001Good evening everyone and welcome to the city of Saco school board meeting for Wednesday, November 12th, 2025 at 7:02. would like to make note of all school board members present with the exception of school board member Jen Prebble and Johnston who have all been excused. And would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance? Thank you. Thank you. And I also would like to make note that Superintendent Ray is running a little bit late. So with us to start off, we do have Assistant Superintendent Meg Parkhurst. All right. Item number three is the approval of the school board minutes dated October 22nd, 2025. Is there a motion? >> Madame Mayor, >> school board member Truman. >> I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated October 22nd, 2025. >> Motion has been made
002by school board member Truman. Is there a second? >> Second. was defin by school board member Richards. Any discussion or comments on the minutes? Hey, roll call vote. School board member Waroff, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> Motion passes 40. >> Okay, moving on to item number four. There are no adjustments to the agenda this evening. Item number five, there are no correspondents. Item six is public session. If there are any members of the public wishing to speak, please step forward, state your name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to address the school board. >> Used to be here. >> Yep, it's automatically up. >> My name is to That's loud. My
003name is Tony Pleski and I'm speaking today on behalf of myself and my wife Debbie. >> Would you mind providing your address for the record? >> We live at 7 Chantel Way. >> Thank you. >> As well as my mother-in-law, Barbara Lereck, who lives at 5 Chantel Way. And also our two children, Eli and Gianna, both of whom went through the entire SACO school system from kindergarten through 12th grade. I see the time limit. I apologize in advance, but I am absolutely going to go over that. I don't think you're going to mind. Our world would be a better place if each and every person got to spend at least one year in a classroom with Pam Kenny, Randy Farren, Nikki Brily, Martha Vandelowski, Jared Bernard, Diane Noble, Grammy Claire, Grammy Johnson, Linda Baird, Steph
004Libby, Ronnie Stout, Janine Martin, Ann Wilkinson, Deborah G. Gregorio, Trisha Costa, Welch, John Galant, Dina Geekas, Sheru Saxenna, Holly Troier, Julie Smi, Becky Corass, Corey Pendleton, Travis Taylor, Lisa Hall, Celeste Libby, Christy Boprey, Mike Edgar, Larry Reinhardtson, Robin Stinson, Chelsea Hazelwood, Nicole Wise, Sarah Hoag, Sam Blunda, Lisa Ronco, George Sherry, Allison Croftton McDonald, Mike Carrestia, Amy Carrestia, Noel Galant, Melissa Goslin, Lindseay Woring, Allison Gray, Rebecca Anderson, Andrew F, Gwennneth Nicholson, Jared Dostl, Brenda Zahara Zah Harris, Dan Solari, Michaela Lamar, Dan Frost, Jeff Christristenberry, David Charlan, Eningga Brown, Chris Jacobs, Melissa Dubik, Lorie Smith, Jennifer Mary, Bruce Snyder, Kate Timberlake, Nicole Schmid, Terry Aaron Stam, Zack Jack Morrison, Mishara Heler, Jessica Cardosi, Britney Gregoricus, Elena Galvin, Jason Cody, Keel Martin, Josh Pulsifer, Matthew Amaroso, Sarah Tibbitz, Abby Moore, Arthur Doyle, Barbara Barlo, Alex Mitchell, Katie Bur,
005Emma Campbell, Jodie Thomas, Kathy Murray, Dana Altman, and David Hwight. Many people moved to Saco for specific reasons. Some come for the beaches, some for promise of a top-notch education, and for some the community. None of that was on our radar. series of decisions and coincidences afforded us an opportunity to put down some family roots directly next door to my mother-in-law. So, we took it. And while those roots are still the best part of us being here, we have benefited from all of those other reasons as well. Of course, the proximity to the beaches and hiking trails along with all of the recreational and dining benefits of vacation land is hard to beat. But we also found a welcoming and supportive community where almost where almost strangers will give you Celtics tickets just because. Where
006a brand new neighbor will come racing to your side at the sound of squealing tires and loud crash simply out of fear that it might be your kid in trouble. We live in a community that looks out for each other, not just despite our differences, sometimes because of them. And our family has found lifelong friends here. We feel really fortunate. But beyond all of that, the biggest benefit from landing in SACO has been the high volume of dedicated and caring educators that our kids have been fortunate enough to learn from. As our kids' adventures in education have now taken them beyond the borders of SACO, we just wanted to take this opportunity to pass along a sincere thank you to those educators for the permanent impression that they have left on our family and our
007future. >> We still got a lot. >> Okay. Our primary job as parents is to keep our kids as healthy and as safe as we can. While we are the primary caretakers of our children, members of our community share that burden. And we appreciate all of them for their service. As a country, we thanked some of those people yesterday, but that extends to many other jobs and roles from first responders to code enforcement officers, from school nurses to primary care providers. After our children are safe and healthy, though, the most important role we have as parents is to prepare them for the future. And again, we have not done that alone. Those who can't teach. Summer's off. Talking out at 3:30 must be a permanent vacation. Glorified babysitters. We've all heard the stereotypes and disrespect
