001Good evening. My name is Jennifer Prebble and I'm the SACO school board chair. I'm calling this meeting to order at 700 PM on Wednesday, May 14th, 2025. Um, please note that schoolboard members Roach, KD, and Johnston are excused due to travels and illness. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. All right, moving on to item three, approval of the school board meeting minutes dated April 30th, 2025. Do I have a motion? I wasn't here, so I don't think I can make that motion. Okay, Chair Prebble, school board member Richards. I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated April 30th, 2025. Second. Okay. I have a motion by school board member Richards with a second by school board member Waroff. Any discussion on motion on the table. All right. Seeing there's no discussion,
002roll call vote. School board member Waroff, yes. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Truman abstain. Okay. Motion passes three zero with one abstension. Moving on to item four, adjustments to the agenda. There are no adjustments this evening. Moving on to item five, correspondence. I do not see any correspondence brought to my attention this evening, unless there's anything I'm missing. Seeing that um there's no correspondence, we'll move on to item six, public session. Please feel free to come before the school board and state your name and address for the record. And you have three minutes to speak. Good evening. Uh my name is Amarie Ramsey. I live at 41 Pines Drive in Sacramento. I'm here to advocate on behalf of the special education technicians as well as the secretaries in the
003district and hopes to working towards a contract that works on both sides. Uh special education technicians are essential to the success of my daughter's IEP plan, which is the individualized education program. They provide consistent hands-on support that she needs to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. These professionals help uh sorry uh these help professionals help implement accommodations, reinforce learning strategies. They help collaborate with teachers, mainstream teachers, and related service providers. They offer indiv individualized attention that she needs in order to make some progress within her IEP goals. However, for these services to be delivered effectively and sustainably, it's critical that special education technicians are supported with a livable wage as well as access to healthcare. When technicians are sufficiently compensated, they have job stability. Schools can retain experience, dedicated staff who are able to focus fully
004on the students rather than financial insecurities and burnout. Investing in the well-being of these professionals directly impacts the quality and consistency of support our children receives, my child receives, ensuring that IEP goals are not only met but exceeded through education, I'm sorry, through educated and vigilant care and instruction. School secretaries are often the unsung heroes who serve as the first line of communication of safety in every school community. They are the first people that I contact when I need support. Whether it's regarding uh sports schedules, medication updates, or an update during high stress situations like when there's a school lockdown and there's people with um there are armed individuals in the neighborhood. In these moments, secretaries remain calm. They follow strict safety protocols and juggle multiple responsibilities simultaneously. also by providing information, supporting their staff
005at the school, and reassuring families. As the gatekeepers of the school building, they use their sound judgment to determine who is safe to enter these buildings, playing a crucial role in maintaining the security of the students and the staff. Their role is the central hub of the school and it requires unwavering focus as well as emotional resilience throughout the day. And when secretaries are managing second jobs or working through sickness because they cannot afford health care, they cannot afford uh because they can't afford healthcare. Uh the risk of being overburdened increases which can compromise their ability to respond effectively day in and day out and in emergencies. Supporting and recognizing the vital role that secretaries play is essential to ensuring a safe environment for everybody. Investing in these roles is not just a matter of
006staffing. It's a matter of equity, integrity, and long-term educational success. I urge you to continue to prioritize and protect these positions, and to advocate for wages that truly support the well-being and dignity of those who serve our students and our schools faithfully. Thank you very much. [Applause] Hi everyone. Haven't seen you in a while. I'm Sarah Perkins. I'm a teacher in the district. Um, I wanted to come here tonight because I know that this is broadcast all through SACO. And I think that the people in SACO um, should know that their edte and secretaries do have a right to a living wage and are super valued in our schools. I think that they are the backbone of our schools. They help us in so many ways. If you have a student that has access to
