001Right. Yeah. Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call the April 9th board meeting to order at 7 PM. If everyone could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Roll call. Melissa Bacon here. Carmen Barski here. Suzanne Bower here. Mark Cardisano here. Elizabeth Day here. Michelle Felisetti. Anastasia Ferguson here. Eric Garrison. Jodie Lane here. Thomas Lee here. Jennifer Mayo here. Amy Morrison here. Wes Finny here. Adam Tangway excused. Angela Tardiff. Judith Val. Walker Vivian here. We have a quorum with 15 directors present. I'd like to make a motion to make one adjustment to the agenda under new business and add a nomination for um an art teacher at MMS. You should all have the hard copy of that from Katie. Um, we can add that as the second item under new business if that works for
002everyone. Can I get a second on that motion? I'll give it to Wes. Any discussion? Any other adjustments to the agenda? All in favor? Opposed? All right, we'll make that adjustment. Uh, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? Any discussion on the consent agenda? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Approval of the minutes from March 26, 2025. A motion. We have a motion to approve. Is there a second? Melissa, that was you. Any comments, questions, corrections on the minutes from March 26th? Amy, um, there was just a typo under the superintendence report. It says Dr. Marque site as one word. All right. It's under the second bullet. It says Mr. Walsh, Mr. Brooks. Oh, yeah. Dr. Mark site. You see that, please? Got it. Thank you. Any other corrections or comments on
003the minutes? All right. So, we have a motion and a second to approve. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Next up, public comment. Do we have any public comment this evening? All right. Fantastic. Next up, uh Jen. Jen. I just want to comment how very weird it feels without Dominic here. Like, it's freaking me out. I'll let him know. Uh, that's funny because that's not what they said in finance before this. Um, Mark, oh, sorry, Wes. We actually recognize Dominic as being an important part of the finance committee's process on uh putting together the budget for this whole board and uh his leadership uh is going to be missed. All right, we will move on to uh recognitions and celebrations. So we will start off with um Principal Thorough. All right. Uh, good evening everyone.
004So, it's it's really an honor and a privilege to uh share some really great accomplishments from one of our students this evening with you. This will be the third time that we're embarrassing, I mean, recognizing um, Miss Brickett. Uh, we had a wonderful opportunity to include a very nice write up from SRTC and Mr. Peterman, the director, in a newsletter a couple of weeks ago. And then this past Friday, we were able to recognize uh Devonyie in front of the entire student body. We were able to surprise her and uh bring her mom along so she could be part of that recognition. And we were able to award her not only um with the recognition of being the SRTC student of the year, but also a trailblazer award, which is a new award at the
005high school for those students who are going above and beyond. Um it's really impressive that of all of the hundreds of students that attend SRTC on a daily basis, our student from Massic High School was selected as the student of the year. Um what's even more impressive is that Devonyie is a grade 11 student. So they were able to understand um her her incredible abilities academically and socially uh very quickly into her time at SRTC. oftentimes this award is not necessarily reserved as a rule, but it is reserved oftentimes for a senior because you've had a year or a year and a half to get to know them. And so Devany has been able to really shine within just a few months. So, um, without further ado, and, um, she knows that she's going to
006be put on the spot once again. I'd love to have Devonyie come up and receive this certificate, but also share with her, uh, sorry, share with you her experiences at SRTC. So, congratulations to Devonyie Brickett. [Applause] Hi everyone. Um, so I was not prepared for this, so I'm sorry if it's um, painful to listen to. Um, but so I knew I wanted to go to SRTC probably in 8th grade. I knew I wanted to go to the health occupations program. So being accepted last year and now truly being in it, going to clinicals at least once, twice a week, and getting to learn everything with our exam coming up in three weeks. It's truly been an amazing experience and I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity and then be noticed for the work that
007I've put into this. So yes, I'd say I'm thankful for Massabisc in getting me there and SRTC for everything they've helped me with. But yeah, I've truly enjoyed it and I appreciate all of your time and recognition. So thank you. Absolutely. Congratulations, Emily. Great job. All [Applause] right, next up, Mr. Lawrence. Good evening, everyone. I'm Danny Lawrence, athletic director. Um, today I get to recognize two of our individuals for the SMAA Southern Maine Activities Association uh citizenship award. So each school uh of the 17 in the SMA chooses two individuals to represent their school that show um not only great athletic ability but also their involvement in our school setting. Um the two individuals that we brought to dinner on Monday were Lydia D. Roers and um Kyle Abbott. Lydia was not very pleased with
008me because we had a lacrosse game going on at the same time at home and uh coach Tremley was actually pulling her off saying, "Hey, you got to go get dressed. we got to go to Portland to have dinner. But when she got there, I think she realized that she was two individuals representing Master Music High School along with 17 other schools with their individuals. Um during that, we got to listen to um a speaker, a head coach from UMain football as well as the executive director of the SMA. Um I chose our athletes based on various things, but part of it is their leadership and involvement in our school. We do have lengthy bios on our website um and social media platforms as well as a document that was handed out to all the
009athletic directors, principles, and some superintendents that were at dinner. Um some of the things that these two have accomplished, um Lydia is at Yarmouth right now at a play day, so she is not with us, but Kyle will come up in a minute. um involvement as captains of their team, three sports athletes, um involvement in coaching our youth programs, national honor society, student council, uh setting up the um senior haunt, the list goes on and on and on and on with our student athletes that have been involved in many ways. And they really are individuals setting the tone for where our next athletes are going to be. and I would really appreciate sitting down with them and their parents to let them know just how much we appreciate all the work that they put into
010not only our athletic program but our school and community as a whole. So, I would like to at least recognize Kyle Abbott, come on up and hopefully [Applause] next and give us a little perspective about his experience. Um he was a little late for tennis practice today, but we're not going to pull that against him. Um uh I'm very thankful for the uh selection to receive this award. Um it's a great honor. It's uh it's also a great honor to play sports at Massive Visc. Um I've played basketball all four years, football two years, and tennis two years. And I've had some great experiences. It's been the best part of my life. so far um being out on that field on the court on uh and uh I'm very thankful for all the coaches and
011the people who have taught me and instilled the leadership qualities and the want to give back to the community through coaching the youth programs. Um I remember playing sports when I was younger and how I loved when the varsity athletes would come down and make an appearance. So, I wanted to be able to be that kid that could go and help coach and hopefully make our masteric athletes in the future better, better people, better athletes. And thank [Music] [Applause] you. You're welcome to stay for the remainder of the meeting, but if you want to excuse yourself, you could also do that. But thank you. Congratulations to you both. Really, it's [Applause] fantastic. All right. Next up on my board chair report, I have several things this evening, but I will make it quick. First of