008directed at the teaching profession. But as many as any adult knows who has sat through an entire elementary school class, the teaching profession is anything but a vacation. They don't just heard cats. They heard cats who are being chased by dogs while birds fly around the room. If you've seen the chaos of indoor recess with 25 5-year-olds instantly transition into an almost silent circle of crisscross applesauce, all at the direct command of a whisper. You know their power. If you have watched a teacher take the hand of your crying child and walk them down the hall despite not having your child in their class or even knowing your child who your child is, then you know how much they care. If you knew an entire group of middle schoolers chose to eat their lunch together
009with one or more of their teachers every day, then you know what kind of a safe space that they create. Again, I repeat, middle schoolers, teachers on purpose. If a teacher not only wrote the college recommendation that your child asked them to, but that same teacher also asked to write an extra recommendation once they found out what the first choice of school was and just because it was a perfect fit, then you understand that your kid means something more to them. And if you have had ever even had one teacher ask you how your kid is doing by name years after your kid's name should be white noise in their memory, then you know the true value of a dedicated and caring educator. Our society has built and maintained a laundry list of reasons for
010each and every potential teacher not to join or each current teacher not to remain in their profession. Along with the stereotypical disrespect, we also don't pay them enough. I don't know one teacher that takes an actual summer vacation every year, and many carry second jobs year round just to make ends meet. Some pay out of their own pocket for supplies, and some put in so much time outside of school that if you worked out their hourly wage, it would be lower than the minimum. And beyond the financial burden, they deal with the same red tape that is thick in most professions these days, if not more so. And we don't have to spend more than this sentence talking about the potential dangers for school- centered violence for you all to know the heavy burden that
011is added to their days. Despite the variety of reasons to not be a teacher, still these individuals feel it is the best place for them to earn a living and make a difference. I'm sure like every profession, there are individuals who make a career phoning it in. But I am convinced that those make up a significantly smaller proportion within the teaching profession than in others. Why would someone put up with all the negatives unless they truly felt a calling to make a difference in children's lives? And on the other end of that, something that stands out in the teaching profession is a higher number of overperformers. Their list of job requirements is long and dense and still many find a way to go beyond. We considered highlighting some of those in this letter, but we
012will find another way to make sure the leadership team knows these names as well. For now, we will focus on the entirety of the group. >> I do apologize, but you have gone about nine minutes over. So, yep, >> if you just wrap it up. >> I appreciate it. >> I I do appreciate the statements, but we do want to keep on track. Thank you. >> On behalf of our family, let me formally extend a thank you to every one of the teachers mentioned earlier. We apologize if we forgot someone on that list. We've been here a while. Let me also take a second to say that we appreciate that while the teachers mentioned here have been primary providers. They have not done their job alone. They have benefited from administrative support, leaders, board members,
013and trustees. They have been supported substantially by counselors, janitors, aids, and technicians, as well as regular parent, grandparents, sibling, and community volunteers. Now would be a good time to take a moment to add a few names to our list. Lisa Estbrook, Jen Bartridge, Sandy Daka, Vicky Cronin, Doris Bernette, Christina Lamontang, and Julie Petrin. I will stop naming names here because of time. We could have just written all this in a letter and sent it in. That would have been sufficient. But we chose to read these words out loud and on record because it is not just a thank you to those good people. It is also a reminder to everyone here how important our teachers are to our community and to our future. For those of you who are against spending money on schools because
014you don't want your taxes to go up or because you don't have children in those schools at all or anymore, I ask that you think about what that means. Think about who's going to be providing you services 10 to 20 years from now. All of the services, delivering pizzas, patrolling your streets, building your bridges. They will be on the front lines helping an older you or an ailing family member. and then think about the last time a younger person did not seem ready to count change or make eye contact and realize that we need to invest in their future. For those of you who think that we've solved education in our city for the next 50 years because we're building a new school, think again. It's a fantastic that we're doing this, but it's still
015just a building. If given a choice, we'd pick Young School and trailers with the same group of teachers over a brand new school with a subpar staff. And if you're thinking that at least we don't have to spend any money on facilities for a while, think again. We still have a middle school that also showed up in the needs help list. Several years ago, I sat in on some meetings where you formed a district-wide mission statement. The first two goals had to do a certain number of students hitting a certain level of competency in math and reading. Both are absolutely important to have as goals, although they seem almost too obvious to state. And for what it's worth, one issue that needs serious attention is how to handle common but underserved learning styles like dyslexia.
