001Good evening everyone and welcome to the SACO school board meeting for Wednesday, September 8th at 700 p.m. would like to make note of all school board members present this evening including Superintendent Gray. And would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And item number three this evening is the approval of the school board meeting minutes dated September 24th, 2025. Is there a motion? >> Mayor, school board member Truman. I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated September 24th, 2025. >> Thank you. Motion has been made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? >> Second by
002school board member Johnston. >> Any discussion or comments on the meeting minutes? Okay, not seeing any. Roll call vote. School board member Waro, >> yes. >> School board member Prebble, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member Ker, >> yes. >> And school board member Tro, >> yes. and school board member Johnson. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 70 to pass the minutes. >> Okay, moving on to item number four. There are no adjustments to the agenda this evening. Item number five, there are no correspondents. Item number six is public session. If there is anyone wishing to speak, please step forward to the podium. State your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to speak. Lauren Grineer, 81 Jenkins
003Road. Good evening. I'm here tonight to speak about the fairness or the lack of it and how this district applies its own policies. When a policy is unclear or inconsistently enforced, it stops protecting people and starts hurting them, staff, students, and even this district as a whole. When I worked with the Sako School District, I was investigated under the same this same policy for misgendering while the dead name of that same staff member appeared publicly on an official agenda sent by the superintendent and received by this board. [snorts] Same policy, same issue. And what I can only assume to be very two very different responses and I can only assume because when I emailed this board asking for accountability on September 26th questioning what process applies when you commit the same act as I was
004investigated for, I received no response. I received no response on October 1st either when I followed up. If that isn't uneven enforcement, I don't know what is. And it makes one thing clear. This policy is confusing, inconsistent, and an urgent chain need of change. At the last meeting, Superintendent Ray said the district follows main state law regarding human rights policy. And that sounds good in theory, but in reality, it's not true. The main human right acts defines harassment to include misgendering and detonating. Federal law does not. Under federal talent, harassment means conduct that is severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive enough to deny someone equal access to education. In other words, it takes more than a disagreement. And I'd like I would like you to look at me while I'm speaking, please. Thank you. It takes
005more than a disagreement. I would like you to please look at me while I'm speaking. Thank you. It takes more than a disagreement or a single word to meet that standard. Trying to enforce both state and federal definitions at the same time only creates confusion and double standards. Exactly what we've seen played out in this district. Two weeks ago, I spoke at the at the school board meeting, and that video has since been viewed over 700,000 times, and that's from one share. 700,000 times. It's been shared um across the country. Parents, educators, and taxpayers from every corner of Maine and far beyond are watching closely. It's clear where the public stands. This is an 8020 issue. And yet, this board continues to operate as it works for the 20%. That imbalance has to end. So
006tonight, I've submitted a formal written request to the policy subcommittee asking that this district review and revise its human rights and title N policies. That request calls for aligning district policy with federal law, specifically Title 9 and its original purpose of protecting individuals from sexbased discrimination in education and removing the added gender identity misgendering and deading language that goes far beyond the federal requirements. If this board chooses not to change the policy, it is knowingly upholding a rule it has already violated violated and setting the expectation that others will be punished for the same. That isn't fairness and it is not leadership. It's a contradiction written into policy and it undermines the integrity of this district at every level. The longer this remains unressed, the greater the confusion, liability, and public distrust will grow public.
007The public has already decided where it stands and you know we went viral. It's your turn to decide whether you want to lead with integrity or be remembered for refusing to. Thank you. Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Okay. Not seeing anyone seeking recognition. Moving on to item number seven that is the superintendence report. Superintendent Right. I appreciate those who uh stay for the meetings [clears throat] because it's very important that as a community we do talk about the things that are in front of us. And the first thing that I'm going to say is that when you lead with integrity, you think about your community as a whole and you think about the employees that you have the opportunity to work with. And what I'd like to just make
008sure that the public and the the board knows is that our employees aren't looking for a viral moment. But yet they walk into school every single day and over the last several weeks have opened their email or listen to their voicemail with threats all across the coming country coming their direction. I applaud every one of our staff members, administrators, ed techs, secretaries who take the phone calls for their hard work for this community, their professionalism, and their commitment to kids more than a comment and walking out the door. Thank you for everything you've done for us. Sako Middle School uh will again participate in their annual kindness day on October 24th. Throughout the month, they will also track their individual acts of kindness to see the impact that they're making on the community. Our middle
009school kids are going to practice kindness to impact the community. You saying my three minutes are up? I am. >> Can you get like three and a half? >> I don't know how to turn it off. >> Clearly, she thinks superintendents talk too much. >> Their goal is uh $10,000 in pledges or donations to support clubs, unified arts, outdoor classroom spaces. If you want to pledge towards an act of kindness, please visit an SMS student individual raise craze page. Students are decorating hundreds of pumpkins for SACO's annual pumpkin harvest festival on Sunday, October 19th at CK Burns. I encourage parents and community members to attend and check out their creative designs. I want to thank Dayton Sand and Gravel for their donation of 1,700 pounds of clean sand for prek in their sandboxes. Playing in
