, October October 3rd and will run from 7 to 10:00 p.m. Uh picture day at the high school was on September 8th. Uh picture order forms were distributed to students through their home rooms the week prior and then they were called down by grade and last name throughout the day to have their photos taken. All students were required to get their picture taken and uh picture day at the middle school and the elementary schools is uh has been happening will be happening over the next week or so. Uh the high school had building evacuation drills and lockdown drills during the first couple of weeks of school. Uh the freshman and other new students were able to learn these procedures while returning students were able to review. and all schools throughout the district
008have had similar drills to ensure that everyone knows the routines around these events. Uh the middle school has announced that they will be adding a new extracurricular club this year, the law enforcement club. Uh this club is made possible by a collaboration between RSU 57 and the York County Sheriff's Office. Uh students will be able to have hands-on experience in law enforcement and will have sessions focused around crime scene investigations, traffic stops, and more. Um signups have started this month and the first meeting will be in October. The club is planning to meet twice a month. Uh mainly teeth will be visiting Lyman Elementary and Chapley Memorial soon. Um the middle school will conduct MEA testing over the next couple of weeks. Waterboro Elementary will be hosting a book fair. Alfred Elementary will be hosting
009a team spirit day. And Alfred Elementary also has a back to school bounce and foam party happening on uh sea Saturday, September 27th. Uh the three-hour event will have um bounce houses and a foam machine in back of the school as well as concessions. Uh the Alfred PTSA also launched a Norway candle fundraiser which will run until the end of September. So now that a couple of weeks have elapsed since the start of the school year, students, families, teachers, and staff has been have been establishing their routines. Sports seasons are underway. New learning is happening within classrooms. And the fresh school year is off to a strong start. There are numerous exciting events in the near future throughout the district. And while there is a lot to come, the transition back into school so far
010has been smooth and energetic. And that concludes the student representative report for this evening. Thank you. >> Fantastic job, Zoe and Walker as always. >> Um, questions for our student representatives? >> Mark, >> more just a comment. I just want to applaud the high school administration for the positive reward for participation and effort in the testing. I think that could go a long way. >> So, thumbs up. >> Any other questions for our representatives? >> Great. Um, I I have just a very few items to share with you. want to share that recently our adult ed program was listed in the top eight programs in the state of Maine uh out of over 70 programs for graduation completion. So that's really a nice movement um as uh Mr. Go and his team are uh really
011always looking to expand outreach to our uh community members. also want to share that um there's been a real um uh at the state level conference related to adult education uh there will be a presentation and uh by members of our team and the York County uh jail. we are seen as kind of the model example of adult ed programming for a partnership with um a county jail and as a result they'll be heading up um to kind of share how that is all coming together. So I'd like to thank Mr. Go and and um leadership of the jail um for supporting that critical work and supporting uh those residents of the York County Jail. want to share that the community newsletter uh went out this afternoon 454. Within the first hour, we actually broke
012a record for most views. Um we linked the updated presentation from our principles from last week. So when you look at the in the cons consent agenda for the minutes for last week, there's the initial presentation and then down below is the secondary presentation where we updated some information um based on what was discussed last week or two weeks ago. So that's really good for us. Um we also are sending it to our um to the six towns as well. So, town leadership will be receiving the community newsletter um and then they can do with that as they would like with community residents. Do want to share that I've spent a great deal of time um as we look at enrollment and we're looking at budget development and and kind of long range planning. Uh
013we've talked a lot about uh Chappley having uh increases in birth rates and and inward migration. uh that school is going to be an area where we continue to become more concerned as the projected enrollments might increase. As a result, um I'm looking very closely at what it would look like if we were to transfer fifth grade over to the middle school. Um and then there's just a lots and lots of review and analysis. um looking at space. Uh I I believe there's capacity. The the middle school, if that were the case, would ultimately be some schools move 8th grade to the high school, and I would never suggest that. I have some strong beliefs about that that I'd be happy to answer if there's ever any questions about that. Um but really, I think
014it'd be wise to look at five through eight. Um and lots of logistical items. So, I'm just kind of planting that seed right now. I do know um I think at a pretty high level of confidence unless there's major moveins or move outs what enrollment will look like for the next um six to eight years and um typically at the high school level the the middle school if it were a four grade school will um most undoubtedly always have the larger enrollment because when you get into high school some kids then go to um private schools and those sorts of things um or they might leave school for whatever reason. So, uh the middle school would be slightly larger in in within uh enrollment numbers. Um but I just wanted to plant that seed and
015uh I'll be able to share more detail, but that would be more of a presentation rather than a superintendent's update. But I don't want to be doing that work without your knowledge. That concludes what I wanted to speak with you about this evening. Um, I want to thank um, Miss Carol for communicating and and getting our newsletter out to uh, our community leaders. Um, within the first hour it was opened 536 times. There was a little bit of a teaser in the community newsletter where I showed um uh grade level benchmark percent proficients and we updated to include last spring and this spring and then um uh and then encourage folks to click the link to look at the whole presentation. Um, so some nice gains, but still much work to do. And um, and
