001All right, everybody ready to roll? You all organized now? Is good. All right, Jay, are you ready? All right, let's get the rocking and the rolling. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Prebble and I'm on the School Board Chair. I'm calling the meeting to order at 700 p.m. this Wednesday, April 9th, 2025. 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 standy. Um I would just like to please note that we have all school board members in attendance except for school board member Waroff who has been excused this morning. Evening that kind of day. All right. On to item three, approval of school board meeting minutes dated March 26, 2025. Um, do I have a motion? Chair Prebble. I
002heard school board member Truman. I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated March 26, 25. Do I have a second? School board member Johnson, I see your hand. Second. All right. Any discussion on the minutes? All right. See that there's nobody seeking recognition? Roll call vote. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Roach, yes. School board member KD, yes. School board member Truman, yes. School board member Johnston, yes. Okay. And motion passes 6. All right, moving on to item agenda four, adjustments to the agenda. I did not see any adjustments to the agenda this evening. Um, moving on to item five, correspondence. I also did not see any correspondence unless there's any board members seeking recognition for that. Moving on to item six, public session. Please feel free to
003come before the school board and state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to speak and we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. All right. Seeing um no one from the public is seeking recognition, we can move on to item seven, the superintendent's report. Superintendent Ray. All right. Good evening everyone. Um just a couple of items tonight. Um we're excited in the school department to partner with uh Penel printing for Special Olympic merchandise fundraiser uh with all proceeds directly benefiting our students and supporting the unified Special Olympic Games uh each year. This is a great way to encourage team spirit leading up to the York County Special Olympics on May 9th at uh Noble High School. I want to uh give a thank you to the Bifford SACO uh
004dental for visiting Fairfield School and teaching our students about proper tooth care, making healthy food choices for strong teeth and what to expect during dental uh visits. So that was kind of cool. Uh I want to thank Merryill Auditorium for hosting Fairfield and Young School students uh to see a year with Frog and Toad, a story uh they read in class. Uh so that was a good event uh for those. Uh this summer um with the closing of JFK, we'll be moving the welcome center uh to a satellite location u at Young School and so they'll be open after July 7th hopefully every single day. U but we're still working on that because as you know federal funding can change from day to day. Um, I want to remind everyone that uh, Beetlejuice Jr. will
005be performed by our SMS Bobcat players uh, Friday the 11th at 7, Saturday the 12th at 2 uh, in the Thornton Academy Garland Auditorium. And then um, other than that, we have been pretty busy busy on budget stuff and we'll get to that uh, in a few. All right. Any discussion or questions for Superintendent Ray? All right. Moving on to item eight, chair's report. I just wanted to um bring up an email that the board received from SMMA, sorry, S MSBA um that we are having a potential um gathering that we all schoolboard members across the state of Maine are encouraged to come up to the state house on Tuesday, April 22nd um to be meeting with legislators, visiting the house and senate and urging support for our public schools and students. So, I just
006wanted to bring that to the board's attention. Um, the board members will meet at the cross building at 8:45 a.m. that day and then head over to the state house from there to meet with the House Speaker Ryan Beeto. Um, and then from there visiting um the Senate and the House and be recognized there. And in the afternoon, they'll meet with Senate President Maddie Dohy Dory. Um, so if we wanted to just connect and see if there was any of our board members that might want to head up there, that would be wonderful to kind of consider if that's something we wanted to do. Um, and there is an RSVP that we could um do if we chose to do so. So, I just wanted to bring that to your attention in your email board
007members that we could kind of take a look and see if we wanted to do that. Any discussion or questions? Okay. So, just check that out and let me know or let Jeremy know and we can um connect on that. All right, perfect. Seeing there's no questions from other board members, moving on to item nine, staff reports. I didn't see anything specific listed. Um so, we can move on to item nine, which is board subcommittee meeting minutes. policy and personnel um met this past evening and um policy the next policy and personnel meeting will be May 14th at 5:30. The next finance and infrastructure committee meeting will be held on April 30th at 4:30 p.m. Um, and the curriculum committee, our next meeting will be April 28th at 4:30 p.m. Any questions from the board
008regarding the upcoming committee meeting or any of them? All right, moving on to item 11, old business. There is none listed. So, we can move right into item 12, new business, item A, new hires. There is a memo in your packet. Do I have a motion? Chair Prebble, school board member Truman. I move we approve the nomination of Sarah Rice, K2 school psychologist, and issue a contract for the 2526 school year. I have a first by school board member Truman for a motion. Is there a second? Second by school board member Johnston. Any discussion on the motion. Seeing no. Oh, school board member Truman. I was just going to say I'm glad we found a school psychologist. Absolutely. All right. See nobody else seeking recognition. Roll call vote. School board member Richards. Yes. I vote
009yes. School board member Roach. Yes. School board member KD. Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. School board member Johnston? Yes. Motion passes 6. All right. Um, do I have a second motion by chance? School board member Truman? I move we approve the siphon nomination of Mary Brown, SMS outdoor track, and Matt Labarge, summer school coordinator, and issue a stipen contract for the 2425 school year. I have a motion by school board member Truman on the table. Do I have a second? Second. Second by school board member Richards. Any discussion on the motion? All righty. Roll call vote. School board member Richards. Yes. I vote yes. School board member Roach? Yes. School board member KD? Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. School board member Johnston? Yes. All right, motion passes 6. Moving on to item B,
