001e e e I know for next time right good evening everyone I'm going to call the February 26 school board meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. if everyone could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance roll call Joshua Allard Melissa bacon Suzanne Bower mark cardano Elizabeth Day Michelle felicetti Anastasia Ferguson here Eric Garrison Jody Lane here Jennifer Mayo Amy Morrison Sean Perkins Wes finny here Adam tangway Angela tardiff Judith Vel Dominic vermet Olivia Ali Walker Vivian we have a quorum with 16 directors present I'd like to make one uh a motion to make one adjustment to the agenda and under new business um we'll do this is number one under new business um approval of a field trip request that uh Katie provided to all of you and then we would bump those other ones
002down to two and three if I can get a second is there any discussion all in favor motion carries we'll add that uh next up the consent agenda is there a motion to accept the consent agenda any discussion all in favor motion carries next up approval of the minutes from February 12th suan that was you is there any discussion comments Corrections on the minutes all in favor motion carries next up public comment do we have any public comment this evening are you goingon to okay I'll hold on just one second uh public comment provides opportunity to address the school board on any subject specific to our schools and educational matters allowing members of the public a fair and adequate opportunity to be heard and to provide information and opinion the school board welcomes constructive comments
003that will help to understand the speaker's point of view and encourages comments focusing on the issue rather than comments that disparage or attack individuals or groups we ask that you be respectful and honor rules of decorum speakers will not be permitted to make defamatory comments or use abusive or vulgar language uh disruptive individuals will forfeit their time each speaker will be allowed a maximum speaking time of three minutes if speakers do not complete their comments within the allotted three minutes they may submit a written statement to the board written statements are also accepted from those who do not wish to speak publicly comments or discussion of matters involving indiv individual students is not allowed and comments regarding staff members either by name or specifically identifiable position are not allowed these are confidential matters which the
004school board is not permitted to hear in public session we ask that each speaker Begin by identifying themselves by name and town of residents the public comments portion of the meeting is an opportunity for the school board to listen to the public and is not a time for debate or conversation should additional discussion regarding an issue be necessary that can be added to a future agenda so thank you for joining us um we look forward to hearing from you so CL up and then when you get up there if you push the button on the right then I can turn on the mic go ahead uh thank you for letting me speak uh my name is Patrick M I'm a waterbor resident and I just wanted to bring to your attention that uh my daughter
005um she is on a swim team and she has felt uncomfortable uh this season with a uh male um getting dressed in the girls locker room and I wanted to bring that to your attention um and see if you guys could figure out a way that everyone involved can be comfortable in this situation thank you should I turn this off I can turn it off thank you we have any other public comment this evening next up we'll move on to the board chair report and first up we have recognitions and celebrations so I will turn things over to principal thurlo good evening uh so we're here to recognize a a young person who has really done an incredible job to represent himself in the school Community but also the broader Community um specifically I I'll
006name him here and he actually reached behind and said hey Mr thur do I have to go up there yes Brady you have to come up to the podium um but I want to introduce just briefly Brady Batson came to us um earlier this school year uh when I say us Mr Brooks our facilities director and asked us about an opportunity to really broaden um the horizons of our campus um but also specifically serve the purpose of doing some work for his Eagle Scout I'm not going to take his Thunder I want him to come up here and talk to you a little bit about that process right so um Brady Batson um we're recognizing him for earning the rank of Eagle Scout which is not specific to rsu57 but we know it is a
007very very highly regarded um opportunity and and recognition so Brady if you are here we'll present this to you and Katie is going to take a picture so we'll kind of do this piece here I give you that tell them a little bit about your so my uh Eagle Scout project was quite the process and I uh it was more than I thought it was going to be and it was it was just really important for me and uh if any of you don't know I have been working on install well the installation of a 70 foot flag pole over by the athletic fields um in place of the one that is currently there it's about it's a little over twice the size and the flag will be about five times the size um it
