001Welcome to the SACO school committee meeting for Wednesday, August 27th at 5:28. Like to make note that schoolboard members present, with the exception of schoolboard member Prebble, who is on her way and should be here fairly soon, school board member Warrenoff, 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 it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right, moving on to item number three. That's the approval of the schoolboard minutes dated for August 13, 2025. Is there a motion? >> Madame Mayor, >> school board member Truman. >> I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated August 13, 2025. >> Thank you. Uh motion has been made by schoolboard member
002Truman. Is there a second >> Second by school board member Richards. Any discussion on those minutes? >> No, but I was very confused by the date. I was like, isn't it the middle of September already? Just not going that fast. >> All right, roll call vote. Schoolboard member Richards, >> yes. >> School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member KD, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> And school board member Johnston, >> I have to abstain since I was not here for that meeting. >> That's okay. >> Thank you. >> Motion passes 40 with one abstension. Okay, moving on to item number four. There are no adjustments to the agenda this evening. Item number five, there are no correspondence. Item number six is public session. If there are any members
003of 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. Okay, not seeing anyone seeking recognition. Moving on to item number eight, that is the chair chair's report and chair Prebble is not here right now. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I pass that? Item number seven, superintendent's report is first. Superintendent Ray. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Um, >> thank you. >> As we all know, uh, the first day of school was today and it was great to see everybody back in the buildings. I was able to visit all schools. Um, and first and foremost, just, uh, thanks to custodians and to Dawn for all the work they did this summer. The buildings look fantastic. Um, and I I
004think it was great to to hear from our principles. um how pleased they were with uh the condition of their buildings as they started up the school year. Um, tomorrow afternoon's uh an exciting afternoon on the uh building project as the bid is out um for the building project and tomorrow afternoon um will be a sitewalk of um the grounds with uh the pre-qualified bidding companies or the comp construction companies. So, that's just another big step and we're still online for an October 8th bid opening. Um, I want to say um thanks to Beth and Sarah who were able to come open uh come and judge our lipsync battle at our welcome back to school. Uh, I think it was a great uh time for our staff uh as we come back into the school
005year and I really want to thank um Ryan Summer in the parks and recck department um because typically we're at Sako Middle School um but our new floor we wanted to give it a another couple of days to dry before we had a lot of chairs on that. Um, and Ryan in the community center stepped up. Our bus drivers brought staff over. Um, and actually turned out to be a very nice place to to hold it because there's air conditioning. Uh, and so we may have to be pegging and rying in in the future years to use that building. Um, and then the response uh from principles about the attendance at open house um has been really high. I think we've had a lot of families coming through our doors this year. Um I know
006last night it was elbow to elbow at Saco Middle School. Um and so it's great to see all of those involvement. And we talked about it just briefly at uh finance committee. Um and in the second meeting in uh September, Meg will give a presentation about a STEM plus grant that we are starting at Sako Middle School. That is a collaboration and grant uh valued at about a half a million dollars uh between the Department of Defense and manufacturing um of trying to get more vocational type programming into our middle schools uh around manufacturing. And so this should be a great opportunity uh for that to happen. It's exciting. We will be one of three middle schools in Maine starting this fall. I believe the other two are Lewon and Bath. >> Thank you. And
007I am sorry I did not get to make that yesterday. Um unfortunately I had to be in the office um or Monday, excuse me. Always a good time welcoming the teachers. >> Who who won this >> Lip sync battle. I can tell you >> prek did Julie Petrin knocked it out of the park singing to a fork >> with pipe cleaners to the Golden Girls opening song. >> And I think there was uh you know four other buildings that were slightly disappointed in the outcome of that. Uh >> we got a little got competitive. >> I know they look a little disappointed with with Beth and I right now. Dawn too. He's back here. Give him dirty looks too. But they were so good. And I I'm sorry. I asked Jeff this just a little
008while ago if he got himself a nice new haircut after uh Monday after having such hot hair. Like literally sweating hot. >> You'll have to put him to another challenge where if he loses he has to shave. >> But it was so much fun. Like I didn't know what I was getting myself into and I was pleasantly surprised. And it was really it was really fun to watch everybody. What was really fun yesterday is I did same presentation for Bifford staff and when we had the part about name that tune for the theme songs, we had a little more of a diverse age group in our saco piece. And as I could see the tickets called in Bifford, it was all staff mostly that was in there 20some. And I was like, "Oh, this isn't
009going to work." And you're stuck with the 80s theme. So, >> they're not going to know any of those. And we were right. The winner had one point. >> Oh my god. I was going to say it was pretty funny because there were a few people who I think it was like one gentleman who looked like he was fresh out of college maybe and he was like, "I got nothing. I got nothing." So, it was really fun to watch, though. >> All right. Thanks. Okay. So, moving back on to eight. Uh, school board member chair Prebble has still not arrived yet. Moving on to item nine. There are no staff reports. Item number 10 is the board subcommittee minutes and meeting dates. Item A is the policy and personnel committee committee meetings in your packet.
