001All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call the June 25th meeting to order at 7 PM. If everyone could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Roll call. Melissa Bacon here. Carmen Barski here. Suzanne Bower. Mark Cardzano excused. Elizabeth Day here. Michelle Felisetti here. Anastasia Ferguson here. Eric Garrison. Jod Lane here. Jennifer Mayo here. Amy Morrison here. Wes Finny here. Adam Tangway excused. D Vigliata here. Judith Vel Walker Vivian here. We have a quorum with 13 directors present. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? No adjustments to the agenda. All right. Next up, consent agenda. Can I get a motion to accept the consent agenda or approve agenda? Anastasia and Beth. Any comments, questions on that. All in favor? Motion carries. Public comment. We do not have any public comment this evening.
002Board chair report. I will keep things brief. I redid my paper so I won't miss anything this time. I'm going to start off a couple schoolboard anniversaries. So, as of this month, Michelle Felicetti has been on the board for one year. [Applause] And Amy Morrison, two years on the board, and just reelected. So, I also want to welcome D. Vigliata. She is a new board member from Waterboro who's filling a one-year term for us. So, welcome. Happy to have you. [Applause] And that's all I have. So, I'm going to turn things over to Dr. Marquee for the superintendent's report. Walker, do you have a report? Um, I couldn't recall. It's been kind of a a whirlwind the last few weeks. So, go ahead, Walker. Okay. So, good evening everyone. So, this is the final edition
003of the student representative report for the 2425 school year. Um, so schools hosted celebrations for students to honor all of their achievements throughout the year and there were final exams and test uh tests issued as all learning was wrapped up before summer break began on June 13th. So, Master Bic High School had um underassman award assemblies during the last week of school where they gave awards to again recognize all of the achievements and hard work students have done throughout the year. And they had a final exam schedule. uh it was staggered so only two of the four daily blocks could issue a final exam. Um the final schedule did mean that uh Thursday and Friday afternoon blocks three and four there were no classes scheduled. So students spent this time uh catching up on any
004final work um doing any missed exams and spending some time with uh friends and teachers before the end of the school year. There was a different um space offered in each room and all student devices except for those taking uh AP classes and dual enrollment classes were collected over the summer which will be a new policy going forward. The eighth graders at Master Bic Middle School had a grade and team um level assemblies to recognize their hard work and achievements during their final year of middle school. They had a cookout, uh, a field trip to the Portland Sea Dogs, a field day, and a semi formal celebration dance. They will be, uh, becoming freshman at Master Bic High School in the fall, and they will certainly be missed at the middle school. Sixth and seventh
005grade students also were celebrated uh, for their contributions to the school and achievements throughout the year, and they will be the new leaders at the school next year as the incoming sixth graders are welcomed. At Waterboro Elementary, there are most more uh celebrations. The learning works art club completed the mu mural that they have been working on, making the walls of the school more vibrant and alive. Uh there was a second grade spring art show recently hosted and at the last school assembly model mustangs character awards and achievements and growth awards were given out to students. Wyman Elementary's egg drop was a large success thanks to uh great support and many generous donations from the community. About half of the egg survived and students learned a lot about the design process. Uh there was also
006perfect weather during a fun field day. Fifth graders had a celebration and an exciting day of bowling as well. On Tuesday, June 10th, fifth graders at Alfred Elementary had a fun day of bowling as well. Uh the next day they had their fifth grade celebration where they celebrated for the hard work throughout elementary school as they graduated from elementary school and prepared to transition into middle school. Uh the annual variety show was the day before the last day of school where there were many fun and talented acts by students and field day was on the last day of school. Chapley Memorial's fifth grade celebration was on June 11th. The next day was field day and volunteers helped the fun event run smoothly. and the end of year celebration and stepup day where students brief briefly
007meet with the next teacher uh for the next year were both held on the last day of school. So uh as as I went over all seven schools throughout the district had celebrations for students but especially fifth and eighth grade students who will be leaving their schools and transitioning to a new uh building next year on Thursday, August 28th, the open health. They'll be able to see their new teachers and meet their uh their new uh learning environment for the next year. Uh 12th graders at the high school were celebrated prior to and during their graduation ceremony on June 6th. The fifth, eighth, and 12th grade students were all great groups who will be missed at their former schools, but everyone who knew them is very confident that they will make a positive impact on