016I think if you focus the vast majority of your attention on the third goal that you had, keeping teachers and being a a target for these teachers, then you're going to be okay. It's important to highlight two more paragraphs. It's important to highlight that these teachers uh are just kindergarten through 12th. Saco's prek program did not exist for our children, but we can add two names list. Linda Woodcock of Country Lane Nursery School and Susan Costa of Little Folks Nursery School, which is right here in SACO and still available. And of course, that list goes beyond the eighth grade because Thornton Academy has been an integral part of our experience in SACO schools. We don't have a political opinion or agenda when it comes to TA. The debate about how the entire system fits together
017will likely outlive us all. But what we have here in Saka is special and unique both in what it offers our children directly in education as well as the opportunity it brings indirectly with its diverse student body. Whatever the relationship between TA and SACO is in the future, our community will have to walk a fine line between not letting that specialness overshadow the primary, elementary, and middle schools as it has often done in the past while still nurturing the relationship that serves the anchor leg of our children's educational relay. At the very least, we need better communication and more integrated transition, although hopefully it can be much more. If it hasn't been made abundantly clear by now, let me state the obvious. Our kids mean a lot to us, and we sincerely appreciate each and
018every educator who has played a role in helping to prepare our kids for their future. While we know that these words are still just a small token of appreciation, please know that if any of you teachers need our help in the future, we will do our best to be there for you as you have been there for us. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? >> Okay, not seeing anyone seeking recognition. Moving on to item seven is the superintendence report. Assistant Superintendent Parkerst. >> Thank you. I'd like to start by highlighting a couple of things that are happening in our schools related to Thanksgiving coming up. If families are in need of food, there are forms to fill out so that we can deliver
019you food for the holidays. In addition, we have a studentled initiative, spare change fills plates. Our schools are collecting coins and dollars and those funds will be used to provide additional non-p perishable food to families. Schools are also accepting donations of non-p perishable food. So, if you'd like to send those in with students or bring them by our schools, we appreciate that. Raise craze took place on October 24th at Sako Middle School. We had students spread out across the community um doing acts of kindness and we're very proud of those students for engaging in that community service. The Wizard of Oz is coming to Saco Middle School on December 11th and 12th. So get ready for that. It's sure to be an exciting production. And just this week, we were pleased to highlight our teacher,
020Ryan Martin, who beat the old record by just under 200 baskets for three-pointers, setting a new Guinness Book World Record of 1,516 baskets. And lastly, I'd like to highlight that we have our groundbreaking ceremony for the new schools slated for December 4th at 11:00 a.m. Parking will be at public works, so we can shuttle folks over there and then have a brief celebration over at public works if you're not able to join us on site. It is still a little treacherous over there, but we're very excited to be celebrating that and hope to be finalizing the contract with the bidder after meeting with the DOE either later this week or early next week. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Okay, moving on to item number seven. That is the chair's report. Chair Prebble is not
021with us this evening. So, Vice Chair Truman, >> I'm going to pass it over to school board member Warerno, who has um some updates from the latest conference up in Augusta. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh yeah, so I attended the main school board association uh conference which was absolutely amazing. Um I encourage every school board member to attend at some point some year if you can get there. number of superintendent and uh principles and uh schoolboard members like ourselves were there. So it was excellent for collaborating. Uh one of the things I wanted to point out was that um uh my background is in cyber security. So I attended all of the AI related uh topics just because I think they're fun. Uh and um I was actually pleasantly surprised to see
022some of the advances that they've made at the elementary school level in um developing curriculum already to teach about um AI at a level that those students can understand. There's a woman in Cape Elizabeth that did an excellent presentation. Um if you're interested in ever seeing that, I can get you in touch. But I did find the topics of discussion in AI were very informative. Um, I think that as AI becomes increasingly integrated into education and everyday life, it's going to be essential for teachers to understand how it works and to guide students in using it responsibly rather than replace critical thinking, which is what a lot of us kind of tend to um think about it. Uh, AI should be taught as a tool to enhance learning, creativity, and digital literacy. And I think
023educators who embrace AI can help students to navigate its benefits and risks and ensure that they grow into thoughtful and ethical users prepared for the future as it's already in our present day lives today. So um that's my my passion and so I was excited to attend a lot of those um uh sessions. The other thing I wanted to point out to you was uh I was elected for the region 9 MSBA uh director. There are nine regions. Uh the northern region starts in region one and then the most southern region is region nine which is us which is York County. Uh places like Actton, Bifford, Dayton, Saco, Kity, Sanford, Elliot, Hyram, Waterboroough, Burick there's a lot of them. Um, but I'm excited because in that role I am going to be representing the interests
024and perspectives of local school boards, specifically ours here and as well as in the uh neighboring towns. Uh, so I'm getting I'm excited to do that. Um, and that's pretty much it. >> Great. Thank you very much and congratulations on that. Any questions or comments for school board? No, I just want to say congratulations on your uh nomination and uh election for the board. Um I know you were a little surprised by that, but it was fast. It was fast. >> Great. Thank you very much. All right, moving on to item nine that is the staff reports and there is one item on that is that is under the students reports. I would like to thank Sako Middle School for being here today at the conference that uh we school board member Warrenoff mentioned. One
025of the highlights for our team was seeing some superintendent that were really able to bring student learning to the governing bodies which often the folks in these seats don't get to see or hear about the great things that you're doing in our schools. So, we really appreciate you taking the time this evening to share a little bit with us and we look forward to hearing about it. >> Good evening and welcome. >> Good evening. >> Don't panic. Sometimes it takes a minute. Okay. Well, in the meantime, Superintendent Ray, Mayor McFale, school board members, and the SACO community, good evening and thank you for having us. Also to assistant Superintendent Parkhurst. My name is Nicole Weise, and this is my 28th year as band director at SAL Middle School. Can't apparently hit a button. It's not