008was brought to me by my grandfather who's very special to me uh he was at one of my uh football games and he said that it was It was kind of sad to see how small our flag was and how small the poll was with how important um he feels and I personally feel that that is to our daily lives and I I knew I had this project coming up and he proposed that I should do something about the flag pole and it was quite the process to approved because generally Eagle Scout projects are mostly labor intensive they're not normally as financially deep as mine was normally it's like working on the trails building benches that sort of thing so it was it was pretty difficult to get permission for all of that to happen
009especially with the project costing about $25,000 um we still have not raised all 25,000 I have about 4,800 left to ra ra um but I'm hoping to have the poll in in the spring and yeah basically I just I I let a group of indivi individuals in in in this process and that's what it was well that's fantastic Brady uh congratulations thank you [Applause] yeah hey hey Brady uh congratulations uh it's really exciting exciting to have you achieve this real huge honor um one thing you left a little short though during your presentation would be maybe a pitch where you'd say if there are individuals that would like to donate how would they go about donating because I I'll donate I turned the mic off so push the button on the right and I'll turn
010it back on Brady so everyone can hear on the on the front like the right hand button on the front there we go um I have a venmo setup that's directly linked to a separate account that's not for my personal use that I've been using for flag bow funds most of the the money that I have raised so far has been generously donated by certain businesses um in specifically there's a couple that were big um Tibbits Landscaping did all of the digging for us which ended up being a lot more because the footing size that we had initially planned ended up having to be like tripled or quadrupled because of how big the flag is going to be so that was quite the process and then I had a concrete contractor named Steve gwan who
011did all the Concrete Dayton sand and gravel who donated all of the concrete and and the poor and uh I think gleni yep the benches were donated by Glenn Smith designs and I believe I believe you donated a gift certificate to me for the Rock yeah so fog Leo ended up donating uh doing the rock but she had a gift certificate and she donated The Rock and that was relatively early on and there's been some others um in particular JD's and Abbotts donated a cash donation which I had to use towards the the sleeve for the poll which generally would come with the poll but I didn't have the funds to order the poll so I had to call around and find a way to order the um product that was not offered for sale
012but um if you were to donate I have a venmo that is uh it's called at Massabesic flag pole project and if there's any further information I can give phone numbers or anything of that sort yes it would be to myself with a memo for Massabesic flag pole project if it was a check you said at Massabesic flag pole project project yep um thank you very much really appre apprciate it um I'm not a techie but my wife has venos so you'll see it under a different name thank you thank you yeah hold go ahead Judith um what is going to happen to the old pole and the flag so I initially um initially it wasn't just um Ben Brooks I I first contacted the athletic director and he pointed me towards Ben Brooks but
013I believe he has plans for some sort of school flag to go on the other flag pole um or a main flag I'm not really sure but he he didn't want it to be removed yeah we can find out and get back to you thank you yeah thanks any other questions great job thank you [Applause] fantastic all right just a couple things on my board chair report this evening firstly I want to recognize Suzanne Bower who has been on the school board for two years as of this month so she joined us in February of 2023 so thank you [Applause] Suzanne um just a reminder the Schoolboard self- evaluation was sent out earlier this month it's due by Friday two days from now um last check I've gotten a handful but there if I can
014get those finished up so that I can get the results compiled and ready for you for the next meeting on March 12th that would be great and lastly I wanted to give you all a heads up that I'm scheduling a Schoolboard Workshop get out your pens for Monday March 17th at 6m that will be right here in the East Building Monday March 17th at 6 PM this is going to be um a Schoolboard Workshop to discuss uh the final report from SPS on student well-being in rsu57 so that is done and ready for discussion um and review with the school board and obvious viously it will go out to the public as well at that time that's all I have for my school board uh my board chair report unless there are any questions March
01517th Monday March 17th all right I'll turn things over to Dr Marquee for the superintendent report um as always we'll begin with Walker okay good evening everyone uh so February vacation began on the 15th and lasted until the 24th when students and staff returned to school this is the second to last vacation of the school and gave students and staff a good chance to rest after the hard work they put in during the first month of the second semester the winter sports season is wrapping up and there are many teams that have had a lot of success this season the wrestling team finished as Regional runner-ups and competed at the state championships on February 15th women's wrestling won the state championships on February 18th the swim team placed fourth at regionals and went on to