016that's really where later on uh, Miss Twitchell will be sharing some really good information with you all. Again, that concludes my report this evening. >> Any questions for Dr. Marquee? >> Mark, >> just on truency. Um, are the numbers up a little? I I always have a hard time reading this. Um she so I think we need to look at this sheet a little differently and actually it's something right at the start of the meeting that that I shared with Dr. Doyle. Um the way the report is run it includes much of that information is actually based on last year and then carryover. Oh, >> so um if you look at the timestamps um they might have been initiated in um April or May or February and then it progresses forward, but there's still kids
017that we're watching because we're it tracks it over time rather than you're always absent and then the school year ends and you start off fresh. No, we don't want to have kids hopefully they start off fresh and and are attending, but we don't want to lose sight of the fact that they were missing in the spring. So, it is kind of a revolving year round thing. Um, I don't believe the numbers are up at this time. Um, but I can't say with confidence without digging a little deeper in this moment. >> Great question though because it's something that popped into my head right at the beginning of the meeting. >> Any other questions? Right. >> Moving on to standing committees. We'll start with policy. Beth, >> we have not met since the last meeting. We
018will be meeting um Wednesday, October 1st. >> All right. Any questions for Beth? Next up, finance. Wes, >> thank you. Um we met last evening and um the following were the primary topics that we discussed. Um the entire committee was present. Uh our October 28th uh finance committee meeting is going to be moved to the 21st of October. Um and our regular scheduled October 14th meeting will remain the same. Uh we had a report out from uh finance director uh Colin Walsh uh on transportation fleets in good order. Uh retired buses are going to be disposed of soon. Um the building and facilities tours will be on Tuesday, September 30th, starting at 7:30 in Alfred and ending at 4:15 in Chapley. Uh the administrative office sent out an invite to all schoolboard members who want
019to attend. Uh hope to see uh many of you uh join the finance committee for that tour. I've already had some members tell me they're going to be there. Um the school revolving renovation fund SRRF will be looked at uh for the Alfred Elementary School roof repairs. Capital planning was discussed. The finance committee along with Dr. Maki and director of finance Colin Walsh are going to be working together uh to put together a plan and methodology uh and a process uh to as we move forward work on the prioritization of the capital planning list. Uh safety issues, safety of entrances and exits from buildings were discussed and they're kind of some of the key issues that we will be looking at closely. But we have an entire printout uh that you've all received copies of
020from Colin in the past. And anyone who wants to have input on prior prioritization of capital planning uh please reach out uh to me via email. The next meeting is October 14th at 6 PM. Thank you. >> Thanks. Any questions for Wes? Next up, human resources. Anastasia. >> Uh we met last Wednesday. Um, I was voted chair, Amy was voted vice chair. We did a lot of talking about goals for the board. We have not settled on any specific goals. We will come back to that next month. It was a very long list. Um, we talked about the schoolboard evaluation, superintendent evaluation, the schoolboard scholarships that we give out. Um, we set some deadlines for those. Scholarship will be due to the high school by April 1st. Um, superintendent evaluation is in can't read your
021typing. >> I'm sorry. Bluring. It's very tiny. Be lucky I didn't handr write it. uh school board evaluation will be March 1st, return by March 15th, and we'll conduct the evaluation on the 25th with the results. Superintendent will be April 1st, return by April 30th, and we'll review on the May 27th. And our next meeting is October 15th. >> Thank you. Any questions for Anastasia? All right, we have no old business this evening. So, we will move on to new business with a presentation by our director of curriculum and our assistant superintendent >> thank you so much. Um, as Miss Switchell comes to the mic, I just wanted to provide a brief overview and an introduction to her presentation. Um, so it's amazing to me to think that Miss Twitchell's only been with us for
022almost three months. Um, I think you'll find tonight as she speaks and gives her introduction, her impressions on the task ahead. Um, I think you'll be similarly impressed with just how much she's been able to achieve in those first three months. The information that she'll present to you tonight is reflective of many, many, many hours of individual and group conversations that she spent unpacking with our staff to get to know our district, have a sense of where our strengths and our areas for growth are. Um, tonight she's going to give you a review of some of the data. And you might recall when I spoke to you last spring, one of the things that I had encouraged the board to consider is that data can come to us in a variety of forms. We think
023a lot about quantitative data, which is numbers. You heard some of that information last um board meeting when we talked to you about our goals and the benchmarks and things that we're striving for in a numerical fashion. But there's also qualitative data, which is some of the work that Miss Twitchell has done. Um that's really been able to characterize those strengths and areas of growth for us that comes to us in the form of conversations with staff members, um interviews and thoughtful questions. And I think her strategy has been really wellreceived and and generated a great basis for that relationship building, but it's also been really insightful and refreshing to have that perspective with fresh eyes on this task. So tonight, as she presents to you, she will talk about her observations and priorities um
024and the ways that we're refocusing our efforts in the district in terms of academics to make sure that we're in alignment with our strategic plan. Some of the major areas of focus are in alignment obviously with our student achievement and growth numbers but also in the ways that we support our staff through our instructional support network, our PLC collaborative work that folks are doing as well as um the curriculum and instruction and assessment work that is that is core to her position in particular. Um so without further ado, we'll let her um share with you what she's learned and and where her work is taking her. Thank you. Okay, thank you Dr. Doyle. So part of my onboarding uh as Dr. Doyle said was meeting uh with a variety of people to get a lay