010that is resignations. There is a memo in your packet. And do I have a motion? Chair Pel, school board member Truman. I move we accept the resignation of Elizabeth Mitchell, Fairfield, second grade teacher, and Jocelyn Bowden, young school special education teacher, effective at the end of the 2425 school year. I have a motion by school board member Truman. Is there a second? Second by school board member Johnston. Any discussion on the motion? All right. Roll call vote. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Roach, yes. School board member KD, yes. All right. School board member Truman, yes. School board member Johnston, yes. Motion passes 6. Okay, if I am correct, we are up to item C, which is a building update. Superintendent Ray, gonna ask Meg to come up um because
011really this kind of part of the process has been more about interior design the last couple of weeks. Uh so I'll have Meg give you a little bit of update on that piece. Yeah, we've had an opportunity to look at specific flooring samples above the size that's about two inches by one inch and actually start to visualize what those samples that we selected off of huge boards look like in the bigger actual tile size and then what patterns we might like to explore. Additionally, we've looked at lockers and spent a lot of time talking about um snow boots in or outside of lockers for our elementary school students. And um though some discussions and items similar to the kitchen have taken longer than we might have expected those conversations to be, I'm really confident that
012we've had a good number of stakeholders in those conversations to really be thinking about what kids are doing in the school and how kids are using the school and combining that with how we take care of the space in the long run so that we're not creating solutions that leave us trying to have custodians wipe ing out the bottom of every single locker in the winter or else have it be a mess. So, we've come up with some boot solutions and other things that we think will both work for students and teachers but also create maintenance plans that will leave our buildings looking really nice for an extended long haul and not just right when they open. Um, we were had an opportunity to meet with our PE teachers today and look at the three
013different gym spaces. The multi-purpose room in the primary school, the multi-purpose gym adjacent room or second gym in the elementary school, and then the main gym. Um, going all the way down to where those padded walls need to be to keep kids safe. and also talking about which lines would take priority and how basketball hoops would be raised and lowered etc. So had an opportunity to kind of have our architects in the same room as those practitioners that are working with students so that as we look to those details of design. We're not necessarily finalized with all of those yet but we know what the different considerations are that we'll need to design around. And then in conjunction to that, we've had some other planning meetings both around intersection design as well as site work
014and submitting different aspects of that with the different organizations involved, Department of Environmental Protection, wastewater treatment, working closely with Don Roth to help make sure that we're dotting all those eyes and crossing all those tees with respect to different permits that we'll be continuing to submit. Okay. All right. Are there any questions for assistant superintendent to around building updates? School board member Roach. Um not necessarily what you were just talking about, but um you mentioned the D. So there's public meeting tomorrow. Yep. Public meeting tomorrow night at 6 PM at Sako Middle School. But that's that's per D rules. Is that right? Correct. It's a pre-lica a required pre-application meeting mostly around site setup. Is it directed to not necessarily like it's direct to the public? Anyone wants to go, but it's directed for the
015neighbors. Is it or Yep. Yeah. It's around the I think 342 draft application to the state around environmental wastewater all with respect to the overall site work that needs to happen as a first stage. So not but some of it is also post construction related to like waste disposal and sewer and that sort of thing. And how does um anything any update with the Army Corps and the Milbrook Road entrance? I think we're going to be okay on that one. We've been communicating with the Army Corps and it's hard because certainly when they say something to us, the technical information, Meg and I glaze over a little bit and then we call Jonah and those pieces, but had a good conversation with uh their lead the other day and uh it seemed positive. Uh, full
016disclosure for the public, I I am an abutter, a business a butter. So, um, you know, I want to make sure, you know, I'm good, you know, for we have we have a storm water runoff issues over at that complex. I'm I'm just one of the owners there, not the whole complex, but I want to make sure that's cool with my city, everything. So, but yeah, full full disclosure. Make sure that's cool. I do know that a lot of what needs to be considered is not just the impacts that are occurring at that site, but also properties within a much larger catchment area, including like square feet of different wetlands that have been mitigated over time, etc., etc. So, all of that is taken into account through that application process. Any other questions? Okay, moving
017on to the next item. Item D, budget information. Superintendent Ray. All right, so um going to skip around a little bit uh within this category because health insurance information uh is updated since uh I put the agenda together. Um and we're going to talk about the impacts of that. So during the month of March, I feel like uh my life is nothing more than money, money and budgets uh all the time. And so the first piece is that when we when we look at the combined financials that we have uh at our current state, we're at like a 1.1% increase uh city and school. Uh which I think we we joked about last time. It's like that's really good news. Let's hope that we can stay in that realm. But we know that we were
018anticipating uh our health insurance coming in. And so our health insurance increase uh came in at 13 and a half%. Which is 3 and a.5% higher than what we had budgeted at 10%. which gives us um that we need to come up with an additional $260,000 um in the budget. That's an ad. Now, at this point in time, I think where things have uh gone very well, and again, this, you know, we've had this information for a day or so. wanted to try to figure out a way of how do we do this without you know impacting current staff changing uh the tax expectations u and then also accomplishing some other goals based off meetings I've had with uh Mike Gerity in conversations with Meg um so when you start out at that piece trying
