001Good evening. My name is Jennifer Prebble and I'm the SACO school board chair. I'm calling the meeting to order at 700 p.m. this Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. Please note that we have all school board members in attendance. And would you kindly join me for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance. All right, moving on to item three, school board meeting minutes dated November 12th, 2025. Um, there is a memo in your packet with the minutes. Do I have a motion or any discussion on the item agenda? >> Chair Prebble. Um, school board member Truman. >> I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated November 12th, 2025. >> I have a motion by school board member Truman. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Oh, school board um second by school board member
002Oh, Jeff Richards. Thank you. >> All right. Um, any discussion on the item? >> All right. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. >> Yes. School board member Richards, >> yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> abstain. >> Okay. School board member Truman, >> yes. >> And schoolboard member Johnston, >> I abstain due to lack of being here that day, unfortunately. >> Okay. Motion passes with five. Yes. Two abstensions. All right. Moving on to item four, adjustments to the agenda. There are no adjustments this evening that I've been made aware of. Um, and item five, moving right into that is correspondence. There wasn't any correspondence brought to my attention, so we can move right on to item six, which is public session. Please feel free
003to come before the school board and state your name and address for the record, and you have three minutes to speak. Thank you. Hello, >> my name is Amarie Swenson. I live in Scarboro and I am the CFO at Thornon Academy. Um, and I just want to add context to Thornon Academyy's response to the request to share data from the main integrated youth health survey as noted on tonight's agenda. As you may know, SACO and TA recently received the results of the voluntary student survey completed earlier this year. In preparation for this meeting, SACO's superintendent, Miss Parkhurst, reached out to TA's associate head of school, Miss Tereno, to ask that TA share the database of survey results for grades 9 through 12. TA is not comfortable sharing the complete database at this time for two
004reasons. First, we have not decided yet how we are going to use and share the data. But second, because the survey is anonymous, we are unable to separate SACO student responses from those of the over 40% of our students who are not from SACO. That said, TA believes it is important to collaborate and offered to share a sample of the data highlighting strengths and areas for growth. Miss Parker shared her draft presentation with Miss Tanco so TA could follow a similar format and thank you very much Meg that was really helpful. Miss Tereno then extracted the survey results to share and created the slides to facilitate the process for SACO and it just seems important to clarify TA's very purposeful efforts to collaborate and provide the data in your presentation tonight. Thank you. >> All
005right. Thank you. Is um anyone else wishing to come before the board? All right, seeing that no one is seeking recognition, we will move on to item seven, which is the superintendent report. Superintendent Ray. >> All right, good evening everybody. Um we know that last week was a very important week for us um as we had the opportunity to have our groundbreaking ceremony. Um we see that Beth is already out cutting the road uh for Beth Johnson way. Thank you Kevin for those pictures uh video if anyone wants it just just email me and you'll see her in the truck there. >> Thank you Kevin. Um, but what a moment for us. Um, and I just want to thank uh, Mayor McFale, the school committee, the city council, our educators, our project contractors for their
006partnership and support through this milestone. Um, I want to do a special shout out to uh, Mabel at GOC Ty uh, for providing the delicious food at the reception and Moren Grandmason uh, photography for capturing the moments. Um, if you get a chance, I know I emailed you all and for anybody here in the public, we have a construction page on the website um that highlights the events. You will see all of the progress. We got some great drone footage uh of that um event and we will be keeping everybody updated. We had our first construction meeting today uh to talk about certain uh aspects of what's going on in the pro uh process. We have our clerk of the works. Megan and I will be meeting on Friday for an interview for owners rep.
007Uh so we're moving right along on that. Um this Monday, um Reese Across America was able to stop at Bitterford Middle School and we were able to get all of our kiddos uh at Burns in Fairfield out on the street uh to welcome the convoy into town uh as they roll through. So that was a great experience uh for our kiddos. Um Best Buddies program. Fairfield School is officially launching its Best Buddies program which will begin meeting after the upcoming break. This initiative helps build early connections between students with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities through inclusive activities that foster friendship, acceptance and social emotional growth. Uh I want to thank Donna Powell for taking the lead as a facilitator and Wendy Leblanc for her support. Uh, as you know, we share a position um
008of director of community outreach um with Bford uh and we have an employee Shelley Kaine who works for us who is named u one of the top 10 mayors to be thankful for. the amount of resources we're able to funnel to families through this position, donations, uh, aid for SACO kids, uh, is really great. And, um, just whether through that announcement or through the work that we were doing to make sure, um, that our kids were fed during the shutdown and continued efforts, uh, Aid for Sako Kids has raised significant funds to support those efforts. Uh and so we're very thankful to several donors uh and anybody who's contributed. Uh on behalf of the students at Fairfield School, I'd like to thank the PTO for purchasing a new basketball hoop uh for the Fairfield playground.