025of the land and get my bearings and orient myself to know how best to proceed with supporting instruction and curriculum in RSU 57. And I really feel strongly that listening and observing is the probably the two most important things um when beginning a position like this in order to build on previous success and also um the hard work that's happened and provide insights to what will be most impactful moving forward. And after having one-on-one meetings with I think well over 20 administrators and directors and teachers in addition to several surveys um as Dr. Dr. Doyle said, I was able to identify some strengths and areas and opportunities for growth which led to a set of priorities and priorities because we can't do everything all at once yesterday, right? We have to start somewhere. As much
026as we we might want to to tackle everything at once, there has to be um certain priorities that we have for meaningful sustainable improvement because that takes time and care and attention. So based on these conversations, I found several patterns of strengths. The first one is really the strategic plan. This really does provide a road map and a guide for action and priorities. It's a really strong document and it really reflects your communities and reflects the priorities of this district. And so that I found is a really strong strength um as we're moving forward because we're able to align a lot of the priorities with these um goals in the strategic plan. Another strength that I heard across many many different people are the teachers and the staff of the district that there really is
027a presence of dedicated educators and individuals and we know that those strong dedicated people are really the bedrock of strong schools which leads us to the community. So, not only the support of the towns and the community members, but also of this board and your commitment to the students and the staff of RSU57, the administrative team. I've found them to be quite an amazing group of individuals who work well together and have a variety of strengths and experiences to offer. Uh, training and professional development. Um it's lots of opportunities and support for teachers to engage in a wide variety of in district and outofdist learning. Here I mentioned things like literacy, math, mentoring. We have an active um bunch of people who are doing a lot of important learning and growing together. And then school
028structures. And by this I don't mean the physical buildings necessarily, but the way in which teachers and schedules and resources are organized. That are things like early release days and leadership team structures. And all of these really provide a framework for success. And finally, student growth. There is evidence of students growing according to a variety of metrics. Whether you're looking at the main three-year assessment, the NWA as mentioned in last year, last um board meeting, there are a number of students engaged in co-curricular and um sports activities and there is positive momentum in the district. Does this mean that we don't have any work to do? No. Um there's certainly work to do, but there is positive momentum to move us forward and to build on. So, speaking of student growth and data, um as
029Dr. Dr. Doyle mentioned you have noticed in your backup a revised version of the opening day report that we felt better displays some of the data principles shared Dr. Marquee shared and you requested. So here is an example uh for Shappley which shows growth and achievement data and goals. It looks different um but the information is there including um some data that has been added so such as the fall to spring 2023 and 2024 data and the spring to spring and again the goals are there they just all look a little bit different and as Dr. Doyle emphasized at the last board meeting, we are deeply committed to gathering, analyzing, and sharing data in the most consistent way possible. But NWA does not always make that easy. Um, fortunately, there are many ways to slice
030and dice and pull the data in NWA. And this can be really helpful when we're wanting to dig in at granular levels and look at teacher data and student data. But it can also pose a challenge when you have a lot of people in it trying to pull data. The parameters that you choose can really lead to different results based on what what little um drop downs you're choosing. And also you're going to notice here um that the fall to spring data reported last fall used NWA's 2020 norms. And since then, the norms have been updated to reflect current trends in student scores. All of this is to say that even as targets are moving within the assessments themselves, we are working hard to be as consistent as possible to be able to compare apples
031to apples. And our intent really is to provide consistent comparisons. That is our goal. To that end, we've established a data pull protocol. Um we shared with administrators and we will be using that to work on aligning our data analysis um at multiple levels, district level, building levels, teacher levels. And we've also had the good fortune of having Yan Slight who is the district data analyst to support with these efforts. If you've never met Yan, he is an amazing human being and he is incredibly knowledgeable. I've been using NWA for years and he has been teaching me things. Um, so we're super lucky to have him and he's been invaluable in our work over the summer and into the fall. And this is all in service of having the most valid, accurate, and reliable data
032we can moving forward. even as or even if things change beyond our control. So, I know someone asked at the last board meeting about how our students are doing compared to state averages. And um just as we noticed in the data here um we've looked at it. There are students who are above where the state average is. There are some that are below and there are pockets where you know that is shifting and changing over time. And we felt that sharing that data set might be a little confusing compared to this data set because again we're not talking apples to apples. Um and it kind of goes beyond the scope of what I was hoping to speak about tonight. But know and trust that we are looking at the data. We are talking about the