019to think about what could be some options to bridge the gap of $260,000 uh in the First piece is is that we were meeting with main housing um and we continue to see that many of the families uh from the hotel are moving um and they've uh kind of said to us there's not going to be a start of the hotel will probably not be in existence uh for that service at the start of the school year. and we've kind of talked to them about all the challenges it brings that if it's uh housing for families and that's done in August or September that really puts kids and families in tough places of choosing. Uh so we have another meeting with main housing. Uh Chris is meeting with them over vacation and then we're meeting
020with them when we come back from vacation. Um and one of my first uh you know possible recommendations would be in the budget we have 1 five teachers and three ELLL edte as new positions. Um, and one option that we would have would be reducing the half-time ELELLL teacher. Uh, this unfilled, it's not these are new unfilled positions and two of the edte leaving an addition of one teacher and one edtech in our budget. That's 53 and $89,000 combined. So, if we did that, um, then I would turn our attention to looking at the fund balance that we have. And currently today, uh, we sit on $2.7 million worth of fund balance that we've over the last three years um, put into our reserve accounts. And we plan to allocate $450,000. Uh I I typed
02128 and that should be 26. Typo on that budget. Um and then I was in discussions with Don Roth this week. Um and just looking at the doors at the middle schools and other pieces. We were looking about is there a way to increase our capital budget uh without passing things on because we're making so many gains at Sako Middle School and timing and you know one project dovetales to another project and he understands the goal of um trying to make sure that before we get into the new elementary schools that we replace the last portable that portable that's at Sako Middle School and trying to put a game plan together. He also was is you know slightly concerned um about a couple of issues uh burns with the heating systems and you know we
022do have to keep that going for the next couple of several years and he felt like if there was a way that we could put a little bit more capital money out of our reserve account into the budget um now that he's really starting to understand the school department uh and things are going really well. that was something that he uh asked me to consider consider. And then additionally, uh you've heard us talk about the audio enhancement system that we would be putting in the elementary schools with the speakers in the classroom. Um and the benefits that that could uh we started some trial classrooms at our middle school and the benefits it would have for our students around translation safety um and some of those pieces that Meg could speak more of and how
023we could do certain things. Um, so I started looking a little bit at our fund balance. Um, knowing that in our current revenue system, we have $450,000 from our current $2.7 million um, available for us. And then we look at additional fund balance based on insurance increases that I would recommend taking another $17,000. you know, nothing too scary at this point. Don't love using fund balance for recurring expenses, but in this situation, I don't think $100,000 is going to hurt us. And then looking at Don's capital improvement requests and then half of the audio enhancement improvements and some cabling work, we could still be in a position that not even counting what we end the year with this year. If we increased those revenues in um we still would have $1.8 million left. Um what
024I would like to say on on that piece is that um you know we feel pretty decent about still having 1.8 million. Now on the positive side, if you go back to this current year's budget, we know that we budgeted for $400,000 uh in main care revenue. Abby and I have been texting uh this evening and a week or so ago I'd said we were over uh 750,000 and now we have built over 800,000 this year. Um and you know I sent her the you know little emoji of Dr. Evil and the $1 million and I said is that even possible? And she's like yeah we're kind of on pace to get there you know if things go well. So not promise anything but we are definitely going to be revenue high in that line.
025Um which will increase our carryover again. Um and so you know kind of looking at the things that we have on the table. Um, I spoke with John today, uh, at city manager and said my goal was to present something to the school committee tonight that didn't change the calculations that they've done, uh, but to operate within our revenue and any reductions that we needed um, and go from that situation. So, I've outlined that in the memo. Apologize that, you know, it was late, but we were still crunching numbers right up until the end. Um, and so I think we would like to open it up for discussion so that when we come back on the 30th, I can have a correct revenue sheet for you guys and a cover sheet to vote on uh,
026and accept that budget because overall it's still in very good shape and should be able to move this forward. And I don't feel like there's too many risks uh, in using some of those carryover funds, especially for one-time costs. Any questions for Superintendent Ray? School board member KDR. Um about the positions that you recommend um eliminating. I understand they're not filled right now, but even without the hotel students, is there a need for those to be filled next year? Well, I think that's the hard part. I think that's one one full-time teacher and one edtech would definitely help our situation. Trying to predict where we're going to be in the fall is a bit challenging right now. Um certainly housing availability is one of the pieces. I know that several of the families that uh
027are moving have been moving out of town. Uh but right now because of the homeless situation, they're still in Saco. Old Orchard's picking up some. It's definitely picking up a few of the families uh in Bford. Um but it's housing availability is the the single most driving factor on this and um I don't believe there's a lot of apartments coming on right now. Um that I can see in from a construction side of things. Um, boy, it'd be nice to be able to tuck them away a little bit differently uh and maybe not hire those, but trying to stay within those pieces and that seemed like the best approach right now. Sorry, I may have worded my question really, but I meant like even if the all of I think how many students is it?