009Um the Bifford SACO Rotary Club each winter um supports about 200 students between Bifford and SACO helping with Christmas gifts. Um and so just uh thank you to them because um been part of the delivery process over time and it's really uh something special when the community chips in to make sure that people have um a Christmas in their home. And then also thank you to uh the University of New England uh who is also doing an additional toy drive. Um I think that oh last but not least, parents, please, please, please um make sure that you have correct information at each school because that is how we notify you of school closures. Um it'll always be on Facebook page. You'll get the call. Um, but we still have uh some families who don't always
010receive those because you might have changed work email address that's still in our system. A cell phone numbers change. Love to see that stuff updated. >> All right. Any questions for Superintendent Ray? >> Oh, sorry. I I had one more thing. Sorry. Sorry. Um, Thursday and Friday the 11th and 12th, the uh SMS Bobcat players will host their Wizard of Oz production at 7 PM in the SMS cafeteria. >> Fantastic. Any other questions for Superintendent Ray? >> Um, school board member Roach, >> we're not talking about school construction anywhere else on the meeting, right? >> I put on there just for an update, but now would be a certain I have building update and groundbreaking, but I kind of all share. >> Oh, yeah. There was no um link to it. >> No link to
011it. Okay. >> If you have a question, I'm happy to answer it >> if you have stuff on that. No, I just would the I mean, yeah, we saw the uh Beth Johnson way being done, but so does that imply that. Okay. Everything has approvals for the road and then it's going from the middle of the property out to the road. But when is the do you know when the road you probably don't I don't know if you know this the from the road into the property the culvert work and all that >> I don't um we talked today that during our construction meetings which are we every week or every other week every other uh every other Tuesday. And we planned it that way so that I would have the freshest um we t
012put it on school committee weeks so I'd have the freshest information to pass on at school committee uh the next night. They will probably be providing us with about like a 3 to four week projection of work that will be done once they get into that piece. So that me and I will come out of that meeting and kind of have an idea of what's going to happen over the next month and then they'll update that. So, as far as um that piece, Kevin, I don't have an answer tonight for that. Um but I suspect it will be I know they were talking today about temperatures and the cold streak. They don't do a lot of of the groundwork when it's super cold and all of those pieces, >> right? I was just, you know,
013just for the visual of if any parents or staff want to drive down there, they'll once the covert or the connections on, you can you'll clearly see like, okay, that's where that's where people are talking about. And it and it won't be long before that um that road is in at least, you know, in a temporary fashion because they're going to be looking to make most of their deliveries coming that way because obviously uh route one traffic and the turning piece is set up to only turn one direction and they'll want to do more through that. >> Okay, thanks. >> All right, any other questions for Superintendent Ray? >> All right, moving on to item eight, chair's report. I don't have anything new to report this evening, so we can move on to item nine,
014staff reports. Um, anything under staff reports, Superintendent Ray? Yes. Um so in our effort to try to have students come uh to the school committee meeting um and noting that 7:00 meetings are not the ideal time for young school kiddos. Um I've asked Pette to come from the center of technology and we have two Thornton Academy students who are involved in our vocational programs uh who will be talking to the board a little bit about their experience. Awesome. All right. Hi, I'm Zoe Dancros. Um I'm a junior at Thornton Academy. I am in the um automotive technology one class. And I knew initially um before I even chose that class that I was going to um want to go to Vogue because um it's a whole different experience from the soccer schools to a bit
015school. So I was choosing between either going to welding or auto body or automotive but I wanted to learn more about engines because um I work in excavation and I do a lot of earth work. So, I'm around a lot of heavy equipment in trucks and everything and so I wanted to learn more about like how they work because I work on them anyways at my house. So, I just wanted to learn more about that. But if I had to choose if I'd do like start over again and do this again, I would because it's a whole another experience than anything else I've done because there's a lot of different people that you meet and there's a lot of different things that you learn from all these people. So, they're all like different types of
016people and get to work with a lot of different people that I probably wouldn't even work with anyways because I wouldn't think to. And it's just a really great experience for me. Um, and I'm I think next year instead of doing the um second year, I'm going to do an internship with a diesel mechanic. Um, and maybe eventually go out to Wyoming to Wiotech and be a diesel mechanic and then come back here after a year of doing that. Yeah. >> Good evening. Um, my name is Jackson Howard. I am a senior in the student body president at Thornon Academy. Um I am a secondyear student at Bitterford Regional Center of Technology. I've spent the last two years in the medical field at BRCOT. Last year in the intro to medical sciences class and this
017year in the emergency medical services class and I'm grateful for this opportunity to talk about what these programs and school has done for me. Last year when I first joined intro to medical sciences, I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field, but I didn't know how much that class would change the course of my life. Um, it wasn't just a regular high school class. We didn't get lectured for two hours and take notes all day. We learned about anatomy and physiology, learned how to draw blood, learned how to suture a patient, and learned how to intubate. We really learn we learned what it was really like to be in the medical field with job shadow opportunities. Um, I gained an interest in emergency medicine and for the first time in my life,
018I felt a connection to something that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. Um, now, Intro to Medical Sciences was a one-year course, and because of my sparked interest, I joined the EMS class taught by the same teacher to hopefully become a licensed EMT. Um, stepping into the EMT program was a whole new level. Uh, this time, I wasn't just learning about emergency medicine. I was training for it. I've learned about I've learned how to assess patients, manage medical and trauma scenarios, respond to medical emergencies with a calm and clear head. The scenarios we run in class are re real, and that forces you to grow. I've gained confidence that I've never had before. The kind of confidence where you know that if something happened in front of you, you could
019step in and actually make a difference. What I've gotten out of BRCOT goes way beyond skill. It's given me direction, purpose, and a deeper passion for the medical field. Because of this program, I now know I want to work in emergency medicine, starting as an EMT, and eventually becoming a physician's assistant. Having that clarity in high school is rare, and I don't take it for granted. But the biggest reason this program has had such an impact is the teachers. The teachers at BRCOT don't just teach, they care about you as a person, your goals, and where you want to go in life. I especially want to highlight my EMT instructor, Mr. Rory Putnham. He is the reason my interest in medicine grew into a real passion. He pushes us not to stress us out, but
020because he genuinely believes in us. He treats us as young professionals, not as kids. He's patient, experienced, and he know he takes the time to make sure every single student understands not just what to do, but why it matters. It's rare to have a teacher who makes you feel capable of something as serious as emergency medicine at 18 years old, but that's what Mr. Putnham does. He's one of he's the one who helped spark my true love for medicine, and I incredibly grateful for that. I know the rest of the teachers at BRCO do the exact same. BRCOT has prepared me for a future I'm excited about. It's given me life skills, confidence, and mentors who truly care. I'm proud to be part of this program and I'm pr and I'm thankful for the opportunities
021it's opened up to me. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> You guys have questions for the students? I don't really have any questions, but I think this is a really incredible um insight to like what you guys are doing there and um like what it's spawned you uh wanting to do further later in life and the things that it's um exposed you to. So, I thank you very much for coming in and sharing. Um I really appreciate it. Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, currently there are 115 students, uh, SACO students that are at the, uh, vocational center. Uh, another 23ish from Dayton that are TA students that come. Um, great to see them come over every day. They fill up our parking lot midday. Um, I'm fortunate enough I have
022a son that goes to the program. Um, this young lady has worked on uh a truck of mine which I'm really proud of doing great. Um, and uh it's just a a great experience that we see kids coming from different walks uh and different interests into the center and happy you guys could be here uh tonight to be part of that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right, [clears throat] moving on to item 10, board subcommittee meeting minutes. A item A, policy and personnel committee met this evening at 5:30. B, finance and infrastructure committee. Our next meeting is January 28th at 4:30. Curriculum curriculum committee, there we go. minutes um are dated in here for 11:24 at 4:30. Our next meeting is 12:15 at 4:30. Any questions on the committees or any
023of that? All right, moving on to item 11, old business. I did not see any um old business to be discussed. So, we can go right into item 12, which is new business, which is the policy BDA organizational meeting um with current committee members and meeting Superintendent Ray. >> Okay, this is our organizational meeting for the year. Um we have a couple of things that we need to uh do first. Obviously, we need to elect a board chair and then uh look at the committees that we have and not necessarily have to appoint those tonight, but at least let us to uh let us know where people are interested. We need to get people in the right place. Um we have a lot of people returning that love the work that we do and my
024preference always is like if you love what you're doing and you're working on a committee, let's let's stay there. But if there are some people that want to make some swaps around, um, that would be a great conversation with, uh, the board chair. >> All right. Do I have a motion on the table to elect a chair for the new year cycle? School board member Johnston. >> Thank you very much. I would like to make a motion to elect Sarah Truman as our board chair for the coming year. >> I have a motion on the table to elect Sarah Truman for the board chair. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a second by school board member Roach. Any discussion on that? All right, moving on. Roll call vote. School board member
025Waroff, >> yes. School board member Richards. >> Yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Roach. >> Yes. >> School board member KD. >> Yes. >> School board member Truman. >> I'm allowed to vote for myself. >> Uh, yes. >> Yep. >> Okay. Schoolboard member Johnston. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. Congratulations, new board chair Truman. >> Yay. All right. Uh, Superintendent Ray, do we vote on vice chair next? Is that the motion? >> Yes. >> All right. I do. I have a motion for a nomination for vice chair. Whoa, I got double hands. Who was first? I didn't catch it. >> Hope I was. >> Uh, I'm gonna take a gamble on school. Okay. School board member Roach. >> You guys okay? >> I I nominate Jen Prebble to be vice chair. >> Okay.
