001Good evening everyone and welcome to the school board meeting for Monday, March 26 at 5:00 PM. Would like to make note that we do have all members of the school board present. Would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance? Great. Thank you everyone. Now takes us to item number three this evening and that is the approval of the school board minutes dated March 12th, 2025. Is there a motion? Madame Mayor, school board member Truman. I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated March 12th, 2025. Thank you. A motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. School board member Johnston. Any discussion or comments on the minutes? Okay. Not seeing any. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Prebble? Yes. School board member Richards? Yes. School board
002member Roach? Yes. School board member KD? Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. And school board member Johnston? Yes. Motion passes 70. Okay, that now takes us to item four this evening and that is the adjustments to the agenda and there are none this evening. Item number five, there are no correspondents. Item number six is public session. If there are any members of the public wishing to speak, please step forward, state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address the school board. Okay, not seeing any members of the public wishing to speak. Moving on to item number seven that is the superintendence report. Superintendent Ray. Good afternoon everybody. Uh few items for tonight. U before we get into the budget piece. Um this the first announcement is for SACO
003businesses. Uh we know that in the summertime many businesses are reaching out to us uh to our schools and others looking for employees many times at reaching out to the center of technology uh for kids who have gone through the plumbing or the building trades programs. But I wanted to make sure that SACO businesses uh knew that the coot is hosting an employment fair for students on May 1st. Uh if you go to the um website at the coot, you can reserve a spot in the fair. Um it's been pretty good for for the last couple of years away for kids in the vocational region uh to get jobs in the industries that they're looking for. Um so just wanted to make sure that was out there. Uh for any of you guys who have
004driven by SMS, you will see that the digital uh sign is up. We still have to hook that to electricity, but the structure is in place. Uh, and Dawn is working on that. Um, we're working with the Sako uh middle school drone club. Uh, and very soon we will be able to release some video um of the school site with all the trees cut. um they're going to keep updating um every few weeks during the construction project and uh they've got it programmed in so it will always be a similar flyby of certain points so that you'll be able to see the progress on that once all of the uh trees are removed from the ground. Uh Megan and I have been talking with Oakpoint and we're hoping that depending on how much rain we
005get over the next few weeks at sometime in May, we would like to be able to have an afternoon where we can invite city council, school committee members, and the public out to kind of see. And our hope was to put like a stake in the ground that would say you would be standing at the front door right now or you'll be on the playground or in a parking lot. So that's some things that we have planned uh coming up. Uh reminder to parents about uh parent teacher conferences scheduled for April 3rd. Uh and make sure that uh you have a sign up. Uh young school will be hosting their family fun and book fair night on the 3rd during conferences as well. Our SMS Bobcat players will be uh will perform Beetlejuice Jr. on
006Friday the 11th, Saturday the 12th at 2 uh at the Thornton Academy Garland Auditorium. Uh it's a general admission and tickets will be sold at the door. If you shop at Hannerford's um and you receive Hannerford Help School Bucks receipts, um please turn those in on the website. Uh those uh dollars support our schools. Um, spring sports will be just around the the corner and it's great to see days like this because those fields dry well on days like today. Uh, and then also this morning um Meg was able to attend uh business owners along Route One meeting um where we could really uh share some of our plans for the upcoming school, how it will impact the area, the impact and I think basically viewed as positive impact on business. uh and want to
007thank Emily here at the at the city hall for inviting to us and uh making us a part of that event. So, it was a really good event. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions or comments for Superintendent Ray? School board member Truman. Uh general question about um don't get mad at me. I'm not trying to jump the gun, but how many snow days have we used so far this year? two. It's two. That's amazing. Okay. Two. So, I've seen I've seen it happen before, but let's not I'm not holding my breath after what happened last April, but I just wanted to know for my I look through my text messages and emails and I was like, I don't know which ones I might have deleted. Maybe I'm not counting high enough. I don't know. But
008you're Thank you. We tend to lock it in after April vacation. Keep our fingers crossed. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Moving on to item eight. Item eight that is the chair's report. Schoolboard member chair Perbble. Good evening. Um I'd like to call upon um school board member Roach to report off a trip that he took recently with the superintendent to I think it was DC. So take it away Kevin. Thank you, uh, chair. Um, I'll try to do my best, uh, for the recap, but we were, um, fortunate enough to be invited, um, down to DC, uh, Monday for a Tuesday, yesterday, uh, meeting with the congressional delegations. Um, well, let me back up a little bit. Um so we have a million dollar um tax credit coming to us for geothermal at the new school
009construction and right now that's at risk because it is embedded in the um inflation inflation reduction act and uh that is on the clock to be you know a lot of that item's taken away but in this case this actually uh makes overall government money and the taxpayers money because the geothermal of of a million dollars can um not only uh have heat and cooling and AC finally for you know all our young uh prek through five but also um uh pay for uh solar panels um to then uh save on electricity as well. So, the annual savings is calculated to be 300,000. So, a little over a three-year payback is worth it to send uh Jeremy and I down there to fight for that. We also went with the uh Windham superintendent. They have