033data and we are really acting on the data as well as we move all students forward in the district. you have the opportunity um online and this is linked on our um on our website. It's the ESSA dashboard through the main department of education and you can explore this in the meantime if you have questions. Now the data here only goes as far back as I believe the 2023 2024 school year. So, it's a couple of years behind where we are, but this is sort of a treasure trove. If you're wanting to dig into some data, look at state trends, um, and how the different schools in RSU 57 and schools across the state are doing, you can go and, and check on this in your own time. And like I said, it is linked
034on the school website or the district website rather. So, leaving the data conversation for now. Um, as I mentioned, there are many strengths to be found in RSU57 as well as opportunities for growth. So, namely curriculum development, and by that I'm talking about the process for reviewing, aligning, and documenting, which are all pretty common in any district you go to. This is an area of growth for for everyone that we're working on. The next is supporting teachers, and that's about mentoring. that's about supporting our new teachers, looking at data really again to move all students forward and professional time. And here we're talking about needing an overarching plan for the year that's really mapped out so that we're able to see what what are our goals, what do we want to be working on together,
035and it allows for some vertical alignment and vertical meeting um across the district. And so based on all of these considerations, both the strengths and the areas for growth, uh I identified five priority areas for this school year. And as you probably are aware, the these are the priorities. Does this mean this is the only thing happening in curriculum instruction? No. There are a lot of things that maybe are tucked under here, but a lot that we're trying to do. But these are the sort of the top five. So, student growth, new teacher mentoring, curriculum review, ISN, which is our instructional support network, um, and planning for district PLC's. And really, all of these, the bottom four are really in service of student growth. If those pieces, if our new teachers are well supported and
036they're successful, if our curriculum review and alignment is going really well, if we have support at all levels for students, and if the work that teachers are doing is really meaningful and thoughtful and intentional, that's going to drive student growth. So, that's how I was sort of thinking about these priorities and framing them. So, I shared um these priorities. I'll go back to this for a second with administrators during our retreat in August. And I'm going to share what I shared with them and also some of their voices. I asked them some questions about some of these priorities. And so, I have um those to share over the next couple of slides. So, priority number one, like we've been talking about so much, is really about student growth. And when we talk about that, we
037want to be talking about the validity of the data. So, is the data the most meaningful or the most accurate representation of what our students know and can do? We want to make sure that when they are taking these assessments that it's their best foot forward and that we get the best data of what's actually happening and also a professional development PD professional development calendar to support looking at this data. So again, not just with administrators, but with teachers over time. So that's really built into the fabric of what we're doing. So I asked principles um how can we improve staff and student engagement with assessments? And they had a lot to say about that, mostly around consistent and strategic assessment approaches to make sure that we have as many students as possible taking these
038assessments and that they're in an environment where they can really do their best. and also the messaging that we're putting out about testing, the schedule that we're doing, and then the goal setting at the district, school, and teacher and grade level as well. And these have been built into our administrator meetings and other teacher collaboration time. And we've already begun this work in preparation for the fall assessments as well as for our October 10th inservice day. Priority number two is really around new teacher mentoring which is aligned with the strategic plan goal 2.2. And I can't say enough if any of you have ever met Karen Lizot who's a fourth grade teacher in Lyman. She is a treasure of the district. I'm going to go on record saying that. Um Karen uh met with me
039over the summer to think about ways of streamlining and strengthening our mentoring program and also enhancing our professional learning series. And uh we put in a lot of facetime and and time together over the summer really putting that together. And I'm really really proud to say that all new teachers and teachers in their second year of service here in RSU57 were matched with mentors even before new teacher orientation on August 20th. We surveyed mentors and got some feedback about how to make the the system more streamlined. Um we met with them during opening days to go over the process and expectations for providing support to new teachers. and we have plans to meet with them mid year and at the end of the year and also to get feedback. We're sending out monthly emails to
040support the meetings that they're having with their mentees with timely topics that come up at certain points in the school year. And we've also developed a new teacher professional learning community or PLC as we call it. And it's a cohort. And we actually had our very first meeting in here today. And there were 30 individuals who are new to the district um from kindergarten through high school learning together about teacher clarity and student engagement. And it was really nice for them to not only have a cohort and a sense of community within their buildings, but then also coming here across the buildings and across the district to create that sense of community and learning and growing together as well. when I talked to principles about what topics and actually we put this out to the
041teachers as well. What topics do they need help with and these were some of the big ones that came up student engagement, classroom management, that's always a big one, rating and reporting and unit and lesson design. And we'll be taking their feedback as we move forward with the planning of those across the year. Priority number three is around curriculum development and there was real need from what I saw to establish a multi-year curriculum review cycle. I think this is something that had existed previously and what I've seen in a lot of other districts is around COVID thing the wheels just kind of fell off the bus with this. So there was a need to really come back to this. Um so establishing a multi-year curriculum review cycle and so this is already in process. Um
