001e e e yeah good evening everyone and welcome to the Sako school board meeting for Wednesday March 12th 2025 at 7:01 would like to make note that all Schoolboard members are present with the exception of school board waroff and Schoolboard K who who have both been dismissed this evening would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of alance thank you everyone okay that takes us to item number three this evening and that is the approval of the Schoolboard meeting minuts dated for February 26 2025 is there a motion Madam mayor School Board member Truman I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated February 26 2025 motion has been made by school board member Truman is there a second second second by School Board member roach no Richards I know you
002some nights you guys sound just alike okay any discussion on the minutes okay not seeing any roll call vote School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richards yes Schoolboard member roach yes School Board member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes five the way you said it sounded like a question like five oh all righty taking us to item number four this evening there are no adjustments to the agenda there are no correspondents this evening moving on to item six as public session is there if there is anyone wishing to speak please step forward state your name and address and you will have 3 minutes to address the school board hi my name is Lisa pennet I live at 92 Franklin Street Sako and um I am on the PTO for CK Burns
003and for Saka middle school and I just wanted to thank you for considering the request to change the openhouse dates for CK Burns and SNS thank you thank you very much anyone else wishing to speak please step forward okay not seeing anyone seeking any recognition moving on to item seven that is the superintendent report this evening and superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody uh several different things um tonight but I first if you guys have been watching the news uh and understanding that today there were several cuts to the um Department of Education uh Federal level I just want to kind of update people on what information we had this afternoon of the impacts uh and where that would be so there are approximately 4,000 employees at the Department of Education uh National level
004and half of those those um would have been cut uh through buyouts or layoff as of today um the federal student aid office and office of civil rights were the most affected um education secretary uh McMan stated that uh congressionally appropriated money including financial aid won't be affected because that's been authorized by Congress however um if there's less staff the processing times on those will probably take longer federal student loans and financial aid will continue as long as Congress maintains the funding levels and the programs special education and 504 accommodations um remain legally protected though complaint processing will probably be much slower uh commissioner McMahon has suggested possibly moving disability rights enforcement to Health and Human Services um the function of the department will be intact as it's required by law and by Congress they're
005the only ones that Congress is the only ones that can get rid of a full Department um and then it said that really the biggest probably thing that will impact people the most um is the staff reductions in federal student aid office um and it could create operational challenges for people who are filling out their fast for form or other Aid programs uh and so that's the update that we have on that today um to more local situations um just remind people that K and prek registration is out there in the public for people to sign their kiddos up for if you haven't already um it'll be on the district website early registration allows us to plan um and that's the most important piece is knowing that we can uh you know plan for what
006the fall looks like uh Sako Middle School received a $2,500 Grant um from the Dion TR charitable trust to support their music program funding will be used to refurbish or replace um school-owned instruments so great job on that um Sako and bford School departments are hosting an education webinar for parents caregivers Educators um anyone who works with children list uh titled parenting in the brain on Tuesday March 25th at 6 PM via Zoom uh you can sign up to a link on our website uh let's see we have our SMS Bobcat players uh in Beetlejuice Jr um which will perform on Friday April 11th at 700 p.m. Saturday the 12th at 2: p.m. in the Thorton academ Academy Garland Auditorium and then um on another piece of news um we had a u kind of
007a national um organization around um climate reach out to me uh and if you remember from the uh School the the presentation on the new school building there's this million dooll tax credit for us going with geothermal um the company has U asked Kevin and I uh to fly to Washington uh to meet with legislators to Lobby to keep that tax credit um because it's very important for us not only from a um educational standpoint in our facilities or future Municipal facilities but also for the local Workforce and what that means in that and so we're going to have an opportunity to go down later this month um and work with our State Legislative leaders on that piece so that will be exciting for us because we need to keep that intact uh and do
008some of those pieces so we qualify for that money coming back to us the other piece on the building project that I would say that let's knock on wood because certainly the economy seems to have ups and down every day but another school department uh in the area that's about six months ahead of us it went out to bid and that number was 5 million dollar left than what they had less than what they had estimated so that could be very good news for us great thank you very much any questions or comments for the superintendent okay moving on to item eight that is the chair's report Schoolboard member chair rebble hi I don't have anything to report this evening but thank you thank you very much okay moving on to item nine there are
009no staff reports this evening item 10 is the board subcommittee minutes uh memos in your packet and item a is the policy and Personnel committee agenda the next meeting will be 49 at 5:30 p.m. Item B is the finance and infrastructure committee next meeting will be 3:26 at 4:30 p.m. and the curriculum committee next meeting will be 3:24 at 4:30 p.m. there is no old business this evening moving on to item 12 new business item a is new hires is there a motion Madame mayor School Board member Truman I move we approve the stien nomination of Nick Fuller for the CK Burns writing club and issue a stien contract for the 24 25 school year motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Purble any questions
010or comments on that okay not seeing any roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 5-0 okay Item B is resignations is there a motion this evening Madam mayor School Board member Truman I move we accept the retirement of Becky Marshall Fairfield school teacher effective at the end of the 2425 school year motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Richards any discussion or comment on this item Schoolboard member Truman I just want to thank um Becky Marshall for all the years she's spent at Fairfield um I had the pleasure of one of my children had her and she's a magical human being and I going
011to be really sad that no other kids after this year will get to experience her teaching but thank you thank you anyone else and I agree with that sentiment she worked with my mother for many many years knew her personally and and she is going to be greatly missed Schoolboard member Johnston I just want to also say thank you to her and to uh say that I have the same sentiments as you as both of you have just expressed thank you great thank you okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 5 Z okay and is there a second motion yes madame mayor School Board member tumman I move we accept the res resignation of Sarah Hitchcock