010a different um uh heating system going in there. Uh but their school will be ready in 2027. So, uh they're about to break ground next week uh fully. So, so yeah, very motivated to get down there. Um, and so we were going to see um we were de we're going to see in person uh Senator Collins uh yesterday morning at 8:30. Um and she was going to be there and we got word right before the meeting that um she called in sick for the day. And of course we're like uh disappointed, maybe a little upset, but um kind of made a little bit of national news because she also missed um the Senate Intel um meeting during the day, which was big news yesterday because of the we're not supposed to be using signal apps
011in government, but uh I guess certain people did that in the federal level. Anyway, um but we did meet with their staff and uh then we met with Senator King's staff and met with Sen uh Congresswoman Pingri staff and I believe they I mean certainly the staffs are are supportive I we believe uh be be a question especially on Senator Collins side of the aisle uh what they can negotiate when the budget reconciliation is done. So, we should know from what we hear, we should know where things stand probably probably by September. Um, there's talk that they'll going to try to get the reconciliation done in April and May, but that doesn't look likely. Um, so there's a little time, but it it was best to get down there and um and and meet face
012to face. Um, and uh yeah, it was a good trip. um uh politicians uh were not throwing stones. So it seemed like uh that was going well and uh people were generally friendly in the aisles and seeing people and seeing the cherry blossoms and all that. So and uh got back uh this morning early this morning. So all good. Great. Thank you. Any questions for Superintendent or school board member Roach? Okay. Not seeing any. So, let's moving on to item nine, and there are no staff reports this evening. Item 10 is the board subcommittee minutes. Uh, in your packets, you should have minutes for the policy and personnel committee, and the next meeting is April 9th at 5:30. The finance and infrastructure committee, uh, next meeting is April, uh, April 30th at 4:30. And the
013curriculum committee next meeting is April 28th at 4:30. School board member Roach. Uh we didn't have the finance committee meeting uh today, but um I wanted to thank um uh Thornton Academy and Marie. Um they hosted um uh they invited us to uh the their board meeting last Thursday. Uh myself and uh Carolyn went and u the first 45 minutes and it was uh very productive and we thank you like we thank you for that. Great. Excellent news. Thank you. Okay, there is no old business this evening. Moving on to item 12 is new business. Item A is new hires. There is a packet uh excuse me, a memo in your packet. Is there a motion? Madame Mayor, school board member Truman. I move we approve the nomination of those listed under the stipen section
014and issue a stipen contract for the 2425 school year. Thank you. Motion has been made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? School board member Johnston. Second. Any discussion or comments on the item? Okay, not seeing any roll call vote. School board member Waroff, yes. Schoolboard member Prebble, yes. School board member Richards, yes. School board member Roach, yes. School board member KD, yes. School board member Truman, yes. And school board member Johnston, yes. Motion passes 70. Okay. Item B is resignations. And there is a memo in the in the memo in the packet. And is there a motion? Madame Mayor, school board member Truman, I move we accept the resignation of FA Kazan, social worker, effective at the end of the 2425 school year. Great. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. School
015board member Richards. Any discussion or comment on the item? Okay, not seeing any. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. Yes. School board member Febble. 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 70. Okay. That now takes us to item C and that is a building update. Superintendent Ray. On the building project. Um Meg and myself uh and the building principles will be meeting tomorrow morning with Oak Point for our kind of weekly meetings. Couple of items that we'll be talking about will be flooring uh is kind of a topic that we're heavily involved in right now. We also will be talking about clerk of the works and owners reps of when we
016will have them on board. And then following up on Kevin's discussion, part of the goal um for the geothermal piece, whether that tax credit initially gets changed or not, we'll be explaining the importance of making sure that that project starts at least in the 25 tax year. um to in case there are some grandfathering of projects um in that piece, we'll want to make sure that we get started with the wells um during the 25 year. So that's a piece that's important for us. So a lot of work on the inside right now. uh have not heard back from the state who has had our plans for probably full plans messaged about three weeks would you say um because that's the next piece of once they're reviewed by the DOE then going to another uh
017state board um meeting to get approval of those plans so that we can start the bid process. Great. Thank you. Any questions or comments for the superintendent? Okay, not seeing any. Moving on to item D and that is budget information. Sorry. So, as we start the budget piece, um we have principles available tonight to give a little overview um and answer any questions that they may have at the building level. Uh when we had met with the city council a couple of weeks ago, I had noticed a typo on our revenue page. Uh and I provided that for you tonight. did not change the overall um increase based off percentage-wise at 4.69%. Um but it did move some numbers around a little bit. It's important to understand that probably the biggest things that will happen
018moving forward will be health insurance and that we have 10% on the budget. And I think that we are all starting to think that we're going to kind of get that range in the next few days uh to a week of where it could be. Um and I have not taken any money for the paid family medical leave out of the budget at this time. Um no sense to pull that out and then possibly have to put something back in and we I'd rather wait until um we are more firm on that piece. Additionally, tomorrow um I'll meet with the city manager um so that we can kind of figure out where city budget and our budget come in together so that at the next meeting we'll be able to report like what we're thinking
019things will be. Uh it's my understanding that it sounds like the the city budget was in a pretty good place overall. Um which means that together um I think it looks like a positive outcome for us. But still some work to do and obviously that health insurance is such a big number uh one way or the other. So principles are here tonight um and I'd like to ask um when it was time to come up uh and just present a little bit about their school and really give you an opportunity um to ask any questions. As you guys know, there's very little change that we've proposed in any staffing or positions other than going back and anticipating that we do need more um ELLL positions based off where we are currently. Do I still haven't