026going Even the most technical have issues. It's okay. >> We know we're in trouble when Joe comes out. Oh no. Look, it's not our fault. Quite unexpectedly. We were all sad a little while ago. There it is. Hello. Okay. Um, my name is Angel Bambi and I'm in eighth grade at Sco Middle School. I play trumpet in the SMS band. Okay. My name is Natalie Gerity and I'm in eighth grade. I play the flute. >> My name is Leo Italian and I'm in seventh grade. I play the saxophone. >> My name is Carter Be. I'm in seventh grade and I play the clarinet and saxophone. We were invited here this evening to share some of the great things that we are doing as members of Sako Middle School band. In the band program, we pride
027ourselves on not only making great music, but also serving in our community. We recently we were excited to be part of the ribbon cutting ceremony for exit 35, our new turnpike exit. This happened to coincide with Sako Middle School's community kindness day, too. We played the national anthem and America in front of members of the community, local dignitaries, and members of the main Turban Pike Authority. We were happy to be part of this event and to represent our school. Yesterday was Veterans Day. While it was a day off from school for us, the 70 or so members of the SMS band marched in the annual Veterans Day parade. Yes, it was cold, but we are still honored to be a part of remembering those who served and continue to serve our country by playing God
028Bless America and marching. We also perform at the Memorial Day parade in May. Our next large event is our winter concert on December 10th where we'll perform alongside our amazing chorus and orchestra. Two more of our programs that we are extremely proud of. We always try to do something a little different, a little something extra. Last year, we built a life-sized Terracotta Warrior to accompany a piece we played called Terracotta Warriors by Scott Watson. Last spring, we did a concert program that focused on four different topics of mental health. This concert also featured Mrs. Susy on piano. This year's winter concert will me feature Mr. Fog and about 600 ft of lights. We love that our principles like to get on in on the fun. Sorry, that's what happened when I had a little extra
029time to myself today. Every year we make a trip to some local nursing homes during the holiday season to play music for some of our community seniors. We also spend time with them playing a game, doing a craft, or simply chatting and getting to know them. They have such wonderful experiences to share with us, and they love to talk about their families. We are also planning to support the unified basketball athletes by playing pep band songs at one of their home games in February. Another event we look forward to is representing SACO at a main Celtics game in February. We will play the national anthem to kick off the game. This is the annual SACO night at the Celtics and our whole sixth grade will be at attendance. We have also restarted our jazz band
030program this year and we will be hosting SACO's own Beach Street Jazz Band for a jazz night in March. This year we'll be attending the main band director's association um concert band festival and playing on the stage of Mirror Auditorium in April. Both the jazz band and the concert band festival performance are happening for the first time since before COVID and we are very excited to have them back. As you can see, we are very busy. We are so grateful that SACO has such a thriving music program that is possible thanks to the support of our community, school board, and administration. We appreciate your support and the opportunity it provides for us to continue to bring music to our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I will say that deserves a round of applause.
031>> Thank you. And I'm happy to hang out for a minute if anybody has any questions for us. >> I had a chance to meet some of you at the Turnpike opening. You guys did an amazing job and I personally was very honored to have you there representing. >> Thank Thank you. >> Any comments, >> Nicole? Yes. If you're looking for somebody else uh to join, I know that Miss Parkhorse does a great job with the cowbell. >> Oh, and really often the only cure is more >> more cowbell. So, yes, always more cowbell. >> And I and I hear that uh Kevin does a pretty good job with a triangle. So, >> Okay. Well, >> those guys would love to be involved. >> I think we could maybe commission a concerto for a cowbell
032and triangle. >> Yeah. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. But I just on a serious note, um, thank you for what you guys do there. And, uh, for any of us that were part of that tour piece, just knowing that the stage and the music piece needs to be our kind of next piece that we tackle in that building. Um, as we have gone through and tried to improve a lot, that is like that is the next step how we can figure that piece out. um and make a great space out of what we have. Uh and I think we can do that. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on to item 10. That is the board subcommittee meetings and minutes. Item A is the POS policy and personnel committee meeting which was held
033this evening at 5:30. Item B is the finance and the infrastructure committee. Next meeting is January 28th at 4:30. And item C is the curriculum committee and their next meeting is November 24th at 4:30. Item 11, there is no old business tonight. Item 12 under new business. Item A is new hires. Is there a motion? >> Madame Mayor, >> school board member Truman, >> I move we approve those listed in the stipen section and issue a stipen contract for the 202526 school year. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> School board member Roach. Any questions or comments regarding this item? Okay. Roll call vote. School board member Warnoff, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> School board member Roach, >> yes. >> And school board member Truman, >> yes.
034>> Motion passes 40. >> Okay. Item B is resignations. Is there a motion for the resignations? >> Madame Mayor, >> school board member Truman. I move we accept the resignation of Noah Ko, CK Burns path teacher and CK Burns RTI coordinator effective November 30th, 2025. Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second by school board member Roach. Any comment or questions regarding this item? Okay. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. >> Yes. >> School board member Richards. >> Yes. >> School board member Roach. >> Yes. >> And school board member Truman. >> Yes. Thank you. I was going to say thank you for not leaving me hanging there. >> Motion passes 40. And item number C that is a building update. Superintendent Ray. >> So good evening everybody. Um just quickly wanted to update
035you that um as of today I have signed the construction contract. Um, and just a couple of pieces that is really important for us is so we received a bid for both schools in one package. So it wasn't like we were going with one construction company for one school and one for the other. It was a double project because the coordination of two builders would have been absolutely impossible. Uh and so we are working uh hopefully the once the contract is signed it will be with deadly construction um and the bid price in total for both projects. Now remember this does not include um architect fees, permit fees, study, some of some of those other pieces is uh 99,754, 381. We were at a point where we are able to accept all of the alternate