026>> Second >> with a second by Beth Johnson. So hold on. >> Second by Waroff. >> Oh, Waroff. I stand high, wholly corrected. Thank you. >> There is a second. So I have a a motion by school board member Roach with a second by school board member Waroff. Thank you for the correction. Um do I have any discussion on nomination for vice chair? All right, moving on to roll call vote. School board member Waroff, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. School I vote yes for myself. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> School board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70 for vice chair of Jennifer Prebble. >> All right. Thanks. [laughter] Okay. And then back to
027you, Superintendent Ray on committees. >> The committee piece there is current committees. Some of you have reached out to me. I haven't heard from everybody and I really would like to hear from everybody and funnel that through board chair. >> No, that's fine. Send me an email. I say I'm not changing so you [laughter] guys can >> Yeah, let me know if there's any changes. Otherwise, I'll just keep you on whatever you're on right now. And if you want to know about schedules and what it entails, >> I'm h I'm happy to provide that, too. Like I know a couple people emailed me about personnel and negotiations and I said buckle up. So >> okay. So maybe what we can do, Superintendent Ray, if it's appropriate, is we can reach out to Sarah and then
028maybe next meeting revisit that. >> Yeah. And certainly if you want to include uh Megan and I on those emails as well, we can keep a tracking sheet, but I didn't hear from everybody. So I >> want to make sure that we get people in the right place. Well, remember wrote >> um I I was going to ask about some of these leaison and they were I thought they were blank but there are names in here. Were they were they just assigned or I'm not objecting but but >> I I I must have uh >> Meg. >> So the spreadsheet that's in there last last year we did the committee assignments in January of 25. I since added a December of 25 tab which will be whatever committees the chair appoints for this upcoming organizational
029meeting to organizational meeting agenda. Does that make sense? >> That's fine. >> So the people in there for January 2025 are the ones that have served for the last >> Yeah. >> 11 months. >> Okay. because I am on the uh calendar committee and you guys can kiss summer vacation goodbye. So >> that's why we didn't invite you last time. >> That's right. That's right. >> I'm just kidding. >> Okay. >> All right. So we will um potentially move on from that. Superintendent Ray, we can move on to the next item. All right. Item B, which is new hires. I um do I have a motion? There is a memo in your packet. School board member Truman. >> I move we approve the nomination of Joshua Rich Young school counselor for a one-year position for
030the remainder of the 2526 school year. And I move to approve those listed in the stipen section and issue a stipen contract for the 2526 school year. >> All right. I got a motion by school board member Truman. Do I have a second? >> Second by school board member Johnston if I heard correctly. Um any discussion on the motion? All righty. Moving on. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> And school board member Johnson, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. All right, moving on to item C, resignations. I did not have um there is a memo in your packet um but
031I did not see there was a motion needed for that this evening. So, we can move right back into item D, which is building update and groundbreaking, which we've already heard some lovely information on. Superintendent Ray, >> No further update. Short and sweet. Okay, moving on to item E, child care survey results. Superintendent Rank. Okay. So, um, one of the things that has kind of been on our mind for a while, um, is we know that quality child care, there's never enough of it. Um, and also is very costly. And when we think about some of the challenges that our teachers face, we think about just the challenge of affording housing and then child care and those pieces. And then we also as a community think about the recruitment efforts of staff. Um, and so
032we sent out a a survey to uh all staff in Bifford, Saco, and Dayton to look at what was the um interests from employees of if we could be like other um businesses andor school departments and offer on-site child care for employees with a goal that this would be, you know, maybe operating at a break even level. When you think about some of the overhead costs, the heat's already on, the power's already hooked up, some of those things that you could eliminate from that formula uh and provide this uh for our staff. And when we received the um information back, uh you can see that there was um 24 staff members in SACO um who said yes, they would have some interest in exploring this piece. Um what we're looking for other than to provide
033this information to you guys um is a little bit of a blessing from you guys to say continue down this path exploring this option. Not voting on anything to add it. There is so much that we need to follow uh follow up on. We've met with DHS. You know, there's locations. There's a lot of a lot of things. But quite frankly, I didn't want us to go down a road that there wouldn't be support from the board if we came with a possible solution to some of this. Uh, and so that's why the memo's here tonight to kind of say, yeah, this intrigues us as a board, continue to do some more work on this, um, and try to bring something back. Um you've heard uh stories from us that when we go to recruitment
034fairs um at our local universities a lot of times we'll say hey we'd be really interested in coming to SACO yet we can't afford the rent or we're not looking to um you know have three roommates. We just had four years of having three roommates. Uh and sometimes that's a little bit of a deter. This would allow us to look at a different demographic of possible employee that may be seeing child care and on-site child care as an an advantage. I think about my own situation of when I had kids and uh Suzanne and I were both working in Westbrook. Um we were on one side of town and our son's daycare was on the other side of Westbrook. And just to make that quick two or three mile drive at the end of the
035school day, you were looking at probably an additional day hour added to your day by the time you fought traffic over, fought traffic back, picked up your kiddo, had a conversation with the daycare provider, and went home, which adds additional stress to families. If we had an onsite or in town daycare, which again at some point in time we will have all of our elementary schools sitting on one campus. the convenience factor for a staff member to be able to walk out of their classroom, walk across the same campus, grab your child, buckle them into the car, and go home. You might be picking up an hour or more in your day. Um, that isn't sitting behind the wheel fighting traffic. And so, we see this as a a huge draw if we are something
036that we were able to create. looking at it as a system of how we could um lower costs for people and we're not really competing because there's not enough daycare as it is. We have people leaving the profession to stay home with their children because it doesn't make sense for them to work and pay all of that money out versus uh being in our schools. And so we have a high level of interest of um trying to create something and but obviously not looking at creating something that a board wouldn't have some interest in exploring. >> School board member Truman. I just just want to say that I've been squawking about this for years and I'm very happy to see that you have taken the initiative to go and ask staff like what what they