028Did you say 40 or is it more? Well, the I sorry, can you speak in them? I just Sorry. Well, even without the hotel, like say all of them do move. Is there still a need in the schools regardless? There's definitely a need for another one and one, but that would be sufficient. I think that we could make do with that. But I think our ratios are a little higher than they should be right now. But it's been so it was like like with this year it was so difficult because we had so much after October one that students that moved in that I mean you went uh April went in a couple of weeks where it just like ballooned. Um so I do think that that would that would help us but it's so
029unpredictable about what that number would be. The other piece is that we got some information about just the number of asyl see seekers coming into the state of Maine and like at this point a year, Meg, remember it was like something like 12 was the number versus last year at this time it was like 400 uh families and so that's a big change as well. Thank you. Any other questions for Superintendent Ray, school board member Roach? I assumed with the mic turning on. Okay. Um uh to follow up April's point there, um so I I would default to maximizing, you know, personnel in that area uh to keep regardless of the the hotel situation. Um, I know this is all fresh, so I'm not saying any any decision now, but um, yeah, if we could
030offset as much as we can with an increase to the main care revenue. Um, Kevin of seven years ago is whacking me in the back of the head right now, but but, um, because we did budget way back when a million dollars in revenue. So, but if you're coming in at 800 and we're only I know the state government situation federal to you know that's a wild card but I I think we can if we budget the revenue higher while budgeting for those positions. We don't have to hire those positions if we don't if it really comes down to we don't need them. But I just would heir on the side of caution to have as many um personnel in front of the kids as we can. So I think essentially Kevin, what we could
031do in that scenario is you could take $140,000 which is those two positions. You could run that through carryover. we could put that into a contingency line so that it wasn't touched without board approval based off the numbers in the fall and then if you don't use the money that means the revenue just would be carry over again and that may be one simple solution. Um, and I think that way it also gives like the member of the public's like saying, well, okay, they're not just going to spend it to spend it. They've got it in a place where it controlled and we've got to come back and ask for permission to hire those positions. Um my only other question with the health insurance um is you know kind kind of like an understandable breakout
032for the board of um you know if if 3.5% increase extra cost us 240 I'd like to see some backup of you know what our our single employee rate is the mix the the family rate. It's like 10 grand for a single and 30 grand for family. So, it's I was working on that with uh I'm just going to go to my cell phone because I was uh Eileen King at superintendent association was texting me today while they were in Yeah, I I totally understand. We can wait for the April 30th. I just But it's but it's I have the information uh because I actually texted it to her that when you look at a health insurance cost and again talking full cost not a share of employee in school a family plan on choice
033plus next year is 37 uh $435 and then when you go to a single plan at choice plus you're 13646 six. So the challenging part about like you think about that that family plan and you take another 10% next year. You are now into the four. We're we're getting to a point where it's not too many uh cycles away of 10% increases where we know the minimum state salary for a new teacher even though that's not here in SACO because we haven't negotiated up but the minimum state salary for a teacher is still going to be set at $40,000 and a full family health insurance is going to eclipse that. I mean, that's just it's crazy. Um, and they did add some different plans again, but I have in a chart somewhere um that I
034was looking at like 14 years ago, 13 years ago when I became superintendent and that family plan at that time was about $19,000 full cost. And so you've essentially doubled on that. The other piece that makes it um challenging is that with this increase, what's difficult for me is that I sit there and I and I think of a price and I spent send out $37,000 to you guys on a family plan. Right? This is the first year where SACO's insurance will actually cost me more than what Bford insurance is because their three and a half% increase this year. And looking at the plan, they're at like 34,000. And so you have that change between communities side by side and boy that's wor it's worrisome to think about what that cost is long term because
035in another five years and another $15,000 now you're at $50,000 it's unsustainable. So I think you know one of the pieces that's important um for us to you know the work that we've got to do over the next few days uh next week to try to get that agenda somewhat done before vacation starts and even though we're after that week um just getting a little bit of direction of I kind of look around and see people saying okay my if I was reading the room it would mess with the the add some revenue and put some things in contingency. Is that where we are? I I just want to be able to come back on the 30th with something that uh is going to be what you guys want to see. So any other discussions
036for superintendent around budget thoughts around what he's proposing chair school board member Truman I like the idea of putting that particular position in contingency so that it's there if for some reason the unexpected happens and we 40 new families that move in and we need that, then we have it at our but we don't have to use it if we don't need to. But I think you're up against the giant hill or mountain or whatever you want to call the health insurance industry that's just raking everybody over the coals um in their cost increases. Um so I commend you for playing this game and updating us all the time on what you think it's going to be and what they're you know they're saying anywhere like the that was the biggest gap I think we've
037seen and then for it to go up 17 almost 18% this year and we came out relatively okay and 13 and a half and not 18% because I was dreading you messaging us to say guess what we hit the jackpot it's 8% more we have to find I was going to not be very so I think I think what you've done here is great. I know it's not the same story across the river. Um and there's only so much I mean you're working with what you've got and um playing with numbers that are anybody's guess every single year and trying to budget with that is insane in my opinion. And I'd say just as as we also talk about expenditure and and monies and things coming in, um I didn't get an opportunity to talk