036alternate bids and pricing that's in there. So, we're not having to pull anything that we had in the design out. Um, and then I noticed uh online that there definitely was some uh chatter about timing and why this took so long. This is very much a process driven by the DOE and by um the processes of the state board of education. Um, and when we were able to go to the vote, that was just we were kind of voting on the concept. We still had to from that point spend almost a year designing the building, meaning all the mechanical drawings, all the layout. This was um basically the construction will say this was one of the tougher permitting pro processes for uh DOT because of the access to Route One that they've dealt with. In
037addition, um it's important to remember that the state of Maine has a an amount that they can borrow for construction projects at any one given time. So there's also a timing piece of when they can spend the money from the state based off their indebtedness based on other projects. What I can tell you um when you think about the base bid um for the larger school, the state was extremely pleased with the number uh that came in um because that was well below uh what they were initially thinking. Couple of important dates. So substantial completion is scheduled for February 4th, 2028. And then the site, this would be the groundwork, substantial completion, that means, you know, you're almost there. You're like 95% done is April 30th. Work of this contract shall be completed uh before
038the building contract final completion date of April 7th, 2028. And then the site has until June 1st. And that's based off we don't want planting done in March for all of the shrubbery and all of those pieces. We have been very firm about those dates. Uh, and people would say, why would you want it to be finished in April when you still have more time uh, until the start of the school year? And we have been extremely firm that we do not want to be running around two weeks before putting together furniture, last minute items. We want that runway uh so that teachers have hopefully have the ability to move in over the summertime. We as a board uh and administration will have to as we craft the calendar over the next several years, think
039about move in dates, allowing time for people to uh pack up, move things. Um, Dawn shaking his head in the back, making sure that Dawn has uh an opportunity to rent plenty of moving vans, dumpsters, and other pieces. Um, but this is really exciting news. Um, Meg and I will be in Augusta hopefully Monday or Tuesday once we firm up the date to have that preconstruction meeting. And it looks like we are um good to go ahead on December 4th is looking like it will definitely be that groundbreaking date. We had to um cut a check today for uh some permits and thankfully um Plet Bono from the DOE uh from the vocational center actually was going to Augusta so we could hand deliver that to not have any extra uh delays in that permitting
040because that has to start before we can do anything. So Meg, anything I'm missing? It seems like it's been a lot the last since last Wednesday. Um, >> I think that's it. >> Okay. So, any questions on building stuff? >> Just to add an update on the city side for that. We met with the bond representative the other day and we did sign the one-month extension for the ban and then we'll be meeting with them again at the end of December to finalize after the DOE commissioner um submits the letter. I think that's what we were waiting on on that that final letter. >> That is correct. >> Any questions or comments? Board member Roach. >> Well, first off, I don't think the principles are on board. Um, they're going to be there at March
041planting and doing whatever they want to do. So, I saw their look, especially you, Jeff. So, um, numbers um, so the the whole budget is 140 million and yep, engineer um, engineering, drawings, land, um, architecture, all that. um project came in around 100 million 99 million. Is the other 40 million in line do you believe or >> Yeah, I mean I think we're going to be um well under that on the state side and we're going to be at our on locally we're going to be right at our number um with using a little bit of money from the savings on the other side so that we're there. I believe that our borrowing number locally, Meg, and correct me, for that for the other school, we were like 32 millionish uh for the primary school
042and we had like an extra $9 million on the other. We're still waiting for the math to, you know, bring the spreadsheets together uh because there's a calculation we have to take from the state and deduct that. But we're in line and it's uh it's knock on wood obviously >> because a lot can change. >> So to clarify um despite inflationary pressures, we were well under budget especially on the state side. >> Yeah, >> we did not play this on the cheap. We have every alternative, every option. >> No subtractions in there. >> None. >> Uh we are on time. That's another thing. We're on schedule and we have the extra room to grow down the road. We have not we we have built a a facility that can grow and and add space if
043we add students and classrooms and space if we need it. >> Correct. If you remember, we were lucky enough that the DOE provided us with 11 classrooms per grade level. Uh even though we currently have 10. And so we have that piece figured in. And then the other thing that we need to remember in all of this, and this is not figured into the money, is the energy tax credit that we worked on. That as we finalize what that number is now, based off this and the costs could be another sum that will come back to the school committee. to think about if there are any um let's say let's say prices drastically increase or something you know needs to be added or a large change order we would have some relief there. Um in
044this budget we carried a 7% contingency fund above um the normal 5% uh based on the fact of things being so erratic uh in the economy at that time. That's was the advice given to us by the department and so we're in really good shape. I think the number worked out to be in the 330 a square foot range. Um, which was well below what we were expecting. >> Yeah, that was going to be not to hog the questions, but that was my final question about the energy credits with the government reopening now. Um, have we heard any sideways news on those credits that's still okay as long as we, you know, break ground this year in December? And >> we feel, I mean, obviously things change every few minutes, but there's no indication that
045that is in any danger at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. school board member Truman. >> I could you just reiterate the point that I had a conversation with one of the principles uh the other day. Um there were some claims that was uh that were saying that we're basically already out of room out of this new building, but we have 10 classrooms right now per grade. New building will have >> 11. But but even that even with that as I was talking with principal blank where we had the additional teacher needed over a young school if we had had one building those students would have been able to be spread out >> correct >> even still with that need we just can't couldn't do that so I just kind of wanted to put that
046piece to bed because there were there were rumblings from some people and I saw some online that people were claiming that we're already out of room with the new building and I was like I >> no >> so okay >> and then also just the other thing that we did is um we are starting the process now um to really think about staffing and we've gone back and forth and eventually we got to a point where the spreadsheets were just too much to keep track and so we're actually working now on staffing and placement in buildings. Um and through conversation we decided that we would send out um a survey to all staff members um in the district and try to get some understanding of their plans for the future. Are there anything that you