020heard a lot from uh Catholic Charities other than their funding seems to be have been pulled away. Um, and we probably will not hire all of those pos like I wouldn't go out and post for those positions today. We'll wait and see a little bit to the summertime of where we see things going um and what we see uh registrations uh coming from. I think that we will encourage people um that if they know that they are moving to please register with other you know if I know I was moving to South Portland, please make those registrations. The other careful piece that we have to look at is kindergarten enrollments. Um, and just balancing our enrollment at young school with the new housing developments versus what we have uh on the Fairfield side of things.
021And some of that will play out um as we see new enrollments coming in. We get a little bit more to May or June like we did last year. We also do have that um we still have that additional position at fair at young school in the budget. Um so again, not a whole lot of change. We know where our increases are uh and decreases because they're pretty much salary benefits and um insuranceances. Our tuition, as we know, went up. Um and so if we're looking at major changes, um those would be the areas that we we would go in. One of the things that I would mention about tuition is that we currently have um 920 students in the budget, which is the number that we're at in or abouts, you know, at October
022one and it's a little bit lower now. um did not add a ton extra like we've had in the other years because of the fact that we had seen the we had been told about the reduction at the of the hotel and you know if that's not going to be there that should give us plenty of cushion um in that line. So, I would start with asking Wendy and Jeff to come up um and provide a little overview of their budget piece. Uh and certainly we would entertain any questions that you have at this time uh towards the principles as they come up. Okay. Um, before we get started, I'll just throw in that the city administrators presented proposed budget to us Monday night with everything included, city, schools, and the estimated county came out
023to a 1.1% increase. So, yeah, we're in very good shape. So, moving on, right? Very, very happy. Don't ask too many questions because it can only change. Um but also just in meeting with John, the other piece that we um want to just firm up that we've we're having a really good experience sharing um facilities with the city, but we do feel like we need to continue to refine the numbers. And you know essentially it's not that it would be adding more to the over overall cost of the taxpayer but we just want to make sure that we're getting the costs in the right place and based off you know Don's feedback and andrew's feedback over the you know past six months of saying okay my time is kind of like spent here or spent
024here um and starting to look at uh a formula that we could really get on paper that would um maybe help set something in stone for the future as things change. Um get that mathematical formula down for now and then if there are things that change then we can we have a starting point to be able to revisit. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening everyone. Wendy Leblank, principal at Fairfield School. Jeff Mirs, principal at Young School. Um what a long strange trip it is to create the school budget. So I would like to just introduce kind of how we go through that process for anybody um for any of listening or anyone new to the board. We actually start the budget in November of the school year. So, um, the schools all kind of do
025it the same way in terms of teachers really looking over the supplies that they need. Um, assessing, especially considering that we are moving schools in the future and creating lists of um, basically consumables or anything they need um, to continue the current curriculum. uh at the K2 level, we have not made any curriculum changes that have significantly impacted our budget at this time. Teachers then prioritize these list um of needs of supplies and send them to us as principles and we look them over um and have discussions as needed. And then we work um on our end with our administrative assistants and building our budget within our school. Um, as you all know, Jeremy is really um loves the budget and knows it very well. So, we also meet with him and we go line
026by line um for our particular schools with the budgets just ensuring that one we're you know prioritizing our needs but also um equity amongst our buildings considering that we are both uh both K to2 schools. happy to answer any questions that you may have or Mr. Mirs if you have anything you want to say. Yeah. Good evening. Thanks. Good evening. So, I just want to say really 95% or nearly 95% of our budget is our salaries and our insuranceances. So, you know, we maybe control 5 to 7% of our overall budget, somewhere in that range. Maybe it's a little bit higher, but not much. Um, so we've been really thoughtful of of how we spend our money. We're we're, you know, really like Wendy said, we're, you know, about three years out from being in
027a new school. You know, I have this vision of like being like in that last month of the last year of having like almost nothing to move. Like I So I have this goal, you know, three years from now. So, we're really being thoughtful on what we get, but making sure we get the things we need because we do have groups of kids who are with us right now who will be at our schools for three years and may or may not see the new building. So, we're trying to make sure we're serving the kids that are with us right now. So, we're being thoughtful on that. Um, thank you for having that added position, you know, stay in the budget. Um, it's definitely a need, so we're excited about that. Um, so we're going
028to be hiring a second grade teacher with Miss Hitchcock leaving um coming, you know, she's leaving this spring. So, we'll be hiring a new second grade teacher and Ally Cox will stay in first grade, it looks like. So, thank you for that because that that first to second grade class is very big and the kindergarten class is not small either. So, we'll we'll need that that sixth teacher in second grade. So, we're excited about that. And if you have any questions for us, we're we're here to answer them. Anyone have any questions or comments for principles? Um, I would just like to point out just back to Jeremy's comment with our combined facilities and with Don Roth. Um, my understanding is all of the principles seem to be very happy. Um, and especially you two.