038to Chris today. Um but I'm going to ask him tomorrow. um the same direction that I had asked technology director in Bford this afternoon is that I want to be able to line up any of our planned purchases for next year on technology equipment because as I look at the tariff situation and seeing that that's 20% more there would be a reason why we as a board would vote and possibly bring that to the city council. to spend. Let's say you're making a $400,000 purchase. Okay. Well, if you add 20% on top of that and you're looking at that being 480, there may be some s maybe that's a good reason to say, "Hey, let's go to a city council meeting and ask that we order this stuff now that we were going to be
039ordering in on July 1 and avoid tariffs." I mean, that's real money. All right. Any other questions for Superintendent Ray? Jeff, we don't get to see a lot of like sort of uh teacher facing stuff. So, I'm sure we uh participate in in wellness programs and so forth to help kind of buy down our our health insurance costs as much as possible. But just curious. So, they have those wellness programs through um the main benefit the trust. It's changed. the app's changed a couple of times in the last couple of years. Um I think the the question is and I know that uh Mr. M Curry uh in Bifford really was kind of poking at us that like when I sent out that email to you guys that explained the increases and they talked about
040$28 million used of like refund to buy down the rate and his conversation is like so they were sitting on $28 million of taxpayer money that they were draw interest on versus you know like taxing the entire state because of their rates. I don't think the programs are strong enough. Uh, and I think they're challenging for districts to manage through because, you know, you're coming up with a lot of the benefits. I know that there are some through the app that people have to join and be part of. Um, I actually felt like the changing of the app every year or a different program was kind of the biggest deterrent because you were kind of getting used to something and using it. had it hooked to your phone, your watch, and then now it's something
041new. Not enough of it. Jeff, just curious if uh from like a human resources standpoint, if we were kind of blast that stuff out at a particular time, if we can, I don't know, make a goal to do what we can. Anyways, yeah, we we can definitely think about that piece and do a little bit more from our office. All right, any other questions? All right. Um, any other items under item D, Superintendent Ray, that we wanted to review? That pretty much covers all of that stuff because a lot of it was just information and then I will come back with a memo and a revenue sheet to match that um kind of exactly to the penny of where we're going to be and what we're going to do. based off um what I believe
042I'm understanding tonight. All right, moving back to or moving on to item I believe if I'm correct E which is social studies curriculum recommendation superintendent Ray or super assistant superintendent Parkhurst. Hi. So, I have a memo attached here that just highlights some information that we've gone over in a little bit more detail at the curriculum committee level in the last several years. And I'll just try to walk you through that before identifying where we are at this point in time. In the 22 23 school year, we started our initial discussions with the 68 social studies team and looked at the new standards that had been released in 2020 and ensured that we had those kind of split up between grade levels when they released those standards for 68. They're not delineated towards each grade. So
043the teachers need to ensure that those are spaced out appropriately. In 23 24 last year we started talking about the potential of resource exploration. At this point in time there are various online resources that different teachers are pulling from and teacher created lesson plans that are certainly helpful in terms of creating autonomy for teachers and responding to student needs. that there was no consistent text that teachers or students were using absent a 2001 publication that was a social studies text that they would pull out from here to there which I think you can imagine has some different reflections on historical moments though the history may not have quote unquote changed the way that that history is discussed explored presented has certainly changed over time so at that point we felt like it was important for
044the team to understand what was in the landscape for print and digital resources. We spent time looking at demonstrations from vendors and publishers that provided those as well as an indepth review and evaluation by the full team. The priorities that we identified were having common resources to anchor curriculum planning but still having an alignment to the main social studies standards. There are some specialized coverage areas that are very hard if not impossible to find common purchased resources around. So those will remain kind of items main constitution wobbaki peoples those will remain kind of teacherdesigned units. This the team really wanted to make sure that there was a balance between print and digital resources recognizing that we're on onetoone devices, but that it is really important to have students engaging with one another and with a
045physical text, not just behind a screen all the time. And then also looking at a sustainable cost structure for year-over-year implementation. One of the resources that we've used in the past was News ELA or Newsella and their cost structure has changed so much year to year in terms of what the add-ons are or what you could change that it became hard to predict over time what those costs would be. So we started with a more in-depth exploration of six different resources. We used standardized criteria to look at those resources during a dedicated meeting over the summer. The top rated resource at that time was TCI history alive. The average rating was a 4.4 out of five for features of the program and then a 4.2 out of five for teacher usability. Some of the strengths
046were a very comprehensive if we wanted to use it like a new teacher coming in that didn't have a good grasp on pedigogy or scope and sequence could have the full resources right at their fingertips. But then it also has an ability to split out lessons andor print resources to just take the components that are needed. It integrates with Google Classroom which is a platform that our teachers are already using. There are differentiation options. Again, some of the components that we looked at did not have digital and print. Some are only offering digital at this point. So, that was a priority. And then there's also some engaging features, games, geography challenges, and more inquiry based projects that align with some of our projectbased teams. Some of the things that we still want to kind of