010sand is more than just fun. It supports student development by encouraging creativity, fine motor skills, and sensory exploration. I want to thank uh those who were able to to tour around the building tonight because the reason we're here tonight is to show off some of the improvements that we've made in this space. Um and there's a lot a lot more planned. So, thank you for um being willing to host a meeting at the school. And I really need to thank you, Jen, Joe, the tech crew, Chris, everybody, because it's just a lot of extra work to do it here. Um, but it's important for us to visit our schools from time to time. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. Any questions or comments for the superintendent? Okay, not seeing any. Uh, moving on to
011item number eight. That is the chair's report. Chair Perbble, >> I don't have anything new to share this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. Item number nine, there are no staff reports this evening. Item number 10 is the board subcommittee minutes and meetings. Item A is the policy and personnel committee minutes. Uh, they actually had their meeting this afternoon at 5:30. the Finance and Infrastructure Committee. The next meeting is October 22nd at 4:30. And the curriculum committee minutes are attached in the packet and the next meeting is October 27th at 4:30. There is no old business this evening. Moving on to item number 12 is new business. Item A, is there a motion for new hires? Madam Chair School Trumman, >> I move we approve those listed in the stipen section and issue a stipen
012contract for the 202526 school year. >> Thank you. Motion has been made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? >> Second by school board member Johnston. Any comments or discussion on the item? Okay. Roll call vote. School board member Waro. >> Yes. >> School board member Pebble. >> Yes. >> School board member Richards. >> Yes. Yes. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> And school board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Okay, moving on to item B, that is resignations. Nope, there are no resignations this evening. Item C is a building update. Superintendent Rick We are two weeks away from a very exciting day for the opening of bids. Uh that will be at 2 pm
013at city hall. Um I know a lot of questions are coming in. We still believe that we have um seven uh possible biders on the project project which will be exciting. And then also, as we announced on um the other night at the meeting, December 4th will be our official groundbreaking ceremony. That's at 11 a.m. Meg. We'll be on site and details will follow because obviously two weeks out we'll start looking at the weather and making arrangements for exactly what's going to happen. But we're pretty excited as that will be a historic moment for our community. >> All right. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments for the superintendent regarding the building updates? >> Okay, moving on to item D. That is the enrollment update. Superintendent, right? >> So, apologize this is not linked.
014I'll make sure it's linked after the meeting. I tried to do it here in the meeting. Um but the other night we um for those of you who are able at the joint city council meeting we were talking about uh the enrollment projections for the city. We are currently at 1898 students at the elementary level and 891 for academy. Um, we will keep updating this information um, up until our final report date. It's based off October one enrollment, but we usually have about 30 days to lock that in because certain kids will have transferred and done certain pieces to verify the data. And I'll have a another update um, at the next meeting, but the final numbers will probably be the first November meeting. Great. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments? Okay, moving
015on to item E. That is the strategic plan that we've got make this evening. I'll just add one piece to the building update. I was able to attend the planning board meeting last night with Hope Point and then meeting today in which we met with city engineers and sewer and a couple other stakeholders to be sure that we can iron out some outstanding comments before the October 21st meeting. So, we're grateful for the city's partnership and making sure that we resolve all of those kind of very technical aspects of the project that ensure that those are in the bid and the specs so that we can move forward. An update on strategic planning. Uh we have our curriculum committee taking that on for right now. We started that in May and at this point we
016have had a survey response of 331 individuals including 77 staff responses and 255 community responses. We did have closed the survey now and are utilizing the data from that survey to create questions for upcoming focus groups. Some of the areas that are identified as areas of agreement include a focus on student engagement and well-being as the number one priority followed by academic excellence and thirdly by classroom resources and technology. Another kind of standout from that survey was in looking at kind of a scaled uh metric of whether we should focus on kind of fine-tuning those basics or really striving towards change and innovation on a one through five scale. The survey was an average rating of above four. So really looking towards what that means for the SACO community in terms of focusing on innovation
017within our schools. Um the focus groups, there will be four opportunities for community members to sign up. Those links are available in the superintendent's newsletter. We'll be putting those in principal newsletters and then we will also be promoting that via Facebook and social media as well as potentially a text push a week or so before if we're still looking for participants. We will do two online sessions on October 20th at 11:30 and 6:30, 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. And then October 21st, in-person sessions at Dire Library, one at 11:30 a.m. and another at 6:30 p.m. And folks would need to complete that form so that we can be sure that we're organizing the facilitation of those focus groups effectively. Ultimately, we will look to have a strategic plan that includes a mission and vision statement,
018a district profile, and some core focus areas or priorities for the next five years. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions or comments? School board member Truman, I know we already talked about this, but how many people are you looking for in each focus group ballpark? So I would love to be able to include everybody that signs up and we might just shift around different feedback or facilitation or structure of that focus group in order to ensure that we can accommodate everyone in the event that we do. You know, ideally we won't have groups of larger than eight to 10 people to facilitate a good discussion. But if we have 20 or 30 folks sign up, I'll tap into my um competent group of fellow administrators to ensure that we can get some other facilitators.