029I want to make sure because you have more challenges with the module still in place and design. Fairfield has always had some issues. Um, so as long as everything's working out and we're seeing some improvements at least because we still got a couple more years. Yeah, thank you for that. It's been great. Thank you. Good. Thank you. School board member Roach, you kind of just asked my question, but three years to go. Is there do you from your seat, do you see something big to propose for capital improve to anything in the in the buildings? Both both you guys. Although you have the modulars, but that would be an additional modular maybe. But I think um Don has mentioned some items. We just keep monitoring like keeping facilities like the roof and stuff like that,
030but nothing nothing that I can speak of right now that's pressing. Same for us. I'm thankful for the new building that Jeremy let me keep it basically because we need the building. Um and really it's about like the heat in the winter and making sure we have the parts we need like when things break down. So, we want this building to last a few more years. So, nothing major. I don't see anything major. Um, unless there's a big uptick in like population where right now we're about 327 at Young and I'm hoping it doesn't get bigger than that. Um, I think we'll be steady. I'm I'm expecting about 110 in kindergarten this upcoming year based on what's at so prek and what's coming in or what's we think is coming in. But honestly, that's, you
031know, tough to say. But I I'm hoping we don't get bigger than 330. That's about as big as we've been. But um it's really based on that. So it depends on what happens, you know, at the hotels, you know, things like that with numbers. So if there is a population increase, you would have maybe do the divine line and and try to bring more kids to Fairfield and you would be and when you'd be ready for that. Okay. And that would be kindergarteners coming in, not trying to disrupt a second grader say switching but you look for volunteers anyway. Yeah, I think we'd look Kevin just to to think about that process kindergarteners coming in volunteers and never splitting up a family unless a family asked for that you know like because it would be
032like yes I don't mind because my daycare's here and my other kid goes to say parks and wreck or something like that. Um, those would be some priorities. When you do think about some of the money that we have in our budget, because I still have the $450,000 for overall capital. one of the when if you look at both of those schools places where we would make repairs based over things that happen over the summer or rooms carpeting um the carpeting at Young School in certain places does need to be fixed because essentially it's just becomes also just a like it's rep it's a trip hazard and so those would be some things that we would take care of we also have the moisture content in the cement slab at Fairfield can be very difficult
033and we replaced some last summer. We replaced u some office space. We did the hallways and if something else came up that would be just things that I don't think that we would spend a lot of time discussion discussing what to do versus saying let's just take care of this problem um and move on from those as we look for it when April comes up. April, that would be the most challenging situation for us of additional space if we continued to grow over the next three years because she's at like next to nothing. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you both. Thank you. And I would like to say thank you to Don and Andrew and his team. This is the first winter that I have not shoveled or done any um salting. So, thank
034you very much. Okay, next up we have April Noble from CK Burns. Hi everyone. Thanks for having me. April Noble, principal at Burns. Um I just wanted to start by, you know, thanking you for this opportunity. Wendy did a great job outlining the procedure that we go through. Um it has remained the same so staff are really accustomed to that. It was a change when I came on board and so um we haven't had a lot of turnover in staff so staff know what to expect. We actually started in October um so staff would have a little bit longer period of time with conferences and all of the things that creep up in November. So, it seems really early to start a budget in October when you're really just getting to know your current case
035load of students, but the staff do a magnificent job. I wanted to give a quick shout out to them because this is my fourth year, and I only had I have very few face-to-face meetings about prioritizing items. I didn't really have to ask teachers to go back and make cuts. I think they did an excellent job like prioritizing what they need. Um, like Wendy said, the same at Burns. We do not have new curriculum that's come into play for the future. So that, you know, does that would lend itself to some drastic increases in the budget. We're maintaining what we're doing. While we're still fine-tuning and looking at our current curriculum, it's not going to cost us um for new curriculum. And I too want to give a shout out to the facilities team. Wendy
036may not be shoveling. I've shoveled a couple times. Some of you have seen me out there shoveling, but not for not for because they are not there, but for other reasons, but um I have not had to paint or pick up a drill this year or do some of the things that I've had to do in the past. I think some of um the things that may come up in questions I can I can be proactive about. Um, we are struggling with our heating and our plumbing and so certainly we've struggled for that with that for years and they've been band-aid fixes and they feel like they're fixes in the moment, but our new facilities team has really figured out some of the problems and um, some staff are very happy that their rooms are
