September 10 School Board Meeting

001Good evening everyone. I'm going to call the September 10th, 2025 meeting to order at 6 PM. If everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I al 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. [Music] >> Thank you. Roll call. Melissa Bacon. >> Carmen Barski. >> Suzanne Bower here. >> Mark Cardzano here. >> Elizabeth Day. >> Michelle Felisetti. Anastasia Ferguson >> here. >> Eric Garrison. >> Jody Lane here. Jennifer Mayo >> here. >> Amy Morrison >> here. >> Wes Finny >> here. >> Adam Tangway. >> D Vigluata >> here. >> Judith Valent. >> Zoe Anthony >> Walker Vivian. >> We have a quorum with 15 directors present. Are there any adjustments to the agenda

002this evening? No adjustments. Next up, the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Anastasia. >> Second. >> Beth. >> So, we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? Public comment. Do we have any public comment this evening? All right, next up, board chair report. Um, first off, I want to start by recognizing Adam Tangway, who has been on the board for four years as of this month. Thanks, Adam. And Anastasia Ferguson, who has been on the board for nine years as of this month. [Applause] Um, real quick, uh, the committees have started meeting. Policy met last week, finance met, uh, last night, and human resources is is meeting next week. Um, so leading up to the human resource committee meeting

003next week, I'm going to give you homework. So, one of the items on that agenda is to develop schoolboard goals. So, I anticipate that it will be developing a a larger list to bring to the school board for further discussion and narrowing it down to really set those schoolboard goals. Um, so if each of you can shoot me an email by, you know, next Tuesday night with an idea for a school board goal, um, we want those to be smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely. Um and to kind of kick off a couple of ideas, goals um that are aligned with the strategic plan are great. Um also I took a look back at the last few years schoolboard self-evaluations and there are four areas on that evaluation that have been consistently like the

004lower ranked areas. So one of them is the board uses data and reports to evaluate progress toward goals and identify areas of concern. Uh the board participates in activities that further develop the boardsmanship skills. The board makes use of data from the district to provide information to students, parents, and the public. And the board engages parents, businesses, and the community at large in support of the schools. Um, and I'll send those I'll shoot an email to you all tomorrow with those on there. And just a reminder that if you can give me some ideas to bring to the human resource committee next week and uh we have this discussion every year around the schoolboard evaluation. It's part of our policy to set goals. We have the automatic goals that are part of our roles and

005responsibilities. So policy, a budget, superintendent evaluation. Um, but I'd like to add a couple more that we can really look to um improve those areas that score lower on the evaluation. Uh, that's all I have. So, next up is the superintendent report. Um, we are not going to have a student um report this week because of our um all of our school level administrators and our director of special education will will be presenting tonight. I do want to before we get into tonight's presentation in a little bit here, um I do want to share that uh in my experience over the years, I thought it was the smoothest start to the year. A lot of great work done by our our our administrators and our collective district. I'll talk more about that at that presentation.

006I do want to share um there's always so much going on in Augusta and uh around the state of Maine and um I shared with Jody recently I was asked to um serve as on the executive board for Maine school superintendents representing southern Maine. So then I report out at our monthly meetings of all southern Maine school districts and uh I share that with you because I think it will be beneficial as we um learn about budget developments about law changes. I'll have a a closer front row seat because oftentimes you might miss things if you are unable to attend a meeting and and such. So um just want to share that uh uh in that role I think it will hopefully strengthen our understanding of state level issues related to um school operations. Um

007that's going to conclude my report until we go through the uh school opening report with our administrators unless there are questions. >> Any questions for Dr. Marque? All right. Next up, standing committees policy. Beth, first I want to say that finance should be first, but I did not make a motion on the agenda to switch it. Um, okay. So, um, we met last week, um, for the first time, so we are working through still the B policies, which are the board policies. Um, we do have a couple that are coming for a first read in the, um, actually deletion actually for uh, later in the agenda. So, I'll just talk about there's a couple of policies that we did not make significant changes to. So, we're not going to bring them for a first read,

008but they are important enough for the board to know and understand. So, some of these are BIA and BIC. So, when you're elected and um or reelected or appointed to the board, um you are you have 120 days to the to do the freedom of access training. Um, and within 120 days of taking your oath, so whether you're, like I said, elected, reelected, or appointed, every single time, so every 3 years or so, um, you have to do that every time. So, I'm not sure um that everyone remembers that they have to do it if they're been on the board for a really long time. um elected officials. Uh you can meet the training requirement by going through the material on the frequently asked question page. The link is on policybic and then you fill

009out the form that's in policy BIC-e and you can send it to Caitlyn. All of those are kept in the superintendent's office on file. And then the other one that we thought was really important to know is B. And that one again we did not change much about that policy um so it's not coming for a first read but we wanted to talk about some clarifying information on that and that is um when you are paid as a board member. So we all we did was add examples. So a lot of times you will put it's you just come to a board meeting and that's it. But it can be your regular meetings. Um you can also put in for a stipen if you attend special meetings or emergency meetings. um when minutes are prepared.

010And if you serve on a subcommittee that um that you've been asked to cover for, if you just choose to go to a subcommittee because you're interested in it, that doesn't count, but it does count if you're being a substitute. And other um events that you are acting in a schoolboard role. Um and also interviews is another one. Um so we just felt like putting out that list so people just kind of remember what it is. It's not just tonight. Um, and that is all I have because we have some first reads to go through later. Perfect. Thank you. Any questions for Beth? Next up, uh, finance. Wes. >> Thank you, Jody. Uh, we had a lengthy meeting last night for the first meeting of the new school year. There were well over 20 different

011agenda items. So, I'm not going to cover everything we we went through because we have a busy night tonight. have a lot of our administrative team here that needs the time. But, uh, Mark was elected vice chair of the committee. Um, we're establishing a date um for the annual tour of facilities. As soon as we get that date, we'll send it out to the board because it's a good opportunity for new schoolboard members to tour the district and and see exactly um uh what we're responsible for. Um uh the boosters walkway to the stadium didn't get done because the flag pole project didn't get done yet. Those will all be pulled together and coordinated. Uh there's a new software program for maintenance and operations that was acquired. All systems are in it related to facilities.

012An interesting note was that the summer food services program served uh 33,500 meals and uh that's our food services department did a remarkable job last summer. Um we got an update on the audit process. Pretty much the audit was done back in July. It was done through the summer months. Everything went smooth there. Jody and I actually met with the auditors ourselves during the summer. Um Dr. McKe and Colin are going to be doing community public presentations in uh most likely January, February on state subsidy and fund balance issues uh to better educate uh our our uh six communities as to exactly what that process is all about. And there are countless other things, but I'm going to leave it there because we need the time for our school administrators. Thank you. >> Thanks, Wes.

013Any questions for Wes? Uh, human resources has not met. They are meeting next Wednesday night at 6 PM. So, we have no old business tonight. So, we will move on to new business and start off with opening of schools reports from our administration administration. Um, one item that I failed to mention during the superintendent's report and before I do the introduction, um, Shane's out back right now, but I just want to draw attention to the wonderful work of our I, um, IT professionals. Next Tuesday is IT professionals day. So, thank you to our um, our technology folks for always doing uh, uh, yman's work to support our students and our staff and greater community. So, thank you, Tech. So, it's a pleasure to officially open the 202526 school year. As we stand at the start

014of a new academic year, I'm proud to report that RSU 57 opened its doors this fall with great energy, purpose, and shared and a shared sense of excitement across the district as our schools welcomed 2,881 students. The first days of school at each of our facilities were marked with enthusiasm on the part of our students and staff alike. And we've seen a smooth and successful launch thanks to the tire tireless efforts of our entire uh school team. Behind every seamless school opening is an extraordinary amount of preparation, collaboration, and care. I want to begin by recognizing the outstanding work of our operational and instructional leaders. Our buildings were in excellent shape thanks to the continued dedication of our facilities and maintenance department. From deep summer cleaning to timely repairs and upgrades, their work ensured that

015every student walked into a safe and welcoming as well as wellprepared learning environment. Likewise, our food service team ensured kitchens were ready and meals were available on day one for our students. Our technology department worked tirelessly to make sure that students and staff were equipped with the tools that they would need to support modern teaching and learning. Our transportation team executed new routes, welcome new drivers, and got our students to school safely. The first few days were a little challenging with our newest learners as well as road construction and tree work that really clogged things up. And I want to um really commend our transportation folks for navigating that um to the best of their ability and and also want to thank our caregivers for understanding that it was not ideal, especially the tree work

016out in uh Newfield and uh Limmerick. >> What's that? >> That's still happening. I got this morning. >> I mean it you can get stuck for quite some time. I certainly did last week. Um and of course to our central office staff who provided essential support for hiring and onboarding uh as we welcome new educators and staff members to our district. All of these efforts came together in the service of our greater mission. one that is guided this year as always by our the RSU57 strategic plan. This plan continues to be our northstar, aligning our actions with clear priorities, student achievement, staff support and development, school climate and culture, highquality facilities and resources, and critical community engagement. This year, we will place particular focus on two fronts. First, continuing to build positive, inclusive, and supportive

017cultures and climates within our schools. We re we recognize that strong school culture is foundational to everything that we do from student well-being to academic growth. Second, we are deeping deepening our commitment to student achievement and engagement with a renewed focus on personalized learning, high expectations, and meaningful educational experiences for all of our students. We were thrilled to welcome families back into our schools during our recent openhouse night in all of our schools, which were highly attended and incredibly successful. These events reaffirm the strong connection between our schools and our communities, and they set the tone for our partnership that we know is essential to a successful school year. Tonight, you will hear from each of our building principles and from our director of special education. Their reports will provide important updates on current enrollment

018trends, opening of school year highlights, and a review of specific growth and achievement goals at each school uh that has been set forth for the year. You'll see tonight that some of those goals vary by building and that's based on actual data that helps inform where we want to go. And we set as a base that all that 50% or greater in every school will show um will meet growth targets. Um and then incremental growth if they are already above that level. Um and our our admin will speak a little bit more deeply about that. I'm proud of the thoughtful student- centered planning that has gone into each of these school goals and I look forward to the progress we will make together in the months ahead. With that, um, I turn I'll be turning

019over to our administrative team. Um, I'm going to ask that you hold all questions until we get through all of them. They're going to have that same format. Um, with one exception, we'll answer all your questions at the at the end. Um, Miss Penny um has a a child that's competing in their first high school um varsity game this evening. So, she's going to present first and she's going to head off and uh any questions that might be presented for her, you can still ask. We'll make note of it and we'll bring those answers back to you at our next meeting. But I don't want uh Miss Penny to miss um that really uh special night for her and her family and her daughter. Okay. So, we're going to begin our reports and uh uh

