001Welcome to the SACO school board meeting. Today is February 11th, 2026. Uh, all school board members are present with the exception of school board Waroff who is excused and tonight we have Assistant Superintendent Perkers sitting in for Superintendent Ray. Please join me for the pledge. Okay. Next on the agenda is the approval of the school board meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? Madam chair, school board member Johnston. Um, thank you. I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated January 28th, 2026. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Beth Johnston and a second by school board member Prebble. Any discussions? Seeing none, roll call. School board member Prebble. >> Yes. >> School board member Richard >> abstain. I was absent. >> Okay. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member
002KD, >> yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Six zero and one absension. Uh, next on the agenda is a any adjustments to the agenda. I see none. Number five, correspondence. I don't have any correspondence. Number six, public session. If you wish to speak, please come to the podium, state your name and address, and limit your comments to three minutes or less. Okay, seeing no one seeking recognition, moving on to number seven, superintendent report. Assistant Superintendent Parkers. Thank you. Um, couple of items this evening. The center of technology is currently scheduling program visits. If your child is interested in career and technical education opportunities, applications are being accepted for the 2627 school year. We encourage parents and students to review the course catalog even if you're not of
003age yet to be looking at those programs. It's always good to familiarize yourself with what's available. That can be found on their website. And feel free to schedule an appointment with their guidance counselor as those programs do fill up quickly. Unified basketball at Sako Middle School following winter break will begin. This is an incredible group of athletes that promote teamwork, inclusion, and sportsmanship. Spectators always leave with big smiles. It is truly a remarkable experience to watch. If you haven't had an opportunity to do so, highly recommend it. Their first game will be against Baifford on February 26th at 3:45 at Sako Middle School and the full schedule is on the SACO middle school athletics web page. Our district is participating in the department of ed's read to me challenge. We encourage the community to join
004us by reading to or with a child at least 15 minutes a night. If you snap a photo or a video and post it with the hashtag read tome, that will challenge others to read aloud for 15 minutes to a child that they know. So, we do hope that our families participate in that. Um, today we had an early release. Our prek through five teachers got together to look at the curriculum review process for English language arts following their individual building based time. Then they worked in collaborative groups to review current research and readings around bre best practices in English language arts instruction. Our middle school staff completed grade level smallb block meetings to continue their work with bar which is the building assets reducing risks program that we are utilizing. And during this they
005meet to discuss students on their team and assess areas of strength or growth or follow up on other plans for individual students. Following that they met in vertical content area teams to collaborate on curriculum. Also a huge thanks to teachers Ann Marie Ramsey, Amy Carstia, Lindseay Fifenberger, Melissa Goslin, Sarah Wy, and Rachel Cook. These teachers all participated in a grant-f funded professional development module around um AIM modules for literacy learning that in it's a pretty intensive uh online course that really dives into the way that the brain learns how to read and helps to improve not only their instructional practices but those of their colleagues as well. So we appreciate the extra time and effort that they put into that. A reminder that next week is our winter break. Uh students and teachers will enjoy
006the week from February 16th to 20th without school and we look forward to welcoming students back on February 23rd. We had a spelling bee championship occur this Monday which was an exciting event at Sako Middle School and we are proud of the students that participated from CK Burns and Saco Middle. That's it. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any comments, questions, concerns? I also just want to add that the middle school had their staff versus students basketball game last night and uh I went to it with one of my kids and it was really fun and I'm sad Mrs. Susi is not here right now because I really wanted to tell her she had a great game. So, >> okay. >> She might be home icing something. I was gonna say she might be