037what they think about this idea, how many of them are interested. Um, so this I'm you have my full blessing. holy water, sprinkled dust, whatever you need. Like, >> and and I think one of the things too is not only did we get a, you know, obviously there were people who responded, "This doesn't apply to me." Again, I would have been an employee that said, "This doesn't apply to me at this time." But the number of our employees who um filled out the form and then also left a comment that said, "Great idea. Boy, this would have been helpful." Um, that was probably we probably got more comments like that than we did responses of people who are interested because all the people throughout the years who said, "Yeah, I could have used this." Um,
038and again, we're not making any promises. We just want to be able to do some homework to see if there's an option that we can put out there. Um if I think our thought would be is that if we didn't weren't able to fill this with um staff children and again open to all staff not just teachers uh all staff that any open slots would then be able to um be kind of offered to other city employees. Um I suspect though that any ability for us to create something in the next couple of years are probably um our numbers probably would be much lower than what the desired numbers from staff would be. I don't know that we could scale up quite that fast uh even if we pulled something together. So there'd be a
039lot of details to be worked out. school board member Ker. Okay, just >> this might have basically been answered in what you just said, but I'm assuming that at some point the conversation might include like afterare for the school age children rather than just the daycare age kids. >> I think there's probably endless opportunities. Um, right now we're we're really focused on what it would take building-wise, what it would take staffing-wise. Our next step, if we had blessing to explore this more, would be pulling the staff members um from all three districts together for us to listen uh and say, "Okay, so yeah, we have this data, but tell us more like what are the barriers? What really I'm interested in price point um like what makes a significant difference? What what is that point
040where we could be operating at you know no cost um to the taxpayer and lowering that to the employee? Yes. Looking at um having to understand what happens when teachers have meetings after school. Um the other piece that was I think that we could offer is because these would be jobs that would for many for many daycare providers quality health insurance is probably out of the financial reach in that piece and trying to build that in to have of have our the employees would be able to offer healthcare. So I think we'd have some interest in having that. The other piece that was always frustrating to me during um the summer months uh with my wife being an educator and an educator myself is that we wouldn't have necessarily needed child care in the summertime,
041but I understood that the child care center needed to hold our slot and so we still had to write that check in the summertime and really would love to be able to see how we could do that for staff members so that we could cover cost and not have to write that check during the summertime, which would give another financial incentive um for them and for us as a recruiting um in recruitment for the district board member. >> I didn't know if you had question. So, I'm a thousand% behind this pursuit, but I want to throw a curveball and I do think we need to I I do recommend we vote. And why I say that is some experience from my council days where we um offered the Monasuri school into at least into the
042rec center which did not provide the opportunity for the general community to possibly host it or or what have you. So there could be daycare facilities close to school as well that they might want to participate in a sense that hey we're close to the school. It's right next door to one of the schools. We can make it work too. Um and it's a win-win for all. But I I just think that a school board vote for you and staff to pursue this makes it just more public and more inclusive and um you know and send a strong message out that this school board does support the pursuit. And then of course when budget time comes up or negotiations with with union staff and all that is that we've made that strong vote now for
043you to then go out and and start talking about it if that's okay with the to make a motion or >> Okay. Carolyn, what do you have for a question? >> I don't have a question. I I I support the idea and I want to give the go-ahead as a board for you to do more research. Uh but I am concerned about the cost and how you're going to tie that in. Yeah, I think that's going to be the interesting piece because essentially I you know again I recognize at the end of the day a lot of the decisions will be on the final spreadsheet that we make to say how do you do this uh and how is this the most cost effective and again there may be some as we look at this
044more and we look at some of our data about well okay there is a cost to hiring employees and if we know that we're losing four or five employees a year who are staying home for uh with their children for a couple of years and then returning to the system. There's a cost to that as well. Not only from a financial piece um but from changing of team structures at schools to uh bringing on new staff to curricular changes. There's all those pieces and you know our goal is to figure out how we do this and present something and maybe we'll find that it's really hard uh and that it's not there, but at least we studied and did the work. >> Oh, school board member Johnston. >> Thank you. Um I think my sense
045of what everybody has said here tonight, Mr. superintendent is that we are really interested and supportive of the idea. I think that um I Kevin makes a good point that to really show our support by actually taking a vote of some sort to move it forward makes sense. Um and I think Caroline's right that money is obviously and I know it's on your mind as well. money is obviously a question and I do think that anyone who's been trying to work and have children when they're younger at the same time knows how valuable that this could be for our employees. So yes, I I do definitely support the idea and I do think that we should move forward with doing more research. So, thank you very very much for that. Any other questions for Superintendent
046Ray? >> Any other motions on deck? Schoolboard member Roach. I make a motion to authorize administration superintendent to pursue um an on-site daycare program for um Sako school staff. >> I have a motion by school board member Roach. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> That was fun. I think I heard school board member Truman. So, I have a second by school board member Truman. Any discussion on it? >> Oh, anybody? I'm I just wanted to say that I'm very excited about this. I know I got all um but I think going into this very thoughtfully is the best way to do this and getting a full blessing from the board. >> All right, moving on to roll call vote. >> Oh, one more question. One additional comment, not in the motion, but we're
047we're the Sako school board to make a decision for Sakoboo Sakosu staff, but I certainly want to also um you know, open it up in your pursuits to also offer to Thornon Academy staff as well um as as a collective effort to bring as much quality educators into the city. Thanks. >> Okay, any other questions or comments? Okay, moving on to roll call vote. >> School board member Waroff, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> School board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. So that's very exciting. All right, moving on to item F. MIHS survey results. Superintendistant Superintendent Meg Parkhurst, take us away. >> Thank you.