012all, I want to welcome a new board member, Thomas Lee from Waterborough, who was appointed as an interim member to fill that vacancy. So, thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Um, I want to let you know that, um, so remember at the last board meeting when I told everyone that you had paperwork due back to me on April 23rd. We don't have a meeting on April 23rd. That's school vacation week. But I am adding a meeting on April 30th. We need to have a short business meeting that evening uh starting at 6:00 p.m. and we're going to immediately follow that with that with the second workshop regarding the SPS report. So 6 p.m. on the 30th. Happy birthday. I'll bring cake. I'll bring cake. Um, so 6 PM short business meeting followed by a workshop uh
013to continue discussion on the SPS report. Um, so we will add that to the calendar. We'll get an agenda out to you all and uh so any further comments or questions on the report bring them that evening and we can discuss that further. Um, so to update that, the superintendent evaluations are due back up uh April 30th, not the 23rd, not during school vacation week. Um, so if you can get them to me by then, that would be great. And then um, let's see, a reminder of the community forum on May 13th at 6 PM. Reminder of the district budget meeting May 6th at 6 p.m. This is at the middle school. And then I have one more recognition and celebration. this evening. Um, which is very cool. Let me make sure I have my
014notes so that I get all the dates right. So, for those of you who don't know, the towns in this district have not always been part of RSU 57. Um, there were towns that were part of school union 6. And I know that when my mother was in this area, she graduated from Sanford. And anyh who, so when the district was formed, um, they had their spelling be every year like they do now. And the very first RSU 57 spelling be champion was Judith Vel. So this plaque went from Cousins Memorial School in Lyman and when that closed it made its way over to Lyman Elementary and so has been here since Judith was awarded the spelling bead championship in 1967. And this plaque is still kicking around. We think we're going to put it
015at central office. That's what we've talked about. Um but very exciting that she is still here with us and uh started off went on to the county spelling bee, placed fourth there. Um but was our first spelling bee championship. So, and I'll have Katie take a picture of Judith with the black and we will get that posted. So, that's so awesome. [Applause] Uh, and that's all I have. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Marquee for the superintendent's report. Okay, we're going to begin with Walker with his uh, student report. Okay, good evening everyone. Uh, so Lyman Elementary recently had a STEM themed uh, family night and 135 people attended the event. There will be a talent show happening after April break at the school. Waterboroough Elementary will have a family movie night
016on the 11th. And uh Alfred Elementary had a Scholastic buy one get one book fair which ran uh from starting on Monday, March 24th. And the school recently had a fem uh family STEM night and a spring evening book fair. They will have a kindness week starting on April 14th. Shafley Memorial School will have a dress like a teacher day on April 17th. They uh kindergarteners and first graders at the school recently explored the diets of owls by dissecting owl pellets which are regurgitated pieces of undigested material. They were able to uncover the bones of the insects, birds, and small mammals that owls ate and were able to gain a deeper understanding of owls and their diets through this hands-on learning opportunity. Uh the school resource officer Pelerin visited prek classes reading a story, eating
017ice cream, and answering questions. There are upcoming shared grade level experiences to the John Meter Planetarium, which will involve the fifth graders of the district. On Friday, April 4th, it is school librarian day and this gives us a chance to recognize the librarians across the school district and all that they do maintaining the school libraries and making a great impact on the buildings where they work. Uh the library is always an inviting and communal space in schools and the dedicated librarians always put their best for foot foot forward in helping students develop and grow their passion for books and reading. The paraprofessional appreciation day is on April 2nd. Paraprofessionals also known as teachers aids or classroom assistants are individuals who provide extra sport uh support to teachers and students in classrooms. uh they're able to
018provide one-on-one support, make life easier for teachers, and provide additional attention to students. And so they will be they were recognized for all the work that they do for the district. At Massabesc Middle School, they had a wellness week that ran from March 31st to April 4th. Uh every day there was a different activity that students did related to health and wellness, and they were able to learn more about that. Uh during the month of February, sixth graders at MMS raised over $1,000 to support hygiene training in a village located in South Sudan. The funds were designated for training during the well drilling season, which is from March to June, and they were taught multiple topics about hygiene and health. Uh the generosity of these students is having a large impact on families across the
019Atlantic, and students were able to learn firsthand how they can change the uh the lives of others. There's an um image of the trainee proudly holding a banner bearing the school's name and it just shows how much of an impact these students have made outside of our district, state, and even country on the uh live feed of the district. You can see the photo. I didn't want to um use all the colored ink to place it in the report, but I think it's a uh a good photo with a more detailed and better write up than mine, so I think it's worth checking out. On Wednesday, April 2nd, the youth truth survey was taken at the high school and it will be occurring beginning on April 11th at Chapley Memorial School. Uh, a night in
020New York is the prom theme at Mass Bus High School and prom will be occurring on May 3rd from 7 to 10:00 p.m. Uh, the class of 2026 is hosting the event and tickets will be sold starting next week. Uh, Massic High School students attending SRTC were able to showcase their talents at the recent Skills USA competition. Um, six Masterics students earned medals including three gold and two silver after competing in their respective categories. They were to demonstrate their skills in the areas that they've been studying at SRTC. on uh the Touch a Truck community day was scheduled for Saturday, April 12th, although it has been uh cancelled for now due to uh weather of rain and low temperatures that day. Uh there currently isn't a date. Um but we are hoping that it will
021be uh postponed and will happen at a later date. April break is upcoming and the final vacation of the school year will begin on Friday, April 18th for students and a day later for teachers. It will conclude on Monday, April 28th. will give staff and students a chance to rest before the final few weeks of the school year. And I also just wanted to bring something to the board's attention. Uh I know some board members are aware, but there is a proposal to construct a quarry in Alfred 1.8 miles away from Alfred Elementary. Uh there was a lot of public resistance at a local planning board meeting, but the fate of the project remains unclear. I won't go into more detail, but I just thought that this was something that the board should be aware
022of because if it goes through, it would have effects on the school due to the proximity. Thank you. And that concludes the student representative report. Thank you, Walker. Any questions for Walker? Uh, probably Walker. It's going to end up in Dr. Mary's hands. I thought we were moving away from the youth truth survey. Uh, we are moving away. We because of the strategic plan and what's been shared at curriculum and finance and actually here I believe at at one or two meetings um we are going to redesign it in the future but because we needed to have trying to be true to data we use the exact same as you all might know or might not know some of you would know if you've been on the board for a while we started doing this
023survey seven years ago um at middle school high school and then four years ago for um elementary school. Um so we will be um moving away from that for a variety of reasons. One, we've talked about how we don't think it's valid and reliable, but it does give us some information and um we uh intentionally didn't change any part of the survey over last year because we wanted to have the same information just for consistency purposes. But we'll likely be changing some of those questions and that's been discussed prior to um any concerns. But the the um I actually received my first phone call ever about the youth truth today um and then a couple forwarded emails. Um so to answer your question, we are moving away from it um for a variety of reasons.