007icing because there were some pretty crazy moves last night that I'm sure she was like feel that tomorrow. Um, okay, moving on. Uh, chair's report. I have nothing to report. Uh, number nine, staff reports. I don't have any staff reports. Number 10, board subcommittee minutes. Um, we have policy and personnel committee. The next meeting was actually tonight at 5:30. The next will be in March. Uh, finance and infrastructure committee. The next meeting is February 25th at 4:30 in curriculum committee. The next meeting is February 23rd at 4:30. Moving on. Number 11, old business. I have no old business. Number 12, new business. First one's new hires. There should be a memo in your packet. No motion is needed last time I checked. B, resignations. Again, another memo in your packet. No motion is needed. I
008know I usually make the motions. You write. I know. Uh and letter C, building update. Assistant Superintendent Parkers. Thank you. Um things are moving quite quickly over at the building site. Lots of exciting things to see. If you go over there, you can feel like a young child again watching all of the dirt being moved around. It's actually pretty entertaining. We have about uh between 30 to 35 workers on site daily. The earth work and material excavation is the primary activity that's happening there now. The storm water drainage system installation is in progress. The water management infrastructure is being piped into the site and they are preparing for foundation drilling operations with the intent to have that foundation begin in March. The drill rigs will be arriving in the next week or so. They're going
009to start with one drill rig and work their way up to three rigs. If things proceed smoothly, they'll have to do some tra test drilling to identify where there might be ledge involved and uh certainly require a little bit more depending on where that is. One of the things we've been talking about recently around that ledge and drilling is some blasting restrictions and working with our contractors to make sure that we're communicating with the city the dates of blasting as well as following the operable windows for different wildlife permits that are needed, etc. And we'll continue to move. Hopefully there won't be um unexpected ledge there, but as they've said, you never know until you're actually in the exact spot, even though those test drillings have occurred along the way. Um the site access, that
010loop road construction is advancing. We had our drone club a couple weeks ago back over there. So we we will be releasing a new video where you can see the site progress and really start to see some of those roads and eastern trail access route developing. In addition to that, we are working with the geothermal system procurement which requires all American products. So, we're working with Competitive Energy Solutions to make sure that all of our material tracing and tracking is up to date to get the biggest amount of that tax refund as we are able to for that system. We also are looking at the bridge building for the Eastern Trail Bridge that will go over Milbrook and the design and specifications on that are coming through. Uh again, upcoming milestones will be that foundation
011starting in March and the road access from Route One is now fully shut down and the access road off of Milbrook is opened up for all construction vehicles. So, we're very excited about that and looking forward to the official placement of Beth Johnston Way as a road on the map, which should be happening shortly. Happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Any questions for Super Assistant Superintendent Parker? School board member Johnston? >> Mostly, excuse me, mostly comments. Thank you. It is very exciting. It sounds like things are really really moving along. And the picture that um Kevin Roach took about the 10th of January does not look like that anymore. It looked good then, Kevin, but it really, thanks to our assistant superintendent, I was able to go over there last week and it
012really looks like a road now. I mean, it's not done, but it's it's got a very sort of solid gravel surface, and it is really exciting to see how much they've changed it in a month's time. Um, plus all of the other things that you've noted, Meg, about the progress that's being made. The bridge sounds exciting, too. So, I just want to thank you for being on top of everything and letting us know. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd like to also thank Don who's been very involved in the details that I'm still learning about and he has a lot more experience in the building and construction area. So I appreciate the team's efforts >> and I e echo that. Thank you. >> School board member Roach >> and Beth make sure everyone's wearing their
013hard hats out there. Okay. Okay. All right. Um usually um when these building updates come I ask not every meeting but about any progress with the DOT about the route one entrance um you know turn off lane or or or lights. And last Monday at at the city council meeting, uh it was a pretty uh pretty active and uh a lot of people upset that um the city um through uh one of the commissions had submitted to the DOT to have um route one from 195 all the way to Scarboro line um be basically a two-lane with a bike lane. Um, and a couple of speakers, the reason why I bring this up is a couple of speakers referenced the schools and our involvement or whether uh we were asked for the bike lane for