037not 92 degrees in the middle of the winter and um, hopefully that will maintain because they can get really hot on warm days. Um, and I think we've problem solved or they've problem solved some of the um some of the issues that have been ongoing for years. Also, plumbing has been an issue and we've had to spend a little bit of money to um be proactive and um just so that we're not looking for more damage in the future with water coming in through the basement. So, they've been a great team to work with, very um responsive to all teachers needs. So, I just wanted to thank them for that. We have very minimal increases and decreases in our budget this year. Like I said, staff um you know, submitted what their needs were. We
038made very minimal cuts and um you know, I think I I feel really optimistic that it we have everything we need. Um so that's really great when staff aren't asking for things and me turning them away. I think um we're in a great place for the next year and I look forward to answer any questions that you may have. Great. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments for Principal Noble? Just one of the things I would like to add is that the principles uh and administration, we've been working together now for several years. They get the budgeting process. So very proud of them. You know, I kind of when I get the budget and I go through it, I kind of make little notes on the side and it's like, all right, 100 here
039and 200 there. And it's kind of get it was kind of getting to the point like this year it wasn't even that fun because they had already taken care of it you know and and they you know they're lining up in the office and you know Wendy goes first because she's the first page in the budget and she's like all right April get in there quick he's in a really good mood this morning you know but it's it's you're in a good mood because they do a such a great job uh and they understand those things. The other piece though is that we are re and I want the public to hear this as well because I know sometimes people will say, "Well, there's not enough supplies or there's not this or or not that."
040We are really trying to be intentional about ordering and what's on hand versus what's not on hand because the end result is that when we pack rooms in three years, we do not want to have teachers looking through their closet saying, "Oh, what do I do with all this paper?" and then packing it and paying someone to move it. We want to get to a point where when we are bringing paper into the school, it's not in the boxes that we pack because that's a waste of time for people. It's new deliveries um and things like that. So, that's kind of an important thing for us. Um because I think one of the things that we as a school board will not be able to wrap our heads around is what we do with all
041the stuff because you're getting pretty much everything new. Um and that then becomes a problem for city municipalities and storage and making sure that we're not putting things into landfills that doesn't need to be there. Um, Tesla really takes a lot of planning from these guys and they're going to try to do a really good job on doing that things even though it may be a change in the norm of the ordering process where typically schools, you know, do once and maybe a second time in the year where we'll be asking people to say, "Hey, what does quarterly or ordering look like? Can we make sure we're looking in every nook and cranny of the room and just kind of use down things? Great. Thank you very much. So, no questions. All right. Thank you
042very much. I think Kevin had one. Oh, did you have similar to um questions for Fairphone and Young too is uh you you've addressed it right away about the next three years and the heating, the plumbing um but also space as well. So, I mean, not nothing big for this coming year, but years two and three before we move modular or doing major fixes to the I would say no to major fixes. I I feel like um Don and Andrew and and our past facilities did a really great job working with me kind of think forward thinking. Um you know, we did a little bit of renovation at the front of the school so it looks great when you come in. If I had a dream, I would want to repaint the school. I think
043it really does need a good facelift, but I don't think it's worth spending that kind of money. Um, you know, with us only being there for the next few years. It's really about making it safe for kids and um windows was another expenditure this year. We're replacing screens. Again, it's a safety um piece and making sure that we can open windows and have screens that are functioning and our windows can open and close well. Um, so that's a minor um expense that's occurring currently with some new screens around the building. Um, I think it's mainly plumbing and heating. When you talk about space, we're about as full as you can get. We're at between 21 and 23 in every classroom. And it would be great to be 21 or lower in every classroom, but there's
044there isn't a space for another classroom teacher. If I were to make a move, of course Jeremy and I have been brainstorming about that. If if we did have another teacher come on board to lower case loads in one grade or another, I would have to have something outside of a classroom and it would either be a UA or it would be a special ed teacher. Um, and those don't feel like good choices to make, but they may have to happen in the future if our numbers, you know, are at 23 and above. Um, I really do worry about class sizes higher than 23. I think it's also important to to know that as we built the new school, we were building that on a ratio saying that our what we really wanted was about
04518 to 20 uh going into the new school. And we have had that conversation, April and I, about like what if a portable had to come in based off enrollment because we needed another classroom teacher. And you know, we thought about the ways of well, can it be done without having to have sewer hookup? Like that was a big one because that is the more challenging piece of where it comes in and where it could go and what could the location be? uh and how would that affect drop off and pick up and recess? And so they're, you know, they're not outstanding options, but there are some options um that if that had to happen, we would be at least able to skip, not skip, but bypass a lot of the conversation that we've already