008their new location. So, when school begins on September 2nd for grades 1 through nine and SRTC students and for all students on the 3rd, things will be a little different at the high school with the new personal device policy implemented and the switch to percentage-based grading being made. There will be new opportunities throughout the district, such as the law enforcement club at Massive Basic Middle School. And while there will be a lot happening when school begins in the fall, students and staff alike will be relaxing and recharging after a fantastic effort throughout this year. The school year has brought a great deal of success and achievement on many fronts which was made possible only by the dedication, perseverance, and tirelessness of administrators, staff members, families, and students. And that concludes the uh final student representative
009report for the 2425 school year, unless you'd like me to write some summer reports, although they they'd probably only be a sentence or two. There's not that much to write about. I was actually gonna tell you that if you wanted to take the month of July off, you you can't walk. I I don't think I can pass up that opportunity. Right. Then you can join us back in August. You're amazing, Walker. So, thank you. Um he he really did sum up. There were a great deal was happening at the end of the school year and uh um ironically there is a lot going on this summer. will be having um significant programming here at this building uh on the high school campus as well as at Waterboro Elementary and out at Lion School. We'll give
010you updates at our next meeting or the following meeting um for summer school and and extended learning opportunities that are afforded to students. Um as you could see probably coming in tonight, the the campus here never slows down. There there are kids out on the out in the stadium. There's a quite a crew over here playing tennis tonight. So, it's always very very active and our schools are quite busy throughout the summer. Our custodians, our facility staff are doing major projects. So, you you can't go into a building without seeing uh progress being made as we uh prepare for the return of kids. With that, we're also in the throws of u significant hiring. So, tomorrow and Friday, there'll be lots of uh finalist interviews. So, we'll have some additional folks to present to you
011at our next board meeting. And uh there'll also be a few additional um departures as as folks um move into other positions, whether it's here or or away. Um that typically happens each summer. Um I was away at a conference with all main superintendents the last couple days and uh there will be a lot of new um laws and uh a lot of new initiatives and policy changes that would need to result as a result of all the new legislation. Um in total they're they're still kind of working through details on many. uh the appropriations committee is actually still kind of navigating through potential law impacts and uh the fiscal note for all of those collectively um is huge. So some of those are certainly not going to pass because of the financial cost. There
012are currently 1988 laws that are being reviewed. Um some are a slam dunk and those are going to be in they will be law some will not. in total appropriations are looking at a total of 3.1 billion in new costs related to laws. So, as we always talk about, we want our our representatives to be mindful of of what is coming down the pike because it does have it's either you pay me now or you pay me later. You pay it through state tax, you pay it through local tax. It's a lot of movement and uh shifting of money. So, we've been trying to keep um up on that. And I think that the um York County and Cumberland County superintendents in particular have been very active in in communicating with legislators and and testifying
013at several of the hearings. I did that myself a couple times this spring. Um you'll see in a few minutes um some new um hires. Really excited about the people that are joining us. always hate to see folks leave, but um that's the nature of of having a a district that's the ninth largest in the state of Maine. Um we are as a result of that 600 plus staff members. There is going to always be change. That concludes my report and I can answer any questions that you might have. Oh, one last thing. Um we didn't talk too much about adult egg graduation. I I was kind of a bumbling fool at that, so I apologize. Um, there was a a young lady that had a just a remarkable speech that got me pretty uh
014choked up during that ceremony. Um, not my finest uh work to get emotional in front of people. Um, but I wanted to speak on behalf of Mr. Goat who wanted to thank board members for attending that really special event. That concludes my comments. Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Marquee? All right, standing committees. They have all wrapped up for the year, so no report outs on that. We have no old business, so we'll move on to new business. And we will start off with nominations. We have Sharon Barry, grade four, five teacher at Chappley Memorial, Jack Lassier, grade four teacher, Waterboro Elementary School, and Sarah Rex, elementary music teacher, Waterboro Elementary School. So, do we have a motion to accept the nominations? Who was the second? [Music] All right. Anastasia and Beth. Any discussion on
015the nominations? All in favor? Those carried. Thank you. All right. Next up, review of the 2025 2026 schoolboard meeting calendar. So, um I met with Dr. Marquee and Colin last week to put this together. I um just noticed an error, but we'll fix that. Um so, this is what we came up with, and I wanted to put it all out there for questions and some discussion. Um just to get your feelings on it. There's no action needed, but I wanted to review it. So, board meetings will remain on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, but we're going to move those to a six o'clock start time. That will start next month with the exception of the August 13th meeting. I'll speak about that in a minute. So, it will be second and fourth