007an IEP and is supported by an edtech, you know that this is really crucial for them to get um a person that's qualified, a person that wants to be there, that's happy at work. And I just wanted to remind the committee about that. The secretaries um like Amarie said, are first the first people you see. whenever something's going wrong, you call a secretary because they know what's happening. Um, I think that these people just deserve to be recognized and should not have the strife of finding those second jobs and not being able to live in the community that they work in because they're priced out. I think that that's something we just want to keep in mind. Access to healthcare um is just something that everyone should have. So, thanks [Applause] Hey everybody, my name
008is Nick Fuller. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Burn School. Thanks for the chance to me share a few words with you. Um, I guess I want to I want to try to like imagine a day in my classroom um to to try to to try to point out like how I can't imagine my my my job and my students well-being without edex. My students come in at 8:45. They start to get breakfast and they run through our morning meeting. Then we have morning announcements at about 7:58 7:59. By 8:00 we start our morning meeting. Uh if I don't have an edtech, uh at this point my day grinds to a complete halt because of behavioral issues among some of my students. Um, I can't I can't teach my class. Um, I have to call
009the administration usually. Um, when there's a staffing issue and there's not enough edte, my students who need me, I can't be there for them. So, the edte aren't just so important for our highest need students with IEPs, as we shared. Um, these students that I have some in my classroom, um, cannot get through the day without a qualified edtech. support them. Um when when the staffing isn't there, um they have a really tough day. Um learning is very difficult, behavior is very difficult. But also, I have 21 kids in my class. For the other kids, they need the edtech, too. Because when the edte aren't in my classroom, pulls me away from them. My students need me to be present as their teacher. And if I have really high academic or behavioral needs, there's legally
010supposed to be covered by an IEP and a trained edtech professional and I can't I I I I can't do it all. I don't wish I could. And uh what I see is sometimes we might have to evacuate the classroom, which means remove all the children out in the middle of a lesson. Um the interruptions are enormous. So, just wanted to share that with you to show just how night and day it is when we have qualified edex and when we don't. And I think we've heard at Burns and other schools in the district um we're having a lot of staffing issues and I don't think it's a secret um that it's because of the wages. So, I'm just speaking here for my students that we really need we really need more ed techs and
011we need qualified edte uh who can work and earn a living wage and I think our students also need ed techs who can be really present. The number of offhand kind of comments I've heard about edteex talking about how they're struggling um financially um and the health with their health care and the stress that we all know that that brings our families. so hard to be present in our jobs. And so I think our students need our edte to be paid well for that reason. Thanks a lot. And I hope as we move forward negotiations, we can really really keep that in mind how how how much our students really need these people to be there for them. Thank you. [Applause] Anyone else wishing to speak before the board? All right, we shall move on
012to item seven, superintendent report. Superintendent Ray. All right, good evening everybody. Couple of things uh to announce uh or to highlight is that we have um incoming parents night for kindergarten students. Uh, a parent information night will be on May 29th at 5:30 p.m. and step up day on the 30th at 9:30 a.m. at Fairfield and Young School. This is a great opportunity to learn more um and how you can support your students. Just let the people walk out before I continue. Want to thank everybody who came to the community forum last night um that joined us to talk about bullying, behavior, and belonging. We had a good turnout and meaningful conversation around student behavior, social development, and ways we can work together. Uh I want to extend my appreciation to parents who shared insights
013and experiences. Um and I think that community and uh parent voice, whether that's prek through 8 or for our whole community is important in this uh prek through 12 um because at many different levels there are different issues um and schools are a partner in this probably not just the solution uh and so it's important that we continue to work together and uh principles uh assistant superintendent park and I have already started to have some dialogue about what a greater convers conversation about um bullying and treatment of others and responsibility and technology and how we can have a wider uh community conversation uh prek through 12 on that. Um Bitford and Sako Rising event this past Monday was another success bringing together families uh for an evening focus on connection, culture, and community. The event
014aimed to strengthen schooltoome communication, build trust with the new mayors, provide community resources, uh, and I'm really proud of the work that, uh, our team did, uh, put in. And then finally, last week was staff appreciation week. Uh, and we were proud to honor the incredible educators and support staff who make our schools uh, work and, uh, kind of move forward uh, and become very special places so students can grow. We had the opportunity to provide lunch and flowers as a small token of our appreciation uh for the work that they uh do each day. I also want to thank um our PTO's and the many parents who took time to uh show their gratitude to staff uh is really meaningful and it goes a long way for everybody. So, thank you very much. All