020I want to just commend our admin for just a tremendous school start. So, Miss Penny Uh first of all, I want to say thank you for having us. We always enjoy uh being able to share with you guys the dayto-day of what's happening in the buildings. Um we have included some pictures, I know myself and the other buildings just so you can kind of get a glimpse into what it looks like. Um but it was definitely nice to go from our summer time to transitioning with the kids. the excitement, the smiles starting from our prek K bus orientation to open house and now to opening days. So, uh thank you for giving us time to be able to share with you. Shane, thank you. It's like Anna. Um uh this is just a quick glimpse

021at our enrollment. As you can see, uh we are up 20 from last year. uh we have talked about this I know numerously in the board that Shappley is really uh running out of space and we are definitely at capacity every space every building is uh every room is uh filled and being utilized right now so uh it's really exciting uh we'll talk a little bit more on the next slide Shane when we get into what that looked like um welcoming you know 46 new little ones to our building and learning the routines and expectations. So, uh, this year we did have a pretty consistent staff. So, we did have a new 45 math teacher join us, um, a new librarian who is shared with Line School and then a new title one edtech into

022our building. I think we're really excited about those new hires. Um, we had a wonderful prek bus orientation. I want to thank we did have some high school volunteers come and help. We did a little bit different format where we kind of pulled the kiddos away from the parents. They were doing some fun activities with our staff came in to visit and meet them. We had the high school volunteers and then that really gave us an opportunity to talk with the parents about what their kids' day will look like um at Chappley Memorial School on a regular basis and what the expectations are and then they got a chance to ride the bus around. So that was really fun. Uh we had a great openhouse event. We had about 73% of our families come. PTC

023sponsored a nice ice cream social for them and we had a little fun school scavenger hunt um where kids and families could go around and see some of the different changes around in the building um introduced themselves to the new staff, tell us something exciting that they did over the summertime. The kids handed those in at the end with their families and kind of got a nice little special thing when they came to school for the first day. Um our first days were busy, very busy, very exciting. uh we focused a lot on getting to know one another even though we do this team structure like many of you know of they still uh there's a new group of kids that goes into that team structure each year as they transition from the grades span

024and so the teachers were really focusing on getting to know the kids um each as an individual um and then getting to know each of the home rooms together and then rotating through and doing those. So, it was um definitely full of getting to know you activities, learning the new routines of what that looks like, and really um on day two when we welcomed those 46 new kids, it was all hands on deck, right? Um getting them to where they need to be because for about uh 16 and then 15 about 30 of them, it was their very first time at Chappley um being there for school. So we wanted to make sure that they felt safe and comfortable and headed to class. So we also held our first community assembly. That's something that we

025do every Friday. Um so we held that kind of set the tone for the school year, what this is going to look like and started uh we focus on our core value and that was building community. So I started with a story with them and then we have a whole school activity that we're going to be doing um with that monthly focus piece. Uh other fun exciting things coming up. We had our first mentor lunch today, which is where we do K through fifth grade uh lunches with teachers. Again, another relationship building piece. Uh PTC is going to be hosting a family bingo night. And then we have our fall family night and book fair event that's coming up, which is always a really great success uh school community event that we have. And our

026goals. So last year, as Dr. Marquee had shared, we focused on 50% of our learners um at a minimum reaching the projected growth benchmark. As you can see for our growth, we were at 43% for math and 64% for reading. So on the bottom there, you'll see our goal for the upcoming year, which we do want to get 50% of that um growth met for math and then 67 um for reading. So that's what our focus will be this year. As well as the achievement piece, we did see that 63% of uh students were achieving in math which is meeting that 40th percentile or better and then 81% in reading. So we did up each of those that 3% to continue that growth there. This information has been shared. It's also with staff and they

027are really focusing their goals on there so we can all kind of meet to reach towards that same goal for our school. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Hi everyone. How are you? >> Um I'm Leah. I'm the new principal over at Line. It has been an awesome awesome start to the school year. It has been busy as I got to know the community in this role. Um I live in the community so it's been nice kind of adding to it. And then all the amazing staff we have, all the awesome students. So it has been a really really fun start to the school year. Um, a couple pictures here are from our open house. Our art teacher is simply incredible. So, I had to throw a picture here of her art space

028that she did a really fun little movie theme. So, open house, every friend that got to go into her room got a fun little bag of popcorn. She reached out to Smitties. They donated a bunch of popcorn for her room. So, it's just a fun extra little treat for everybody. Um, and that really kind of pumped us up and got us ready for the new school year. So, our enrollment, as you can see, is up quite a bit. Um, we've got 35 new friends um joining us. So, the beauty of that is that our younger classroom sizes are still pretty small. Um, so the teachers are really able to connect with those kids and differentiate and understand exactly what their needs are. They spend a lot of time these first couple days getting to know

029them individually. Um, and then our older kiddos are are rocking it, too. They're being really good role models for everybody else in the building. But it's been an adjustment having so many friends um in a really good way. So just more people to kind of hang out with. So the opening of school has been amazing. We had a lot of hiring to do this summer and I am thrilled to tell you that they are all exceptional. Um so we hired kindergarten, first grade, third grade, fourth grade, and then two fifth grade teachers. So it was busy. We have a new librarian, as Miss Penny said, um that we share with Shapley and then a special ed transfer from the East Building and a new title one teacher who's been in the building as a kindergarten

030teacher. She just kind of shifted roles. Um so, three of those friends are brand new teachers, which is really fun. They're bringing a whole lot of fresh new ideas. They're eager. They're excited. Their rooms look incredible. Um that fresh out of school experience ready to go. And the other three bring a plethora of experience, too. Um, and a couple of them even with a special ed background, which has been really great so that we can really make sure we're focusing on the needs of all of our kiddos. We had a handful of people, particularly in our special ed department, do some summer PD around restorative practices and restorative justice, which is a really great way for us to build community in our building. um allowing students to express kind of what happened and then work

031through together how they can you know be a a good member of our society and our community. Um so we're hoping to start kind of metriculating that out to other staff who are interested um starting small with our morning meetings and community circles, but there's a lot of passion and energy and enthusiasm around that piece. So I'm eager to see where that goes. Our Title One staff also did a lot of work this summer um and got us a grant for about $5,000 to help us grow our understanding of literacy. So we've been in a lot of discussion there around what that looks like. So do we want PD for staff? Are we trying to do a book study resources for kids to use? So there's a lot of ideas. There's a lot of us

032working together on that piece which has been really cool. some really awesome communication around what is going to be best practice and what is going to support our students the most and our families are amazing as you know. Um our prek and K bus rides also had an awesome turnout that was really fun. Um I come from a world of fourth and fifth graders and so for seeing all the little kids get on the bus and be excited to hop off like we're big kids now that was really awesome. Um, and the same at opening or at open house. There were a lot of families as I walked around and checked in with staff after I would say the vast majority of them had many of their families turn out. Um, our PTC is incredible.

033They've been hosting a lot of kind of communal things. They've got a great plan for the rest of the school year, but one of my favorites was this activity where we snagged this picture called chalk the walk. Um, and so as students and staff came on Tuesday and Wednesday, the rain didn't come and wash it all away. Um, they left us signs of, you know, you're the best and welcome back to school. And it was just a really positive, uplifting way to start the school year. Everybody, staff, students, everybody really loved seeing that. But overall, the energy and enthusiasm for this school year is infectious. And I just cannot wait to see where the staff and the kiddos go this year. So, we are really, really excited. And as you can see here, we've got

034our goals. Um, last year our goal was 50 55% would meet their projected growth goals. Um, 41 made growth on reading, 47, excuse me, 41 on math, and then 47 on reading. So, we've got a little bit of work to do. Um, our goals for growth are about 50% for both reading and math. Um, and then our achievement was looking really well, too. So, we're going to up those goals that we had from 56% achievement in math to 59 and then 62% in reading up to 65. Um, and like I said, with the energy and enthusiasm and encouragement that we have from everybody, I am really excited to see where those numbers go. So far, it's been an awesome start. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Kathy Pullman, principal of Alfred Elementary School. Thanks for having

035us here this evening. I've been told I need to keep it under five minutes or I'm fired. So I'm going to make this really quick. Um to start out um uh could you go to the next slide, please, Shane? Um our enrollment uh as of uh today is actually 168. We gained another student. Um however, it is still lower from our enrollment uh from last year. Um I Marissa and I are always kind of going back and forth to try to figure out which one of us has that smaller school and um she's over by two right now, but word on the block has it I might have two more enrollments. So Miss Penny doesn't know that yet, but we'll be talking about that. Um so yeah, we're our numbers are trending down. Um however,

036I'm I'm hopeful that um we know we've had actually uh quite a bit of moveins. Um we've had some students move out, but um we've had students move in from out of state instate. And I just learned today that there are a couple of neighborhoods um that are in the process um of building right now. And I'm hopeful that maybe we'll snag a few more kiddos uh in the upcoming year. Um next slide, please. Opening days went very very well. Um we had a a quite a bit of excitement in our school welcoming our kids back. We have um started our year with just reteing our schoolwide expectations in a lot of different ways both in the classroom and as a whole school. Um and teachers have done a great job with taking those beginning

037of the year lessons and running with them in a way that's creative and fun for kids. Um, for example, our grades three to five had a gradspan assembly where each teacher took part of our school promise around being respectful, responsible, safe, and kind and did these interactive um lessons and groups in the gym and they did it together as a large team and circulated through and then came back together to share uh their discussions and they created their um upstairs code of conduct together. So, they're finding creative and fun ways to engage kids in reviewing these expectations and ensuring that um as we move into the year that there's a consistency across how our building is operating. We have a lot of new staff changes this year. Um aside from new staff, we also have

038staff that have transitioned into different roles. Um we have a new custodian, Mr. Jessie that we um stole from Shappley who is just the most wonderful hardworking um gentleman. He did a fantastic job with his partner um Mr. Rick Stevens. Um really really our school was literally glowing and sparkling when the kids came back. It is it was just incredible the amount of work that alongside a major technology upgrade that u Mr. O'Hara and his team did a fantastic job with it. It went seamlessly. It was really, really an a really positive experience for everybody. So, very thankful for that. Um, we welcomed a new fizzed teacher, new first grade teacher. Um, Miss Rollins, our district literacy coach, has returned to Alfred, that's initially where she taught and where she was a strategist. Um, Mr.