048Um, so I come to you this evening to share the results of the main integrated youth health survey. I'll start as I tend to do with a little bit of a background about what the intent of the measure is and then we'll dive into some of the details. I've also provided the full backup of all of the questions and the percentages to show SACO student responses in grades six, seven, and eight for both of those surveys. I will note that the surveys are in bands that have slightly different age appropriate questions. So there's a fifth sixth grade set of questions, a seventh, eighth grade set of questions, and then a 912 set of questions. We do not have fifth grade data and we're looking into that because I I'm not sure our we had a
049conversation with our administrative team about the data and principal Noble and I were both not sure why uh we didn't have the opportunity to take it in fifth grade and we've since found the state contact and we'll be trying to pursue adding fifth grade data moving forward. So, it is a statewide optional health survey conducted every two years. It's anonymous and confidential, so there's no way to ever tie any information back to a specific student. It covers physical health, mental health, safety, and also risky behaviors or risk factors for students. in 2025, which was in the spring of last year. So even though it's sixth, seventh, and eighth, it's this year's seventh, 8th, and 9th graders that were surveyed. We had 175 of our sixth grade students and 322 of our students in seventh, and
050eighth grade. It's a really important metric, not only for helping schools identify strengths and areas for growth, but also in pursuing grant funding opportunities. So that if we look at specific areas where we have some concrete data about things that we can then pursue grant funding in areas where we have information to back that up. And of course, it's incredibly important to us to look at this information holistically as we prepare students for Thornton Academy, especially in knowing what the students that they're our SACO students are attending school with, that it's not just about SACO students, but just like for any family member, it's not just about the choices that your own child is making, but the choices that their peers are making that can have a big impact on what conversations you might want
051to have with your own child at home or what kinds of proactive education we might want to do knowing the full environment and scale that our SACO students will be stepping into. So just to kind of give you a big picture overview of some areas in which we excel, our bullying rates continue to be below the state average. We have strong family support with 93% of middle schoolers feeling reporting that they feel supported by their family. Substance abuse prevention is looking to be doing a good job based on this data. I wanted to highlight the inclusion of day one counseling services at SACO middle school as well as our partnership with healthy communities through main health which provides both professional development resources and curricular instructional resources around substance abuse prevention. Our mental health rates show
052significantly lower suicidal ideiation than the state average. school connection. Students report feeling that adults care about them. And I would like to again kind of hearken back to some of what you heard a couple of months ago around our resiliency coordinators in some days which have been in place for longer in this administration than our previous one. We had a pretty remarkable improvement in students reporting their nutrition. I have on the left side here that lighter blue bar showing the 2023 results and then the darker blue bar showing 2025. It is disagregated between those sixth grade scores on the left and then the dotted bar graph lines are the seventh and eighth grade questions. But all of these questions kind of relate to nutrition and health. I personally and in the conversation with the curriculum
053committee feel like some of this is due to the universal school lunch which gives students an opportunity to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables at breakfast and lunch every single day and that then increases the likelihood that students would report consuming those healthy foods. We also have good gains in physical activity from 2023 to the present, both in exercising seven days a week and in exercising five or more days a week. And um that's over 50% for our middle schoolers being physically active at least five days a week. So that's really great news, especially when we look at some of the contradictory data further on around increased screen time that even though there is increased screen time, students are reporting an increase in physical activity as well. Here's our substance use prevention and I've
054highlighted the two areas that they ask about around alcohol use and marijuana use. But they further delineate that between have you ever used alcohol is the lifetime alcohol use percentage. And then the have you used alcohol in the last I think it asks about the last seven days. So, it's kind of talking about a child who may have had an encounter with a substance versus a child who we maybe think is more at risk for substance abuse. And I also want to note that for all four of these areas, not only are we below state average, but we've shown a decrease in the those percentages from 2023 to 2025. So, we are kind of making gains in um that area as well. So in family and community support there's some kind of things that are
055curious in looking at the data. On the left hand side are the kind of good pieces and then on the right hand side are the pieces that kind of give a little bit of a mixed message around that. We have 93% saying that they receive love and support from their family which is both higher than the state average and a pretty big increase from 2023. On the other hand, we have only 79% of our students saying that they talk regularly with their family about school. So that's kind of in an interesting juxtaposition in understanding that gap and particularly with that one we had a decrease from 2023 and a we are that which now puts us below the state average in students talking to their parents about academics or school related items. We have uh
05663% feeling that they matter in the community which is higher than the state average and also an increase from 2023 but our increase is not outpacing the increase in the state average. So that's an area where um with principles yesterday we had an opportunity to discuss some ways not only in which we offer opportunities for students to see that they matter in the community but we also kind of explain to students that connection so that we don't just say we're going to watch wreaths across America because it's a fun way to get outside in the morning and see a great parade but we also kind of explain the importance and the way that It it matters to all of those truck drivers and police officers that are making a really long trip that they feel
057that your presence as a supporter is important and kind of helping kids make that connection. We also have 74% feeling that an adult at school cares which is a slight decrease from 2023 even though we're maintaining above state average. We as educators feel really concerned about uh one in four students that potentially don't feel like they have a connection to an adult at school and what we can do to increase that further. Um, one of the areas that was pretty stark and the curriculum committee had a good discussion around it is the response to do you feel safe at school with sixth graders showing a drop from 94% in 2023 to 87% in 2025. That is a different group of students obviously because those sixth graders are now the sixth graders would be eighth graders
058in the two years prior and um interestingly seventh and eighth graders showed a gain in feeling safe from the 2023 data to the 2024 data. One of the interesting conversations that we had around that is that that potentially could have been impacted from that particular class being the class that was in fifth grade when we had a lockdown to an evacuation when they were fifth graders and that that can have a lasting impact on kind of their feeling of overall safety. I think we were initially thinking of it as like a day-to-day do you feel safe in school, but some of that is a larger societal climate of feeling safe in school and their personal experiences with either lockdowns or evacuation drills or actual lockdowns or evacuations. It means that we need to understand why
059they feel less safe and try to understand specifically if it's related to bullying, if it's social dynamics or like looking at this group of students over time. Is their particular dynamic within their grade level one in which we need to kind of figure out a different way to promote overall feelings of safety? And then we have um what I referenced before which is kind of the screen time paradox. We have physical activity up and we also have screen time up. So ironically they don't ask a screen time question in the seventh and eighth grade survey which is a little frustrating because it would be nice to kind of see if there are differences between sixth grade and our seventh and eighth graders. But we are well over average in SACO for our sixth grade reporters