016Wednesday of the month at 6 PM right here in this room unless otherwise noted. So, August 13th, we have our team building with the administration at 5:30. So that meeting is going to start at 7 October 29th. That's actually the fifth Wednesday of the month. And the reason for that is that the MSMA conference is the week prior on Thursday and Friday with five Wednesdays in October. We were able to move that to give um like there's a board chair workshop on Wednesday night that a board chair from this district has never been able to attend because we always have a meeting that night. Um Dr. Dr. Marque and Dr. Doyle go up for a superintendence during the day, then come back down and then go back up. So, um, having that extra Wednesday that
017month will be really helpful for those of us that want to attend the conference. More information on that to follow. April 29th is also a fifth Wednesday because the fourth Wednesday falls during April vacation. And then, of course, the district budget meeting is held at the middle school, not here. Um but other than that, pretty standard schoolboard meeting wise with the exception of starting at 6 and um giving us the ability to get out of here a little earlier on Wednesday nights. The big change comes with our committee meeting schedule. So we were really there was a couple things that I wanted to accomplish in looking at this schedule. I wanted to really um minimize board members with the exception of the board chair having to do a three repeat in a week and do
018a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday which was happening with Anastasia did it several times with curriculum and then a board meeting and then negotiations. I think Michelle has pulled the same thing. So that was the first thing is how can we avoid those three nights in a row for almost everyone. Um, so this is what we came up with. So policy will be on the first Wednesday of the month, 6 pm, unless otherwise noted. I mean that we just put all the dates in, but typically it's the first Wednesday. Um, human resources is the third Wednesday. So every month it's going to go policy board, HR board down the Wednesdays. It's a second and fourth Wednesday for board meetings. Okay. So, I was taking the third. No, that's okay. So, first Wednesday policy, second Wednesday board, third
019Wednesday HR, fourth Wednesday board. And then finance um would be on the first and third Tuesday of the month. Here's where my first mistake is. That should be September 9th and September 23rd. I'll get that corrected on the master copy. I must have looked at this 15 times and checked it against a calendar and still made a mistake. So, the reasoning on finance still meeting twice a month starting in the fall, and I'm not sure if Colin's going to want an August meeting. He's going to have to work that out with the finance committee, but um but I started in September with the rest of the committees, is um Colin really did not want warrants to be sitting for a month without signing an approval. So we were sticking with the two meetings a month.
020So um so that would have the finance committee members meeting like first two like Tuesday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Wednesday in the fall. So no backto-back nights. No having finance butt up against a board meeting, being pressed for time, not being able to get to all the business on the agenda. Um, and also not that scramble five minutes before a board meeting starts and no disruption during finance when people are coming in. I think it will really work well for the finance committee to have their own designated night. So that will go through um the holidays and then um starting in January finance is going to be Tuesday nights 6 p.m. every Tuesday. And we left it that way with the thinking that if things are going well and everything looks good and they're everything is caught
021up, it's better to cancel a meeting than to add a meeting. So we popped them all on there on Tuesday nights. And then that leaves Thursdays wide open for negotiations when that gets going. And so at the very most the board chair may have a finance Tuesday, board or committee Wednesday, and negotiations Thursday. But that would be the only case that I can think of for board members to have three nights in a row. Thoughts, questions, opinions, comments, anything good. If there's three from most towns, not all towns have three members. Sorry, Wes. One of us from like say me, Carmen, and Mark would all have a different committee, right? So theoretically, we wouldn't be here three nights in a week. No. Nope. Right. Sometimes maybe if you're on fi really if you're on finance
022you'll have backtoback two nights in a row. Um that would be the only case and that would only be starting in January through budget season and taking a look at that. it's just the board chair because they serve on all committees and you know whatever that shakes out to be and kind of when it it's still undetermined like where negotiations will fall. It's typically for as long as I've been on the board met on Thursday nights but new school year who knows we could shake it up. Um I think change is good and I think um in my opinion this I think will make meetings less meetings more efficiency more pre more more presentations at the full board level that I think is important for the board to have Michelle and so for those of
023us for Wes um that don't have like Wyman now only has two y and they did we did have 12 writins and no one is accepted yet. Yep. So, how does that leave? You each pick your committee based on seniority. We'll do that at the first meeting in August. And if one of you wants to fill in as an interim on another committee, you can. And if not, then that committee runs runs a person short. Okay. So, and and that may be where that committee choice by seniority, but the board chair maybe getting involved might come into play because if it comes down to I mean right now we have two vacancies in chapley and a vacancy in linemen. If say policy ends up with only four people because you know Wes doesn't want to