039Hammond, fifth grade. Uh, Miss Ridley, a new admin assist. And we have uh Miss Ellie and Miss Maddie who are two new special education ed techs. Um a lot of youth, a lot of energy, a lot of excitement. Um you know, just to reiterate um what Line School just shared with you, uh there's a there's an energy and a and a renewed excitement uh which sort of brings you back to those first days as a young teacher. And there's something really special about that. Um so we're really working on jelling as a staff and our teams. for example, we have like a school improvement team and some other um culture climate focus teams, school spirit teams. They met today for the first time together. So um you know, now that the foundational pieces of the

040beginning of the year for new staff or staff that's transitioning um have progressed, we're now we're we're in a um get to know you phase right now with a lot of our new staff. We have uh staff that also have changed placements. So, we have a second grade teacher who moved up to third, Mrs. Bear. And since Alfred is a small school with pretty inconsistent numbers grade level to grade level, we did add a new split to our school this year. So, this year we have a downstairs grade one two split, which is brand new um to us and brand new to Mrs. Norman, who I am more than confident is has the experience um and hard work uh and perseverance to do a great job with that. And uh we also have an upstairs

041split with Mrs. McCarthy that we've previously had. We had a fantastic open house. Kona Kona Ice joined us. If you're not familiar, it's a snow cone truck. Um all natural ingredients. Um no die request honored. But no, in all seriousness, we had PTSA who had them attend and the kids were just thrilled to be able to visit their classroom, meet their teachers, and then go celebrate before leaving with a Kona ice. We had a um attendance table which I was really excited about. My school counselor uh PD brought back this idea of having a trifold a table and um some interesting trivia questions that were interactive. Kids could roll a dice. Um it all had to do with school attendance, why it's important, and parents could sign a contract and put it in a box

042and we're actually going to draw. The contract is like, you know, I'm going to promise to do X, Y, and Z and do my best to get my kiddo to school every day. and we're going to draw a winner from that. We're also going to have that table out at our literacy night. So, education around the importance of attendance, um PTSA outreach, um really trying to connect with other community members. How can we bring them into your school? How can we um get volunteers that that looks a different in a lot of different ways um through donations to volunteering your time? Um attending meetings and so on. We had our food drive uh to stock our backpack program, our closet that we provide for families needing support who take a weekly backpack home with some

043snacks or some um dinner or breakfast items. We also have on the horizon a back to school bounce party outdoors bouncy house in the back of the school. And we have a foam party the Alfred Parks and Recre is lending us. It looks like a when a washing machine overflows and there's suds everywhere like back in the Brady Bunch days. I know those of you that watch the Brady Bunch know what I'm talking about. Um, so the kids are just going to run through that, get messy. They love it. And it is on a Saturday, so I told my staff today they don't have to worry about that getting tracked into the building. Uh, we have a family bigo night on the horizon and we are changing up trick-or-treating to a trick-or- treat trail. Uh,

044we've been working on cleaning up our trails. We are going to engage families and challenge them to design a trick-or- treat station on the trail at dusk. And uh we're going to do some during the light, some during the dusk depending on kiddos that like the dark or hate the dark. Um and then we're also talking about bringing our community um community businesses into it to see if they would like to be a part of the fun. And we're going to have a contest to see who comes up with the best idea. Next, please. I am very very very very very very proud of my staff. Um collectively last year they worked really hard. Our goal was set at 50% for growth and happy to share that we meet our we met our growth goal

045in both reading and in math 63% and 54% for reading. So, we are upping our goal this year by 3% with 66% um the goal being for growth in math and 57% of students attaining their growth goals in reading. I was blown away by the achievement scores. 83% of students are at or above grade level in math and 87% were at or above grade level in reading. So, we've upped that by 3% this year and we are looking at 86% to perform at grade level in math and 90% to perform at grade level in reading. And is that the last one? I think it is. Right. Okay. Thank you everybody. I I don't know if I stayed under five minutes. I'm sure I'll hear it from city. And as Miss Pelerin's walking to uh present,

046um what what Miss Puland didn't share was um she was uh recently given the Wicked Good Award, which is an award that administrators at our full admin. Uh so she received that um from Mr. O'Hara for just being really wicked good. So congrats on that. >> Thank you. [Applause] Cindy Pellerin, principal at Lyman Elementary. Um the first uh just a couple pictures of our class, one of our our kindergarten classroom. It's actually our K1 split. And so you can see that there's half the kids on one side and half on the other. And u Mrs. Driscoll is pretty darn masterful on like day one, getting the kids to just like do exactly what they're supposed to do. It's kind of amazing. And she can do both K and one at the same time. and you

047ever have a chance to observe in her classroom, it's it's a it's a wonderful experience and I get joy in there every day. Um, our prek teachers and ed techs over the summer built a music wall. Um, so they gathered pots and pans and different things from around and they created this wall to make music as well as a marble run. Um, you'll see it kind of further in the back in the picture. Um, so we're excited about some of those more natural um, things for the students to explore and play in the in kind of near the woods. Um, and um, just different ways for them to explore outside. Um, next slide, please. As you can see, our numbers are also up this uh, year. We have about 14 more students joining Lyman than

048we had last year. Um, it you know, right now we're we're in a good space. we have room for everyone and I hear there's plenty of building happening in Lyman. So stay tuned on that one over the next couple years. Um go ahead and switch the slides. So um I'm not going to reiterate what everyone else said because we do a lot of the same pieces in our opening days and there should be letters after the spent time building a community of of learners in the classroom and in learning our school routine. So, it was white because there was a picture there and then I don't think it got changed. So, apologize for that. Um, we definitely spent and we and as um Kathy said, we spent a lot of time at the beginning of

049the year really building and making sure every kid regardless of grade knows how to do school. How do we how do we walk in the hallway? How do we, you know, line up? How do we talk to a teacher? How do we talk to a friend? What when we need something, what do we do? And so we spend a lot of time building those classwide and schoolwide expectations. How do you ride the bus? What are you supposed to be doing on the bus? So it's really important for us so there's never an assumption that someone doesn't already know the rules. We we know they know the rules because we taught them again. Um and we spend a lot of time doing that as well as building that relationship with students on those first couple weeks.

050They've done a great job of it. I'm really impressed this year with just the level of calm. I'm probably jinxing myself right now. Um the just the level of calm that we've um been able to have um these first couple weeks of school and really students have have done a very nice job even with the full moon um at the beginning of the week really settling in. So, it's been really great to see and um I'm just so impressed with my staff and just the building in general, how they were able to come in. If if you had a chance or when you do have a chance to come in as I think someone said their building was sparkling. I I've never seen the building look as awesome as it did for the opening days

051and the classrooms are just really spot-on. So, they had a lot of time and they felt really prepared and it showed with what they've been able to do in the last couple weeks. We had an awesome turnout for open house. 85% approximately turned out. Um, it's always like a whirlwind in and out and I I it's always my favorite day because it's been so lonely in the building and then finally I have people again. So, it's always nice to just see the excitement on those first days and and all of the parents and they're getting to have their break and we get them back. So, it's exciting for both sides. uh for the summer. So, and we have our literacy and numeracy night coming up also um connected to our book fair. Um and we

052also have plenty of PTC sponsored events. Not 100% sure what we're going to do yet, whether it will be a dance or a well, it's really like a running around of kids in in a gym with music playing. Um that's the dance. or if we're going to go back to our holiday bingo, which we did last year, which was a huge hit and uh I love me some bingo and I love me some bingo calling. So, ask anybody there. I'm like I'm like ridiculous with it. So, um anyway, we're excited for those events coming up. Thank you. Sh's like her wrap it up. Um, so 50% of our students, um, our goal last year was 50% and, um, I'm very proud of my staff. They've worked so hard. We had 58% of our students, um,

053meet their grow students meet their growth goals for math and 56th for um, reading. And so for this coming year, we upped that to 61% for math and 59% for reading. Our achievement scores were 72% for math and proficient at or above and for math and 77% for reading. And again, we've increased that to 75 and 78. And I just um can't impress the amount of time and effort my staff puts into um really working with students and focusing in on differentiating to meet those goals. And I've I'm so proud of them o over the past couple years because we've made a lot of growth. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Carrie Lasser, principal at Waterboro Elementary School. It's really nice to see you again. It feels like uh it was just the middle of August

054and we were at the board dinner and teachers and staff really were not in the buildings yet and the it was empty and the classrooms had really no decorations. Um, and time has gone by so quick and here we are already two weeks into school and it's really feeling like we never left at the end of the school year, which is a really great feeling. Um, so we're excited to share with you some of the things that are happening at Waterboro this year. >> Go ahead, Jane. Thank you. Um, I know over the past couple of years I've talked a lot about enrollment and how water just seems to be booming. And I look at these numbers and I think, "Oh my goodness, we're actually down. We're down about 20 students." Um, which was a

055surprise. Although I am really optimistic because our prek enrollment this year was through the roof. We have several students that are actually attending other schools in the district because we are completely full with a very long wait list for Waterborough. So, I have a good feeling that um next year's kindergarten class is going to be larger. We're fortunate this year again that uh the classes in the lower grades, kindergarten and first grade are smaller. So, students are really getting undivided attention from their teachers to really help them get used to those routines in school. Um, and in the upper grades, we have really comparable classroom sizes that range between 18 and 22. Uh, at Waterboro this year, we you can see this lovely picture. I just had to put this up because I it made

056me laugh when I saw it. um at the beginning of the year when you're a specialist and you're seeing 530 students, you're trying to think, how am I going to get to know all of these kids and what can I do to engage them and get them really excited about my class when I'm going to see them once every five days? And our art teacher, Mrs. Nucci, I I went into her classroom numerous times over the past week and a half and those kids were laying on the floor and they had markers and they were drawing underneath the table on paper. Um they had props that they were doing selfies. So what you can see is um a selfie of this child and he it's just so cute. I just look at it and I

057think he's gonna have a great year, right? He's going to look forward to art class all the time because it just the smile. Um, so that is really how I feel about the opening of schools this year at Waterboro. And we certainly heard the sentiment from families and our teachers after open house. They said there's this really positive feeling in the air. We're we're we feel it everywhere we go in the building. And it just made me feel really happy that here we are. We've been away for I think it was 40 some odd days and people are coming back and they're excited about school and opening schools can be exciting and nerve-wracking and bring about all of those emotions. But I think the one real thing that was exciting is that it it was

058positivity that people were feeling. Um so with that being said, we have a handful of new staff. We have two classroom teachers, grade three and grade four. Two new specialists. We have a new music teacher and PE teacher and one new special education teacher and they are certainly bringing a lot of positivity and energy and excitement into our building about learning and getting to know students. Uh our family connections, we had a really successful open house. We had 85% of families that did show up. Um and one thing that I really wanted to bring to our school when I first started was having one night for families. Everybody gets to come out. This is a family event. Prior to that, they did two nights and I I said, "We're one community. We're going to do