060at 62% reporting three or more hours per day versus 53% reporting that same use. And uh we feel like this is critically important because it does impact both sweet sleep quality and quantity at an important middle school developmental stage. It impacts social development. It can be associated with anxiety and depression and it competes with in-person time with both peers and family members. So, we also um wanted to kind of show some of the specific data over time and I did go back to our 2021 results for this as well. We see an online bullying increase in SACO. While the state level has decreased, which kind of pairs up with some of the information about increased screen time, though we are still below the state average, anytime we're kind of outpacing or not aligning with that,
061it means that we're in a place where we can still fix it before um that trajectory continues. And then we still see um a pretty big increase in reports of bullying, but again still below state average. And um we had some good conversations with administration that the formal reports of bullying that we get are actually quite low. like the number of investigations that we do in terms of what the statute defines as bullying and trying to figure out how we can kind of either educate students, empower students to kind of understand the difference between navigating a relationship with a difficult peer or navigating someone who advocating for yourself when someone is teasing you versus a bullying situation in which there is fear and danger of physical or emotional distress that gets repeated over time or
062feels like it's too much weight to bear. So, um both encouraging folks to make formal complaints of bullying if those are concerns so that they can be investigated as such and also um continuing to work on that proactive education with students that you know they to empower them and um build that resilience so that they can navigate some of those situations on their own. and they see it as a disagreement or an an instance in which they needed to advocate for themselves rather than seeing that as an instance where they really felt like they were ganged up up on which is what we look at as bullying or a heavier kind of higher level. So kind of our key takeaways are that we do see promising growth in several areas with nutrition and physical activity
063really being a highlight for us. That family support is a huge asset that we can kind of utilize and leverage to move some of those other needles that we're looking at. We want additional information about safety perceptions and in particular bullying or student interactions. And then thinking about um screen time awareness and also trying to understand if those student reports are about inschool use or out of school use and maybe diving in a little bit deeper too. I think we can all attest to the differences between like doom scrolling through social media and the value of that versus using a device to have a FaceTime conversation with three or four people that are having an interaction. So just kind of understanding what actually does that do those hours encompass and are they things that are
064adding value or not. Um I've provided the full data set for sixth grade and seventh and eighth grade. I really tried to look at areas in which we had seen drastic differences over time or gaps larger gaps between state data and our data. However, there's far more questions on that survey than I had time to go into in depth, and those full results will show you every single question that is asked and the student percentage answers to that. When there are particularly no low numbers, they don't report that data for the intent of protecting student privacy. And you will notice if you do dive into those questions that there are a lot of questions with commonalities across grade level bands, but there are also unique questions within each grade level band that don't necessarily appear
065in other grade levels. Um I I will not go through the TA slides because it's not data that I've fully reviewed. There are some exact percentages in here related to school safety, bullying, and um well, sorry, the bullying trends are noted, but not particular percentages. They've provided particular percentages for substance abuse prevention. And you'll see that some of the questions are different in there just from the nature of like the specificity of how they address or ask about substance use. um physical activity we see still being above the state average there. Family and community support. So following some of the same trends that we noted, but again as Miss Swenson noted earlier, we don't have the full data set. So it does make me feel a little bit uncomfortable to present these slides because I
066don't understand the full context of them. And certainly if there are other highlights that you see in our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade data that you think warrant further attention, uh we welcome you to bring those forward so that we can figure out how to address them as a team. And I'm happy to answer any questions. I will note that the 9th through 12th grade survey does have 110 questions and the questions without those percentage responses are provided for you. So you can get a sense of some of the differences in the questions between the sixth, 7th, and eighth grade survey and the 912. I >> think it's also just want to one of the things that we'll do as an administrative team, which we were able to spend some time yesterday looking through um
067this data um and for the most part, you know, you're seeing positive results, but it still means that there are kids getting bullied. there still means that there are kids who don't feel safe at school. It still means that there are kids that have uh access to alcohol at a young age. One of the ones that would would stand out to me is uh when you look at the sixth grade piece um you know 15 plus percent of our kids say it would be pretty easy to get alcohol which is higher than the state average. That may be just a conversation of resources that we provide to parents through a newsletter or to think about. Maybe as a a parent, you're saying, "Well, it's hard, but our kids don't view it that way." Um, and
068so I think what we have intentions to do is to look through these things and try to set some goals and um, you know, look at a few of the areas um, where we feel like we could make a short-term or long-term difference uh, for our kid kiddos and some of the things that we can, you know, tick off the list. I think is also um an opportunity for us to reflect on some of the good programming that we put in place, some of the support that you've had, whether it been for additional positions and say, "Hey, we can draw that back to X, Y, and Z. We've been doing this um and and continue to make steps uh through that of places where we've had growth, where we've slid back, and what do we
069need to do?" Um I find this very powerful information for a school department. The MIDA survey is probably the most requested document in a district by outside organizations who are looking um to fund to get funding for certain grants. Um, we get a lot of conversations like in our partnerships with UNE, um, Healthy Maine, uh, the food pantries, other organizations like that that want this data to help support the grant that they are they are writing that brings into the schools. So, um, again, our hope is to have greater conversation as a community. And this isn't just about school staff. When you look through this stuff, a lot of this is about outside community staff. Um, one of the ones that we were talking about, um, our high school population and one of the trends
070that many superintendents are noticing, um, at the high school level is the percentage of students who are outwardly reporting um, that they're members of the LGBTQ community. And we worry, we don't think the percentage has changed, but we worry that kids are not um reporting or saying stuff because they're afraid of what's going on in our society and what other impacts could that have uh on the mental health of our students. So, I think there's a lot of things that's really important for families uh and communities to talk about. Um and you know, this is something that we plan to continue to push forward to make sure that uh we can have those conversations, we can line up budget support um you know as we see things because that would be saying hey we're making
071good grade gains on this and we know that there could be tough budget seasons and things get thrown on the table to say hey is this something that we can have but no maybe we slide back in areas when we don't have something. Um so I welcome you guys to look through this piece. Please bring forward any questions to us at an administrative team and we'll be coming back with some goals that we're going to use to set around uh this data um to see what some of the things that we will work for over the next year or so. We also will be looking at that fifth grade piece of why we haven't had the opportunity um to be part of that. All right. Any questions for Superintendent Ray or Assistant Superintendent Me Parker?