014kids to get to school on route on a route one bike lane. And you know, I I end up speaking at the end to kind of correct that that we ideally would like the intersection at Milbrook and the Route One entrance to be traffic slowed down, you know, especially during the school hours of coming and going. But at no part did superintendent or this school board ever say that the condition of this location was uh we needed these big changes to Route One. Um, I still would personally advocate for that light at Route One and maybe the northbound lane to reduce to one so the turnoff is easy to approach for the schools and the safety and the buses and all that. But but um but otherwise that is you know to the community that
015is not true that that somehow we are behind or pushing for that that big change in Route One. I also want to publicly thank the businesses that are at the intersection um of Route One and Milbrook to um uh for the easements that we've already gotten. So, I mean, I think it's going great right now and, you know, it's a bonus if the DOT does do something with Route One, but it's still full steam ahead. So, thanks. >> Yeah, I do want to clarify that that is totally separate the discussions. We we already have a traffic movement permit from DOT for the improvements to the Route One kind of corridor surrounding the intersection that does include sidewalks, but does not necessarily include any upgrades to bike lanes. We anticipate that any biking to the site
016would be done through the Eastern Trail for those age levels, which is why we're investing in making sure that there's adequate access from the Eastern Trail to the school site. Though, I would also echo that I've heard that there are other Route One improvements with advocates on either side to change that, and we we certainly have a vested interest in that. However, we have not advocated or had any sway in in determining what those plans are. And I would also want to thank you for mentioning the easements. I think we've gotten four or five in the last week or so. And that's been a great opportunity to speak to land owners and business owners in that area who may or may not have differing levels of knowledge about the project and and folks have been
017very accommodating with the need which are all temporary easements just for the record where their um lawn may be disturbed for a couple of feet in while the sidewalk is expanded. But all of that is occurring within the right of way. though as a business owner or land owner, it's very intimidating to get a fourpage legal ease document from the city and the school department with a map of your property attached. So, we really appreciate those folks that have been willing to meet with us and dialogue about exactly what we need to do and uh we've worked with them to talk about business hours and what can and can't be closed and what months will and won't work. So, much appreciated. Great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for Assistant Superintendent Parkers? Okay, moving
018on. Uh D, York County Teacher of the Year nomination. We would like to um congratulate and celebrate Heather Dumis, who's been nominated for the 2026 York County Teacher of the Year from SACO's PreK. and um we wish her luck in the process and uh hope that you will join us in supporting her nomination. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right, moving on. E, preventing student homelessness memo. So, this is just a notice that we've received an additional allocation of just under $2,000. that brings our that what they ended up doing with that allocation is adding it to the FY25 allocation. I think that's mostly to streamline the invoicing. It brings our total for that preventing student homelessness grant award to just over $49,000. That additional just under 2,000 that we received is based on our
019Mckin Vento homeless student counts from the October 1st enrollment data and it was uh reallocated from the FY25 funds and with that FY26 appropriation. As a little bit of a background, LD 384, an act to prevent student homelessness, allocated the funds initially with 1.5 million in FY24,25 and in 26 that funding was reduced to 125,000. So, it's obviously a much smaller pot of money. Uh we have been able to utilize that money through aid for SACO kids to purchase additional food items for families for backpack programs uh as well as rent assistance or kind of shortterm stop gap things that might help families prevent them from entering into a homeless situation. This next round of expenses we can utilize through March 31st of 2026 and that will uh round out that funding unless there's additional
020funding provided through the governor's budget. >> Great. Thank you. Any questions or comments from school board members? >> Moving on. Uh F subsidy memo. I'm sure you all know how sad Jeremy is to not be here for this particular memo. Very sad. >> I will speak at much less length than he would about our subsidy. Uh however, it unfortunately isn't great news. If you take a look at the allocations that are again just preliminary allocations, so we will have time before we're certain about what these numbers will look like. What we see in those numbers is that our state share has gone up uh just over $87,000, which sounds like it's not bad, but when we're looking at a total EPS allocation of $41,787 and around 900, that's that's not really a big percentage increase.