015right, any questions for Superintendent Ray regarding the superintendent All right. All right. Crowd tonight. Moving on to item eight, chair's report. I don't have anything new to report this evening. So, moving on to item nine, staff reports. I do not have any updates there. Um, so moving on to item 10, board subcommittee meeting minutes. Item A, policy and personnel committee meeting. Their next meeting is May 19th at 5:30 p.m. Item B, Finance and Infrastructure Committee. Our next meeting is May 28th at 4:30. Curriculum Committee, item C, our next meeting will be 519 at 4:30 p.m. Any questions on the board subcommittee meeting minutes or dates or times? All right, moving on to item 11, old business. There is None this evening. And moving on to item 12, new business. Item A, there should be a
016memo in your packet for new hires. Um, there is one second loves me. Okay. Um, moving on to item A. Do I have a motion for new hires? Chair Prebble. Uh, school board member Truman. I move we approve the nomination of Shanny Plant, young school teacher. Allison Cox, young school teacher. Ann Marie Han, math coach at CK Burns. Rebecca Clark, special education teacher at CK Burns. Christine Ferington, coding teacher at Sako Middle School. Jennifer Marines, special education teacher at Young School, and issue a contract for the 2025 school year, 2025 2026 school year. I have a motion by school board member Truman. Second with a second by school board member Waro. Any questions on the memo for um first motion. All right. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Richards. Yes.
017I vote yes. School board member Truman. Yes. Motion passes 40. All right. Do I have a second motion by chance? Chair Pel board member Truman. I move we approve the nomination of Shaun Fitz Simmons, special education teacher at CK Burns and issue a one-year contract for the 2526 school year. I have a motion by school board member Truman. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second by school board member Waroff. Any discussion on the second motion on the table? All right. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. I vote yes. School board member Truman. Yes. Motion passes 4 Z. Okay. Moving on to item B, probationary teachers. There is a memo in your packet reflecting that if I've read accordingly. Do I have a motion? Chair Prebble.
018School board member Truman. I move we approve the nominations of the first year teachers as listed in the memo and issue a two-year probationary contract for the 202526 school year. Second. Okay. I have a motion by school board member Truman with a second by school board member Waro. Any discussion on the motion? All right. Roll call vote. School board member Waro? Yes. School board member Richard? Yes. I vote yes. School board member Truman? Yes. Motion passes. Moving right along. Is there a second motion on the table by Chief Chair Prebble? School board member Truman. I move we approve the nominations of the secondyear teachers as listed on the memo and issue a continuing teacher contracts for the 2526 school year. Second. I've got a motion by school board member Truman with a second by school
019board member Waroff. Any discussion on the motion? All right. School board member Warnoff. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. I vote yes. School board member John Truman. Say Beth is not here. Me, myself, and I down here on this end. Yes. Truman. That was a yes. Motion passes. Okay. Moving on to item C, resignations. I did not see anything under resation. Right into item D, building update. Superintendent Ray. Right. Just a couple of things um on the building project update. Uh we'll be talking about signage this week. We've been spending a lot of time uh talking about walkways, pathways, uh the intersection. Uh Megan and I have had a couple of uh meetings regarding the geothermal and the tax credit piece of entering in and trying to move that process along. At least the first
020uh bill that came out of uh Ways and Means Committee uh is going to leave those tax credits in place until 29, which we would finish in 28, which would be very helpful for us um to get those to get that money back. Um, and then if we can stop having rain every single day for a few weeks, uh, we're hoping to look at sometime that last week in May, first week in June to be able to open up the property in an afternoon for staff and others to get out. Uh, all of the trees have been removed. Uh and now they're just uh there's there's some logs piled up, but we're really hopeful that we're going to get everybody an opportunity to get out there this spring and just kind of see what it
021all looks like now that it's opened up. Great. Any questions for Superintendent Ray on the building? As of right now, uh the weather does not look promising next week. So, just a quick question. Is that is that open to the public? We're hopeful that it will be. Any other questions for moving on to item E for legislative update? Superintendent Ray. Yeah. Uh on Friday, many of the bills on school funding will be in work session. I'll be there um advocating for 501 and 193. Uh, but there's a lot of discussion about the future of EPS and where it will go and a lot of that will play out on Friday. Any questions for Superintendent Ray on the legislative? Okay, moving on to item F and that is budget information item A which is student enrollment