046had to be able to to put a plan into action at this level to say, "Okay, we've we've we thought about what's going on. if we needed this. This is some of the moves that could be made. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have Marie Susi, principal of Sco Middle. Good evening. Thank you for having me, Marie Susi, Sako Middle School principal. Um, I think Wendy and April did a great job outlining the budget process. Same, you know, goes for me as well. Um, having have been here in SACO for a few years now, it did feel a little bit better working with the staff and having a a a deeper understanding of my budget and working with the other administrators. So, um, the process felt great. I do, you know, got
047to repeat what everyone else says. It's only up in, um, staffing and insurance. Otherwise, my, uh, supplies are pretty much down. I do want to point out a couple increases. Um, one would have to do with eighth grade promotion and that's because if you recall in last year we committed to having the um, celebration at Sako Middle School. So, we did add some funds in there to support that as well as a new high jump mat um because our students have our track teams both outdoor and indoor have not been able to compete in that um high jump activity for the last few years since before COVID not having a high jump map to practice with. Otherwise, um everything's status quo and if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Thank you. Anyone
048with any questions or comments? Just a couple of things that I Kevin, I'm going to go first and then you get to to hit hit clean up here on these. Um, just a couple of things to know is obviously the sign will be hooked up this spring and um be operational for us. The building um the garage building is scheduled to start in a couple of weeks so that we have appropriate storage. That was like one of the things about, you know, we were talking about a high jump mat and it was like, "Okay, Marie, we can do this, but where are we going to store store this and making sure that we're taking care of things have um appropriate places? One of the things that is kind of on our uh radar to do
049this summer, um, as you know, we've installed new bleachers in the gym. We've done a lot of different improvements around the schools. We are planning to address the gym floor. It is the slipperiest floor I've ever seen basketball played on. Um, and then talking with Mike, it's never been, you know, in all the years really sanded down again and and relined. And one of the things is we don't have volleyball lines on it which is extremely popular at the middle school last is like 80 kids or something. Yes. Y and so making sure that that would be an opportunity to do that. Um but I know that in talking with uh Ryan and the recck department did that and they refinished their floors and it really made an improvement over there. Um, I was just
050shocked this winter when I went to a a middle school basketball game and I said, "Wow, this is like really on playing on ice dangerous." Um, and so that's something that we would continue to do this summer. Um, we've really, as you start thinking through Sako Middle School, we've accomplished quite a lot in the last, you know, several years. The other piece that I think is vital for us to look at at Sako Middle School from a capital place are is the front door and the doors. If you've been through that, they're awful. Um, and we need to look at that canopy piece for students waiting outside and do something a little bit better around that vestibule there. and that's on our radar screen is is the security on those front door pieces um and
051a replacement. And even though that's a can be a pretty big chunk of money, um that would be something that we would look out of the 450 to replace uh next year um as part of the process. Great. Thank you. Just checking. I have a question. Yes, school board member Waroff. Um, are you did you were you able to put into the budget some more of those um systems uh for audio? That's not happening right now and I think it's on pause for the new build. Okay, I'll ask question. How you doing? Oh, approach. Thank you, Carolyn. While we're down in DC, we're talking about um the audio voice, but for uh second languages as well. So h how much is that in the schools right now or projected to be not just for SMS
052but any any of the other schools right now? So the audio enhancement system is in the plans to be in our new builds. Um and then you know it's such a one it's a great tool for teachers to be able to project voice you know feel like students are hearing that throughout the buildings tying in with uh obviously in the new build with some of the other building security intercom systems those types of things. Um but one of the more unique products that it comes with is the ability for a teacher to be able to to speak and have that translated to students using their iPad. Certainly that does not mean what we're saying is um to put kids in front of an iPad on earphones all day, but there are opportunities throughout the day
053where it would help instruction to be able to communicate swiftly and quickly for a student as they're learning and gaining understanding of certain concept and reinforcing that. Um, it would be great to think over the next couple of years we can think about where our SACO middle school would get on that, but it may have to be a little bit of a peacemeal approach time and overtime. It's an expensive system doesn't also preclude us from, you know, as again I don't know how many grants are going to be available, but it's also about safety in schools and being able to get announcements out and that's one of the that we like about that product. Thank you. Um, is there a similar program because with the door loan program that we did at Fairfield? Was that
054is there a program possible for that? Yeah, so revolving renovations will do some of those pieces. Um, we've already we were already received a revolving renovations loan for doors there that was able to take care of some of the other exterior doors. Um, but as you know, costs went up, we felt like taking care of those other ones was it just needed to be a whole system of the front and the back doors and we didn't want to be like, okay, peacemeal this and piece we we made the choice of the other doors the first time around. Thank you. Hey, anyone else? Thank you very much. Okay, next up we have Jamie Walker. PreK and Jessica Clark from Special Services. Hello everyone. I'm Jama Walker. I am the coordinator of PreK. And I could just