024Any other questions for Walker? Okay. Um my um information will be rather brief this evening. I'll talk more during budget. Um I do want to share a few different things that I think that were highlights over the last couple weeks or and moving forward. On March 28th, I had the good fortune of attending the SRTC breakfast um with Dr. Doyle and Chair Lane. We actually um spent the breakfast meeting with two kids from Masterick. Jonathan Madigan who is in the auto body repair program and is loving it as well as Kiara Lebron who's in the cosmetology program and also is really loving that experience. Um on April 1st I I want to draw attention to um our our partnership with uh the York County Sheriff's Office. Um on April 1, Dr. Doyle and myself uh
025met with Chief Deputy Forbes, Major Sanford, Deputy Pellerin, and Deputy CR as we continue continue to try to work on how we can be supportive of one another and and the initiatives that are in place. We're really fortunate to have two tremendous um SRO's working with our students. uh really thoughtful uh compassionate um kids centered and I see that program and and those resources expanding over time just to uh support student interests and such. Um so I just wanted to draw that draw attention to that. Um this Friday will be a second component of SRTC. Uh what happens is annually um there's a lunchon with the superintendent. Um oftentimes other individuals go as well uh with two representatives for a lunchon. Uh it's really just a nice opportunity to talk with varied kids about their
026experience. Um so each of the participating districts um attend that event. Um never before have we had two in one year though. So, uh, so, uh, I'm eating well with their quality food program over there. Great job. As is Dr. Doyle. Uh, that concludes my report. I'll talk more during budget. Thanks. Any further questions for Dr. Marky? All righty. Standing committees, finance, building, and maintenance. Wes this evening. Can you turn your mic on, please? I'm sorry. No, that's okay. Not be able to have Judith hear me. Um, we met on the 2nd of April as well as on the 9th. Uh, some of the issues were the same. Uh, so I'll try to merge the report somewhat together. Um, Shappley Leechfield projects moving forward, bids accepted on April 16th by 2 p.m. Um, the modular
027work is close to being done. uh the finance uh director expects to be coming forward to us very soon to report out that the project is complete. There is no uh update on the Lyman land. Um at the meeting uh we also uh shared that uh Mr. Thurlo uh Mr. Walsh and AD Lawrence are going to be meeting with the boosters very soon to discuss the money that was donated to the board that we as a board accepted. Uh during the budget review tonight, it was uh really a a final review from Dr. my key on the positions and and and and the position uh decreases and and other positions that were going to be um uh added that he will explain uh tonight uh with Colin uh when they present the budget. Um there
028are updates from um uh Colin that the major school construction program. Um the final material is materials for the application process were updated for April 1 and we should know by later in the summer fall where we where we stand and where we rank. Uh we reviewed a bunch of summer projects. I won't get into all of them. And um it was a a rather positive upbeat meeting because we get to have the budget come before the overall board tonight. And that's my report. We we do meet uh in May next at 6 p.m. All right. Any questions for Wes? Uh curriculum anesthesia. We met last night. Um, we had some questions answered from the high school on the new MHS grading scale they're hoping to put into effect this coming fall. We will move
029away from the 1.0 to the 4.0. We will go to the 0 to 100% based system. Um, it will just be that will get us to be more ranked with the rest of York County. We had a discussion on the forum that will be happening on May 13th at 6 PM. Um, we just talked about the format of it and how we will run it. Our next meeting is May 17th or May 13th at 7 p.m. for curriculum. Community forum is just before that at 6 p.m. Uh, any questions for Anastasia Mark? Uh what will a failing grade cut off point blank be? 70. 70. I like that. Right. [Music] Just one other quick addition. Um part of the community forum. We have talked a lot about ways to increase our attendance at that community
030forum. And uh one of the things that we're hoping you'll do tonight, Katie has a small packet made available for each of you that has a flyer. And what we're asking board members to do in in helping us get the word out is to take that back to your towns and find places where you might be able to list that in the community, whether it's your town offices or local places that you're going to notice will have high traffic. That's not the entirety of the PR campaign surrounding this. However, we will be mailing out postcards to businesses we've engaged with previously um who've attended our career fair at the high school, the college and career fair because they've already shown to be good partners and in shown interest in participating and connecting with the school.
031So, it's our hope to increase awareness about this event and really get a sense from the community about their awareness of the progress that we've made toward the strategic plan. I think we have a good program planned for that night and we really appreciate your support and getting the word out. Additionally, I would ask when you start to see the social media campaigns be posted, if you could help us by reposting in your community pages, that would be a great way to help promote it. So, if you have any questions about promoting that event or the details, please feel free to reach out. Sorry, I was supposed to say that. That's okay. Thank you. I was just going to say, is there a way to get it digitally because I think our town might even
032like put it on their mail system if it comes that way. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Anastasia? Human resources. We have not met. Our next meeting is April 17th at 6 p.m. and negot right. We have and negotiations is tomorrow night. We're still negotiating with the teachers union. Any questions on HR? All right. Policy. Uh we met last week. We continued reviewing the B policies, which are the schoolboard governance and operations policies. There's a ton of them. We'll be reviewing them until next fall. Um, most of them, very little changes. There are a couple. There's one coming later tonight for first read and one coming that I want to speak with you all about, but we will do that under new business. Our next meeting is May 6 at 6 PM at the
033middle school because it will go directly from policy into the district budget meeting. We'll change that. The policy meeting is at the middle school, Mark. Policy meetings at the middle school. And by the way, my my wedding. Let me see. Right. Let me see if I can uh schedule some June 19th. Perfect. Uh, that's all I have for policy unless you have any questions. Uh, PR Tech Suzanne, we did not meet last week. Uh, but we will meet next week on Tuesday, April 15th at 6 PM. Any questions for Suzia? Transportation. Jen, um, we haven't met until we'll meet again not until May 27th at 6 p.m. Any questions for Jen? All righty. Old business. Seeing none, we are going to move on to new business. Approval of the 2025 2026 school district budget. Mr.