059this in one night and we started that last year." So, bringing every school into it this year was really exciting for families to come out for one night, start at the elementary school and see the middle schoolers that are no longer at our school and then they go off to their open house and eventually the high school. So, that was really exciting. Um, our PTO is extremely um, wonderful. They do so much for us. They plan lots of events for students, but also for staff. Uh, they drop off snacks at the beginning of the year. You know, they know we're going to be tired and hungry just like the kids. Uh, so they really do take care of us as well. But on top of that, um, we are kicking off our book fair at

060the end of the month on September 29th. And that Thursday, which is October 2nd, will be our family bookf fair night along with our um family math night. And in conjunction with our math night, we're inviting some staff members from the Maine Department of Education because we were selected as a math for Maine school. So, what that means is we're going to get PD from the state of Maine at various times throughout the school year. Uh we had a small group of teachers that went to Augusta a couple of times this summer. Uh they're doing some new learning. They're bringing that back to our school and we have a really energetic group of staff members that are going to get some of this information to share out with our staff and hopefully really implement some

061new strategies to help um with our curriculum that we currently have through reveal. Um let's see what else. One other thing we're doing trunk treat this year. our PTO. We usually do the Halloween stroll where they decorate the entire inside of the building and they want to change it up a little bit. So, we're going to do trunk or treat. We're excited about that. Um, and Mr. Stinson said that he and I are going to get some matching costumes. So, if you want to come, I don't know what it is yet, but he thinks that we should get some sort of blowup costume of some sort. So, we're excited about that. Um, and moving into our goals, I did share with staff today, our district and our school goals. And you know, we also had

062the same goal of having 50% of our learners or greater meeting that those growth targets. And in math, we did meet that. We had 50% of students meeting that. And in literacy, we had 50 I can't see that. Um, >> 55. Thank you. So, I should look over here. Um, we're going to increase both of those goals by 3%. So 53% of our learners achieving growth or exceeding and 58% for literacy. Our achievement numbers are really exciting too. We're really proud of our teachers for working hard and um focusing on the learning and prioritizing the assessment. So we did have 65% that were proficient or above in math and 72% that made those achievement scores. So, we're going to increase those as well by 3%. So, 68% for math and 72% 75%. Sorry, contacts are

063getting tired. Um, so we're really going to think about ways that we can implement implement strategies to increase growth and achievement this year. And that's it for me. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh Tim Oconor, director of special services. Thank you very much for having me this evening. Um so with regard to the East Building, uh we had a fantastic opening. Uh very much in line with what you heard so far. Uh we were able to welcome uh our new teammates. We had a new high school uh day treatment teacher. Uh we also had two uh preK edte start with us. Uh we were also successful in uh contracting with a onetoone nurse to allow a student to be able to come to school safely. So uh that's a major victory as that's been a

064a struggle in the past. So uh with regards to kind of our open house, I was uh sharing news yesterday at our at meeting that uh we really uh knocked it out of the park I felt this year with um the the um the amount of folks that attended. Uh, I did break it down kind of to make sense with regards to preK K5 programming in 9 through 12. Uh, I'm happy to report our little Mustangs prek program, we had 75% of the families attend. Um, so that was and and they stayed, they talked. It it was really really nice to see. Um, hung out on the playground which was great. uh our K5 programming we also had uh 46% family attendance and our 9 through 12 around 11%. Uh I will say we we

065do just by nature of the work that we do in the building. Uh we do meet with the families quite a bit so they are very involved. Um so the numbers uh the the numbers are the numbers here but it just the vibe in the building was awesome. It just felt like a a real community. It felt like um one of the principles had used the word like jelling and it just felt like that's that's the piece like our staff here are fantastic. They gel. It's a community within the building. But I think it's starting to take hold now. Um it's really nice, as I said, to see, you know, families at at at football games or or practices, soccer practices, watching their little ones play on the playground. It's really it's really it's really

066a nice situation there. Um next slide. Okay. um another successful year this year with our ESY programming. Uh for those of you that don't know what that is, that is essentially we run programming both uh at the middle school and here at the East Building uh for our students who are identified and have IEP um and essentially we uh we were able to service provide services and instruction to approximately 85 students uh preK through 12 throughout the summer. uh our our K through f uh K through 12 programming runs four weeks uh three days a week and our preK runs four days a week uh for six weeks. Um and that's just per our contract with CVS and per what the expectations are. Um let's see here. Our our programming for Little Mustangs continues to

067expand. Uh currently we are we are working towards 20 students and with a new referral we are projected to have 21 students this year which is our highest amount. So things are are looking really positive there. Uh and why that's important is we are providing services at the lowest level we possibly can which will bode well for my friends behind me hopefully. That's the that's the hope as they graduate up into kindergarten uh and moving forward. So, that's that's the work that's happening there in the east building. I I do want to thank our our custodial staff, Ben, and and all of that group. They have been uh phenomenal. We we made some pretty significant moves this summer. Um, as you know, a few years ago, we moved and kind of housed people here and

068we needed to make some moves this summer for efficiency and programming due to some of the nature of needs that we had um regarding like sensory rooms and things like that. So, it all worked out. Uh it went went very smoothly and could not be happier. With regards to our programming, I'm happy to report that uh currently we have 48 students um prek through 12 in this building. I did provide kind of the breakdown. So we have a K5 functional life skills program. We have a um K5 day treatment uh which is more behavioral oriented. Uh we have a 68 day treatment program, 912 ex uh functional life skills and a 912 day treatment. Um our our numbers have kind of moved. We've had some people transfer out. We've had some people move in. Um

069but I I always, you know, we talk about this at finance committee and it's really important to know that this this the programming within this building allows us to keep our students in district. So, that's 48 that's 48 students that we're able to keep here with us in the district safely. And I I think that's uh that's great. And I I appreciate all the support all along the way. Um and I think I think that's my last slide. Um and thank you. You're good. Um and before Miss Grantham goes, just uh because it might be a question. Well, why wasn't there enrollment information? Well, we're not a a standalone school in this building. So, all of the students that attend here are actually also on the roster for enrollment at the various schools, whether it's

070their um uh town elementary school or the middle school or the high school. Secondly, goals related to the students with specialized instruction are individual goals and in some cases they align with the building and district goals, but some of them also align with the specific individual learning plans that are in place for those students. Um, I was uh that wasn't Tim's um error to share that. I should have shared that and planned to share it when I uh opened the meeting. So, I apologize for not doing that in advance, Mr. Connor, go ahead. >> Hi everyone. Good evening. Um, I'm principal Kelly Grantham representing Masterpiece Middle School tonight. Um, I just want to quickly share what photos I selected to include in my four slides. Um, as you'll hear me talk throughout this year whenever

071um, I'm presenting about the middle school and for those of you who were on the board last year, you heard me talk about then, we have increasingly expanded our course opportunities for students um, by redesigning our schedule, by reallocating what courses teachers were teaching. So, the photos that I selected tonight are representative of some of the new and more advanced levels of courses that we're able to offer. So the picture that you see right here is our art classroom. For the first time in my time at best music, we were able to offer two different levels of art. Students could opt in um if that was the course that they wanted to take some advanced art. Next slide. So our enrollment numbers um we have 626 students. So slightly up from this time last year

072representing our three grade levels. We still have our bubble class. little bubble class is our eighth graders currently. And the photo that you see on the right is our Spanish classroom, another one of our allied arts. And this time for the first year, we're able to offer three different levels of Spanish for students. So, I attribute a successful opening to lots of preparation as what Dr. Marque said. Um, a key piece of that is everyone knowing their role and then executing their role at a very high level. It makes for a smooth start. The other adage that is always and forever true in public schools is like if lunch goes poorly, everything goes poorly. And lunch went really well. I It's all our kitchen staff, our duty staff, everyone who made that happen. Um, and

073so we had a really positive start. Smooth start. I think I told D uh when she arrived like it it felt like as though we never left. So it was a great start. We have five new teachers um and a new school nurse. So those new teachers, two retiree replacements, two teachers who went actually to Masabisc High School and then one new music teacher who is joining us and you remember we talked about this last year, but that was the unfilled elementary band position for fifth grade, which was reaportioned over to the middle school where now we're able to expand our music programming. So currently um Mr. Malazo is teaching intro to guitar and with the hopes of building a modern band program. So that means a non-performance-based guitar, uh drums, keyboards, just exposure to

074different instruments and not necessarily performing. Um so we are happy to continue to expand our music programming at the middle school. And we have a new school nurse who joined us at the start of this school year. We had no major uh changes to our routines or to our schedule. Those additional Allied arts courses, I already mentioned a couple of those. What you see on the right is actually more sections of our music production class. So again, more music offerings that we are able to do and have funded through our building by building budget. Um and so what you see are these uh small keyboards that are wired that you can design digital music. It's a very popular class. Last year was the first year. this year we're able to offer multiple sections of that

075and it's a very popular class. Um our open house um my assistant principal Amy Triano and I always have these grand plans of counting people as they walk in and then that falls apart after probably 10 minutes. Um but in talking with our team leaders afterwards um we saw 85% of our families attend in sixth grade roughly 70 and seventh probably 65%. I was a little nervous, you know, having done open houses on different nights just to see how having the whole district on one evening would impact if it would at all. What my staff actually showed and what we saw just in the numbers is that it really didn't depress the numbers at all. Um, we still saw full families coming through which we've always seen and has always been welcome and really fun

076to have. What we saw was a really steady flow of traffic. So, if you can imagine um what used to happen in our parking lot and our roads was that you know I completely for understandable reasons people would come early wait we'd probably have a few hundred at the beginning there'd be no place to park and then people would head off to where they were headed whether it's sports practices dinner or things like that. This was a much more steady flow. Um, so there were less people in a congested space and I say congested knowing that my building is beautiful and open and large, all that stuff. But, um, teachers were able to just interact with families in a more meaningful way. So, that was that was really great to see. Next slide. So, the

077way that our um our goals are presented to staff each year is during our opening days prior to students, we look at how we did last year based on both the climate and culture goal that we set. We also look at our achievement data. We set our new goals. Um for our growth and achievement data for last year, we set 55% of students will meet their projected in math and literacy. 46% actually made growth in math, 56% in reading. Um what we will set this year, 50% will meet their projected goal in math. Now I say that with the caveat that we all are representing those averages, understanding that those are grade level. That's a schoolwide average. The goal that will be set at a particular grade level is dependent on how they achieved that

078previous year. So while we can say 50% will meet projected growth, what we actually do is drill down and see how did sixth grade do, how did seventh grade do, how did eighth grade do, and from there you set your disperate growth goal. So 59% in literacy. Um for achievement 62% of middle schoolers were at or above proficiency on the spring uh math or spring through year and 77% were at or above in the reading assessment. So we will set our achievement proficiency data to 65 will be proficient or above in math 80% will be proficient or above in literacy. And the slide that I get to have next, Ty will as well, um, is just our co-curricular participation rates. I chose to focus on our fall athletics. I could and will eventually include our