072>> School board member Truman. I know we already discussed this at curriculum, but I I think it would be important or not even important, but like um interesting to find how students are reporting um their screen time as you had mentioned because we did talk about that. I was like, I wonder how much of that is actually during the daytime like during school versus at home staring at YouTube or whatever it is. Um, and I also I'm really happy that you guys are looking into this um into these little bits of information about students and it does seem like our percentages are really high, but like you said, there's still 15% or some 20% of students and that don't feel the way that we were hoping that they would feel safe or otherwise. And um
073it still surprises me uh how much how young students are starting with alcohol and marijuana use. Um so despite what I know like my friends back in the day and all that stuff like kids have such easy access to it. So um I appreciate you guys disseminating this information. It was helpful. I also just to piggyback I think like one of the pieces is is that when you go through this stuff like we all have hard jobs being parents today. It's not easy. Some of the stuff as a parent I wouldn't even be thinking about or asking about until it's there. Uh and so I think that's also the power of this piece is how we work with our families to have greater conversations about this. Um again, marijuana access, alcohol access, bullying, all of
074those pieces. Um and how we can define ourselves. And you know, again, even when the data looks good, you have to challenge yourself and say, how do we become better? Um and how do we make a great environment for our kiddos moving forward? Um and I think that's what the work I know that our principles will look at, uh and our staff will look at. um to make sure that there is access uh because um I suspect that if you're a superintendent that has very different demographics um things certain things pop up in some places that don't in others um and we want to work on those. >> Any other questions from the board? School board member Roach? Well, of course, it's numbers. So, I'm going to ask uh a few things. Uh first off,
075um was this survey done before COVID? Because we're comparing 23 to 25. >> Yeah, it's been we have data I think all the way back to 2015 and maybe there is data prior to that. It might just be on a different database or login, but it's been done I want to say for at least my 23 years in education, I've like known about the existence of it. They do update and change some of the questions over time. >> So just not for this meme, but for well of course not for this meme, but to for say 2019, could could you send that to the board? Yeah. Behind Okay. I just to kind of really compare numbers because some of the improvements I think are just more confidence in going to school. Not not only I'm
076just saying that could be part of it is that you got a 2023 yeah a year or two out of CO but it's getting better. You're having more faith in your community, your surroundings, and that should improve the numbers locally and the state. Mhm. >> Um to that sixth grade issue that um they don't feel as safe as as much as seventh and eighth and also the TA uh ages too. That could be just because not just but that could be because they're the youngest of that cohort and >> they experience COVID times, you know, at at the younger a school grades more than the higher higher grades. It could be just just from that. So, um and then comparing to state, I get a little uncomfortable with that for the mere fact that we're
077um a city meaning more community, more um uh maybe a little more uh wealth too. um when it comes to use of a screen that might not be as available if you're in rural Maine and you're you're kind of working around the land and not not affording maybe uh screens that are in part of it. Um but yeah, screen time is absolutely a concern um no matter what. Um um I saw the you know we were talking about the access to alcohol but you know one of the benefits of screen time is that the kids are not partaking I mean what was it 11% at at TA I mean I went to high school dating myself in 1988 and any close to 11% let's put it that way. Um so so that so that I
078feel like that's good news um for the health of the kids. Um the last point and maybe it's a a question uh for Amarie. I don't think there's a big gulf between the schools and and and TAs. I thank them for providing the data that we have. Um and we have to agree more data the better. I mean no matter what the situation. So, uh, for the school, for for you, Meg, um, I'm I I think I'm okay if, um, you know, it's mostly SACO students. There's going to be Dayton, a Arundle. Uh, maybe a question for Amarie or international students included in that, too. Okay. So that might be a division that we might need broken out. But I I think I I'd be okay with, you know, in general all the students that
079are from Maine or from New England or or what have you. Um I do want to emphasize to um I think the importance it's been my personal belief raising kids here is that I do think it's critical that eighth and ninth grade that transition is is locked and loaded. You have as much data as possible. So the key data set for me the raw data would be that ninth grade data. And so just to make sure we as this as the middle school are um you know of course providing you know TA you know kids ready to adapt to the high school age and similarly is TA doing a a good job um which I'm not saying they're not but of of um bringing in the eighth grade kids to to nth grade. I don't
080think there should be that much of a difference between the grades, but it is certainly a different environment in different schools. So, the more data, the more sharing, the better, at least for that grade, if not as much as we can. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And just as a point of clarification, they do not give us the results back disagregated by grade. So, when we get the seventh and eighth grade data, it's just one data set. And I think it's the same way for the high school. I don't think that the school even gets back data to say here's your ninth grade percentages, 10th, 11th, 12th. It's just everybody together. >> So 7th and eighth grade I'm I'm fine with. But there's no nine and 10 or 11 and 12. It's it's just >>
081it's all one 9 12 survey. And even though they tell you how many students have taken it in each grade level, >> that's what I was going with. Yeah. >> Yeah. So we have we do have the number of students at each grade level, but we can't just say like just show me the ninth grade percentages for all these questions. It's lumping them all in to the same percentages at least from the data. >> And the questions are the same for a ninth grader as it is a 12th grader. >> Correct. >> And that's a state thing. >> Correct. >> Okay. All right. I have questions on that, but I'll let that go. Okay. big difference between 9th to 12th grade. But anyway, thanks. >> I also just want to say too, I think um
082whether you can I know we can't take out who's from SACO and who's not. I don't think that part is as important as knowing what is happening with those students that your child is having uh interactions with at some point. You know what I mean? So like whether they're an international student or a a day student that's coming from one of the communities around here or a tuition student, I don't think any of that really matters so much as this is good information for us to know what our students will be experiencing whether it's in the middle school or when they get up to the high school. So >> and and I agree uh the effect students have on on each other. I just if it was differentiating there the only the only thing I
083would choose it would be the international student just because they just had a completely different experience before getting to to to freshman year if you're looking for some trends or what have you. But but that is the argument to keep them all together because you're experiencing hopefully the same you know uh environment. And again, I think it's many of these questions on any of these surveys aren't necessarily about the school. It's about the community that we come from. Uh, and when I look at um, you know, some of the questions that are on the 9 through 12 survey, one of the questions that is reported out, does your family have strong rules around underage drinking? Well, if that percentage of kids is reporting that families don't, that's great for me to know as a family
084member so I can have those great conversations with other peer parents. Like our kids may not view it this way. Um, and so that's why I think this uh is important information uh for all grade levels and for parents to be able to have access to because it's about raising kids and knowing what's going on. We know we have pretty good idea for the most part how our kids do academically because we get reports. We understand that piece that information is pro. One of the toughest pieces especially in this day and age is the social aspect of our kiddos because we don't know and so much is different between what we do because it's happening behind a screen or it's not there for us. Um and so we'll make sure that uh at least on