047know was it somebody's dream to someday teach kindergarten? We might not know that. And so we ask some of those types of questions um to help us with the planning process um you know not that we will be able to meet every single request or fulfill every comment but having an idea you know if I just I I guess I would I I'll make something up and I you know I had Miss Cody last year or Kennedy If someone said to us that they had taught with a teaching partner next door to each other for 30 plus years and they really wanted to end their career next to that same teaching partner for one year in that building. We would look at that and evaluate that situation to see if that worked for us. And
048if things work for us and are the best for our building, students, and community, we just tried to get as much information as we can. Um because this is going to be quite a task. Um and we're nervous on our side that um with something so so big we might miss a little something. Um, and so we have a strategy in place of how we want to kind of move through this and double check ourselves and but I think our goal was end of the yearish uh, Meg to try to give people some runway so that let's just say they wanted something different. They would have that opportunity to plan. Planning is is what we want to have people do. I think that's great to be able to try to at least accommodate someone maybe
049if they wanted to switch up because you never know there might be someone in kindergarten, someone in second, they want to swap. So >> I think that's a great way to to keep people here too like >> Yeah. And if we knew that, I think the the best piece about getting the information now is let's say that there was that person who really wanted to teach kindergarten and there was an opening now. we would have the ability to think about that person switching, being part of a new team, being part of the building process, and then giving other positions a clear hiring of where they would be going into the new building. um because that's going to be definitely um a challenge for us because you're going to be hiring people probably the summer before,
050one year before saying, "Hey, you're here, but you're going to be here." Uh so we'd like to work that out beforehand as much as possible. >> Okay, great. Anyone else? So, with the groundbreaking on the 4th, what would be the anticipated official first start date the construction company would be on site? >> They'll probably be on site before that. >> Okay. Just so that we as a city, we can notify some of the businesses that we've been keeping um in communication and u Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you to everyone that's been involved in this. And uh here we go. All right. Item D is an enrollment update. >> Can we just go back to building update one more thing? Um because I wasn't here during superintendence report. I'd >> like to
051have Dawn come up and just we're talking buildings. If you could talk a little bit about SMS and where we are this second um that might be helpful for the community. >> I was going to ask for that at the uh later on. Um so I'm glad you brought it up. I didn't want to bring up a sore spot when you're talking about happy things right now. So, >> it's happy because we we're going to fix it. It's okay. Um, as you know, we closed school down today um due to a water main break. Um, unfortunately, it's the second one within a couple of months. Um, but it's it's coming around. We worked all day there today with Main Water. Um, also Shaw Brothers came to our rescue again with a phone call this morning
052and they dispatched a crew there that I've had there all day long. Um, unfortunately the water break itself is underneath the brand new generator. And so instead of trying to move 600 gallons of diesel fuel, uh, hire somebody to come in and lift it up, um, maybe destroy the pad that it's on. Um, Shaw Brothers and myself had a little meeting this morning with their people and we've just decided to go around the generator to a straight shot instead of a 90° turn like it has right now. We did find the original plans on the building this morning. Um, it's a 4-in line switching from an 8 inch line. So, we've already got the pipe on hand. We've already got all of the elbows and turns. Um, we back filled the hole tonight with crushed
053stone just so we wouldn't get any more erosion and cause any more damage around the area that we have. Um, I'm pretty sure that we will have everything reconnected um and be water will be totally running full tomorrow afternoon before the end of the day. Um, luckily the school has a closed loop system on the heating system, so we're able to keep the school warm. We have electricity, everything, just not flushing toilets. So, which is a problem with that many kids and staff. So, we will probably um if it works out with Jeremy, we will open the school up if we can on Friday. We may call on Poland Spring again to maybe help us out a little bit and we'll just have a no drink water policy on Friday so that we can have
054the water tested. As soon as we get the water connected tomorrow, I'll get a sample and run it right down to the company and have a water test on it just to be sure we're within where we need to be. So, >> thank you. Any questions? Super uh superintendent schoolboard member Truman >> did not want that role. Thank you very much. Jeremy's doing fine. Um curious if this was an issue that was caused by the installation by the generator. >> It's it's 7 ft in the ground which is 4T lower than the generator. Um it's the the line is the original line from 1972. So it's one of those things that it could have happened now. It could have happened five years ago. Um the line at Fairfield was 1999. it was a much more
055updated line than what we have there now. So, it just it's hard to point fingers and say whether it should have been, shouldn't have been. Either way, um again, I look at it as a lucky point. It was broken on the outside, not on the inside like Fairfield. So, everything is outside of the building. We didn't have any water spillage or anything else in the building or anything to clean up or take care of. It was just the parking lot. It just happened to be running directly into the new building that we're building for facilities. So, they had to pump water out from around the foundation this morning to be able to backfill that at the same time. So, >> member Roach, >> I'll ask this for the nervous uh Burns and Young Principles. Um,
056is there a way is there any camera technology with Main Water to be able to just check the lines? >> They're really there really I talked, believe it or not. I asked um there really isn't other than finding the lines and making sure they're okay. But again, this was a 1972 line basically and the one at Fairfield was a 1999 much updated line as far as the type of line that it was. Um so it's just one of those things. Luck of the draw, way the ground moves, um could be almost anything, a flaw in the pipe. I mean, it lasted this many years and it just happened to be now. Uh, and again, this wasn't an explosion like we had at Fairfield. This was a slow leak. The only reason we found out about
057it was I was driving through the schools on Tuesday afternoon just checking like I usually do and it was just getting dark. So, we do a lot of drivebys just to check lights, make sure everything's on outside and I see water running across the parking lot when it didn't rain yesterday. So, that was how we found it. Main Water dispatched somebody right away to me and came out. We turned it back a little bit um just to try to stop some of the erosion underneath and that's where we're at today. So, >> thank you. Anyone else? >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks. >> Okay, now moving on to item D and that is an enrollment update. >> Okay. So just a two different pieces of where we'll be. So on the overall enrollment which