079music numbers, but for that, knowing that we added courses. It's kind of like it's going to be inflated, you know, not inflated, but just in the sense it's going to grow because we added more courses. But I'll have more of that data broken out for you eventually when I present. Um, but our fall participation numbers represent an increase of 25% of 30 students so far. Um, we've only had two days of fall sports. It started on Monday and middle schoolers are notorious for waiting to see who is already enrolled and then getting their friends to join. So, we would actually anticipate these numbers go up a little bit, but our fall sports are cross country, soccer, and field hockey. And signups don't close till the 15th. So that final picture on my last slide, that

080is our one of our intro to guitar classes. So that was one of the first times that the students actually like picked up the guitars and we had done a lot of trial runs installing in this particular classroom like soundproofing um uh into the onto the walls. Our one of our school counselor's offices is right on the other side. So we opted not to do like electric guitars to start this class just to see how it go. she claims and then deputy peloner who's across the hall claims it's like kind of soothing like just hearing like soft strumming throughout the day. So anyway, thank you very much. >> Uh good evening everyone again. Thank you for having us. This is a a really a great pleasure to be able to share with you some of

081the information and experiences of staff and students as they enter the school year. Uh the first slide you see there, those three pictures of our grade nine orientation day. Um we caught some uh some young men who were really excited to actually be eating high school. They called it high school lunch. I was kind of was great that they were calling it high school lunch. I said, "Yes, you are in the high school. It is lunch, so that makes sense." Um but that was our grade night orientation day. The middle picture is Elsie and Charlotte from the class of 2025. Um this board generously supported them to go to the International Thespian Festival in Indiana this summer. I'll talk a little bit about that in a moment. And then um on the right that picture

082was actually taken today. That's one of our seniors uh Finn and he was part of a cohort that prepared a meal for Governor Mills and her um entourage the administration today as they visited SRTC. So um in all five or six of our students were commandeered for the entire day because of their skill set for the culinary arts program. They were asked to stay all day and not only prepare um but also serve and and be recognized for that. So um we'll talk about that in a little bit as well. So the next slide is our enrollment. We are down a little bit in our enrollment. Um, as uh as things fluctuate, as you saw Mrs. Grantham's enrollment, we do have some bubble classes that come and go. And so, we did graduate a fairly

083large class uh as far as the class of 2025 and bringing in 195 grade nine students from the middle school. So, we've had a bit of a um a decrease of around 35 students. It is a rolling enrollment and as you can imagine, as things get moving in this semester, those numbers will bump a little bit as we move forward. So, our opening of schools, um, as I said, we we had a really great opportunity for, and I want to name these students because they they just really wonderful to, um, have this opportunity so early in their school year, but Destiny Fanderea, Riley Smith, Jaden Burrow, Jackson Condan, and Finn Lee were asked specifically by Mr. Peterman from SRTC to stay for the entire day because of what they have proven as for as far

084as their skill set in culinary arts, not only to prepare, but also to serve and present. And that's a that's a real thing that happened for our students today. I'm sure when they started the school year this year, they had no idea that they would potentially be serving the highest um elected officer in our state and and the uh other members of the administration. Um talking to Mr. Peterman uh today, really fantastic presentation from our students. So well represented u Massabis High School. Of course, there were some other students from other schools that were also asked to uh stick around, but the fact that we had um five really speaks to the skill set of our students. Um the 2025 International The Thespian Festival again for your generous support. We had two students and our

085director Miss Levit uh were in uh the uh Indiana at the University of Indiana at Bloomington from June 22nd to June 28th. They had a fantastic time seeing live shows, going to many different seminars, conferences. Um, I think that they had an eye-opening experience in terms of Maine theater programs are strong and they're vibrant and and it's a healthy environment. But outside of Maine, especially when you're talking about an international festival, it's simply outstanding. And so, um, the fact that those two students, although graduated, were able to go to that really speaks to the support from this community. U, I have a much larger presentation and video presentation to share with Dr. Marque. He'll share that with chairperson Lane and then that can be fleshed out. But I wanted to make sure that we mentioned

086that today. Um, they were incredibly uh, appreciative of that. They're off at school now, both Elsie and and Charlotte, so they're not necessarily here to express that, but I I told them I would do so. Uh, we have moved to a percentagebased scoring system uh, at the high school. So that's taken a few different steps. Our synergy migration of both the gradebook and transcripts are complete. And then the staff transition is also complete in terms of moving their rubrics and their scoring system from one to four to 0 to 100. um as we move forward, communication from staff to students and families is is the next logical step. Um so it's happening right now, meaning at the assessment level and at the assignment level to ensure that um everyone is aware of of that particular

087transition. Um it's been a really smooth transition. So I have to thank Mr. O'Hara and his technology team for doing a lot of background work um in that. As far as MHS staffing, we have seven new recruits. Uh they're outstanding. They're enthusiastic. It's really great to have them on board. we did. Um that's a result of as you can see there one retiree, three folks advancing their career away from Massabiscic and then one has moved out of state. Um perhaps uh a curious component for for all of you is we've made a huge transition in our policy for JFC. Um the prohibition of cell phone use in in the building has gone um largely very smooth. We have had some students who are testing out the theory to see whether or not we're serious about

088it and um it's proven unfortunate for them and um uh fortunate for us as as that theory um is being tested here and there overall and I would encourage you to ask questions of both Walker and Zoe if you have um want that student perspective. But it's been a market success. We've had parental support which as you know is huge. um support from the board through the policy process, through communication over the last several months has also been paramount to our success. And our students um which is really great for the first time since I've been here are making noise in the lunchroom um during during those blocks. They're talking to each other. They're making uh jokes to one another. They're up out of their seats going to see another person instead of um unfortunately

089putting their face into a screen. So um really good things at the high school from that. Our teachers are reporting they've already moved through more material in the first six days of school than they did in the first two weeks of school last year. So, we're seeing a market increase in their ability to not only instruct for longer periods of time, but get students to focus on work for a longer period of time, which just means more production, more achievement, um, and we'll be able to move through more curriculum. So, we're already seeing those things. There's no doubt in my mind we'll have some bumps along the road. Um, we'll we'll get over this honeymoon period soon, I'm sure. Um but it has been a welcome change and I really appreciate your support in doing

090that. Uh so next slide is um our our uh data for NWA. Last year we worked very hard in our two testing sessions in the fall and the spring to establish uh an appropriate testing culture at the high school. It had been haphazard for uh quite some time. And so that was our goal. we actually didn't have any uh numerical data goals because we wanted to ensure that we were providing the appropriate testing environment but also ensuring that our students understood uh the the reality and also the importance of the test. So um as we move forward uh you'll see there that our our goals to our are to increase uh to 48% and 45% respectively for math and reading in terms of growth and then also for us to push to 70 and 65%

091respectively in the achievement um area of our NWA testing. And then um finally we we have some numbers of our some of our club activities and co-curricular activities. It's really awesome to report that even though we have 34 fewer students enrolled at the high school right now, all of our areas have increased in terms of participation. That's not normally a trend that would happen where you have decreased number of students in your enrollment and then have increased everywhere else. So, um you can see the numbers there. Some of the increases are are really fantastic. Um we've almost doubled in choir. Really looking forward to our our fall concert. Our band is increasing which is just going to be a great fuller sound. We have the most students again for I don't know how many years

092in a row that are attending SRTC besides um the obvious Sanford students that are uh just across the way on that campus. Um our theater troop is they're performing sorry performing they are holding auditions tomorrow for their fall production. So really excited to get that. I know Zoe is very excited to get that going. Uh she's a member of she's one of those 51. Um and then our our Rosy program is doing well. Uh, also our our student athlete program um like Mrs. Grantham, it it didn't take off for the first week or so. I know Mr. Lawrence and I were um a little bit nervous about that, but right um as preseason was drawing to a close, we had a huge influx of student athletes. So, really good things there as well. Um that

093is a picture of our field hockey team. They were on a team bonding outing to Hadlock Field in Portland to see the Sea Dogs play during the preseason. Um, in a moment I'll open it up to for questions from members of the board. I do want to um because we have some new folks to the board. So you might not understand um the the growth versus achievement, right? So the achievement measures that were shared with you um reflect percentage of kids who are at grade level. grade level is considered 40th percentile or above. Growth measures are essentially kind of think about um you go out and you run a mile today and then there's um a year from now you go out and you run a mile and um there's a goal set as part

094of a national sample that says okay you ran this mile in 10 minutes um you should be able to run it in 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Well, when you think about a mile, some people are going to meet their goal, some people are not. And statistically, using the NWA assessment, an average school, an average teacher, an average district is 50th percentile. Okay. Um what's considered um by the developers of the assessment, a low performing classroom or a low performing school or a low performing district is the 25th percentile. What's considered the gold standard is if you actually have growth measures of 75% or above, you would be statistically an outlier and considered an exceptional classroom overtime, school overtime or district overtime. We had set 50th percentile. We do know that there are pockets that

095hold down those results and we want to really dig deeper into those settings and we know that there are outliers on the high end where we have teachers that consistently perform at the 90th uh percentile in growth measures. So that is what um Mrs. Twitchell and Dr. Doyle are working on right now. There'll be a presentation at the board meeting, our next board meeting about some of the statistical data around student achievement and outcomes and goals. But I just wanted to explain that because if I didn't know education and I said, "Oh geez, why are they asking for a goal of 50th percentile or 53rd percentile?" We're really relating this to over time. and and we're digging even a little deeper when we're comparing how a student performs spring to spring. So that um when

096we're trying to test kids at their very best, maximizing their learning for the school year, we want to then test and assess rather than fall to spring as well. So that's why those might jump out. we might have had um say 50th or 55th percentile in in growth but then on the flip side you might have seen 80% at the proficient level. Um I think a reasonable person that's not an educator might not not understand that and hopefully I explained it well. If I didn't I'm sure that Mrs. Twitchel or Dr. Doyle can do it far better than I just did. Questions from the board to I'll pass it off to you to >> yes >> take care of that. Does anyone have any questions for our administrators regarding what was just presented Mark? Uh

097Amy. >> Um so I'm just going to go like for the first one. I was just wondering for um Mrs. Richards at the line school since you have the most I I think it was one of the most new teachers at your school. um how is the mentorship program um going for you and your teachers and do you have that um because I know there's been a lot of turnover at your school. So I think that that would be >> just I don't know if we could hear a little bit about that. >> Yep. Yep. >> You have to can you push the button? I'll turn the mic back on and we'll just leave it going. There you go. >> Okay. Um it's going really well. So we have incredible teachers who have been there

098for a long time. They know the school. They know the system. they know the needs of the building. Um, and they have partnered up beautifully. Um, Miss Twitchel actually have I don't know how she did it so well. Um, but we're playing on the strengths of the mentors with some of the um, areas that those specific grade levels need. So, it's been going well in my check-ins with those teachers. They are feeling incredibly supported. They are our newer teachers are really like flocking together, which is really cool. Um, and just constantly collaborative. So even if it's their prep time and you know they've got a stack of papers to grade, they're still meeting whether it's with their mentors or each other. So I think those conversations are the things that's definitely keeping them alive. And

099I think with so many new people to our building, like I said, that that feeling of excitement and hope is just contagious. Um so I think all of those pieces together are what's causing that feeling of support and hope. So far it's been really good. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Yeah. Mark. >> So, I have a few questions um in a general sense about um growth and achievement. Um climate and culture. Clearly, we're doing an outstanding job and I want to compliment all of you. Everything I hear from community members is that kids love going to school whether you know whatever where whether whichever elementary school it is. I talked to a lot of people and they love it. and the middle school and the high school. So, congratulations on that. Um Dr. McKe, maybe

100it would be best for you though. Um the one thing we didn't get was what was the starting point um for our targets? In other words, if we use Shappley, they um they scored 43 and 64. But where did they start? Um and and and where did all each elementary school and and start? >> Well, the data that was shared was where they where they were for this past year. So, we're using that as the starting point for this year. Are you asking for historical like a number of years? >> No, I'm just asking. So, we set a goal that um and I think and maybe line misspoke. I I thought every elementary school set a 50% target >> last year. >> Correct. So, they set a target of achieving 50% over last school year.