055reiterate what everyone else has said about our budget process. It feels like a welloiled machine at this point in time. I know what I'm doing. Our teachers know what I'm doing, what they're doing. um our administrative assistant has a good handle on the process, so it really runs very smoothly for us. Now, um like you've heard from other principles, there are no major increases in our budget um other than salary and benefits. And I thought I'd give you guys some highlights. We had two field trips this year. That's something different for us that we haven't done that before. Um they were so successful. Our kids were just ecstatic to be on our trips. I think April you chaper owned one of our trips. Um we did that this year through some grant funding and working
056with our PTO. Um so that was definitely a highlight of our year. Um the new lease terms that were recently negotiated um made our staff thrilled to know that they'll be able to stay put in our building until we have the new school. Um looking at some of our numbers for um our pre-K students that are going to be going into kindergarten, we're going to be sending about 43ish students to Fairfield. 80ish will be going to Young. Um for our enrollments for our 25 26 school year, we're at 95 right now. So, we have 96 full-time slots for next year and 32 for our half day slots that we have available. So, we're in a good place so far with that. Um, and I'll just echo what others have said about the new facilities team.
057They've been fantastic, so responsive to work with. We really feel like we're being taken care of in that regard. Any questions? Thank you. Any questions or comments? Oh, okay. Guess Thank you very much. Hi, I'm Jessica Clark, director of uh instructional support for SACO. Um, so we have a very similar budget process to everybody else. Um, except instead of the teachers sending it to their building principles, special educators and specialists send it to me and it's the same process. We go line by line and review with any employee if um items need to be changed. Um and everyone again is really good at it. We send out very early. We try to align all of our needs uh directly with IEP. So there really is no need for um further justification if it's identified in
058in the IEP. Two of our biggest areas of increase, uh you'll see about a $200,000 increase, and that's an investment in adult transition services. Over the last year, we've had to absorb students that are between the ages of 21 and 22. However, there's no funding to provide for those adult services. So, if you have a child in a special purpose private school, that's going to be there until they age out. We're now responsible for the cost of that staff attending the special purpose private school. So, for the number of students, we're anticipating that year it's about 200,000. Um, another additional area um that continues uh but doesn't impact because we're not able to fill all of our openings is that this year we've had five unanticipated 100% adult support um needed students moving in. So
059those are the things that we can't allocate and we can't predict but our staff is really good about prioritizing but there's always that gap as we can't fill the staff and we continue to have those needs. Um I will uh share another increase in transportation as a positive way is that our our students have been able to access a lot more community trips. Um so they've been really successful going to the grocery store and using some of those functional life skills and budgeting and it's been great to have the kids use the flyers that we're getting in the mail and then see things in action. Um, so that's a little bit of an increase. We're trying to access for more kids. And additionally, uh, we're hoping to get back together with the univers University of
060New England for their swimming program. Um, again, it's just a staffing issue. We have to make sure we have enough staff for the students to be safe at the pool. So, we're looking forward to being able to redo that partnership next year, but that is an increased cost as every year um, things go up. I do want to share, as everyone has, that the facility staff has been really wonderful. We have um on Beach Street uh we had a heat issue where we walked in one morning and then the next week on the same day we had no heat and then the week after and both both of them were there calling checking in with us. They were sitting there until we got heat making sure we had heaters. So, just those little things um
061have made a really big difference cuz the people in that office serve the parents and you know we get um we get parents coming in for testing and the last thing we want to do is worry about kids and parents coming in being warm. So, huge kudos to them and we really appreciate all that they've done. I'm welcome. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have. Thank you, Jessica. Any questions or comments? It's going to be back to the prek for a second, but I'll I'll wait. I would just say that um you know through finance committee and capital piece, we should also talk about um looking at 90 Beach Street about what the long-term pieces are because I know like the steps out front need some work. Um there's some pieces over there
062for that building that probably some greater conversation uh needs to be had about heating system more long-term, not necessarily tomorrow, but like what's the next three to five years look like? What would be the plan? Um having greater conversations about when Young School is closed, the use of the building there, what's going to make the most sense for the city. I know that uh had conversations with John and some of the staff here and you guys don't exactly have all the space in the world that you need at city hall. So I I I think from a global piece of the city and more is talking about what we have for facilities where things will be what will happen. I know that um obviously the use reuse of the school buildings once we we're gone