021So any increase that we have with the budget that we present to the finance committee then to the board and to the city any increase you know basically over 41% would have to be shouldered by local taxpayers. So that's uh certainly something that we're keeping in mind as we continue to look at the budget through all of those areas. Just to give you a little look under the hood, though Jeremy explains it in much greater depth, two major factors that push into that number not increasing as much as we might anticipate. We have a property valuation increase of about 11% compared to the previous year. And the higher the valuation increase, they look at the state increase in valuation and those above or below or close to that average increase in valuation see less subsidy.
022The thinking of course behind that is that communities that have higher home values in sum total should be able to shoulder a greater local burden for uh the tax burden in terms of education. And then the second component that impacts that is the pupil count decrease of 1% that we had. And a a further impact in that pupil decrease is around the weight for ML or ESOL students. There's an additional weighted count in the subsidy for students that are flagged as multilingual learners. So with our decrease being in that particular subgroup, we lose kind of a disproportionate amount per pupil in terms of the decrease in the population. Just to give you kind of an idea of how we are looking in comparison to the rest of the state, the average statewide change in valuation
023was 15%. So we are still below that average state valuation increase. However, we're close enough to it that it's not going to help us in terms of seeing a major shift. So, really what we're looking at is that districts that have lower valuation increases and either stable or growing subgroup populations in either economically disadvantaged or multilingual learners or greater population increases in their overall student counts will see more substantial state funding increases. And those who have valuation growth like SACO that are closer to that average are seeing a relatively flat or overall decline in their state subsidy. It's important to note that that number will eventually include additional state funding around the uh school construction process. And that's an an adjustment to the allocation. But really, that's just like a direct repayment to the bond
024that the city has. So, even though that will make it look on paper like we're getting a lot more money, that money is already that check is kind of already written and not in the mail yet. So, we may look statewide if you see other comparisons like we're in great shape, but we need to adjust with that school construction process to know that that extra money coming in isn't something that we can add to our budget. As we continue to move into the FY27 budget development process, that kind of flat rate of only a 041% increase means that any operating costs that we see, including those that are contractual year-over-year increases, health insurance increases, special education services increases to uh slightly known costs, though they fluctuate, such as utilities. All of those costs are anticipated
025to go up. And so we have to kind of keep in mind the need to grow things that we might want to grow with those that we already know will inherently increase over time. Um again, the construction aid once it's applied will offset the debt service but won't be able to become part of our operational money that we would use to fund the budget. And I also want to emphasize that these are preliminary and the legislative action following the state budget will confirm our final allocation. And Jeremy's happy to answer any questions you might have. I'll give it my best shot though. Any questions for assistant superintendent Parkhurst? Sorry, I was gonna say mercy has been given, but Ro uh super uh school board member Roach has a question for you. >> Oh, I I
026know he's watching. So, let's let's uh first of all, great presentation. I think everyone's still awake over there. So, that's that's a good good start. Um, one thing that there's been some changes, not just you get the state subsidy, you know, which again, Jeremy knows that stuff back and forth, but he also knows that um, you know, main care could be an issue with with with revenue assumptions there. Of course, um, it's a very very small part, but you know, the federal um, Department of Education on that. So, I would like when we get close to budget here, I'd like to recommend to show the board and then therefore the public if we propose an increase when we oppose an increase lay out what the fixed uh increases are. you know, the contracted um the
027contracts we have with with employees, but also um any outside services. Um lay that out. Lay out what could be short coming in from the state or the federal government. That would be the local responsibility. Um, you know, you know, put specifically, you know, we have Thornton that we always want to uh, you know, abide by what the MAT increase was plus some cushion. Um, so just just lay I would lay it out that way so we can maybe you know handle some of maybe the emotional part of it but also show that these are numbers public that people that might fight tax increases or or or need to know what the reasons are. I think this year specifically is more important than the than prior years for that. >> Okay, that's enough boring talk.