034Walsh. Yes. [Music] It's part of your responsibility. So, thank you for um coming back for this excitement from two weeks ago. Um Steve will talk in a little bit. I just want to explain what you have in front of you. There's two handouts. One is a single page which um is the approval motion to approve the budget because you're approving three things tonight. You're approving the budget which is then in turn calling the district budget meeting which is a formal legal process. The second is to authorize the superintendent to fill out a document after the budget meeting. And the third is to serve the town officials, town clerks in each of the six towns to start the budget meeting on May 6 and to set the validation referendum date as June 10th. The handout that's
035stapled is similar to what you got two weeks ago with an updated column and that column says proposed 202526 budget. What you saw two weeks ago was the working budget. So you'll recall um from that conversation there hasn't been much change other than health insurance. Finance committee approved increasing the health insurance from 12% to 14% increase which is 2% increase over what we originally had and the actual rate just came in the other day at 13.73%. That increase between those two columns in the expenditure column was taken from fund balance and you can see that on the second page of revenue because the use of fund balance was originally $3 million and this is in the far right hand proposed column and the last row before the total says use of fund balance is $3,118,82.
036That's a very specific number because that was the amount that the finance committee um increased the health insurance rate um to come in close to what we thought was going to be actual because we didn't anticipate getting the actual rate before tonight's meeting, but we did. Um other than that, the tax increase that is on the last page is the same as what you saw two weeks ago. It is 5.77% overall. Um, and you can see town by town what the increase is for each town. This has also been out in the public for a while now because it was also part of the public meeting we had a couple weeks ago. It's been on the website as well. Um, so I'm not going to go through all of those details that you heard two
037weeks ago. I'm trying to give you an update. Um, I know Dr. Marque is going to give you an update in regards to staffing and kind of summarizing the overall budget as well. But I wanted to lay a foundation for you. Where were we two weeks ago? Where are we tonight? And what has changed is only that increase in the health insurance rate. Everything else again with that coming from fund balance, the tax increase is the same as two weeks ago. And kind of the same information I gave you two weeks ago is where we're at tonight. Um Steve Yeah, I'm going to go over a few things and I and I share that um I'm going to provide this information um not necessarily for all of you but more for folks that would watch
038this this evening of which there might be around 20 different folks watching right now um or after this meeting. Um I believe I've am going to share the vast majority of what I share has been shared no less than seven times. Um, I do want to do a little bit of a a rewind and talk about how we got to this point. Um, back in December, Colin met with us and he talked about the budget development process. So, that was the the first real meeting with board present. We talk about finance every other week all fall, but in December is when we really started to really crunch. administrators and directors were behind the scenes in November and December talking about budget and have been talking about it ever since. In total since January 1, plus
039the one in December, we've had 22 conversations in public about the budget. 13 of those were finance committee meetings, seven were board meetings like tonight, and one was a district budget forum. I want to draw special attention to the finance committee, the collective board, um Mr. Walsh, Dr. Doyle um as well as our administrators and and directors for really spending collectively thousands seriously thousands of hours trying to pour through every aspect of the budget. And the hard part with budgeting is you never know what the future holds. So there are always going to be fixed costs and we understand that. But there are budget drivers that oftentimes are out of your control, out of our control that do have financial impacts. And I'm going to share a few. The state works on the EPS formula,
040which is really a floor and not a ceiling. It's essentially what are the minimum things and it's hard to operate a very large spread out district within the EPS model because there are limitations therein. If you have small classes due to changes in enrollment, that's actually quite expensive. To have a nurse in schools is expensive. To have um folks that are traveling and losing instructional time between buildings as their job shared between buildings, that is expensive. All of those impact the the model. The vast majority of what happens in schools that give schools breadth, excitement, and enjoyment. If I would think that the majority of you, if you reflected back on your own school experience, K through 12 or grade 1 through 12, because you might not have even had K in your schools, likely
041was not about reading and writing and mathematics. It was about other things like clubs and groups and athletics, right? Um performing arts, visual arts, a lot of that's not covered in EPS. So, a lot of what happens outside of EPS is really what gets many kids through the door each day. When we look at the budget development process, we um really struggle with two major factors. One, the state really limits the EPS formula under what's what they consider essential and it's all based on the number of students. They then figure out what they take students and then they take valuation property and essentially if a district has very low property value they get more subsidy. If they have high property value they get low subsidy. So over the last six budget cycles our valuation of
042our six community towns um has gone up by 63%. So in those terms, if you had a $300,000 house six years ago, the state is now and local folks are now saying that house is worth about 490,000. So there should be more value when you spread it out. And um so our valuation has skyrocketed while our enrollment has stayed flat. As a result, we are still getting a little bit more incremental support through the formula, but it's only up 5% while this past year alone valuation went up 14.5%. Added to that are unknown variables that though well intended, and you've heard me say this before, there are things being added at every turn that impact uh how schools operate. the fact that there are well over 2,000 proposed laws this year that range in all
043sorts of things that would increase the cost to public education uh should not be um taken lightly. Some of them are really great. Some of them really should be born more from a state allocation than from a local municipality um angle. I worked on and worked to support a letter to the legislator legislation legislators, sorry, yesterday um because there's a significant discrepancy with um districts with higher levels of economically disadvantaged and lower support from the state for special education services. Um, so some of the most affluent districts in the state of Maine get lots of money proportionally for special education and the the districts that need the most support. Um, their average per pupil costs related to special ed are far lower. So, we're working on some of those inequities. When we take all this
044into together, um we knew that we had to try to balance um our goals and objectives of our strategic plan, our hopes and dreams around really preparing kids for success in the future with the reality that we know that some people are on fixed incomes. There's a lot of pressure on the state um and on the nation and it and there's a lot of um uncertainty. You can see that even in the stock market every other day. It's up 5%, it's down 5%. It's up 5%, it's down 5%. And folks are really getting impacted. I thought about that today when somebody was excited about the stock market being way up. And I'm going to digress, but I'm going to just show you the function that could impact families. If you had $1,000 in the stock
045market and if over four days, I'm just using rough math, it goes down 50%, it goes up 50%, it goes down 50%, it goes up 50%. Your $1,000 is now $562. You had two days of up 50, two days of down 50. Um, so there are people that are being impacted and they're on fixed incomes and they don't know what's going to happen. So there's a lot of uncertainty. So with all that in mind, our administrative team has met for hours as a group. We've had really challenging conversation. We tried to think globally about all areas. There are some areas you simply can't reduce. Okay? And there are some areas that we are so far below the state average. Um people might say, "Well, geez, why don't you cut administration?" And I'm not trying to