016the state championships and the cheer team also made an appearance at the state championships indoor track and field placed at multiple events and they're also headed to the state championships which was on February 17th girls basketball will compete at the regional quarterfinal on Valentine's Day fourth and fifth graders at Alfred Elementary were able to team up with their book buddies in first grade to create Valentine's transporter Transporters they listen to a book where animals used different methods to get to the ones they love and then they designed unique and new Transportation methods on February 28th waterborough Elementary we have a PTO family movie night and on the same day if the weather permits chapley Memorial School will have an outdoor kindness celebration uh for elementary schools the end of the second trimester is on Friday
017mar mar March 7th with the middle school now also operating on a semester schedule this only has a big effect for reporting at the elementary level after school at the middle school the drama club has rehearsal every day except for Fridays and early release days and Game Club meets every other Thursday and there will be a spring Coral concert on Tuesday March 18th at 7 pm while students will be able to sing the songs that they've been working on since their last winter concert in December Massabesic High School held a pep rally on Valentine's Day to lead into February break there are multiple games played including a plunger toss musical chairs which had some Unforgettable battles for chairs and there was also a tug OFW and a red light green light dodgeball twist game uh
018the Harvest of the month across the district for February was root vegetables with a particular focus on carrots during school lunches students will have the opportunity to taste locally sourced main carrots with a brown sugar glaze potatoes was the Harvest of the month last month and students at Alfred Elementary were able to learn fun facts about potatoes and discuss how nutritious they are Additionally the mesic high school theater will be presenting their new show a clown's Tale on February 28th March 1st and March 2nd that concludes the student representative report thank you thank you Walker any questions for Walker before I begin my report okay um first I hope that you all had a nice February break and those in in the crowd that are teachers or students I hope you had a nice restful
019Break um at our last meeting there was a question about what would happen if there was a change in federal funds so I wanted to respond to that very briefly um there there would be many elements to any process that would change uh Federal funding whether it's related to any um particular executive orders or if it were the result of a change in um the United States Department of Education um so I think it would be um speculative to really truly understand how that might unfold though the department of Ed on the national level has been around since 1979 developed under Jimmy Carter um it actually was part of a larger uh Department which was the Department of Health um education and Welfare um under established by Eisenhower in 1953 so there is a long
020history of the Department of Education and a couple different forms if there ever was the um uh total removal of a federal or a national Department of Education um what is projected would be there would be a shift from those funds at the federal level to more direct oversight at the state level I think it would be um unknown whether or not the same level of funding that exists under the federal would then get passed through the states I think that'd be speculative at best at our last meeting um M Miss versel asked um what would be the impact um of federal funds so federal funds come in all sorts of forms right through uh title funding special education funding um various grant allocations that are typically aligned with in many cases um economic standards
021um uh really aligned oftentimes with free and reduced lunch calculations and such um there are two elements or really three elements of a of a budget you you have um your regular locally your that is generated from State funding as well as local valuation um that budget under the current year is about $ 52.6 million um in addition to that we do receive uh approximately $3 million in all federal sorts of programs so when I shared at our last meeting um that the vast majority of our budget comes from local Taxation and from State um under the Ed 279 essential programs and services model that is correct but it is still a lot of money that we received from the federal government approximately out of the 56.6 million full operational it's about 5.3% so I
022just wanted to Circle back and provide that information and um thank you U Mr Walsh for providing some of that information uh for tonight as as requested um I too want to celebrate our um student athletes and our performers our our um music program our performers at the high school went off and did quite well at the regional qualifier and we'll be moving on and then our um both boys girls wrestling our basketball teams track and field teams um I'll be talking a little bit bit later about our our girl wrestlers uh as part of a field trip request it's short notice because everything kind of came together after the um uh agenda was sent out so that concludes my report if you have any questions I can do my best to answer them and