022projections and registration. Yes. So, always this time of year, we want to remind uh families that may have a prek or kindergarten student um to please reach out to the school department uh to register your child. Uh based off the last information, I'm going to look over at Wendy and Jeff. It seems like our kindergarten is still a little bit low um based off prior years. Um and so just wanting to um get that out there that if you have information and you haven't done that yet, please do so. Um the other piece that goes kind of handinhand with this same conversation is the memo that is followed directly after this that um Megan and I uh and Chris met with Catholic Charities uh and some housing navigators and as we talked about last meeting
023um the hotel will be closing and that theoretically there will be um no remaining students in the hotel on September 1. and they're obviously struggling to find housing in SACO. Um and so as we look at where we'll be um next year, I'm kind of projecting that we're going to have less students um than we currently do uh preK through um and maybe as many as a decrease of 179 students. um districtwide in this piece based off um a low number of kindergarten students and the loss of you know over the year of 100 plus ML students um that will change things for us significantly. So, we just need to be thinking about that piece. That will obviously impact um our subsidy uh in the future with less students and less uh e students. Um
024and so just need to be prepared for what's uh what could be happening in the fall. All right. Any questions for Superintendent Ray? Last call for questions. All right, moving on to I'm assuming that covered item B. So, we can move right on to item G, which is a reading of second policies. Okay, so item G, reading of second policies. Item A, AC, non-discrimination, equal opportunity and affirmative action. Item B, ACA, harassment and sexual harassment of students. Item C, ACA-R, student discrimination harassment and title for sexual harassment complaint procedures. Title D, ACAB, harassment and sexual harassment of student employees. Title E, ACAB-R, employee discrimination harassment in title um nine, sorry, sexual harassment complaint procedures. Title FBH advertising in schools. Item GKI visitors to the schools. Item HI-R administrative procedures for visitors to the school. Item
025I IKE promotion retention and acceleration of students. Item J, ILA, student assessment and local assessment system. Do I have a motion? Chair Prebble. School board member Truman. Feels weird doing this since Beth does it all the time. Uh, I move we approve the second reading of policies AC aca- R ac and I L A. I have a motion by school board member Truman. Do I have a second? Second. Second by school board member Waroff. Any discussion on the policy or questions? All right, seeing that there's no discussion, school board member, roll call vote. School board member Waroff, yes. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Truman, yes. Motion passes 40. Item 13, moving right on into that other information. There is that I'm aware of unless there's anything then that needs
026to be brought to light. Okay, moving right on into item 14, executive session. Chair Prebble, school board member Truman, I move we enter into executive session for labor contract negotiations for administrative non-UN contracts pursuant to 1 MRSA subsection 4056D. Second. Okay, I have a motion by school board member Truman with a second by school board member Hornoff. Any discussion on executive session? Okay, moving right into roll call vote. School board member Waro, yes. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Truman, yes. All right, motion passes 40 to transition into executive session at 7:27. Thank you Truman. Let us all get. Okay, we are back. Do I have a motion to come out of executive session? I move we exit executive session. Second. All right. I have a motion by school board
027member Truman with a second by school board member Waroff to exit executive session. Any discussion? Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Richards. Yes. I vote yes. School board member Trouin. Yes. Motion passes 40 to exit executive session at 7:55 p.m. If I did that right. Yahoo. All right. I have a motion as a result from executive session. Chair Prebble, school board member Truman. I move that we approve the non-UN employees wages. I have a motion by school board member Truman. Do I have a second? Second. Second by school board member Waroff. Any discussion on the motion on the table? Seeing no discussion. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Richards. Yes. School board me Oh, excuse me. I vote yes. School board member Truman. Yes. Motion
028passes 40. All right. That leaves us to item 15, adjournment. Do I have a motion? So moved. I have a motion by school board member. Second. Second by school board member Waroff. I'm going to skip discussion and move right on to roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Richards. Yes. I vote yes. School board member Truman. Yes. All right. at 7:56 p.m. and it was a 40 call. Thank you so much and have a great evening. Take care.