046like administrative costs are well below the state average. Way way way below. We're not we're not heavy in that area. Um we can't cut prek edex for example, right? It's a requirement of law unless our classes were smaller uh under 12. Um so with all that said, we worked diligently. I believe no one enjoyed it. Um I think um our admin were really thoughtful. I think they really tried to rise to the challenge. The end of it getting to 5.77% taxation um I think is going to be in the ballpark that can allow us to meet the needs of our taxpayers while also meeting to the best of our ability the needs of our strategic plan and our and our goals. That re represents 5.41% 41% increase in expenditures. Keep in mind that more keeps
047uh more is added to the plate all the time for local school districts. Most recently is paid family um medical leave. That's a very costly thing. But on top of that, um really early prek, developmental prek, uh you homeless and some of the additional costs related to that. uh some of the unique needs and requirements around ELLL, English as a second second or other language. It's had different names over the years, MLL, ELLL, ESOL. Um all of those are things that were not really part of the landscape five or 10 years ago. Those all add costs. So, we're trying to balance all those needs. the end result. We also wanted to look at where might we be able to reduce without impacting the lives and the wellbeing of others or our staff. And when possible,
048we looked at those areas. But we simply weren't going to look at only looking at those areas if there was actually a need. We might have had to look other places. That's a that is a requirement um that we that we continue to to maintain those positions. When all said and done, we are reducing um and we tried to limit the amount uh or the impact direct on students. Well, I know many would say, well, geez, any of these things are going to have an impact on students. That is true. But what we tried to do is find the relative impact in looking at all aspects. Looking at declining enrollment or increased um attendance at SRTC or Bford Center of Technology or dual enrollment or college course courses at the high school with a declining
049enrollment at the high school. That's that's how we looked at the high school. For example, we also looked at how we structure um some support around special education and during our budget presentation with Mr. O' Conor and and many other conversations um afterwards looking at how we are um really coordinating special education services so we could be a little more finite and a little more directed. And um so some of the reductions that that are going to be going forward, I was talking with the association about these um uh I'm just going to open up my computer. So when I say we looked in all areas, we looked at operations. So there'll be and and the vast majority of our changes are going to be through attrition, right? um through retirement, through departures, through resignations
050um or positions that were currently unfilled. Um so when we broke it down in that respect, we're essentially across all areas um it will be um approximately 20 individuals. Again, um the the vast majority of these folks are actually uh probationary, but we also have many positions that are vacant. Um there are custodians, there's food service, there's um transportation, there are special ed staff. Um there are no elementary classroom teachers in this, no middle school classroom teachers, but um high school classroom teachers, uh IEP coordinators, 504 coordinators. um we're really looking at refining those. We do know that we have some additional needs as well. So, while we're we're reducing, we're also going to um because of the the number and the the impact in certain areas, we also are um adding four positions. So
051the four positions that we'd be looking to add, one would be um and we we still are working on and on the 30th we'll collect more information that will help guide this would be essentially right now I'll call it an SL seal coordinator someone that's really going to be working on professional development and coordination of services districtwide working with our guidance counselors administrators and social workers um based on the report and and we know that we're well staffed, but we really want to look at how we um deploy and and uh and and work with our students and staff and prepare them. The second would be a data specialist. We're looking at the e-learning positions and rethinking what's happening there. So, those would be reduced. Um but we would also have um a a more
052focus on the data component and working on um really digging deeper into what data tells us about student learning and working closely with technology and our administrators. So that would be a data specialist. Um an additional special education teacher um as the coordinators. They'll they will be positions in special ed uh for teaching positions. Um and then the last one for coordination of grades 6 through 12 sped special education services at a higher level. We would add um a uh assistant special ed director who really will help with um professional development um supervision IEP review um and really coordination that we're really stretched very thin in that area. and um we believe that this would be in our best interest moving forward. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Um it
053is a process because once the board um approves a budget that then goes forward to the district budget meeting. Um I in turn need to coordinate and share what the specifics are and um and in any given day the the positions change because of retirements. Somebody might so that changes but some of these positions will be more rift positions. they'll be able to move into another position um that is currently vacant. Um, at this point I believe anyone that would be impacted um would have the ability to um all continuing folks will have an ability to move into a position and um uh the vast m I believe all probationary would if they're interested in in moving into a different position that's under their um impact area of the CBA. I got a little deep
054there, but this is what I've been talking about for weeks with finance and uh I can answer any questions you might have or uh Colin as well specific to um oh I do want to draw one additional point of attention. When you look at the first sheet on this larger document, the column to the right where it says percent differential, that should not imply definitively what the changes are. Um the reason being is a higher percentage or a lower percentage some of that is actually going to be um gets changed because of changing in where people might have been in the past. Right? So there was a um for example under school administration um that was um relates to an admin assistant that was not properly was put into the wrong warrant article in the
055past. That's not a new position and that actually is a big component of the increase to 9.07 as an example. um career in tech ed that's due to escalation in one number of kids participating as well as the actual cost that is above and beyond what Sanford and Bford receive for subsidy. So what they then do is all the additional costs are then divided out by all sending districts based on a per pupil expenditure. So um the SRTC program in particular uh the costs are far outpacing the ED279 or the state subsidy formula. So in any of these there's some movements just because we have found some individuals were not correctly in the in the correct spot. Just want to explain why so someone doesn't look at this and say, "Oh my god, um why
056is career and tech up so much?" Well, that's the why. And why is regular instruction um up so little? Well, it's because of one some changing in staff. We we're reducing a number of positions. That's going to be a big component of it. um where you wouldn't have as large of a the reductions aren't quite as deep in places that were already extremely lean like facilities or food service. There just aren't a lot of people there. All right, Jen, are you There we go. Sorry. So, you said an assistant special ed director. and we're going to have two now. Yeah. The the belief was rather than having four coordinators, we're replacing four coordinators with one specialed teacher and one uh assistant special ed director for coordination and understanding the legal components and and working more
057closely with those elements. The other part of it is the um I'm not aware of any other location where 504 is a special education service. 504 is a regular red service that is um in every place I've ever worked and um pretty much everyone I know 504 is the responsibility of the building principal, a guidance or social worker depending on who is covering the building because we don't have guidance counselors in every building but um we do have social workers in every building. So and the school nurse. So part of that reduction is actually putting the responsibility into the position. And we also know from our uh our analysis of uh the supports and resources we have in place for guidance and social work, we are we are very well staffed. So we should be