042we have social studies that started last year. We're continuing the process this year. Science will begin this year and we will be having more vertical meetings. So K through 12, social studies, science, um allied arts, people are super excited to get together and work together. And the question to administrators is which curriculum areas in the most need of immediate attention? They also identified science. So we're getting right on that as well as English language arts. So that's the that's the plan and the priority for curriculum development. Priority number four, as I mentioned, ISN stands for instructional support network. And this priority aligns with strategic plan goal 1.1. And this is really about supporting all students. When we're talking about student growth, it can't just be the bottom or the middle or the high. We really
043need to be finding ways to support all students. Um, and this does tie in with our title one grant goals that that um that we're working on this year as well. Um, the question was what support do teachers need to strengthen instruction for students particularly who struggle? So, we talked with administrators about that and they ident identified the need for professional development on sort of the structures and approaches that they're working on with students as well as different resources. We have a lot of resources. How do we use them? how do we use them to the best of our ability? Um, and we're, like I said, we're going to be focusing on October 10th on our inservice day on some of these topics as well as time across the school year. Um, and this is
044for our ISN specialists, but it's also for all classroom teachers because when it comes to this, it really does need to be all hands- on deck. It can't just be one small group of teachers that are focused on that. All hands on deck. And so that that really feeds into this priority number four. And then priority number five, planning for those PLC's or those professional learning communities. And this ties in with strategic plan goals 1.1 and 2.3. And this is really about a year-long map of common topics and focus to support student growth um and outcomes. using those structures to support that collaboration and engagement across um schools and across teachers. And there's also an effort to support the PLC facilitators and team leaders. So we have teachers in the district who are taking on
045leadership roles. And so what are we doing to support them um so that they can be leaders within their own group of peers and colleagues. Um, so for example, with PLC facilitators, um, I've been meeting with them and offering dropin office hours so that they can drop in at at their sort of convenience to talk over some of these things. We just had our first for the elementary school, our first district level PLC meetings today. And so trying to make sure that those people feel prepared and supported in the work that they are doing um, with teachers. And the question to administrators was uh what is the best use of that building and district PLC time? And maybe this is a little bit of a no-brainer, but it's always good to come back to why
046do we do what we do and how do we make the most of that time because that time is a gift. Um and so we talked about really trying to prioritize collaboration, people working together, and then alignment again um horizontally across a grade level and also vertically K12. And then whenever we're working together in those professional learning communities, making sure there is a shared focus and that it's really goal oriented. Um, I'm sure that you've all been in meetings where it's easy to show up and just kind of talk about whatever needs to get talked about and then things get derailed and then you get to the end and you're like, wait, what did we just spend the last two hours doing? And so trying to provide some supports and structures so that people can
047really have a shared focus and a goal. And not just in one particular group of individuals, but today we really focused on organizing and getting documents ready and assessments ready so that every again the elementary school was working on that alignment um to get those things ready. And I know middle school and high school as well. We had some conversations with administrators about what are some of our common goals across K12, even if we're meeting in different groups. What are we all doing so that we can all be sort of rowing in the same direction? And it's a way to really provide a common vision and direction for the district. So, I know that was like a lot of information. Um, it's been a busy few months. I sort of feel like I've been here
048forever and also only two weeks. Um, and I am just really excited and encouraged about these priority areas and the action steps. Um, and that they're going to help move us forward as a district this year. And I really look forward to returning and sharing with you all the successes and the journey that we're about to embark on in this school year. And just know that there are lots of good things happening here in RSU 57. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Any questions? >> I know. >> Holy moly. Wait, my thing just blew up. Okay, hold on. Uh, Adam. >> Oh, >> Adam, for real. For real this time. >> Um, thank you for the presentation. I appreciate it. Um um I just encourage as you do the you know your meetings
049with the the different staff members and everything else to you might already be doing this but to ask them are there things that um they could see that the school board could help support. Um I think I know our administration group feels pretty you know um they've shown a lot of activity and bringing things forward. they say this, you know, if could we, you know, look at this policy, could we look at this process? Um, but I want to make sure that, you know, throughout the basically the organization that people know that if they bring that to their administrators, we can, you know, look to how we can support better. >> Thank you, >> Judith. Um, yes. Um, I believe I was one of the people who was concerned to how our district compared in
050the state to other schools in the state. Will that also come um with how we compare nationally and how the state of Maine compares nationally. Um, I know that the last report card that was issued was not very good. Uh, but they use the NAP, I believe. And like you said, you can't compare apples to oranges, but will that eventually be done where we would look at that data as well? Well, and I think it's like you said, it's important to look at data at all those various levels and we have measures and metrics where we can look at how are our students doing compared to national norms. We do have ways of saying how are we comparing to students in Maine. Um, so we have those capabilities in terms of how how is the