101Where did they start that year? >> I don't have that off the top of my head for their numbers. I don't know if anyone's prepared to share that level of detail, but we can have that information at the next meeting because we're going to be talking about mentors at the next meeting and we're also going to talk about historical um data at our next meeting. >> Right. Oh, go ahead. I'm So I'm not sure if I understand your question completely. >> Well, my assumption and again I'm I'm only using Shappley because that's the first page, but they reached uh they met growth targets. There 64% of students met growth target. Uh they had set a goal of 50. Um the goal I'm assuming of 50 was set because they weren't at 50. >> You wouldn't

102set a target that's below what you already were achieving. district. Um, we these results are an improvement, but I don't want to give the specifics because I don't have those readily available and I'm not sure if Tiffany does. Um, >> our growth measures were lowered. >> So, we'll be able to provide that at our next meeting. I just don't >> I see the numbers, but I can't make any determination of how well each school did unless I know where they started. >> Okay. >> Oh, what their growth was the previous year. >> That's what you're looking for. >> Yeah. Again, if you take Chappley, we we have to assume that if you set a target of 50, they were below 50 and clearly in reading they did a great job then and must have increased

103by at least 15%. >> Right. Okay. or else they were above that number and then we set we set a goal that made no sense. >> So we're looking for percentage of students who met their growth targets the previous year for each school. >> So we can see how we did. Yeah. >> But we'll be providing that. For tonight's purposes, what we wanted to do is really be specific. The goal for this past year was X >> and did we meet it or not meet it? if we didn't meet it, what did we achieve or what growth was was present and then based on that because we we um >> so we can't know that number can we unless we know our starting point >> the um the way the measure works it will tell

104you so like if I'm a student and I'm say I'm a a fourth grader and um I score 200 right my growth and you're a fourth grader and you score at 210, right? We're not when I'm when it's determined if I met my growth target, >> it's going to be a different growth target in some cases than another student who might sit next to me. Some years the growth targets are the exact same number depending on how they norm. Um so each individual student um has a different growth target. What we had did in the past was what I inherited was did a kid or a student show one point of growth. That doesn't really show a lot of anything because most growth targets are say 7 8 9 10 12 depending on the grade

105the growth targets going to be different. So we set it at 50th because the belief was we want to be at least solidly average as kind of a starting point and then from there move and and over time you're going to have different cohorts that are going to be perform at different levels no different than a sports team performs at different levels depending on who is on your bench. So what we did last year was set it at 50th percentile to say at the very least we want to be solidly average. Now we're going to use that as a kind of a um a starting point and move from there. In many examples we were well below 50th but we'll have that at the next meeting. >> Okay. And okay, >> are we you understand

106what I was asking for too though because I look at these numbers and I say well if in each elementary school I have no real sense of what gains were really made for for that year unless I know where they started. I if if Shappley is now at 43% or last year obtained 43% growth rate in math did did they move the needle forward backwards or not at all? We'll we'll provide that. Okay. >> Um at the next meeting. In many cases, groups move the needle forward and in some cases they did not. >> Right. And um that's why it's so important to look at growth and achievement because if you um it's easy to look great if you're only looking at performance uh or achievement if you have um really a high-f flyier group.

107I I know of an example and our administrators have heard me talk about this a great deal. Several years ago, I was working in a district and there was a school that was a blue ribbon school of excellence really failed on growth but had um top 10 for all elementary schools in achievement um but no growth and they were listed as a school in need of improvement three years after being a national blue ribbon school of excellence. So that's why we look at both measures, achievement and growth. How do we move all kids regardless of where they are? So these percentages are all based on individual students growth measures that then comprise a school level growth measure, but we'll have it to show you how it was last year versus this year versus where we're

108hoping to be next year. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Minutes. Yeah, I just don't have it right readily to tell you the exact number. >> So there in the in the September 11th minutes from last fall. >> Yeah. >> Uh hold on, let me >> So my second question is I I see any school that's at 50% or better. There just seem to be everyone is going to move 3%. Was that how was that decision made? >> Um Dr. Do can speak to this a little bit more as well, but we wanted to have something that was measurable and setting the goal. The further the higher the growth, the harder it is going to be to actually show that level. It's all incremental, right? It's like um somebody that runs a 4hour marathon can show

109tons of growth, but if you're a a two hour and 10 marathoner, your growth measure is going to be really tight. So, it's going to be hard to do that. But what we did was we tried to align it with some of our grant proposals, right, that we have to do for state and federal government and have something that folks could understand. So when we're when we're looking at 2,800 students collectively as a district, we want to take our existing growth targets and move 3% of our students so we're moving in in that right direction. Um obviously we want to well exceed I mean ideally we'd have growth targets and go growth goals of 75% but it's all about being realistic and um realistic we believe was going to be 3% across the board. 3%

110is going to be very unique in a small school like Alfred or Chappley because not all kids take the test. our youngest kids don't. Right. And then and then we don't have the information. It's a little more complex for prek and K. Um prek we don't do it. >> Mhm. >> Um so if you have a larger sample, it's more consistent and you have a higher confidence interval. You believe in the numbers better than if you have a small sample because one or two students can change your percentages quickly. Right. I understand. And my final question on um on the numbers, all of the schools that did not achieve 50% have have now that as a as a goal again um except the high school was what was the logic for that? >> That's an

111error in my opinion and I already um made note of it in this but I wasn't going to we want to we want to have everybody at 50th percentile. >> So that goal is going to be changed. Um, yes, but I what we what we need to do is confirm how we articulated it in a grant. So, in my notes, I had actually written that. I didn't catch it prior, but we want to confirm on how we did our application. Was it at that number or the 50th percentile? I believe um I don't know the answer and that's a question I'm going to >> Fair enough. So again 50th would have been the minimum. So if you look at um I think it might have been Shappley they were below 50th and um so they

112automatically were put at 50th. They were at 43. All the schools were >> Yeah. except the high school. >> Correct. individual questions, but you you can come back to me. >> Okay. >> Uh yes. Hi, I have a question for Mr. Thrillo at the high school. Um, with the new cell phone usage policy, um, have you put into place or considered, um, putting into place committees within your staff of supporting students through that new policy with their mental health and their social emotional learning, getting more away from their devices? So, one of the things I didn't mention in the opening of schools uh report is that we've moved to a new leadership structure at the at the high school uh in reference to staffing and how they're doing their professional learning community work, which is

113everything from curriculum review to gradebook review to discussing some of these um real sort of boots on the ground situations around how to support students best. Um we have a social workggoidance department which is nine people strong. So four school counselors, five social workers. Um their their goal actually which was today was their first meeting is to be looking at some of the supports that we already um uh provide. Uh if you'll remember back in October of 2024, we had a community forum where we listed off uh I don't know the number off my top of my head, but there's a few dozen supports and programs and services that are provided. and we're really focusing in on looking at those programs to ensure that the things that we need to keep going, they actually does

114keep going or if we need to address some some new things. Um, one of the pieces that we put together also, I have a list of students that have been generating from over the summer, students that have communicated with me and contacted me interested to talk a little bit more not only about the absence of cell phones, but in May, we started a mental health awareness club at the high school that is uh advised by one of our social workers and led by two of our students. And so that's a third group that is looking at some of the different activities that can be um really around awareness campaigns and activities around the school system. So that work began again in May. Um I was very happy to u receive several communications over the summer

115from students uh very much in support of the board policy but wanting to know what they could do to help their um their classmates which is a huge thing. I think it really speaks to the character of a lot of our students. So, um I hope that answers the question that the work has begun but is ongoing and um really will never stop in in that respect. >> Yeah. >> Uh in my with my experience, I work for a school that adopted this policy as well. My advice to you, stay strong, stay consistent, and good luck. >> Yeah. Thanks. And off of what Mark was talking about with the results, we also had gotten the main individualized student report afterwards for some of us. Will that be will that will we get that in the

116data next time like in comparison to >> which which portion because it might be part of the development. What what do you want this >> the through your data? Is that what you're >> Yeah, the one that got mailed to us later separately. it. So it's actually the same test, >> right? >> They just convert it to expectations, >> correct? >> Yeah. >> So will will we be able to see that alongside like how other areas of the state have done? >> I don't know about that specific comparison. I'd have to look at it and get back to you. But I will say that if you're looking to compare schools across the state and look at data that way, um you might might remember in the spring I had given an overview of the ESSA

117the ESEA dashboard that's available on the state website. We could provide that link to you as well. And there's tons of opportunities to kind of to crunch that data. We can provide that. >> Are there any other questions for um our administrators? Mark? Yeah, the just the individual school questions. Two for Waterboro. Um Kelly, um you said that um other students attend other schools. How many? >> Water elementary. >> Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I said I Yeah. >> Yeah. Water. >> I'm sorry. I said Kelly. I apologize. >> Well, they're both in Waterboro. So, >> is this one? >> It's on. >> No. No. Don't make excuses for me. I screwed up. >> It's okay. When I was speaking about that, it was specifically for prek students. We had what happens is if we

118are full in prek at Waterborough and some of the other ele elementary schools have openings, we offer those spots to families that are on the wait list. So I don't I can't recall the specific number, but it could be between three to five students that are attending the other schools. But um the other grades there's no Waterboro student that's not in Waterborough. >> I mean we have indistrict agreements that go through Dr. Marquee. So I think we all have those situations in all of our schools and I don't have that number off the top of my head. >> And um you mentioned that um the state was going to provide um PD for the math for me. Who who does that? Who from the state does that? uh they have different um departments. So it's

119the the staff through the main department of education that are in the math. I don't know can't remember off the top of my head their names. Um >> and how will they deliver that? >> Is that >> there are multiple meetings for the cohort of teachers that are virtual. So I believe they have six one and a half hour meetings throughout the year that are online and then there will be three visits to the school where they are coming and spending the whole day. They're going to go into those classrooms when they're teaching math >> and then they'll be offering some suggestions on top of the visit where they're coming to our family night. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Sure. And I had um I had a question for the East Building, Mr.