023I apologize about racing in I was in a a longer than anticipated meeting in my office prior to this meeting any questions for Dr Mary thank you next up standing committees Finance building and maintenance Dominic so we met tonight uh before this meeting um Colin gave us an update on the modular building at the high school they had an inspection with the modular company last week uh they did receive the uency permit from the town but there's still a lot of stuff that needs to be finished before it's ready to be used um we did get granted as an extension from the state for this project so that we have time to get this work done um the the uh Colin met with the attorneys this week in regards to the land in Lyman and
024they are planning a meeting with the sellers to see if they can figure out how to come to an agreement to get that process moving forward um we did a review of the current fuel prices for Oil propane Diesel and gas um the contracts for those all are renewing or expiring this year um the prices currently are not much different than what we currently are pay paying and we're going to wait a little bit to see if they change um so we'll have more information on that coming from Colin now we talked about the school board I mean the scoreboard not the school board we are the school board the scoreboard advertising um at the complex out on the athletic field um most of you probably have seen the signs that are um up on
025the side of the scoreboard for certain businesses um those cont the original contracts have expired ired and so we're trying to figure out how to move forward with that so we're going to work on that uh going forward um we did a review of the fund balance so that we could start the discussion for um what we plan to use for the current budget season um and we started the conversation about the expectation for the local tax increase uh in the upcoming budget uh that was the end of our meeting our next meeting is a week from tonight March 5th at 5:30 thank you any questions for Dominic typically I do this after the board chair update but those of you who are here if you would like to go we won't be offended we'd
026love for you to stay you're welcome to stay but thank you for all coming in and and being here but yeah except JoJo she can't go uh next up curriculum Anastasia we have not met since last meeting our next meeting is March 11th at 6m any questions on curriculum uh Human Resources we have not met since the last meeting our next meeting is March 20th and we are doing negotiations with the teachers union any questions on human resources policy has not met since our last meeting our next meeting is next Tuesday March 4th at 6 PM uh right here in the East Building any questions on policy PR Tech suzan can you that's okay we did not meet this month because of the February break so our next meeting will be on Tuesday March 18th
027at 6 PM any questions on PR next up Transportation jeen um we met last night um calling gave an update on the budget said that salaries and benefits may be um a little tight but insurance is coming in under budget and gas and Diesel are in good shape and there's no real concerns uh going forward at this time Richie gave his Transportation director update um so this year we're committed to buying four new buses two are in two will come later in the year and they're going to recommend um four new for next year um Staffing is being maintained day by day still looking for creative ways to hire um the bus fleet is running well the van Fleet is starting to see some wear so they're going to work on that replacement schedule they're
028going to look into getting quotes on a 12 to 15 passenger van for special um purposes they got the new bus right app is up and running um they'll give us an update in a few months on how it's going they signed a three-year agreement putting them in uh 10 buses to start and hopefully do the rest of the fleet uh during the summer uh the CDL Class current class ended the next one didn't have enough students to run um they're looking to maybe start an internal CDL class for anybody who may be interested who already works for the district they're looking for a new software for inventory um and at the end Richie gave us a nice little um update as of last yesterday of last year 72 buses had been out by that
029point of the year and at this year we've only had six out so we told Richie that was really you know really good Kudos on his and the whole transportation department um we went into little lengthy executive session to discuss security purposes and that was the meeting and we meet again March 25th at PM any questions for Jen well thank you uh next up old business we have none so new business we'll start with did you have a question before we go into the new business just yeah go uh hold on go ahead I didn't we're our Workshop is scheduled on St Patrick's Day yes okay the March I I looked at a a couple different options and March is a full month so I tried not to make it so that it would be
030a three night in a row for anyone or four night in a row for anyone um so it really was a a tight squeeze and I didn't want to push it any longer so I felt it was really important to get it on the schedule for March have a night designated for just discussion on that report so that there's you know nothing else no other business um to take care of so I I know that that's St Patrick's Day it is kind of was my only option you know um for the month of March it's it's starting at 6 we should be out of here by S all right next up new business uh first up is a field trip request um for the girls wrestling team did you want to speak to this it's