047keep an eye out or make sure that we're addressing when we put this resource into practice are screen time concerns and balancing that print and digital component. There are two text differentiation levels that are part of the resource inherently, but we will still want to be exploring other tools to explain or scaffold complex language for our students that may be well below that or ready for more complex text structures. And then lastly, that initial investment cost when you're talking about buying physical books is a challenge. The titles for grade level alignment that align best with that standards work that we did in splitting the standards from the main learning results are ancient world for our sixth grade class, our seventh grade looking at United States through industrialism and eighth grade looking at United States through
048modern times. I also want to acknowledge that for seventh and eighth grade, it's not just the US history component of it, but it does get into involvement in European wars and World War I and World War II, etc. So, it's not just focused on the United States, but it is using a lens of US involvement in in those time periods. The cost structures that we were able to look at kind of going from the lowest initial investment to the highest is a one-year agreement that would um give us teacher digital editions but no student digital editions and then 25 student sets per grade per classroom which equates to 75 per grade level with our three social studies teachers. So that initial agreement for one year would be 23,52175 and we would be looking at about
0498,000 a year to re-up the teacher licenses on an annual basis. When we look at a three-year agreement, it kind of makes sense through bundling if to it. You add those online licenses for all 600 students, and that brings the three-year agreement price up to just over 49,000, which then of course you you don't have a recurring cost in year two and year three. That's the full cost. And then a six-year agreement puts you at 60,700. And that's the same as the three-year agreement in terms of what you're getting. You're just committing for six years. We do have the funds in the FY25 budget and currently earmarked in the FY26 budget to be able to split that six-year agreement across FY25 and FY26. And the organization will do that for us as long as we
050split the resources between what we order prior to July 1 versus what we order after July 1. Um the curriculum committee after some discussion felt like the six-year agreement would be the best recommendation given that those funds are already in the 25 budget and currently allocated in the 26 budget and that that would allow us to kind of commit to see this through with our social studies department and also provide a predictable cost structure that would allow us to kind of know what we were committing to for at least six years. If there is a recommendation moving forward, we'll look to then finalize that purchase, schedule professional development for staff, including summer training and then online ongoing options throughout the course of the school year. We're also concurrently looking at fifth grade. We have two
051different pilots going for our fifth grade social studies teachers. one that is really solely geography and another one that's a little bit more inquiry based but includes some geography components. So, we're going to need to continue to coordinate what's being covered in fifth grade and how that dovetales with our middle school curriculum. And then we'll look to develop that implementation timeline as well as continue to ensure that we have those customized units for main specific content that is not covered as in depth in some of those kind of more universal resources. I'm happy to answer any specific questions. School board member Richards, a curriculum that's like this that's designed to be uh somewhat easier to implement. you had mentioned just a kind of a someone could come in that hadn't worked here before and kind
052of pick it up easy. Is there any savings that could be had from, you know, teaching people how to use it from a training standpoint with with curriculum like this or So, are you referring to savings by having teachers create their own resources versus a kind of plug an option that is plugandplay or are you referring to training over time for teachers to use this effectively? uh more like at ease of of training teachers, you know, what how to use it effectively. I was just curious. I didn't really, you know, I wouldn't say there's necessarily a cost savings over time, but I do think both through our instructional coaching model that we have that's like content agnostic at the middle school and through the initial picking out of the resource, you're trying to keep an
053eye on what the most, you know, balance the student experience with what the most teacher friendly experience and make sure that we're not losing either one of those in the resource that we select. And I do also just want to be clear that which is a philosophy I agree with. The middle school is not interested in kind of a it's it's day 27 and everybody's going to read the same script on day 27. that can be an option with a resource like that. But we still believe in hiring teachers that are highly qualified and highly skilled to make really strong decisions about the students in front of them and the resources that they have and marrying those two things to make that work. So we're not looking at this as an implementation expectation where we're
054expecting like fidelity to a program. It's going to be continued ongoing conversations about like this unit and these resources work really well. I'm adding this unit in here and pulling resources from New York Times, New York Post, this other main constitution website that the legislature puts forward. Right? So, we're still we're not just burying our heads in this and only using this. It's important that with their content knowledge, we honor that as well. Any other questions? School board member Roach. So, I looked this up um TC TCI and uh it's got a section called civics alive. So, this is not a indictment of SACO or Maine or whatever, but the civics's education in this country is brutal. All right. So agree to implement this. Um, I really stress that civics become a much bigger deal
055and and whether that's tested or or revisited like I would like if it's whatever grade it's fully introduced in middle school that um you know the high school Thornton um there's a loop back system on this particular because you know not to get on a soap box here but this country is an idiot. at crisis right now of how government actually works. And and I was called this weekend, not directly, but it was an online debate this weekend of like somehow we on the school board are the ruling class. I mean, it's ridiculous. It it's but it but this was someone who's a business owner that's was educated in the local school systems and wi with all this agreement too and not understanding how votes come to be for school budgets and city council and