058I have listed as preK8 because this is what we we file um with the DOE. You'll see that overall um we have 1939 as our attending count prek through. So that's minus 37 students on a subsidy count. We are 2841 that includes Thornton Academy students and that is minus 53. So as a district we're minus 53. Now remember that 38 of those students are coming from the e side of things with the closure of the hotel. Now when you look at because we always have to look at what we budgeted uh for tuition count uh we are in really good shape because last year we didn't fully know what was going to happen and we made the decision just we weren't going to up it. We weren't going to take it down because we didn't
059know when people would move. Um but we the other day we were at um 8.91 um for tuition students and we budgeted 920. So we have a buffer there. Um I still have the 6% increase um there um and the 7% IVF. And then as we know we kind of tend to get that figure in December. Hopefully we get it on the earlier this year than last year. It was quite late in December. Um but it looks that at least tuition wise and financially we are in a good spot for this year. Now, just to also recognize though that while we set okay today, remember that our subsidy is going to have less students and less e students in it. So, we will while that's averaged over two years on the back side of that,
060we will be taking a hit. >> Questions or comments? school board member, >> does the prek growth um because that would not include the e situation basically. Um is that indicative of potential population growth going forward? I mean it's only the earliest school year right now but whereas on the back end we knew that students were were like the high school age were falling but >> no I mean the prek growth we have a cap on that. Um now one of the things that is a little bit different that we will be working on is it is my understanding that foury olds who aren't at prek. Okay. So, there were some four-year-olds that we don't serve, but our being served through our special ed population taking over for CDS is that those students are in
061the enrollment numbers, which probably increased throughout the year even though we don't have more spots at prek. So, that's a little that's something that's a little new for us. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Okay, moving on to item E and that is the NWA fall reporting. I was able to share this report with our curriculum committee and um we dove into it a little bit deeper, but I will certainly give the full board an overview and um I always start with some things that will be repeat information, but I feel like it's good context to just understand what the assessment is and what numbers you're looking at because there are a lot of different ways to pull apart the data and we've tried to look consistently in the last several years at that data so
062that we're kind of revisiting the same thing though there are a couple of changes. So um in SACO we take the NWA MAP test which is the Northwest Evaluation Association's measures of academic progress. There are two assessments that we administer one in math and one in reading and we now do those consistently in grades one through eight. We do we have had some years in the past where we did not assess our first graders in reading but we have added that we administer it three times a year. Two of those times in fall and spring it is a state paid and administered and then in the winter it's fully adaptive. So when students take that assessment in the fall and then even more so in the spring there are a number of grade level items.
063In the winter, it's fully adaptive, meaning students will get harder questions when they answer questions correctly, and they'll get easier questions when they answer questions incorrectly. And the assessment is designed that basically every student gets a 50% score on the assessment in terms of number of questions correct. And then on the back end, the computer is determining their achievement based on how difficult they were able to get those questions to be on their correct answers. It's important to know that we look at these based on not the expected achievement, but the normed achievement. So all of the data that we look at is in relationship to where students in the nation perform at that grade level and using the 50th percentile as a benchmark. And um the data prior to this school year used norms
064that were based on data from 2020 to or 2015 to 2020. And this fall, we now have new norms based on 2022 to 2024 data collected across the nation. In terms of what that means to you, it just means that when you see numbers prior to this fall, if you were to compare like 8th grade fall 50th percentile last fall with 8th grade 50th percentile this fall, it's a slightly different RIT score or overall score. Um, norm reference just means that we use that grade level average to determine what is normal rather than saying here are a bank of skills that we want every third grader to have and how well did they do on those skills. That would be a standard referenced formula. And again, in the through year in the spring, there are
065a number of those grade level only questions that they give students to determine their score at that point. So today we'll look at the cohort growth over time. We feel like that data is really important because it doesn't necessarily matter where you end the race if we don't take a look at where you started the race. And that way we can really see a cohort over time while also acknowledging that cohorts do change. We don't have the same exact kids every fall that we have in the spring. And of course we get turnover over the summer as well. and then we'll look at the average store scores historically compared to the national average for all grade levels together. So to start with reading in this first view, we can kind of see the average percentile
066at each grade level and then also those bands where we can see in red the students in the 1st to 20th percentile, then orange 21st to 40th, yellow in the 41st to 60th, green in the 61st to 80th, and above the 80th percentile in the blue. This kind of helps us determine if we have kind of most students operating at average or if we have kind of bigger outliers on either end of the spectrum. And that can kind of change how we look at our instruction for different groups of students. As you can see on here, we had our seventh and eighth grade performing at the highest average percentile for this fall's assessment. And now we'll take a look at some of the scores over time on these graphs. The line or the little X
067is the national 50th percentile and then our ranking is um the bar graph. So you can kind of look over time as our second and third graders performed much. We're looking for that gap when we're above to be expanding above the X. So, our second and third graders doing really well here and our fourth graders kind of maintaining or just eking out a little bit more than the gains that they had last year. And here you can really see what we saw in that other fall data with seventh and eighth grade performing really well. And not only was that a good performance for this fall, but that was a pretty large increase over their performance last year over the school year, which is generally not seen in the fall, but may have to do with