058able to provide that as a regular red um expectation that then uh again we had to look at every aspect of this budget to get to a 5.77% increase. If we had gone in it would have been over uh um Colin could tell us the exact number but it likely would have been close to right around 12% because we were at 10.29. 29 when health insurance was at 12% and we went up to 13.73. So we would have been at 12%. Some towns would have had 14% taxes. Um that would not have flown but we are reducing approximately 20 positions when all said and done. And um that's not what I would want to do. Um and uh and I don't think anybody does, but we have to really be mindful and we had to
059look at every possible area. Yes, SA on those 20 impacted areas. Aren't certifications could be an issue? Because not every if it's a teacher is certified for special ed. Correct. Um are the certifications different? We we looked at all aspects and we believe that um we we first have to by CBA um we have some really good people that are probationary with a riff you actually they don't necessarily automatically u until they are continuing but we have positions I believe for every individual that's impacted because we have a number of people we currently have about I don't know the exact number off the top of my head like 25 openings for next year right now due to retirements and positions being unfilled. So even with these reductions, we have a number of positions that are
060going to be available. You are correct though. Um individuals need to be certified, but there are positions available for their certification points. any other and and many of the positions that were uh we're um needing to eliminate folks came out of those impact areas that we actually have openings in to fill those positions. There may be some that would say no, I don't want to go back into those positions, though. Any other questions for Dr. Marky or Mr. Walsh on the budget? Uh, what is the direction of the board? I move that the vote entitled vote to call and approve the warrants for the budget meeting in the budget validation referendum and to authorize the notice of amounts adopted be approved in form presented to this meeting and that a copy of said vote be
061included with the minutes of this meeting. Um, we do have a motion and a second to approve the 2526 school digit district budget. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Great job. All right, we have a nomination this evening to approve. This is for Haley Burns, an art teacher for the middle school for the 2526 school year. Do we have a motion to approve that nomination? I'll give you the second. So, Anastasia and Jen, is there any discussion? All in favor? opposed. Motion carries. Next up is a first read of policy BB. This is school board member use of social media. So, um I'll refresh your memories on the process of policies when they come through the board for our newer members. So um any significant changes or any
062changes that the policy committee feels need to be brought before the full board come for a first read. We take action to acknowledge that first read and then within eight weeks of that the policy comes back to the board for a second read and then is um put into the policy manual as revised you know at that second read. So this one is coming before you. The policy committee met last week and when we spoke about this, if you look at the original policy and the changes, um the changes seem small because we changed the word shall to should throughout this policy is pretty much um the change, but it does that change in language makes a big difference. We wanted to have the board take a look at this, review it, and also um
063always good to have a reminder in this day and age with social media and the impact that it has um to be aware of what you as a board member should be doing when you're using social media. So, um the policy committee will be meeting again on May 6. So, we'll wait to do the second read of this until after that. So, if you have any suggestions or changes for the policy committee, we would be happy to entertain those. But, um, I would look for a motion this evening to accept the first read. Quest Mark, we have a motion and a second to accept the first read. Is there any discussion at this point on that policy? Like I said, feel free to reach out if you have anything. Um, all in favor? Opposed? Motion
064carries. Thank you. We'll bring that one back in May. Next up, we have a field trip request from the International Thespian um society over at the high school to go to a festival. Let me bring this up. Um, so the reason typically field trips go right into our consent agenda. Um, but this one I wanted to bring as an action item to the board. Um, because of the request for funding and because there's no established protocol for what goes and that is going to change um because we realize there's no established protocol. So, if you read through this, there's uh two students over at the high school plus the director at the high school who have been invited to the International Thespian Festival um at the University of Indiana. So, they would like to go
065to that. So, the board would need to approve it because it's an outofstate overnight field trip. Um but I would also um look for approval for funding for this trip and I am happy to suggest a number. Um but you know the the number that we were thinking is 500 you know 1,500 total. So it' be 500 for each of them. Um this is a conversation I had with Colin. So um I'm not just kind of pulling this number out of nowhere. But then we would we would have that available to them and they can start fundraising for the rest of the the money for the trip. So, um but yes, go ahead. Um I just want to caution the the board. Um, there are many districts that set aside a certain figure annually and
066and Colin would is an agreement that there'd be a little bit of money, but you likely would want to set that aside even though in this case it might be say 1,500. You'd probably want to have a cap of say 1,500 annually or something that you could give to because if you had 50 kids, you're not going to give them each $500 towards that. But it's like a seed approach that um I know I took some teams when I was um in my former district to a world championship a couple times and um they gave a a straight dollar, right, towards that competition as an example, right? Um and it's really considered like a board support. Um that's your discussion. My only caution is not by student, but Right. And that's why I started to
067say that and then stop myself from saying per student because in this case it is three but that's not always going to be the case. So um that's why I wanted to put that out there. Uh Mark, so where in this current budget is that money coming? Mr. Walsh. No, no, no. So that would come out of a board line including either board travel or board miscellaneous expense. What what numbers are in those budget lines? I'd have to look. I don't know exactly, Mark. I know there was enough of the 1500 when Jody approached me and we talked about it. that we'd be setting a precedent that um we would potentially but it could be um worked into you know budgets in the future and then yeah so we that is the thing is we
068are most likely setting a precedent at this point which which is why we wanted to talk about a dollar amount and not a per person or anything like that and just so you know there there is some precedent although it's many years ago um And I don't know how many board members would be here that long, but Odyssey of the Mind years and years ago was very active in this district. When it was active, the board had made a similar decision at that point that there was a certain dollar amount built into the budget for Odyssey of the Mind. Um, that group then disbanded. It didn't continue on and then the money was taken out for that specific group. But similar to what Steve was talking about earlier, there was something because that group every
069year went to a national competition um just because of their experience and their nature and the development of that program similar to what Steve was talking about and his experience um in another district. So um if this became a thing, I I think it would follow that same suit that we would start specifically budgeting um something in there for that. Mhm. But to answer your question directly for this year, yes, there is some enough money in those accounts to do that. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions on this? Judith, um, how does this compare to the people who travel to other places in the world? I mean, do we contribute money to them or Oh, like the culture club when they make their introd No, we don't typically um mainly because why do we