056levels of government. uh not not just basic things of like understanding how many senators are per state, but but I just think in general, and not to pick on our own middle school or Thornton or whatever, but but you know, now I've been through the process and I I talked to graduates recent of of of our schools and it's just amazing how much they don't know. They just don't know. and and we just got to, you know, just like math and reading and writing, uh, civics needs to be a priority. So, I hope this curriculum, um, while not limiting teachers to what what they can do on a day-by-day basis, but still make sure that the students understand what what's what's in the curriculum and what what civics is all about here. Can I thank
057you real quick? I had the same question for Meg during uh, curriculum committee. Oh, okay. Um, and was discussed that it's more of a high school level. I believe that that was kind of what they were leaving it up to. And one of I will say one of the other benefits, as you said, there's like I I think there's six titles available that you can kind of pick and choose and we picked the three that we thought fit best. But one of the benefits of the teacher online access is that teachers can still access the resources for all six components. So the eighth grade was very torn between civics alive or United States through modern times and felt like okay well as long as we can use some of the online resources for civics alive
058and certainly we are not kind of done here we still have work to do in articulating that scope and sequence and sharing that with the curriculum committee. Sorry. No, that's kind of I just wanted to make sure that he knew that we had had this conversation about because I was like maybe civics should be like 101 for us. But um I also just wanted to say too that kind of along the same lines I out of all the ones that we had originally discussed um when you guys were first vetting all of these programs, this is the one that actually stuck in my mind um that I like the most and it was it seemed like the most user friendly and it looked appealing. Um, and we did all agree that the the six-year agreement
059be the way to go because it gets, you know, staff will invest in it if it's not just like a one-off and like, well, just check and see how it goes. They may not. And I also like that. I mean, I know that the middle school has incorporated a lot with Google Classroom. I do know that that I'm speaking from experience that there were some very um poor quality photo copies that came home occasionally and you're like I think this is Mesopotamia but I'm not sure. So um this is great to see that we'll have some new uh materials to use. Um no textbooks from 2001 referencing how the internet might become a very popular thing at some point. Um true story. Um, but yeah, I I do have the same I did have the
060same concerns, but it's nice to hear that the eighth graders, not the eighth graders per se, but the eighth grade team were interested in also uh stealing from the civics alive piece and incorporating that in their Yeah, you're also correct. We did coordinate and consult with TA and their social studies department and they have a scope and sequence change that they're phasing in that moves from having a US history course. I think it's like generally in 11th grade. Instead of having that 11th grade US history course, they're splitting it into two semesterl long courses. One that's focused on economics and personal finance and one that's focused on civics. So I do think that we're we are working to try to be in consultation and conjunction with how we want that to look on a bigger
061picture as best we can. No, I um for for that I just once you get to 11th grade though um you know people kids interests you know maybe tune out on that and some of this just got to be just embedded in earlier years. I mean, some of us grew up on uh this is before middle school years. We grew up on like Schoolhouse Rock, right? And you know, we got to know how a bill was made and mentioned conjunction there. I almost sang the song for you. Conjunction function. Yeah. So, but um but that it gets just ingrained and in today's society on the internet it's like you're finding your own interests versus watching like the same cartoons say in the on Saturday morning and and and and hearing the same stuff on say
062TV or or or learning things from the news or whatever. So, it's just puts more pressure on schools to just try to say well this this is how it is. There's no opinion here. this is how government's set up. This is how we elect. This is what's going on locally. And and u you know I'm not I'm not saying it is high school that it should it should be you know probably as as they enter into adulthood to to know these issues but um but by 11th grade it could be too late in terms of some basic background information. So, I was going to say as as a parent also trying to make those topics fun for your own kids is a very challenging uh endeavor. So, I don't think it matters what age they
063are. I think maybe the 11th grade I mean we can get in we can get into the weeds on this but I think by 11th grade just so you know you're going to be voting next year so maybe you want to pay attention. Um right. But at any rate, I think that this is going to be a great program and I think it's I'm really happy to see that there's some streamlining streamlining streamlining happening um over at the middle school as far as social studies goes and I'm excited to see how this how the rest of the staff like it once it's implemented. So, we're member Johnston. Thank you. I just wanted to say that um it this seemed to rise to the top for those who were doing the research and into what program
064we might be using and um it seems to be the most versatile have a lot of um a lot of qualities and attributes that maybe a lot of the other programs didn't. One of them, as Meg pointed out, is that there are different ways to access the information. It's not all in print. It's not all online. And I think that it it's a good basis for us to go forward. Um, so just based on what we in the committee, curriculum committee heard, it seems to be the best option for us now. And I think we felt that instead of going into it sort of part of the way, we thought it might make sense to commit to it for a certain length of time and sort of that hopefully everybody would try to really get
065invested in making it work for um for our students. Thank you. All right. Any other questions or comments? Uh, school board member Truman, just a quick comment on the geography piece over at the fifth grade. Someone I know is in that pilot and lives on the app to name all the countries and is currently in Africa and is quite proud of himself and only has one more section to go. So, um, I'm happy that they're learning about more about the geography piece uh at the fifth grade level more in the next in the coming years. I used to love looking at maps. It was my favorite. All right, any other questions or comments? Okay, thank you so much. Um, I am wondering if there is a motion. I'll make it. Okay, school board member Truman.