068the change in norms a little bit. This graph shows our overall kind of how far above average or below average are we looking cumulatively for grades one through eight. As I said, prior to fall of 2023, we didn't start administering reading to our first graders. So, they're only added in those data sets. And though there is a little bit of up and down in terms of spring and fall assessment scores as related to the average, you can see that like the line of best fit overall is showing gains in reading. We also wanted to disagregate grades three through five because we find that with reading, if students don't have grade level reading skills by fourth grade, it can create problems down the line. even if you're remediating that. So, we kind of wanted to narrow
069the band and look at that. And you can see if you kind of toggle between those two that they're fairly similarly performing, which um we feel pretty good about just noticing that we don't seem to have a bigger drop off in our middle grades there. So, all grade levels exceeded national average. Our achievement has widened above national average in the past. Vocabulary is our strongest subcore area across multiple grade levels, which you wouldn't see in any of that data, but is something that we like to dig into. The foundational skills subcore continues to be a weakness. And we see that most of our cohorts have really strong growth trajectories with some questions in this fall data when looking at their testing from first and second grade with grades four and five. So, we're going to
070be keeping an eye on that. When we take a look at math here, you see that same beginning band where we can see just from the fall assessment what the achievement levels were. We have our second grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade again performing at the highest percentiles. And you'll notice a slightly higher percentile achievement in math than we have in reading. And again, those bands reflect the same thing. And here we see again those X's representing the national norm at the 50th percentile and the bars representing student RIT scores in SACO and we're looking for that to expand or get higher above average over time. here. We've done that very well in second grade. And in fourth grade, we're definitely going to want to keep an eye on their achievement over the course of
071the school year. Though it you can see that even the national norm drops from spring to fall because it's anticipated that students lose some skills over the summer. And here we have our fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So you can see as related to that other chart where we saw the percentiles, our seventh and eighth grade performing very well to start off this school year and wanting to keep an eye on our fourth and fifth grade as they kind of decreased their gap over the national average. And here's our overall grade 1 through eight comparison to the national average over time. And then again just looking at our grades three to five only for those same bands. Our math achievement is strong overall showing a higher percent above the national norm for as opposed
072to reading. Our year-over-year growth is near expectations with most showing average growth from fall to fall. Our grade two to three transitioning growth is weakest. We likely feel like that's due to changes in test format. It moves from an auditory assisted testing in first and second grade to students having to read all of the questions in third grade. So even though it's a math test, there is quite a bit of reading involved in that. And so we'll look to continue to look at literacy and mathematics as we prepare students for that transition. We have geometric or geometry reasoning as a consistent strength across multiple grades and operations and number sense seems to be the subgroup that is a little bit more erratic. And overall, we've see really positive momentum in our scores currently above the
073highest above average that we've been for several years. I've added at the end of the presentation the data that we received from Thornton. We began working on this presentation when I reached out to them around October 20th and got this data uh at the end of last week. So I haven't had a chance to populate it into the same growth trajectory. So it's a little bit hard to uh compare this data or see what it means in isolation because we are just seeing scores from we can't really compare where they were when they were attending preK8 through where they are now until I kind of pair that data up. And also just um working with TA to make sure that we're referencing the same norms or the same average 50th percentile because they provide a
074school achievement percentile and an individual achievement percentile as well as making sure that we're looking at the same numbers whether it be the 2020 norms or the 2025 norms so that when we do put it on the same graph we're comparing apples to apples. And here is the data provided by TA for math. I'm happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments for make? >> Um just is there comparisons to state to the rest of the state? Is that the national average? >> There is not. I >> think I've asked that last year. >> Yeah. But what what we can do which we did talk about at curriculum committee is we can we have readily available data in the spring. They transition their RIT score to say, does your
075RIT score make you on grade level, above grade level, slightly below, or very below grade level? And we can look at our percentages in each of those categories as compared to the state data. But we can't look at average RIT scores across all three administrations because not every school in Maine does it in the winter. So that one would be wonky because you wouldn't have the same test group. And then um we just don't have it for fall. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. Okay, moving on to item 13. That's other information. Are there any school board members wishing to share any announcements or information? School board member Roach. >> Hello. just like to take a moment to um if anyone's wondering my signage out here. I want
076to show some love to my outgoing Ward 4 counselor Mike Berman. Um worked with him boy last 10 years and it goes back to the original uh school um new school push uh that we were both involved with. didn't work out back then, but it was worth the wait that we have now. And and Mike was um on our school u uh program committee uh or the uh layout of the schools and the and uh I can't thank him enough for uh being a true partner when I joined school board a couple years ago. And um you know, he's not going away, but he he'll definitely be missed. and but I'm glad he was on record for um uh at at this bench when uh the new school was approved. And you know, I I
077thank other city councilors too, but particularly Mike is leaving us um at the end of the month. So, if anyone's going to go to a council meeting, um please uh share any um good good wishes for him. And uh he's also I'll let it be revealed. He's also a fellow dead head, too. So that's why he got so my message to him is uh you know my love will not fade away. Thank you Mike. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> All right moving on. There is no executive session tonight taking us to item 15 with it which is an adjournment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Scen member Truman. >> So moved. >> There a second. >> Second. member Richards. You guys want to stay? What? >> I was going to say I gave
078everybody the opportunity. No one moved. I was like, "All right, fine. I'll do it. >> We're staying." >> All righty. Roll call vote. Schoolboard member Warnoff? >> Yes. >> Schoolboard member Richards? >> Yes. >> School board member Roach? >> Yes. >> And school board member Truman? >> Yes. >> Motion passes 40 to adjourn at 8:15. Thank you everyone and have a great evening.