120Okconor. Um you said we keep 48 students in district. I think that's wonderful. I was just curious how many students are we do we have to send out because we can't provide services. >> Uh currently we have 16 out of district. >> 16 out. >> Yeah. And uh with a couple we're working on our way back. >> And how far do they how far do they go >> this year? I think the furthest would probably be Scar Bro, uh the Morrison Center. Um that's right now is the the furthest >> and we transport. >> We do. >> Okay. >> Yep. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> And um my last question was for Ty. Um and just a curiosity about GPA and class rank based on the fact that you've gone from one

121to four to percentages. Are is that how did you do that? >> Yeah. Um, so Mrs. Ellis, our dean of academics, she and I uh locked ourselves in my office for uh no lie about 12 hours. First developing a translation plan that went from uh the 1 to4 that started at 0.0000 and went to 100.0000 00 0 and made sure that each 10point scale in 0 to 100 had the same uh distance in the 1 to4 scale and then we checked it several times and then we gave it to Mr. O'Hara and his team and they checked it several times. Then we ran the script in the background which is just a fancy statement which Mr. O'Hara can go into years and years of explanation for you to ensure that a number that was 1

122to four in our current grade book would be synonymous with that same translation in the 0 to 100 percentage scale. Um that script was run several times to ensure that there were no glitches. Um and then my administrative assistant, Miss Renault and Mrs. Ellis went over it for uh a fourth time before we finally ran the script in real time. And so that translation process not only took place in the gradebook but also took place on the transcript side of things. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Now with the new system um your advanced classes are they >> are they given any bump? >> Accelerated classes have a 5% bump and AP classes have a 10% bump. That bump is um implemented and applied at progress reports which are quarters and then semester ends. So there'll

123be four different times where that is applied. So as a student in accelerated and AP course, your grade will simply be the 0ero to 100 percentage that you have earned, but the bump will be at the end of that particular uh reporting period. The reason we have to do that is because synergy, and this is not a knock on synergy, if you have stock in synergy, I'm just trying to tell the truth. They only allow us up to 100. So it's 0 to 100. They do not allow a 105 or a 110. So teachers must grade between 0 to 100 and the five and 10% bump is applied at the progress reporting period >> by hand or >> uh it's it's by it's it's a calculation within the synergy grade book but we do have

124to enter we can do it for an entire class. So we add a 5% bump to the entire class so all grades get that 5% bump. >> I see. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, of course. >> No, sorry Dean. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, I had a question for Mr. O' Conor. Um, this is more of a clarifying question just because I'm new to the board, so I'm just trying to uh get my bearings. >> Um, so this building accesses all 48 students that you mentioned in your enrollment. And are these 48 students specifically enrolled in this building because they're they can't access GenEd? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It's uh it's considered their least restrictive environment. Um we we when they come here it's usually through referral. We go through a

125lot of different kind of processes and interventions and once we've exhausted all of them >> then they end up here. However, they do remain um what we call concurrent enrollment. So like the east building we're not cons like the east building is part of the high school. So we're not our own school but essentially they remain um enrolled at their at their community school and they're we we have kind of a separate thing internally that they're here. So that way they maintain connections with their community school building. So even though they go to school here have most some of them are in transition they'll take a class and come back and vice versa. um depending on what the needs are, the goal is always to work them back and we've we've had success with that.

126Um but um essentially they are if it's a if it's a line student, they're still a line student, but they're just they're they're taking their classes here based on their needs, >> right? Yep. >> And um beyond that scope of like when they say graduate out of the program or um they need to meet, you know, a different LRE. Mhm. >> Um, is there transportation that brings students back and forth to each? >> Yeah, we work it out with our transportation department. Um, a lot of times it's a van. Um, sometimes we we we really try to coordinate uh with with folks to make it as efficient as possible. So, if we have a couple of students in transition, we'll take we'll work with the principles and the staff at the other building to see

127what works and so that way we're not having vans running every 20 minutes. So, >> Yep. >> Do you have any type of mentorship program? um with the high school um within this building to >> we do um we we actually uh we have high school students that we interview and we practice interview skills. Uh they come over and they learn kind of early childhood development and we'll work in the um our little Mustangs program. Uh we've had had a few um who have shown some interest in wanting to work in our functional life skills, our elementary um but we keep it at the elementary level. we don't have them work with kind of the middle school and high school just for um proper purposes, but um we've had a lot of success with students

128and uh we reinforce the cell phone like the kids really rely on seeing you and you know we we often tell them it all holds true usually when the high school kids come over. Our staff can't compete there. They they they have done a great job. Um, and I appreciate the work with with the high school allowing that to happen and we coordinate that to make sure it's not interfering. You know, work comes first, sports comes all of that. They got to take care of business to be able to do that. Um, but we found it fascin It's it's been really rewarding watching them work, but more importantly watching them kind of go through um the process of interviewing for that position to it's not just something because you're on campus, you just automatically get

129to do it. So, >> and uh one more question for you. Could you um tell me about any of your unified programs? Do your unified programs extend to the middle school level um up to the high school level? >> Yes, they do. Um yeah, we have unified uh programs uh at the high school and at the middle school level. Um we are very actively involved in the Special Olympics both winter and spring uh as well. It's actually the spring is one of my favorite times to go. Uh bummed they don't do it at Sugarloaf anymore. That was always a good time. we always represented well. Um, but we are very active in in that arena. Uh, we have actually we are working with uh I've actually been in contact with the director in SACO who

130wants to work at the elementary level. We we kind of did some basketball work at the water at Waterborough uh the last few years. So that's that's taken hold that the new one right now uh there's a lot of interest in botchi. >> Yes. >> So botchi is the new >> I've been a unified botchi coach and it's fun >> the new and up and cominging sport. So, we're looking into that as well. So, a bunch of the directors um in York County have been working together to try to get that organized and get that moving. >> That's excellent. Thank you for sharing. >> You're welcome. >> Uh I have the data for you, Mark, and I'd like to share it u with all of you because it's actually quite good in comparison. But I

131do want to qualify one thing. When I shared about data, I shared that we believe a more accurate um assessment would be comparing spring to spring because then you don't have to worry about a summer dip. You don't have to you are testing kids at their very best hopefully and at their very best hopefully. So when I go through the data, I'll ask you to go right to the very start and go to Shappley's page first and I'm going to give you the numbers and I want to qualify because we will we can provide you with the exact same data that was shared last year related to this past to the year prior which was actually fall to spring. All right. >> On the right hand column, achievement, those actual numbers that I provide you

132will be very consistent because it's spring of 24, spring of 23, spring of 25. So um so I do want to share this. There will be one caveat when we get to the high school because um the way in which it was shared um can't be compared to this and we'll be implementing the exact same process all the way through moving forward. So on on uh Shappley 38% were of students were meeting growth targets in math in the previous year 42% in reading. >> Oo big jump >> for achievement 50 for math and 57 for reading. both huge jumps >> for line school. Um it was 30% for math. >> That is a big jump >> and 40% for reading. >> In mathematics for achievement it was 51 and we went to 56. And in

133reading it was 56 and it went to 62. I'm going to stop for one moment. Realize in some of our schools we had such significant jumps. It likely will be challenging to get to those levels that our admin have shared. They're very lofty to be really clear. Alfred, um it was 53 for growth for math and 47 for reading. In achievement, it was 73 for math and it was 78 for reading. For Lyman, it was 45% board meeting growth >> for math and 44% for reading. For achievement, it was 53% >> Whoa. >> for math and 54% for reading. For Waterboroough it was 47% growth for math, 46% for reading. For achievement, it was 61% for math and 63% for reading. For the middle school, it was 47% growth for math, 42% for reading. And

134then for achievement, it was 54% for math and 59% for reading. And I've already done the disclaimer that the high school um I cannot tell you if it was if there was growth or not. I can tell you the high school is my area that I think we should show the greatest improvement in growth and the greatest improvement in achievement because it was an outlier in those realms for us as a district. And Mr. Thurlo is aware of that and is making concerted efforts to to address that with Dr. Doyle and Mrs. Twitchell. So, I think we're really in goodstead and um I apologize that we didn't have that level of information, but it was a great question that allows us to show that we we're making some nice gains. And it's for those reasons,

135I think, that we saw some of our schools really catapult um upwards in school rankings um in a number of different platforms that we talked about last year. Again, some of those things you're going to go up some years and you're going to go down some years, but the growth measures are most critical because as your growth measures um as your percentage of kids meeting growth targets increases, the likelihood of achievement levels also increasing um is highly likely. Oh, great question and I apologize we didn't have the information right readily available. >> Yeah. I appreciate all your efforts. >> Yeah. >> I I wish we had had that ahead of time because man, that looks so good. So, thank you guys. >> I I'll take I will actually take responsibility for that because I shared

136with Dr. Marquee that the board will be looking for. What was last year's goal and did we meet it or not? That's what I had him focus on. No, I'll take it. I will I I will admit that that's what I asked him for and uh so that's what he provided. So that was me and um I'm willing to say when it's me it's fine. Uh Amy, >> um I just want to say that I think that that really shows, you know, the growth um of the students, but also just the hard work that all of you did and all of our teachers and edexs and everyone in the building. And um I think that I know everyone hates to talk about budget season, but like this is the type of data we need to

137blast all over the community. Like we like I mean these are crazy numbers for growth. So that's extremely positive and I feel like that's what the community wants to hear. Even though obviously we know there's all these other things going on, but it always goes down to the numbers. So I feel like everyone's like focus on reading and math. Okay. Well, we did. [Laughter] So that's all I have to say. I think it's great work. Great start to the year. Love it. >> Dr. Um I just wanted to add a piece um as you were speaking earlier about the the data questions that you have which are very valid ones especially when you think about how do we set the goals and how do we determine what is achievable for folks. Um I wrote a