066I move we approve the use of the TCI. Sorry. I move we approve the use of TCI for the SACO middle school social studies curriculum starting for the 2526 school year. I have a motion by school board member Truman. Do I have a second? Second by school board member Johnston. Any other discussion on the topic of All right, moving on to roll call votes. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Roach, yes. School board member KD, yes. School board member Truman, yes. School board member Johnston. Yes. Motion passes 6. All right. Fantastic. Moving on to item F, federal funding update. Superintendent Ray. Okay. Um, this is not necessarily a well, it is, but it isn't. Federal funding update. Uh kind of what we've decided to do is that this memo you
067will continue to see updated probably every board meeting with some of the new challenges that face schools or navigating of different orders andor policies andor changes. And we were trying to think about like okay we can write a memo every single time. Uh, but then when I was in Dayton the other night, they were like, "What if we use the same memo and just put a new date every time something changed for you guys?" I was like, "That's a pretty good idea. We can do that a lot easier." Um, so couple of different things that um, you know, do and don't affect us. First one is there was an executive order that stopped any of the late liquidation of er funds um which there was 17.1 million in the state still being used. We are
068lucky we did not fall into that category doesn't impact us. You saw a presentation um from principal Susi about the bar initiative uh a couple of weeks ago and all of the money at the state level was pulled um for the bar initiative. A lot of the good work that we done will continue on but the support for that uh is being pulled. we lost regulated classroom training um that was budgeted for our staff that that funding um was kind of pulled away from us. Um, I had a conversation with the commissioner uh the other day and while we haven't lost any funding um in the food program uh piece yet, it does sound like there is going to be some effect on the administration and the software being used at the DOE level um
069because at one point accounts were locked. Uh so there's a lot coming at school officials and we're just going to kind of keep a running total um or a running tab of everything that's happening. You know, some good news that did come last week and we're taking it as good news um is that the performance reports that we do at the end of the year for all title one uh expenditures was magically jump up and say it me. Unfortunately, I still have to do title reporting as far as I know, but that they notified of us of an ESSER performance report that usually when you apply for a grant, it's nice to know how you're going to have to report out on that grant. That hasn't been the case for ESSER. So, they provided us
070with a 38 page grant report that they wanted done by May 1st, but then they rescended the requirement to complete that at all. So, I was not sad to put that 38 page document in the recycling bin and I told him to hold on to it. We never know when things get reversed. Uh, and so, um, that's just the world we're living in. And so we're just going to keep these going because I I think it's important for everybody to understand there are are it's a changing landscape and we're just trying to communicate the best we can in and out of the office to figure out what we should do and should not do uh while keeping you guys informed. And you know that's where I thought the the great idea of the Dayton board
071to say hey could you just run this one and add new dates um so that they only had one place to look and they could remember back. So, that's what we've decided we're going to try to keep doing. Okay. Any questions for Superintendent Ray? All right. Um, seeing nobody seeking recognition on that item, we can move on to second readings of policies. Item A is KB parental involvement in education. Item B is KCB, public gifts, donations to public schools. Item C is K, public concerns and complaints. Item D is KGA, relations with educational foundations. Item E is KDB, public rights to know freedom of access. Item F is KB, complaints about school personnel. Um, do I have a motion? School board member Johnston? Thank you. I move we approve the second reading of policies KB,
072KCD, KE, KGA, KDB, and KB. Second. I have a motion by school board member Johnston with a second by school board member Truman. Do I have any discussion on the policies? All right. Seeing no one seeking recognition, roll call vote. School board member Richards, yes. I vote yes. School board member Roach, yes. School board member KD, yes. School board member Truman, yes. School board member Johnston, yes. Motion passes 6. All right, moving on to item 13, other information. I was not made Oh, I stand corrected. Just um and I want to say this because we just mentioned the other meeting. Uh for a certain part of town right by the river, morning traffic's pretty rough. Um and that area around uh Bobs and Mike's is uh pretty jam-packed. And when you're the superintendent just trying
073to get to your office and that's your route to to go, it's about 20 minutes to go one way. I learned from um Marty today that over the next couple of days as that kind of loop through the town starts, they're going to kind of shut down um the actual construction project. So if like you see like why are things closed and but there's no digging going on, it's because they're trying to synchronize all and make sure the timing of traffic flow works a little bit. So just important for people who are traveling along that route or need to get somewhere or um you know even thinking about like the bus that goes from TA to the coot like that is an issue right now. So just trying to just remind people as uh to
074know that's going on because it definitely will impact time getting to school. Plan for those pieces. Um seemed like this morning uh on my commute in of trying to sneak around and go down Saco Main Street that definitely was way more congested this morning. Um so just try to plan for those things because that's going to be from now until November. November. Yeah. School board member Johnston. Thank you. I just want to say that as somebody who lives right in that area, um, yeah, it it's definitely been problematic and I'd like to think that it won't be in the future, but I know better. So, I would agree with the superintendent that you need to plan ahead. Just don't go south. Don't go south. There's always a turnpike now. Any other questions for Superintendent Ray?
075All right, be aware of traffic. Moving on to item 14, executive session. There is none scheduled for this evening. So I am moving on to item 15, adjournment. Do I have a motion? So moved. So moved by schoolboard member Truman. Do I have a second or all together? Second. Oh, seconded by school board member Richards. And I'm assuming no discussion. So, roll call vote. School board member Richards. Yes. I vote yes. School board member Roach, the direwolf never left. Yes. And school board member Kitter. Yes. It's hard to follow up. School board member Truman. I'm going to keep my answer simple. Yes. All right. School board member Johnston. Yes. All righty. Motion passes 6 to adjourn at Oh, come on. Watch. 8:12 p.m. Thank you and have a great night.