031actually the girls and boys wrestling team I believe that there are three boys that qualified for new englands and six girls that qualified for new englands um our team is actually projected to do quite well at new englands I think we're currently ranked number one or number two for girls wrestling in New England um off the on the heels of their winning the state championship um and doing really really well um at that contest they we had two we had six girls competing we had two first places two second places and two third places so that's pretty exciting for us so what this talks about is it's a two-day tournament um the tournament is on the um the 8th and 9th but given the match schedule they actually would go to Providence um on the
0327th so it'd be two nights and um Mr Lawrence is working closely with uh parent and Coach chaperon to ensure that that's a um a good experience a safe experience and a um an appropriate experience for all of our student athletes given two days away for that competition and again as I shared before um this I kind of all came together um after the agenda was sent out um so I apologize for not getting it to you sooner and um questions that you might have just it's they not recrossing buses so how are they getting there they're parents um they are um a combination of parents and also one of the parents has a large pass passenger van Okay so and uh the funding for it is not um District funds it is um through
033the boosters program for um accommodations Mr Lawrence will be going to um two days of the contest I believe and I there might be um uh a smaller group of Administrators perhaps going on Sunday um not yet finalized still up in the air lot of eagerness on the day of the state championship um but that could change as time progresses all right so this one's an out of state overnight so it does need Schoolboard approval do we have a motion to approve this field trip we have a motion and a second to approve is there any other discussion or questions all in favor curious next up second draft of the 2025 2026 school year calendar what you have before you is the second read of the calendar um this allows individuals to plan accordingly for
034um trips and such and um work schedules and and all those sorts of things um for the start of the school year as well as throughout the school year this is um based on our current understanding of CBA agreements with educational technicians and teachers so if there were ever an amendment with anything that would be contractually based that would then um require that would that may require an amendment that would have to come back before the board for a first read and a second read that happened um three years ago following teacher negotiations when we adopted a uh an amended calendar after negotiations I there was discussion here but I don't believe there was any um request at the first read it's really more of a discussion so if there were changes we would um
035you would actually make those during this meeting great question all right any questions on this are do you think there's anything that should be changed are we ready to approve the calendar what's the direction of the [Applause] board all right we have a motion and a second to approve the school calendar for 2025 2026 is there any further discussion all in favor than carries uh next up we have removal of a policy so this one is um ad c-r which is tobacco use and possession and administrative procedure so at our last meeting we did a first read of some revisions to ADC that went through the second read during the consent agenda this evening and that policy now in its revised version incorporates the administrative procedure that was in this separate policy so at this
036point it would be redundant to have this one but it does need board approval to remove a policy so that's what I would be looking for this evening we have a motion and a second to remove that policy adcr any disc discussion all in favor all right next up I would look for a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a student matter pursuant to one MRSA 456b any discussion I have one discussion point about that yep um do we know if the student is here if not we would reverse the two and um while waiting we could do the second executive session just to be mindful of your time that motion yep so we're not going to vote on that I would Now look for a motion to enter into executive session to
037discuss a Personnel matter pursuant to one MRSA 456a any discussion all in favor we're in executive session at 7:38 p.m. e e e Judith would um select people be notified yes okay y the town will be notified what's the direction of the board make a motion we there a vacancy in water who is that Michelle Michelle okay I'm going to repeat it hold on one second let me so we have a motion and a second to declare a vacancy for Waterboro is there any other discussion all in favor opposed motion carries next up I would look for a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a student matter pursuant to one MRSA 456b we have motion and a second to enter into executive session is there any discussion all in favor we're an executive
038session at 8:03 e e e PM what's the direction of the board the motion stud a so we have a motion and a second to expel student a indefinitely uh with a road map to return is there any discussion all in favor motion carries uh so calendar and announcements are at the bottom of your agenda our next Schoolboard meeting is March 12th please please complete your uh Schoolboard self- evaluations this week so that we can do that and a reminder of the workshop on marks March 7 Mark March 17th at 6 p.m. uh we are adjourned