024be on policy, neither of you want to be on policy. That may be a discussion, but I cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm not gonna uh Wes. Yeah, I just wanted to remind uh committee members that finance will be meeting weekly come the beginning of the new year um because it takes that much work to get the budget process through. So, as you're making decisions in your communities about who wants to serve on what committees, just realize that that's more of a commitment. Yep. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. And and and HR is number two in commitment um after the new year typically. Yep. Because then you're typically you're meeting monthly for your actual HR stuff. Um and then meeting it all is all determined by negotiations whether you're meeting once or twice
025a month and um so yeah uh D uh yeah I was just curious with Adam and I coming in as two new members for Waterboro um are we assigned a committee or we discuss Yep. So, Adam was reelected, so he's been on the board, so he has seniority just based on the way that it's always been is based on your original election date. But you and Adam and Jen uh over there on the other side, she's the other water bro rep. Um at the first meeting in August, typically what I'll do is I'll call um a recess kind of to go offline to give every town the opportunity to gather together and chat about um what committees they want to serve on. Okay, great. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? Do we like it? Does
026it look good? Look okay. Perfect. So, we don't need to take any action. I already corrected the master copy on those finance meetings. I'll speak with Colin to see what he wants to do about August because I didn't plug those on. Um but and then we can get everything updated on the school calendar and then we'll work on spacing on French. Yeah. Had to slide down. Yeah. So, we'll do that. Yeah. Some formatting stuff. All right, that's done. If you want to, Judith, if you want, it would be eight. How will curriculum issues be addressed? curriculum will be um dealt with at the board level. So the curriculum presentations will be brought to the board. That's something that um Dr. Doyle will be speaking about with the new curriculum coordinator as to when um those
027presentations that were happening at the committee level. I think that that information is more important to be brought to a full board level and and decisions. If what if we as a board member would like to see something put before the board? There's a policy regarding placing items on the agenda. You request that in writing seven or more days prior to the board meeting that you want it to be on the agenda and then the board chair and the superintendent um determine whether that's going on the agenda based on relevance and timeliness and whether it is a board responsibility. But yeah, there's I mean, you hear me say it all the time. There's a policy for that. Well, yeah. I just didn't I knew that there's a policy for it, but Yeah. I just didn't
028know how it would be dealt with. Yep. Yeah. So, it it ultimately comes to the the board chair and the superintendent determine what goes on the agenda and uh based on any requests that are made. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? All right. Next up, election of school board chair for the 2025 2026 school year. So, I'm going to let Dr. Marquee take this one. I did not. Um, so to begin with, I would entertain nominations for board chair. And there's a second. Get both names. Um, and as general practice, I always ask the same question. Are there any other nominations before the board this evening? The nomination u uh there's been a nomination for Jod Lane to be board chair. And there's a second. And then I was just for formality purposes. I was
029asking if there was were any other nominations for board chair. Seeing none, all those in favor and unanimous with the exception of one abstension. At this time, I'll pass it over to the chair to elect vice chair. Thank you. All right. Next up, election of school board vice chair for the 2025 2026 school year. So, I will open that up to nominations. I'll repeat it. Right. It's just too quick. Right. Yeah, I'll repeat it. Um, so we do have a nomination for Anastasia. Jen made the motion. Wes seconded that. Are there any other nominations for board vice chair? Seeing none, all in favor? So that motion carries with one abstension. Anastasia abstain. All right. Boy, that was quicker than I thought I would be. I'm going to talk slow. Um, so calendar and announcements are
030at the bottom of your agenda. our next school board meeting uh July 16th 6 pm, July 30th, 6 pm. We'll start on that schedule. Um and since this is the last meeting of the fiscal year, kind of the last meeting of the school year, even though school has been out a while, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for all of your hard work this year, for your input and your advice. This is a very diverse board that I think works really well together. Um, and I think because of that diversity. So, um, I just want to say thank you. I appreciate it. It's a privilege to be the chair of this board and I appreciate, um, your support and I'm wishing you all a good evening. So, we're gonna unless there's
031anything else would have been a nice Thank you. I'll bring them next time. I'll bring No, next time I'll bring cookies next time. Uh, so that's all that I have. We're adjourned. 7:27