063will probably come into that discussion. Um but just to put that on people's radar screens uh throughout this process member Roach. Um one quick question for Jess. um you know, we've had issues retaining um certain positions. It's a regionwide problem, but do you feel from your seat that this budget if we find the people that there's enough in the budget to uh attract pay benefits if we do find them for this this coming year? there is and I think in those really particular positions we offer different levels support that folks wouldn't necessarily find because of the day treatment and the other billing um process. So I'm I think once we are fully staffed um we actually had a teacher share this similar sentiment this morning when we're fully staffed we're going to knock it out
064of the park. So I think you know absolutely it's just satisfying what people are looking for. Thanks. School board member Truman. Backing up to the 90 Beach Street. Will everybody in special services be going over to the new building when uh we make that move or are we keeping 90 beach or is that kind of like what we're I think that's the com I think that's the conversation that needs to be had. Um because certainly there won't be enough space in the new schools, but you do have the you know, one of the the spaces is we talked with Ryan and Wreck about how maybe when we built that building that would be a great space for more recreational activities, but as plans start to evolve around what might happen at schools or here or
06590 Beach Street, you know, the one piece about the the young school property is it's going to be about in the middle between all of our buildings as any of it. I mean, that's a great location for, you know, special service director wanted to go to the middle school, you're there. And if you want to go to the other buildings, you're going through Industrial Park and you're right there. So, I think that some of those things have to be flushed out. The other piece that um we are in conversations with is we are in conversations with the state around cohort 2 uh for taking on CDS responsibilities um in the upcoming years. Um the assistant director was with us on Friday when we met with the state talking about um pretty much all the schools
066that were in cohort one were of a much smaller district than what you're dealing with here in SACO or in Berford or in Auburn. And so we are really kind of pushing back that the same kind of turnover in three of three and four year olds to these larger districts can't look like it is in a district that only has 400 kids total. Um and so we're kind of looking at that space of how we can start to serve in the upcoming year, but it has to be done in a way where the capacity is there for the district and not just like full release. Um I worry about our ability to handle, you know, say 75 more IEP meetings. Like that would be a problem. Um and looking at the funding that comes in
067with that and how that we support special services, have have people hired have a plan in place uh moving forward. And so we're going to continue to meet with them about that. And hopefully that will be something that whether it happens this fall or next fall, we'll be able to move forward. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. Did you have a follow up for Okay, set. Thank you. Oh, I'm all set. Okay, thank you. Member Rich, so um I have a question of of the format uh on prek. Um, forgive me. I got in late from the DC trip and I had an eye appointment uh today where I'm all I can't see the numbers. Well, so I see Jeff making faces at me, so I do see that. But but but uh so I
068I don't have to have the answer today because I'm I'm having trouble reading it. Um, the rent went way down for prek and that was put in the original detail budget, but there were I think there were some tweaks and then the grand total uh does back that off. But I think on the cover page is the is the rent put in the cover page or not? PreK. I just at maybe after this meeting I just want to make sure the detail budget is double just checked with the summary because um you know prek still has you know the large increase but with the rent deduction in the detail page it's more like it looks like 5% 6% increase. We'll d we'll double check in the morning but I'm pretty sure that the new number
069of the 191ish off the top of my head was actually in the detail that that is yeah I did see that in the detail. It's just a a little bit off on the cover of it. Okay. Okay. But I just didn't know if rent was going to be positioned somewhere else in the in the summer. Okay. Okay. Great. Anyone else? Thank you. Okay. Thank you everyone. Moving on to item F. That is the first reading of policies. Is there a motion? School board member Johnston. Thank you. Um, sorry, hold on. I move that we accept the first reading of of policies KB, parental involvement in education. KCD, public gifts/donations to the schools. K, public concerns and complaints. KGA, relations with educational foundations. KDB, public public's right to know freedom of access. KB complaints about school
070personnel. Motion has been made by school board member Johnston. Is there a second? Second. School board member Truman. Any discussion or comments on any of the policies? Okay. Not seeing any. Roll call vote. School board member Waroff. Yes. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richards? Yes. School board member Roach? Yes. School board member KD? Yes. Yes. School board member Truman. Yes. And school board member Johnston. Yes. Motion passes 70. Okay. Uh okay. Moving on to item 13. Other information. Are there any school board members that have anything they'd like to throw up? Item 14 is there is no executive session. And item 15 is adjournment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Motion second. Motion made by schoolboard member Truman. Second by school board member Prebble. Roll call vote. School board member
071Waroff. Yes. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richards. Yes. School board member Roach. Keep Draen. Yes. School board member KD. Yes. School board member Truman. Yes. And school board member Johnston. Yes. Motion to adjourn at 601 passes. Seven uh 70. Great. Thank you everyone and have a great evening.