051state of Maine to national. I'm sure that there are other ways to look at that, but we're really focused on, you know, how is our district doing on our own growth goals and measures and then yeah, how do we how do we stack up against other schools in Maine? So, we will, you know, we do look at that. >> Thank you. Uh Mark, >> hi. >> Uh is that presentation did I miss it? is where can I see that or get a hard copy of it or >> it'll be linked >> of which one the >> what we just watched. >> Oh yeah, we can link it. >> Yeah, I will make sure that >> I would have liked that in advance but that's all right. No, please. Um >> I'll make sure that that
052that gets in the minutes. >> Um last week we talked about um the results and I do appreciate your color coding. That's fun. Um >> I thought it would be >> you know and and I do again compliment um the fact that we have made progress as you said that you you use the term that there's you know there's positive momentum and you know that's that's true. My concern is this in Lyman Waterborough and Massipik Middle School nearly one out of uh every four students is not reading at grade level. In line elementary, one out of three students are not reading at grade level. And at the high school, nearly half of our students are not reading at grade level. To me, that's absolutely unacceptable. It just it's just hard to imagine that, you know,
053if we use line as an example that over a third of our students are not reading at grade level. You know, it's just that's a tough statistic. So, one of the questions I have is I know that you probably are doing a deep dive into the test itself and the test results >> and do we utilize those deep dives to specifically target individual students or groups of students to move. I mean, we've got a lot of kids probably on those cut points and these statistics, not that we're just trying to change statistics. We're trying to educate students, but those those core students could could change these numbers. So, how are you targeting them? So that's starting with we actually just in one of our elementary admin meetings today had that conversation about how are we
054gathering this data how are we looking at it and then how are we working with teachers like I said what what each teacher what is your data looking like and then digging into those those students and they have ways of tracking individual students and talking about those individual students as well. So it is happening at those multiple levels and then digging further into it and being able to pull up some individual student strengths and weaknesses. And so when they develop goals for in some students if they're getting additional services, they will have goals and those are also tied to the data and to the scores that they um that that they took. you know, for NWA, there's there's a lot of different types of assessments that people are taking. >> So, um, so yeah, building
055that into the structures that we already have, setting goals, revisiting those as groups of teachers, sharing that with parents. That's all part of part of what we're working toward. >> Just two other questions if that's all right. Can I add one thing to that? >> Yeah. >> And that's one of the important uh elements of spring to spring. We want teachers to receive a student who's had hopefully their best administration at that point in the previous spring and then they'll take them from that point and make growth with them. So, uh, this district I believe at this time is looking at data far deeper and especially at the building level and now it's really going to get to the classroom teacher level. That's the reality we face. Your concern is the same concern that that
056we have, right? and the administrative team has um because like yourself when you look at those numbers there was a big gain but the reality is we were quite low. So it's important to say this is our current reality and how do we move all kids forward right and um because we want those numbers to be higher and that's why we're looking at achievement and growth. If you're showing growth with kids that's commensurate with at least the 50th percentile, ideally 75th percentile, your achievement results will by design will increase. So we want all groups to move up >> and uh which is I think um where competition comes in. It definitely happens more so at in districts where there are multiple grades in comparison to other schools because you tend to look at other schools
057in your district and say, "Hey, I want to beat I want my kids to outperform." But we really need to be doing that. not only comparing within our district but comparing outside of our district because uh I think the high school um is implementing strategies this year that will drastically change our trajectory. I think the middle school as well um the elementary school is and we really are looking at individual level student uh individual teacher data >> because you want to look at that for two reasons. one is who year over year over year are outperforming um kind of the norm and what are they doing? How are they setting it up? And then where are those areas where folks need some support and some guidance and um a reality uh check for some because
058we want to move all kids along. Um, I believe that there are people in every district, and I'm certain we have some here, who don't believe in assessment results. And, um, but the reality is we would not send a football team out on the field and say, "Okay, wait a second. We're going to play volleyball." We want them to perform as best they can. So we need to get the message out to students, to teachers, to our community that we want the our kids to perform as best they can on any given day because if they know it, why wouldn't they want to show it, right? And those are basic structures will improve results too because if I am a teacher and I um don't have some structures where I simply sit and I'm checking
059email simply moving around the room you can't engage with kids that would improve results because kids are going to be a little more focused. If I let my kids quickly pull out a book when they're finished testing and they're an avid re reader they might want to rush through their test. Some things are so subtle and easy and then others are what are the questions? How are they being asked? What are they asking you to do? Is it a vocabulary gap? All of those things are what Dr. Doyle and Mrs. Twitchell are working on with our administrative team and it funnels down through because we do want those results to be far higher than they currently are. And uh and I think we'll we'll see that growth. So the tough questions that you're asking are