019>> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Oh, member Johnston. >> Thank you. Um I'm not sure this information has already been discussed or not, but the staff focus groups, is there a a deadline? I mean, a date set for that or is that still unknown? >> Yeah, so the staff focus group will also be on October 21st at 3:30 at Guy Library. And then the plan will be after we have a little bit more of a draft developed that we'll have an opportunity to visit each school and get feedback from entire staffs at that point. So, we will have, I think, a group of 12, if I'm remembering correctly, maybe 18 staff members that our administration is working to kind of ensure that we've given everyone an opportunity to do that, but that
020we have a little bit of a cross-section of staff so that it's a combination of teachers, support staff, UA folks, and that that's um equally represented across our schools. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, not seeing any other. So that was item E for the strategic plan. Moving on to item was that the curriculum as well built in? >> I have a separate report. >> No, we talked about that as well. Okay. So, moving on to item F, that is the curriculum team priorities. That is make as well. >> And I won't spend time on this. I try to provide this annually as information for the board in backup as to what our curriculum design teams are focused on. I would just call your attention to the fact that the English language arts group has
021kind of two committees running. One is kind of our normal operating business and supporting the current curriculum. And another is pilot teachers and looking towards whether or not we should be adopting resources that are more in line with the science of reading where we have teachers piloting those and evaluating those resources this year. And then I would also call your attention to the fact that currently we have our science curriculum K5 operating quite smoothly with the anchor resource at mystery science and so this year there's not a team convening on a regular basis at the elementary level for science. >> Great. Thank you. Any questions? school board member Roach. >> Um on the uh social studies for middle school, it says that. >> Yeah, just feedback. >> I think it's [clears throat] the lapel mic
022and that mic are too close together. So, if she can move over a little bit that way, that might help. >> Okay, try again. [clears throat] >> It wasn't that big a question. [laughter] >> Um, you have a socialized team, but um it's on hold because of language arts or is there a set like proposal for something new in social studies for middle school? So, middle school is utilizing the new resources this year. We are having kind of a soft launch of that where we have full access to all of the resources, but we're talking about which one unit in each of the grade levels we're going to teach in common from those resources this year because the intent with adopting those resources has always been to supplement and add to the units that are
023created and designed by teachers. The K5 work is on hold for social studies for the reason that the resources that we're piloting K5 ELA are what are now referred to in the industry as knowledgebased curriculums which means that they rely heavily on science and social studies topics to anchor the ELA resources or English language arts resources. So we want to make a decision about that so that we have a social studies curriculum that would be in alignment with the topics in English language arts if we do adopt a knowledgebased curriculum that doesn't impact or apply to the resources that we've purchased and adopted for social studies six. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Anyone else? I'll set down then. Okay. >> All right. Looks like no additional questions. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay.
024That moves us on to item G and that is the first reading of policies. Is there a motion? School board member Johnson. >> Thank you. Um, I move we approve the first reading of policies J student attendance JKA use of physical restraint and seclusion. JK AA-R procedures on physical restraint and seclusion. JICA weapons violence and school safety. JLCD administration of medication to students and BB school board legal status. >> Okay. Motion has been made by school board member Johnson. Is there a second? Second. School board member Truman. >> At the same time. >> Yeah. Heard Sarah come up first. Okay. Any discussion or comments on any of the policies? Okay, not roll. School board member Warner, >> yes. >> School board member Prebble, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> School board
025member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member Killer, >> yes. >> And school board member Truman, >> yes. >> And school board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes 70. >> Okay. Item 13, other information. Is there anything any of the school board members would like to share? Okay, not seeing any. Item 14, there is no executive session this evening. Takes us to item 15 and that is adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. >> Motion by school board member Truman. Is there a second? >> Second. Schoolboard. A second by school board member Warov. [laughter] >> You were holding the mic. >> All right. School board member Ker. Second >> and roll call vote. School board member Waroff. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> School board member, >> yes. >> School board member Richards,
026>> yes. >> School board member Roach, >> I will call it a lyric. Are you kind? Yes. >> School board member KD? >> Yes. >> School board member Truman? >> Yes. >> And school board member Johnston? >> Yes. >> Motion to adjourn passes at 7:30. Thank you everyone and have a great night.