070not why would we contribute to this but not contribute to them because this is associated with competition. So the international thespian society it's not a the culture club is what's the wording I'm looking for it's right so anyone can go on that culture club trip so this is an invitationon um competition you know or a an inter uh invitation only event so these people will be the two students will be competing or will they I think it is I have to read I read this last week. So, hold on. So, I did. Yep. So, it is a competition. They have the chance to receive the Awards if they're the highest scoring. So, this is a festival. Um, so it comes off of, you know, and I'm sure uh Cat Levit, I wish she was here
071to answer the questions, but they compete at the one act festival. Do you want to speak to it, Ty? Um but yes, so this is not a you can just go if you want to and and it's really just a small portion. It's kind of seed money to get them a little bit towards it. Right. Go ahead. That's kind of the plan. Uh so as far as uh the thespian society at MHS, we compete in first what is the regionals which is about 10 different schools in southern Maine. And um of that particular competition, we are actually judged on a statewide level in several different components of theatrical competition. And so these two students uh scored at the very highest levels across the entire state, which is what uh earned them the right to be
072invited to the international thespian festival. Um there is also a requirement that if the students go, there is a representative from the school system, and so it makes perfect sense that the director of the theater program would join them. Um if not, we'd have to delegate uh one of their parents to do to do that if that were the case. Um but this is uh specifically an invitation only as uh Jody had indicated. Um and then the the comparison is that we open up culture club for all students. And so um that is is more of an opportunity that if you want to go, you can do that. And there is a um a lengthy uh anywhere from 18 to 24 months of fundraising that happens for that. um these particular students were awarded uh
073about a month ago this particular designation at the state level and so there is no 18 to 24month opportunity for them to do any type of fundraising um which is why we've proposed this particular uh request. So thank you. How many other groups potentially are there at the school that could qualify for funding like this if this is something that preceded is being set? like are there a bunch of groups? Um so so that's where I think the precedent would be the board annually might set aside. What I've seen in some other places is $2,000 annually to go to and it's usually um first come first serve and then if it doesn't uh if nobody uses it, it doesn't get expended. And then um uh there are groups that leave the state, but this is
074um unique um where it's not I would think that this would be like a oneoff other sorts of competition that are school-based that are unlike say athletics. We already do some things for athletics and then we do have kids that go and compete at the national championships. Just had that recently. The district doesn't do that because we do the maximum of the main principles association which goes through New England for all of our sports. So, it would be specific to um uh a competition. Well, you all would decide if there's a group in the future that um it wouldn't be I've never seen it used in other places for like model UN, which is a very common high school thing. [Music] Um, yeah, show choir. Um, yeah, you could have you could have a band
075that's going to Disney and they might come before you and say, uh, and then if you had that cap on an annual basis of say $1,500 or $2,000, um, the board then would balance what is that cost to the ultimate impact on our programs here, right? So, you have a couple kids go off, they bring back some new learning. The instructor is actually bringing back some new learning. I can tell you when I went to their show at Thornton Academy about a month ago, it was amazing. Um, so it's really short money, but um, this was really just a request one for the approval and then maybe um, helping to soften the blow of what it costs because you're the board's not going to pay for everybody to go everything under the sun. So you
076you set those parameters and um, Mark, um, you're probably aware of these sorts of things in your own work as a teacher, right? Yeah. Um, Yeah. Uh, Wes, I would like to move that we spend the money 15 and approve the field trip. Approve the field trip out of state and spend the $1,500. This is a special deal. Okay. So, we do have a motion and a second for approval of the field trip to the International Thespian Festival uh with board support um of 1500. Is there any further discussion? Yes, I would think that the the money um working with with um Colin would likely go through certain processes. So it's paying for certain things like registration. So so that way it actually has a very good paper trail for accounting purposes. So that's something
077that um Colin would oversee to ensure that we're not just uh you're not just giving 1,500 for people to go out to eat and things. It's going to defay some of those um registration sorts of costs. Would you Is that correct, Colin? That's correct. I mean, this guy right here is a good guy to have in our corner because he he's a good checks and balance guy. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Last up, um, discussion of policy BDE, authorization and appointment of standing committee. So, last week the policy committee met. This one is up for um review on our three-year policy review cycle. Um but I spoke with the policy committee last week. We did not make any changes to this yet, but I had a conversation with
078them last week and want to have the same conversation with the full board this week um to make some significant changes to this policy in regards to our current standing committees. So currently we have six committees. Every board member serves on two committees. Um we have two full board meetings a month. Finance meets several times. HR negotiations meet several times um which can end up being a lot of nights out for a lot of people and more so um looking at the efficiency of the work of the board. So the proposal that I brought to the policy committee last week and wanted to discuss with you this evening is to eliminate three committees and condense the other three. So um we so every board member was would serve on one committee. Uh we would have
079obviously a finance budget building committee that would absorb transportation because a lot of the transportation committee's conversation revolves around um finances and facilities and all of that. We would have a policy committee obviously because um one of the main roles of the board is to develop policy and then we would have an HR negotiations committee that would do that would absorb the work of the PR side of the PR tech committee and also do negotiations. Um and then as far as curriculum those reports really should be reports to the full board. So, it would be looking at, and this is all very preliminary, um, but it would be looking at bringing those curriculum reports to the full board three times a year for every other month. It would we would need to look at that.
080Um, the technology piece as well, updates, those should be updates to the full board. Um, so this is a preliminary conversation and this would also affect um how we select committees. the because right now we're choosing by seniority, you're picking two. This would only be one. Um, so there would need to be some real thoughtful decision making as to changes that we wanted to make to the this policy and changes that we would want to make to our committees. But I wanted to have a conversation with you all tonight and um see what your thoughts are and then we can come back um you know after the policy committee meets next month. We can make changes based on our conversation and have those come back to the board um next month to have these changes
081to our committees potentially take effect at the beginning of next school year. So, I'm going to We're not taking any action on this tonight, but I'm going to open it up for discussion if anyone has any comments. Michelle, I I like it. I think um I won't say it out loud. Um but where we might be short a person for Lyman. Um I know tomorrow's our deadline for closing for submissions and we don't have it, you know, someone potentially running for school board. So that would be a big burden for Suzanne and I. And I I think even who was uh who just left was like the one person from their town a day. No, I got his name wrong. But like he was attending a lot of meetings. So it is it's a lot.