060the things that we're trying to really dig deeply into now. And the mentoring stuff actually um is what Mrs. Twitchell is doing with supporting our new teachers is tenfold anything that's happened since I've been here. Um so it's really commendable work and uh the fact that teachers are meeting with her unsolicited. She was with a group yesterday for um well um essentially up to finance pretty much. Um so they are coming over on their own time to to meet with Miss Twitchell which shows a lot of trust and support. I'll leave it there but your concern is definitely our concern as well. >> I I did a quick quick ones. Um Dr. U Marque just touched on um h how do you the the mentoring program >> um just what resources are are you able
061to extend to the mentors and the teachers they're mentoring in other words we're not just putting another burden on an already overburdened teacher do they get release time there's there a stipen is there what what are you doing in that regard >> yes so u mentors are um is a stipended position And all of the mentors that are active mentors have been through a mentor training. A lot of those are sort of a multi-day training. And I know part of the strategic plan is to be able to offer more of those trainings so more of our teachers can get um get that over time. And even if you're not actively mentoring someone, that training goes a long way to your own thinking and supporting of your colleagues around you. So they're receiving that. Um, we
062have a like a landing page for our mentors where we're putting resources. As I mentioned, we have this monthly email that's going out to mentors and mentees about, hey, here's um something this is coming up. You probably want to talk about it with your mentee. Here are a few resources if you want to dig deeper into it. So, some of that is through email and and through our landing page. And as I said, trying to make sure that we have touch points over time with them across the year. We met in the in the fall. We'll meet again in the winter and and then at the end of the year. And again, I can't say enough about Karen Lizot and the way that she's been um in touch with teachers as well and supporting them
063um through that teacher lens. So multiple different ways, right? It's not just always one path. You need to make sure you have sort of all of your bases covered that way. >> Wonderful. And I wrote her name down. I was trying a note. But my final question then is on curriculum review. Um when done right um trying to establish best practices >> that can be um resource intense. >> Um I I worry about that that that we say we're doing curriculum review, but what does what does that look like? >> Yeah. Um I mean it's it's a it's a process, right? And I think that um that's part of what we're trying to do is make sure that we have a a process in place so that we can repeat it when we come to
064other ones. I think we're always going back to the standards and the main learning results and thinking about what is it that our students need to learn. looking at the resources that we do have and looking at what curriculum is in place and what results are we getting with that curriculum and is it a matter of not having resources or professional development trying to really uncover some of those before we have a process moving forward of looking at alternatives. I think that we really have to do our due diligence in looking carefully of what we are doing and not just throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but thinking about what do we have, what's going well. Are there tweaks and things that we need to change to make sure that we're aligning with updating
065of standards or do we need to be looking at other, you know, at other supplemental or other programs, looking around to other districts, what's happening. Well, that was going to be my question because, >> you know, if we're looking at best practices, maybe then we need a team that steps out to another district to see what they're doing and to spend a day and and again that becomes resource intense in terms of >> subs and money and you know um just I think piggybacking off what Adam said is if there's something that you need from us as a board to support that endeavor. I I I think it just to say well we're doing curriculum review and what that ends up being is just some people are getting together at a you know at a
066staff meeting once in a while that's not really curriculum review and it's not really just you know understanding best practices I would agree with you so >> and you mentioned the alignment you said across grade level and I'm assuming also across schools particularly the elementary schools yes is there greater emphasis on >> everybody's doing the same thing in all of our >> um I was just speaking into a kindergarten um PLC facilitator um who had her had a meeting today and talked about how after that meeting they were sort of all on the same page in a way that they never have been in recent history and just the excitement from that teacher and for the administrator that was associated with that grade level and I think that that is a huge effort um and
067there's value in in people sort of sharing across what they're doing and providing that best practice as Dr. Marquee talked about where are the places where people are doing exceptional work and how do we allow opportunities for them to share that so that all teachers and benefit. >> Thank you and thank you for your patience. >> No, absolutely. >> Hi, thank you. Thank you for your presentation as well. That was very uh very precise and I I enjoyed that. Um, one of one comment I wanted to make to kind of piggyback on Mark's um, comment about the discrepancy of students that may not be on grade level with math and reading. Um, we also have to understand that Maine has the highest population that they've ever had of ELLL students. And that does, I would
068assume, skew the data because English uh, as a learned language, they're a lot of students are coming into district. I don't know what our population is in this district, but students are coming into districts not knowing English and they're being required to take tests that they have no idea what's going on. Um, but on that point, I was also curious, I know you're going to blanket review curriculum across the district, um, but is that curricular review going to include, um, kind of the breakdown or disconnection of growth and achievement with some of the schools that didn't, you know, maybe decreased um, in their percentage of growth an achievement in the spring compared to the fall. Um like line and um yeah line chapley um where they just have those kind of big discrepancies but then