085our end that our families are getting the information so that we can have a greater conversation about it. >> Just going to put a shout out to Australia the country. >> Yeah. So pretty similar to the United States, right? So just when we leave here, why can't we do what Australia did? And if you don't know what Australia did, I'll just that'll be your homework assignment tonight. So, but we can make a vote for that for SACO alone. I'll make that motion at the next meeting, but I don't I don't think we can. So, I'll just let it go for now. Thanks, >> school board member KD. >> I guess this is more to echo a lot of sentiments that have been made, but um I personally I mean my kids are super young. they're
086still a young school, but seeing what the environment that they're going to be in looks like even like this this year, like thinking ahead to when they're going to be in high school to me, it doesn't matter if those are SACO kids or not. So, I guess this is more of an appeal to TA that um specifically Jeremy had shared with us Bifford High School's um survey results. And there's a question in there about how much do you think people risk harming themselves physically or in other ways if they have one or two drinks of an alcoholic beverage nearly every day? And it was 27.5% of Bford High School students said either no risk or a slight risk. And to me, that's not an education problem. That's a community problem. And so I would personally
087think that that's really valuable information for SACO parents to know if that's being influenced to their children in the schools. That is a really concerning amount of kids in Baford. So I would be really interested to see in SACO how many of them feel similarly because whether your parents are preaching to you all day every day, whether you're having presentations at school isn't necessarily going to change how you feel about drugs or alcohol and their impact on your body or your mental health or your well-being in general. um if your friends are saying no, you're going to be fine. Everyone's going to be fine. So to me, that is really the only piece of evidence that I need that we might want this information for so parents as well because in Bifford it's a slightly
088different environment. There's a different population and that number scares me a lot for Bifford, but I would be really interested to see what it is for SAC. I also have to say too, our students hang out together across the river. So whether one is doing more poorly than another, for a lack of a better term, I it's everybody's concerned in this general area like how they view whatever those risks are. So I think it's important for us to know as a community all our own. I would agree. All right. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you. All right. We will move on to item G, first reading of policies. We have item A, 10, um, August 25th, revision of BBD. School board declared vacancy caused by absenteeism. Item B, um, an October 8th,
08925th review BBBE, an expired term fulfillment and vacancies. BCA, school board member code of ethics. Item D, BCB, board member conflict of interest. Item E, 2025 BEDH, public participation at SACL school board meeting um, meetings. Item F, BBA, schoolboard powers and responsibilities. Item G, BBA, board member authority and responsibilities. Item H, BBBA, board member qualifications. Item I, BCAB, governance standard. Item J, JLI-E, procedure for reports and dangerous behavior. Item K, BCAB, governance of standard. Item I, I'm sorry, K L, item BDF, board advisory committees. Do I have a motion on the first reading of policies? School board member Johnston. >> Thank you, and thank you for reading all of that. >> Not a problem. I move we approve the first reading of policies BD, BBE, BCA, BCB, BH, BBA, BB A BBA, BC A B
090J L I- E BC A B and B DF. >> Second. I have a school um motion by school board member Johnson with a second by school board member Truman. Any discussion on the first reading of policy? >> All right, roll call vote. School board member Waroff, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> School board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. Moving on to item H, policies to strike. Item A B A B oop, sorry, let me start over. BBA, schoolboard self-evaluation and item B, BBA-R, board self- evaluation procedures. Do I have a motion? School board member Johnson. >> Thank you. I move [clears throat] we
091strike policies BB and BBAB-R. I have a motion by school board member Johnston. Do I have a second? >> Second by school board member Truman. Any discussion on the strike of policies? School board member Roach. >> First, just a question to Beth because she was the only one on the school board at the time. So, this was 2019 this was instituted. >> Sorry, Kevin. Can you You're going back to 2019 and what is the question? That's when the policy was put in place. The self evaluation of a school board. >> Um, it was in place at that point in time. It was when we I honestly don't know when it first came into being, but okay. So Sarah's correctly pointed out to me that it was adopted in in 19 and revised in 19 also.
092>> [clears throat] >> So yes, if that answers your question at all, I'll go on. >> Okay. I just not to bring up the past, but there was a certain superintendent back in the time that had a theory that somehow the school board reported to him and I believe that this type of policy was put in. And just not to, you know, think that the school board eliminating this policy is somehow eliminating our, you know, performance. Our performance is judged by the voters. All right? So, we're your board to oversee administration. So the evaluation is the citizens not our self-reflection and administration. It is you. It is you. And I am full support of getting rid of these policies. I mean you know of course we can make mistakes but that is that is you
093to judge not not us. and and so I do remember somewhat that time and I I saw what was going on there and there's been many changes since then and um so I don't want to make it look like we're trying to like you know hide our bad performance. We're out here to the public and then you guys vote whether we should be here or not. Thank you. I would just add Kevin that I think um it was to some extent intended to make board members reflect on their own performance or in the collaboriveness or not of the board as a whole. But I think that it was never actually effectively used. And I I do agree with you. We are out in the open and I don't believe that we need that policy. I
094don't think it serves a purpose. I certainly don't think that we should not reflect on our own workmanship here. But I do not think I think it actually became on a couple of occasions fairly contentious among board members. Um, and I don't think that that's ne necessarily constructive at all. So, if that helps at all. Thank you. >> All right. Any other discussion? School board member Waroff? Nope. Okay. Just checking. All right. Any other discussion? >> All right. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. >> Yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> I vote yes. School board member Roach? >> Yes. >> School board member KD? >> Yes. School board member Truman. >> Yes. >> School board member Johnston. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70. All right. Moving on to item 13. There
095is no other information that has been brought to my attention. Um moving on to item 14, executive session. There is no executive session this evening. So we can move right on to item 15, which is adjournment. Do I have a motion? Oh, >> one thing. >> School board member wrote. No, just for other information. I just want to thank uh uh so we've been talking about Thorn Academy. Thank you for the invite to the uh holiday concert. Uh I went last night and I have a huge bias for some reason to jazz band jams and uh that was just perfect. The whole show was very good, but the jazz band specifically um was was good. So, thank you. >> All right. Any other information? Back to adjournment. Do I have a motion? >> So move.
096>> Oh, school. So moved by school board member Richards. Any second? >> Second by Truman. School board member Truman. And roll call vote. School board member Waroff. >> Yes. >> School board member Richards. >> Yes. >> School board I vote yes for myself. School board member Roach. >> Yes. >> School board member KD. >> Yes. >> School board member Truman. Yes. >> School board member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Motion passes at 70 at 8:28 p.m. >> to adjourn. Thank you so much and have a great evening. Take care.