082It is. Yeah. I mean currently Wes is the only Shappley rep. Yeah. So um you know it's it's one of those things. I would never propose this if I thought that um it wouldn't be beneficial. I think that a lot of um presentations and conversations that happen in committee should be full board conversations. Um and and so looking at aligning our committee work with our strategic plan with making sure that we are efficient in both our committee work and our board meetings. The other potential, and I'm just saying this as a possibility because we would really need to flush out the schedule, is if we are down to three committees and we're opening up nights of the week, that could potentially allow us to have our board meetings at 6:00 on Wednesdays, which gives us
083maybe less later nights out or more time for those presentations. Um, that's just I'm just I don't I'm not making any promises, but Right. But less nights, earlier nights, more efficiency. Um, I think it's a winwinwin, but Wes, there's only one person from Chapley. I certainly like the idea. Um, but I'd like to hear from Dr. Doyle and Dr. marquee of what their experiences are in other systems around us. Uh how does it look elsewhere when it comes to committees? So my experience at this level is certainly limited but um in many cases what I've seen in other places is limited committee work. Committees are called as needed. Um, so as Jod had mentioned, if there are times where strategic plan, you know, takes us in a specific direction or we need to dive dive
084deep, we can host workshops to be able to focus on that work. So, I've seen that as a model. Um, some of the professional development I've done in consult with other superintendent and and other folks newer to their roles, although it's it's guided by some other veteran um, district level administrators, has also pointed to a similar model. So I can think of another one in particular who has um a mission committee, a policy committee and an HR committee. Just the bare bones basics. I think some of the work my own perspective is the move that the board made this year with the consent agenda really also helps to streamline some of the work that we do so that we can perhaps dig deeper into some of those areas. I will say in setting the agendas
085for some of these pieces um the frequency of the meetings sometimes can be a challenge. If we know the next meeting is you know a month and a half away because of the way a vacation aligns it doesn't always serve us whereas the board meetings gives us more frequent opportunities to touch on timely matters um for information. So that's just my limited perspective on the fly. Um, I I would rather have maybe 15 or 20 committees. I'd like to be out more nights. I'd like to be away from home. Um, no. Uh, in in all seriousness, um, I think I've seen it in different ways. I've seen boards only have committee meetings first thing in the morning um and then they have board meetings at night. I've seen that. I've seen districts that have very
086very few committees. I do know that there are districts that have lots of committees that actually never meet. Um I I live in one that way. There's a lot on their website about all these committees, but they literally never meet. Um, I did ask Katie to start to get some information from surrounding districts. Um, Stanford has two committees, curriculum and policy. Noble, we don't have theirs. Um, Kennabunk has um five committees, but I think only three actually or maybe two actually meet on a regular basis. Um Bonnie Eagle has four committees curriculum finance and facilities negotiations and policy. Bford has three committees. One meets quarterly which is policy, one meets by monthly which is curriculum and one meets monthly which is finance. So those of you who are attending like seven or eight meetings a
087month um in some districts you would that's [Music] two attend more in a month than they do in six months in in some cases. So just um throwing that out there. Um, personally, I think if you have a committee and you have to scratch your head to figure out what the agenda is, and we have some committees that have never once had uh their only action is to approve minutes, that's probably not a committee. Well, intended, but that's more of a board report, right? With transportation security, most of that is finance. And then when there are serious things, you actually still come together because you have um an executive session about those, right? So, if you want to have all the meetings, I'm totally fine with it. Would I prefer to have fewer? Absolutely. I
088mean, I'm Tomorrow's another night, right? Uh um and I would never make this suggestion if I didn't think that we could be more efficient, um less repetitive, um and and really get more work done and be you know, more enthusiastic about the work at times because it does this time of year is a lot between negotiations and finance. It's a lot of meetings and a lot of nights out and I, you know, this is what we signed up for. Um, but I wanted to throw that out there, Jen. So, how would the schedule be different? Like, is it still going to be like once a month? Um I've started to look at that. It would a lot of it is going to depend on finance because they are the ones that really need to get
089those meetings in. So, it's going to be sitting down and looking at, you know, do does finance want to meet on the offboard weeks that do they want to do do we want to keep the other ones on Tuesdays? That we haven't flushed all of that out yet. um because we would want to have more conversations with some other administrators first. But I wanted to have the conversation with you all tonight just to see if um you are in support of us digging further into how that would look and how it would work. So I can't tell you right now like what meet what committees would meet on what nights. That hasn't been flushed out yet. Then I also saw that it struck out like us picking our subcommittee and that you would be picking
090it. No, on the That's how I read it. Oh. Um and that's not necessarily true because we haven't made the change yet. We haven't this isn't there's no action. There's no change to the policy. I think it would be beneficial um for the board chair regardless of who they are because the other change to this is that the board chair would no longer be a voting member of any committee. They would be an exeic uh exeicial yeah member of every committee. But I think it would be a wise decision to allow people to um give their preference of committees like this is my first choice, this is my second choice, this is my third choice. But you want to make sure that the right people are serving on the committees where their strengths lie. So,
091I think that some discretion should be given to the board chair to make some adjustments keeping in mind everyone's preferences and trying to meet those um to the best of their ability, but also in the best interests of the work that we do. So, we're not changing it yet, but that I think that that's a beneficial um point to add into the policy is to give that, you know, discretion. Sure. Um, yeah, sure. Oh, I'll turn on your mic so you can There you go. So, where I've seen that actually come into play is um in districts where you you could have somebody that really understands buildings and construction and all, you might want them on finance, right? because a lot of finance um I've seen people that have a real um like if they
092have a a crazy grasp on the law because say they're a lawyer and a lot of people on boards are lawyers they might be best suited for say policy right so it's really trying to look and and I would think that the chair would want to put people where they want to be but sometimes it might be a balance if you had somebody with a real strong area and that's might be more of a side conversation like Hey, have you thought about this policy? But um if you really want to have um the strongest groups, it's really seniority might change that if you're really trying to get expertise and actually get the work of the board done rather than I've always been on finance so I want to be on finance. Um I don't know,
093you want to build the strongest teams. Um, and the fact that there are six people per team, you're going to have a strong team, but you want to make sure you take advantage of people's areas of expertise. And then when there's subcommittees, like if there's a subcommittee on curriculum, not to put you on the spot, Mark would be really great about that, for example. Um, or you know, everyone's got their own areas of expertise that, uh, like you're great with like editing and all the policy, right, in my mind. But I don't choose those things. But right you want to have the strongest committees so the work can be done and you have confidence in that committee that you're not a part of. Right. Uh Michelle, I think that might encourage people to serve as
094well because I think the that when you have you have, you know, four to six meetings a month you have to do, that's difficult for most people to commit to, especially when you have, right? So, I think that would make a big difference to like putting it out for people potentially serving, right? Um but it would be a big change. the the school board schedule and committee schedule has looked exactly like it does probably for the 10 years that I have been on the board. I think with the exception of the HR committee being added um because in previous years that committee was just negotiations they wouldn't meet for the first half of the school board uh the school year and then would meet constantly for the second half. with the exception of that change,
095it has been it has looked exactly the way that it's looked um since I've been on the board. Um change is hard, but change can be good. But I wanted to throw that out there. Like I said, we're not taking action tonight, but I wanted to sort of get an unofficial approval for the policy to committee to move forward with it and bring it to you um with some suggestions at the May 14th meeting. So, anything else? Yep. One suggestion just being on finance, you know, there's times where we've used that entire 90 minutes um you know, whether it's for for various reasons. So, just um you know, do we start at 4:30? I mean, it's one of those things. I'm thinking that you don't meet on board nights. Yeah. So, you're not doing back-to-back
096meetings and you're not having four hours of meetings. I mean, and you're not pushed up. You're not watching the clock the whole time. I think that that would ease make it easier on everyone, but it's a conver it's a much deeper conversation and a look at the calendar and um, you know, because we we're very set in our ways the way that po, you know, I mean, policy has been meeting on the first Tuesday of the month for 10 years. 10 years. If it doesn't, I'll probably still show up here at the on the first Tuesday of the month regardless of when policy meets because I've been doing it for 10 years. So, um, but I think it's even if we decide to keep things the way they are, I think it's worth having a
097conversation and flushing out how it could look. So, anything else? Um, that's all. Calendar and announcements are at the bottom of your agenda. Next meeting April 30th 6 pm followed by a workshop. Um and that is all. We are adjourned at 8:31