069there's other big discrepancies of where like Alfred and Lyman had big growth in like where that disconnection may have happened across the board and also with the middle school up to the high school. Um will that be a highlighted point of curriculum review? >> Yeah, I mean yes and like curriculum and it's part of what we're talking about in those in those data reviews with principles. Um we've identified some grade levels that we're like whoa what is happening in this area and not just in this building but in this building as well. Is that a curricular issue? >> And so I think that those things have to happen sort of simultaneously. Not only are we using the data to sort of support and look closely at at the curriculum we're doing and again to what
070fidelity are we are we teaching this curriculum and how is that impacting um and we have to be looking at that data separately. So so I would say yes and that we're doing it in multiple places because for real growth you have to be looking at it through multiple lenses. Yeah, because I just asked that question because um like the schools like Alfred and Lyman with their such growth and with the other schools that may have decreasing growth and achievement um you don't want to take away from one's growth but you don't want to put too much pressure on the other to achieve so much. So, um I was just curious I'm I'm curious to know maybe down the road of like where the middle ground you will find with the curriculum. >> Yeah, thank
071you. >> Yeah, sure. >> I had a question. Will you be able to track the data from the mentoring program as you go to like for instance what you find is a common cause? You said there was secondyear teachers that are in the program as well. what maybe they're now garnering from having this relationship with a mentor that they the light bulb went on that they didn't have in their first year. >> So tracking what seems to be the biggest thing teachers are looking for support on whether it's student behavior, whether it's learning to teach a class on time, complete things on time, encourage kids, deal with discipline, you know, whatever it is, whatever that they're really what they're working on with their mentor. I think that would be an interesting track >> to see
072what the fat of the year is and whether that changes the next year. >> Um if they see that happen in the next class they have. >> Yeah. >> Um things like that. >> Yeah. No, I mean you saw my eyes go open like what other data can I like? Um, but yes, we do plan on they're probably going to get cir sick of surveys, but you know, anytime we're able to talk with them about how is this helping and what kinds of things are you working on? And when we do our our learning sessions, what are you actually using? We today when we had it, it was very much actionoriented like what are you going to do tomorrow? What are you going to do over the next week? What are you going to do
073over the next month? Um, and so trying to build that in and I hope that some of the information and feedback we get from them will hopefully lead to that. I'm always open to ideas of questions that could like get at some of those. Um, but it's something that we're definitely interested in because we want to show not only that our students are growing, but that our teachers are growing as well, >> right? Like end of year to see what that data collection be. I'd love to see that at the end of >> Yeah. Yeah. We have some pre we we did a survey um on the new teacher orientation day and we'll have some questions that we bring back to kind of gauge what kind of growth and what was most meaningful to them.
074>> Yeah. Sure. >> Thank you. Um, so I guess the biggest takeaway for me, not only from the presentation, Tiffany and I have worked really closely together throughout the process and I had a a really strong preview of what she was going to present. But as I sat and listened along with the rest of you and then heard some of the discussion points, what resonates for me is really that the work that she's doing is about building capacity. whether that is in the mentor program, in the PLC's, in a teacher's awareness and understanding of what data looks like and how it um impacts us, the application of that data on the administrative end, the ways that it informs the resources that we seek from the board. Um, and also the ways that we expend the
075resources that we currently have, even if that's labor and our own internal expertise and the ways that we leverage that within the district, it really does come down to building capacity in the schools. And again, I just think we have to punctuate this fact. Tiffany's been with us for three months, one of which has had staff members and students in the buildings. And so, I hope you agree it's it's really an impressive overview. And some of these questions that you're asking about these programs, for what it's worth, from my own perspective, I've already seen pretty significant transformations in some of these areas that you're asking for additional details about. Things like that mentoring program is a year-long goal, a major undertaking for any district. and that's just one of the many projects that she has
076underway that is already having really meaningful goals and that's that's through the lifting of the leaders we already have here. Um we've had a couple shoutouts from some specific folks but certainly there are lots of folks who are willing to engage in this work through her connections, the early pieces and some of the foundations that we've laid. Um we have lots of PLC facilitators, lots of experts in our building, lots of people who are committed to this work together. And I think that's the take-home is that it really is going to take all of us and it's going to be a long game. But I think we're at the beginning of some really exciting steps to lead us there and I thank you for that presentation. It was very thorough and really helpful, I think,
077for the board tonight. So, thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Mitchell. We appreciate it. >> That was fantastic. All right. Uh, next up, I would entertain a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a student matter pursuant to one MRSA 4056B. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? We are in executive session at 7:05 More Hold on. I have to write everything in two places. All right. What is the direction of the board? I make a motion we remit student A back into school. Who was that? Jen. >> Jen. Is there any discuss? We have a motion and a second to reenter student A. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? That's unanimous. Motion carries. Welcome back. >> Welcome back. [Applause] All right. Calendar and announcements.
078Bottom of your agenda. Uh reminder, the finance meeting for the 28th has been rescheduled to the 21st. Thank you all everyone. We are adjourned. 7:31 p.m.