138quick note that we had spoke about this last year and I distinctly remember that opening conversation when we have that that growth goal and you notice it probably as we went through and you heard everybody say our growth goal is 50%. I distinctly remember that conversation of you saying man that seems pretty ambitious and as it turned out it was. Um, when we look back on that now, the the commentary and the the focus that we have on growth is definitely a reflection of the board's feedback for what that's worth. Um, I commend Miss Twitchell and our administrators if we as we have worked through our process this year, I the the hours and hours and hours we have spent um the folks that we have involved in that process of checking and re-checking, are

139we looking at the right numbers or not? Those of you who are educators in the room or may have that past experience, if you have any familiarity with the NWA or the map growth interface, what you find is that people who produce data really love to produce data and when they do, they can slice it and dice it any way you want. And you might remember the conversation that we had in the spring about presenting that information. There's lots of different ways we can do it. We've worked really really hard as a team, just so just so folks are aware, we've worked really really hard to make sure that when we look at the data, we're looking at the right data, the same data, that we're pulling that data down every single time. Um, we

140had a conversation in the spring, I recall, as well, about norms and how we compare that. And some of the struggles that we face are likely the struggles that are faced by other districts nationwide. Um, and we still learn things every day. Miss Twitchell kind of pulled me aside as NWA is redoing their benchmarks. um and was like, "Oh my gosh, there's this piece about high school data that at the high school level, the NWA, for example, the sample set really isn't as applicable." Because once students reach that high school level, they um the sample actually changes. It's not like it's administered to whole groups, but rather the norms, that whole sample set is actually informed by maybe some subgroups. And not all schools nationwide use it like Maine does for its state assessment, for

141example. So, even when we try to consistently look at data, there are challenges, there are surprises. I've been in high school for my entire educational career and that was a piece that I hadn't quite considered before. Um, we will continue to try to provide you with the cleanest look at that data and the most consistent as much as we can given the fact that things do shift. Um, but know that that's been a renewed effort and and all the things that have happened behind the scenes. your questions are valid ones and we look back at that and think, man, that would have been really nice to be able to have that ready for you to compare. The reality is the scope of it is massive and so we're doing our best to be forward thinking

142and present to you data that's consistent and reliable and we can finally establish a trend that's really really important to us. So, please keep bringing us those questions and we'll do our best. >> Thank you. Uh yeah and I believe to on the high school level the NWAS is just given to 9 and 11th >> 910. Okay. Yeah. Um so that skews it as well. >> That is a shift in and of itself. Yeah. And if you've followed the course of even just the last decade in high school assessment, good luck trying to find that trend data. It's it's very difficult as we've moved through SAT, Smarter Balanced, and each of those assessments has its own flaws. um you know back in the days of SAT which many of us might be familiar with the

143argument was made then all not all students are collegebound and so does that really serve you know the best interest of students just as an example we switched to smarter balance which was the first time that we went to um computer-based tests and then you're asking yourself the question of what are we really assessing are we assessing what students know or their ability to navigate this computer-based tool um so there's just a ton of factors none of those are excuses but I make that I say that to make the point that it's really really challenging to get consistent data. And what we all want to know, the question we all want to ask is, is our instruction doing what we want it to do? Are the resources producing gains for students um amidst a million

144other changing factors? So, I think that's the challenge that we have have tried to do and I know Miss Churchill in particular, but also with support from our folks in IT and our building administrators, we've really really tried to streamline it and get as consistent as we can. >> Yeah. Um I want to speak a little bit um just continuing the conversation about high school. The way um schools are ranked oftent times does relate right back to tests unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at that. The challenge we see is we um a couple years ago we had like 125 kids involved at the high school in athletics. You guys remember that we had teams with 900 students, high school with one student running cross country on the girls side, for example. So,

145we've made concerted efforts around engagement, advancing our programs, adding new opportunities, really exploring how to um engage kids through SRTC and and Bford Center of Technology and um our like there's just a lot going on. Unfortunately, um we we cannot be in a position where we don't take those assessment uh tests more seriously because they truly are a reflection. No high school kid truly wants to take those tests. So, we need to um and some teachers don't really want to administer those tests, but the reality is the tests likely have hurt our rankings and our goals. we started to inch up again, but I think we we actually got lower in in a number of key rankings for our high school and it does come back to testing. So, um you as a board, please

146know that that's something that Mr. Thurlo and his team are looking really closely at and we should see a drastic improvement, I believe, if we um really uh do the things that the high school is looking to do. And uh as a result of that um our rankings would also improve. When school rankings improve, you all have heard me talk at Nauseium about the fact that as schools improve, house valuations improve, resale values improve. Um taxation actually often drops because of valuation increases and new home construction land values increase. And um so that's really our goal. And um and we do know that we have wonderful elementary schools, we have wonderful middle school, we have a wonderful high school, and now we just need to make sure that we're hitting the correct targets so that

147um folks really see us as an attractive location. Um because truth be told, when we develop budgets, we really do need to be thinking um most specifically about the high school because people don't move to communities for a wonderful little elementary school, right? What we see in this district is many families will move here for wonderful elementary schools and then once they have some equity, they sell their homes and they move to places with more breadth of program at the high school level. So, we need to be able to afford uh or provide those sorts of opportunities for our students because kids opportunities should not be defined by zip code. And um and I know that you all get it. I know our administrators get it. And I think we're making tremendous strides because we

148truly have the best administrative team sitting over there of any place in Maine, I believe. Obviously, I'm biased, but I think I'm quite right most of the time and often am right. So, >> yes. >> So, thank you guys very much. >> Any last questions, thoughts? Thank you all so much. We appreciate it. [Applause] We're going to talk policy, so you're welcome to stick around. No. >> Thank you. All right. Next up, first read of policies. Beth. All right. It is tough to follow the last chair of policy, but I'm going to do my best here. So, if people have questions, feel free to ask. And of course, I This is why I was supposed to follow Wes because he talked about Mark. So, Adam is the vice chair of policy and he is more

149like co-chair. I feel like he's keeping me straight here. Um, so he can definitely answer a lot of questions too. Um, okay. So, um, you want me I go through all of them? >> Go right through all >> at once. Okay. Um, so the first policy up is, um, these are all first reads. B E Df. So, this one is, um, kind of a leftover coming in front of the board. Um, there's a few wording changes, a few things that we took out. Um this is just timing from the last um from last year. We wouldn't have had time to bring it forward for our second read. So we tabled it to come up this year. Um so BCC uh this one we had a lot of discussion about actually. Um so we t when

150you go through this and read it if you have questions certainly reach out to me or to Adam. Um based on the oh and I want to bring up that on this one under definitions for the purpose of this policy a immediate family means spouse or domestic partner. We actually in error here we crossed off it should be crossed off brother sister son or daughter. I'll kind of go through that but that will also be crossed off. So as we talked about in policy um changing dynamics of families right now adult kids are continuing to live with their parents after college. Extended families are all moving in together. So we had a lot of discussion about the definition of immediate family and limiting that to um spouse and domestic partner. U main state law only

151mandates on this policy that it is spouse and domestic partner. So we would not be violating the law by taking that part out. Um speaking with administrators they at the policy meeting um they felt that there are are plenty of safeguards in place and other policies in place that surround like the supervision and the hiring of family members um like brother, sister, son or daughter um that they felt okay about that um being allowed. And we felt like we needed to keep the pool of candidates a little bit larger, keeping keeping families in district. And then we want families to raise teachers. And these kids are going to go to school. They're still going to live at home, but we want wanted to keep them here in in district and um and teach in our

152in our district. Um so if you have questions about that one at all, read through it and let me know. Let me or Adam and I um both by our next meeting is October 1st. Um, moving on to the next one, BEDL. Uh, so this one is pretty simple. This was a change in time for schoolboard meetings. I can't imagine anyone is going to have a problem with this one. The old policy stated that we could not do new business after 10 p.m. So, we are changing it to 900 p.m. because we're starting at 6:00 instead of 7. Um, so that is that what that changes. BG. Um, we are bringing this to a for a first read. Since creating the policy is one of the most important things that a school board does, we

153thought bringing that for a first read is also important. The other thing that we added was the definition of policy set forth by the National School Board Association. So, you can kind of read through that one. BG-R and this is the procedure for adopting policies. We had a few changes and additions. Um, this is another one that's really important for the board to read and understand. Um, so, uh, we felt like you all should read through that one as well. And then I is that it for first reads? >> Okay, that is it. We tried not to, uh, kill you guys on the first meeting. >> Second meeting. >> Thanks, Beth. So, and with any policy when the committee is reviewing it, they're also taking a look at the MSMA sample and trying to bring

154those policies in alignment with those. So, I would anticipate that since the policy committee isn't meeting until October 1st that we can bring these back for our second read at the board meeting following that. So, if you have any questions for Beth or Adam or want anything discussed at that policy meeting, you can bring that that will give the committee a chance to meet before these come back for a second read. Um, >> one thing that we will likely need to consider and I'll talk with Jod and Dr. Doyle. Um, when we we have a membership to MSMA and um something that Dr. Do Doyle Cot, which I've never considered. Um, we're not supposed to publish their policies per se. It's actually in a encrypted file. Oh, that we use it, the policy committee would

155use it, but we likely will be um discontinuing sharing the um please know that the policy committee is using those, but we won't be publishing those samples because we actually don't have the authority to do so. That make sense? Just a procedural update in case you wonder why we discontinue that. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> That's more of a technical question. If we have questions, are we allowed to email Beth or Adam? Because >> wouldn't that be construed a meeting? >> Okay. >> If you email them a question for them to bring to the committee, it can be addressed at the committee. >> It's when you start a group email and you're asking questions back and forth and you start >> deliberating and making decisions in an email. That's when uh when you can get

156in trouble. But no, you can email them a question or a suggestion, something that you want brought before it comes back for a second read. All right, I'm going to make a motion to accept the first reads. >> Second. >> Any further discussion on those? So, we have a motion and a second to accept the first reads. All in favor? That carries. Next up, removal of policies. Um, so this is JFCK-R. Um, this one we had there was a very extensive change to the policy as we all know about the cell phone policy. Um, in talking with Tai uh at the policy meeting, JFCK is very much allincclusive and this policy is no longer needed. It was um it just had some really definitions and things like that, but um we felt like the JFC

157policy was very thorough and you can reference that. And uh so we are looking to delete this policy. Any questions regarding that? Can I get a motion to remove policy JFC- Melissa? Judith, did you do you want to second it? I think Melissa beat you to the >> Sorry, you can second it. >> I can. >> All right. Next time. >> All right. So, we have a motion in a second to remove policy JFC-R. Any discussion? All in favor? And carries. Uh calendar and announcements are at the bottom of your agenda. Upcoming meetings. Don't forget your homework. Um, human resources is meeting next week, so we'll be bringing schoolboard goals to our next school board meeting on September 24th. Um, and that is all. We are adjourned. 8:07 p.m.