028Thank you. Right. Any other questions or comments? All right. Next is uh think we're up to letter G for second reading of policies. Member Johnston. Thank you. Um yes. So this is I realize what I'm reading here is slightly confusing because it actually says first readings of policies at the top and then down at the bottom second and I believe we are talking second. >> Yeah, I double checked the other the other version. >> Okay, thank you very much. I move we approve the second reading of policies BE D rules of order BE DF voting method BE D A excuse me BE D FA abstensions BE DH-E public participation at school board meetings and agenda item requests BEI board relations with the media BE DJ broadcasting taping of board meetings broadcasting slashtaping of board meetings
029BG school board policy BG-R schoolboard policy procedure BEC quorum BEG minutes and BEL adjournment of board meetings Second. >> I have a motion made by school board member Johnson and a second by school board member Prebble. Any discussion? >> Okay. School board member Roach >> on the uh public participation at schoolboard meetings where uh you know it's not on the agenda. So this is a way for the public to try to get something on the agenda. Um maybe Beth from your earlier time um um when this was adopted in 2019 um how is how was this promoted and how is envisioned this is promoted for for for this year or future I get um how do the people know that this exists besides Besides being in our policy packet, >> well, I suppose we could
030say they could look at our policy manual, but um I would imagine if I would hope that if someone had an issue that they wanted to see put on the agenda, they would in fact seek um some input from I I would think it would be the superintendent, but or any of his um >> or the chair I think can can also bring it up. >> Right. Exactly. So that those those avenues are open. But I think that policy hold on one second if I can find it. It does give you the option of actually writing out a request, but it does not mandate that you do that in order to speak to someone about getting an item on that agenda. >> Yeah. Because it doesn't guarantee it. It says we may add this item
031to the agenda. It it if someone writes this out, it doesn't mean we're going to put it on the agenda. It's just Yeah, it doesn't. It means that we will consider it. It will go to policy, as I recall, meeting first. Um assuming that it's deemed acceptable to go there and then will be reviewed for possible putting on the agenda. Did we talk about this one? You asked me this or it was a different one. I think it >> was a different Yeah, because I Yeah, I didn't see it like this or I It was a different thing. I think um ask um >> did you ask me also Kevin about something in of history? Oh, well, I mean, if it was a in 2019 there was a lot of different issues going on and
032I think people were questioning >> why aren't you why aren't we addressing this? So I I I think I saw the need I can imagine the need back then and it's been a relatively quiet year, but there have been a couple issues brought up and sometimes we have to remind the public that you can public speak, but we're not going to debate what you just brought up. So maybe one idea is maybe we print this and it's up there in case they want to go up and >> Yeah, we've discussed that I think at policy too like keeping a copy handy. >> Yeah. >> Up here and >> up here for reference so that if there's any questions about >> what is and isn't allowed that we can >> Yeah. >> Okay. That's all. Thanks.
033>> Does that answer your question? Y >> hopefully it is clear enough, but thank you for asking. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions, comments, thoughts, dreams? Okay. All right. Roll call vote. Oh, school board member Pebble. >> Yes. >> School board member Richard? >> Yes. >> School board member Roach? >> Yes. >> School board member KD? >> Yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Johnston, >> yes. Motion passes 6. All right. Number 13. Other information. I don't have any other information. Oh, >> I have one piece of information. Shout out to TA. I think it was the student council that came into Seal Rock today and they were handing out Valentine's to all of our residents at Seal Rock which was fantastic and also all the staff. So, even I as a social worker
034got one. So, I just wanted to tell them as I promised, I would let them know thank you um at a school board meeting. So, thank you guys for coming. It's always a joy to see students from the SACO school system come into the center. >> That's really sweet. Anybody else? Number 14, executive session. There is no executive session. 15. Ajournment. Adjournment. >> So moved. >> Okay. Okay, I have a motion by school board member Prebble. >> Second by school board member Richard. Any discussion? Roll call. Schoolboard member Prebble. >> Yes. >> School member Richard. >> Yes. >> School board member Roach. >> Trucking. I'm going home. Yes. >> School board member KD. >> Yes. >> School member Johnston. >> Yes. >> I vote yes. 6. German at 7:36. Have a good night. See you
035next time.