010Next meeting is September 10th at 5:30. Item B is the finance and the infrastructure committee meeting. Next meeting is August 27th at 4:30. That was today. And item C is curriculum committee with the next meeting August 25th at 4:30. Item number 11, there is no old business. Item number 12 for new business. Item A is the new hires. Um, there is a packet, a memo in your packet, but there is no motion needed this evening for those. Item B is resignations. Again, there is a memo in your packet, but no motion needed. Item C is a building update. Superintendent Ray. >> So, I kind of already shared that during superintendent's report um that we went to bid on Thursday afternoon uh and that has been released and then tomorrow afternoon sitewalk with uh pre-qualified contractors.
011So, another great step. >> How long is the bid open for? >> Um I believe it's 30 days. um might be a little bit longer than Well, no, because it would be open until October 8th, right? Right before I mean it's sealed but bit at that time and typically they're dropping them off minutes beforehand or bringing them with you when to the opening. >> All right. And item D is open day's professional development memo in your packet. So, this is just a memo in your packet uh that Meg updated this afternoon just highlighting um all of the activities that we had on campus um the last several days uh around welcome back to school. Um we just felt like it would be starting with the leadership team uh retreat um it would give you an
012overview of what we were doing this fall. Fair purely informational. >> Great. Any questions for the superintendent on that? Okay, moving on to item E. That is the transportation memo in your packet. >> Again, this was a um a memo that I wrote uh to families at the middle school, a letter that we sent out um that would allow them to kind of understand the traffic situation on 112. buses did pretty good this morning time and I think this afternoon it became a little bit more difficult for us. Um we just wanted to make sure that parents had a clear understanding of what it might look like for walkers in the area um and that um they needed to you know they could make some decisions about what was best for their child. And I
013did get an update from public works. Um I had asked and as of right now I believe that we are still on track for the end of October 1st of first or two first week or second week of November for the completion of that. And I do know that our city council at the meeting um several counselors made note to residents to be cautious, to be alert, and to keep their eye out for the kids and keep safety in their mind. Okay. And item number seven is the local delegation sele selection. >> So item um number F and G are two items from Maine school boards association. One is selecting a local delegate uh to attend their MSBA um meetings and the other one is a proposal for the resolutions. This does not have to
014be voted on tonight. this is informational for you to think about uh and then talk amongst yourself if there's someone who's interested in serving as that delegate. Uh get in touch with me and then we'll bring it back to the next meeting um for an approval. >> I was going to say I'm glad that we're not voting on it tonight because I know that um school board member Waroff was >> yes >> very interested. So >> okay item H is the enrollment update. So, we put together uh enrollments today um just because there's so many changes um you know over the next couple of days and I also suspect typically uh because we do start before Labor Day we also see a lot of changes after that. Um but I wanted to just kind of
015highlight you the the the real highlight is this. We're 26 students lower than last year. Okay. Uh and we're talking prek through eight only. So 26 students lower, but we're 52 students lower in our ML counts prek uh to uh prek through 8. So we're seeing some growth in certain places. My guess that will be new homes that have been built. Um and then we're seeing a decrease um because of the hotel closure. Um many of the families were lucky to find apartments in town. Um many were not. Um but this is something that we will continue to update you guys every two weeks. Um, we're a little lighter at Young School this year than last year. A little lighter at uh Burns than last year, but a few more students at Saco Middle School.
016>> Any questions or comments regarding that item? >> Um, school board member Roach. So the 35 student difference between Fairfield and Young, is that what you anticipated or? I mean that was about it was like 273 to 320 something last year. Um so it's yeah it's about where we're about what I would expect. That range is actually a little lower than it was last year. Okay, moving on to item I and that is the first reading of policies. >> Madame Mayor, >> school board member German or >> I'm making them tonight. >> You're making them tonight because >> Okay. >> Um, school board member Johnson wasn't at the last meeting. >> Uh, I move we approve the first reading of policies IHBAC child find. Um, oh, DKC, travel expense reimbursement. EB, safety program. EBA multifunction
017school activity buses. EI, insurance program and risk management. EI-R return to work and reasonable accommodations administrative procedure and EBB temperature standards for school buildings. >> Great. Thank you. Motion has been made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? >> Second by school board member Johnston. Any questions regarding the policies? >> Okay, roll call vote. Schoolboard member Prebble, >> yes. >> School board member Richards, >> yes. >> School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member Kar, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> And school board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion passes 6. >> Okay. Item 13. Uh, other information. Are there any schoolboard members that have any information they'd like to share? >> Um, can I just update real quick? >> Yeah. >> Um, for the next uh
018curriculum, strategic planning group is actually September 8th. It said oc um I'm getting all my months mixed up now that we started school. I'm like jumped into Halloween. Um we had a meeting on this past Monday. So the next one is actually September 8th. >> Okay. >> We're going to meet a little more frequently. And that was the curriculum. >> Yeah. Curriculum strategic planning. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Moving on to item 14. There is no executive session this evening. Taking us to item 15. Is the adjournment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Motion made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? >> Second by school board member Prebble. >> Roll call vote. Schoolboard member Prebble. >> Yes. >> School board member Richards. >>
019Yes. School board member Roach, >> yes. >> School board member Kar, >> yes. >> School board member Truman, >> yes. >> And school board member Johnston, >> yes. >> Motion to adjourn at 5:45. At 5:44 passes 6. >> Thank you everyone. >> That was quick.