012young school teacher effective at the end of the 2425 school year motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by School Board member Richards any discussion or comments on this item okay not seeing any roll call vote School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 5 Z okay that now takes us to item C and that is a building update okay very quick update uh on the building project uh first all of our documents have been submitted to the state all of our as builts uh it was like what Meg like 350 Page Plus worth of plans uh so those are in review at the state level uh and then the
013other big news is if you've D had an opportunity to drive by the lot or you actually can walk out there um the trees have been cleared um there's still a lot of Lumbers on the ground in over the next couple of weeks but um we got to go out uh Meg and I got to go out with the city the other day uh Dawn was with us and you start to really get a feel of what it's going to look like uh as a school out there and I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised about how you have that I'm in the woods feel uh out there because you can see basically a couple of buildings from the site um from the road I don't think you're going to be able to see
014from the main road I don't think you'll see the school um some of the buildings once the trees leaf out I don't know that you'll see it all um certainly there will be driveways and pieces that connect but it's pretty exciting um to get out there so anyone that wants to go let us know we're happy to to walk with you out there great thank you any questions or comments for the superintendent Schoolboard member Johnston since I noticed that my microphone's still on I guess I was sorry um no I think it's just very exciting and obviously it does it will start to give us all an idea of what is actually to come easier to imagine when there's you know some more progress being having been made thank you everyone for participating thank you
015is that something we could possibly get some dates together to throw out to the city council and maybe invite them on a walk I think a lot of them probably haven't been out there before and this would be a good opportunity that maybe we can arrange great thank you okay moving on to item D that is the approval of lease agreement with toddle in tenant Ray okay um so this has been an issue that we've been working on for a long time um and probably not a recommendation that you thought would be coming your way based off historically where we've been in this situation as a community but as we started to look forward uh we had obviously two considerations to make first and foremost where are we going to educate our students in a
016quality um facility and um while we know that location has been part of the issue the facility works and is designed for our you know it works for our needs especially knowing that we are probably three years away from moving in to a new building through part of the process uh Meg J and others really tried to look at all of the spaces in the city that could be available uh for use what they would do for the number of students they would hold what it would do for our program understanding what moving costs would be or updating those facilities to make them code compliant um and we started to really quickly figure out that that was a very challenging situation for us to find to do the best educationally and financially and so then
017we engaged um toddle in with uh in negotiations of what a possible extension would look like uh and we're here tonight to um present an extension of the contract which it gives us the opportunity to if constru ruction is delayed to have segments of time that we could reup we have been able to reduce the current price of what we're paying for what we would pay next year by $81,000 um so that is a significant amount we reduce the square footage price by uh $8 per square foot or 29.7% we've held the three year cost to a situation that still will be under what we're currently paying we're currently paying $272,000 um and at the end of the three-year EXT extension uh we would be at $237,000 um and while we know that um there
018was a lot of history that leads up to this I do want to say that we've been able to work really well with the current management situation to come to present an agreement um that we hope is something that uh will work for the community uh moving forward for the next several years until we get to a place uh where we're moving into our new facilities so turn it over to the board questions great thank you questions or comments for the superintendent Schoolboard member Johnston thank thank you um Mr superintendent I know a lot of thought has gone into this and a lot of planning do you anticipate that we would need the full three years and then potentially sometime beyond that before we might be in the new school building I assume that's what
019you do but I'm just asking yeah I mean I think the the the full three years is probably realistic because as a as a community we may be forced in a situation where in the best of situations we would be thinking about a midyear move like all timelines I don't know that that's exactly the best thing educationally for kids um or for families because a midyear move or an April move means your relearning routines all of those things bus routes traffic changes not sure that's a great idea the other piece that you know is that you have to think about is that there are so much that can happen between now and that start date um just thinking about a current project that I'm doing in bitterford things were going great until a month and
020a half of snow and cold and then it's just like comes to a screeching halt so when you think about where we'll be on a project hopefully doing a lot of work next um fall but if next Winter's a very rough winter then there's delays until you can really close in that building or those buildings um it makes work outside tough and and very weather dependent so yeah I think you're going to need those um because the the goal would be 27 28 sometime is when that building is done more hopeful that we wouldn't have to have extensions thank you for that um I just was curious about what we and you're right I can understand how there are definitely delays anything that you try to do usually takes longer than you would like or
021anticipate but I just just wanted to ask that question so that I had a sense of what you have why we're talking about a three-year extension and and then potential addition to that um I guess the other thing that I would like to say is that I appreciate very much your reference to the history all I would say I think at this point in time is that I probably have more I have more history with the history than probably anybody else um in this area and I I would say that I very much appreciate it if you have worked out something with um that location that will be beneficial to the school department I totally understand why the concept of moving things all around and creating new spaces that we probably won't use for very
022long is disruptive for one thing and also expensive for another so given that and I do truly believe that you and everyone else involved has really tried hard to make sure that this is beneficial for us ultimately as the school department um I would say that I won't forget the history but I can see how we should go forward thank you thank you anyone else School Board member roach I'll I'll touch on the history a little bit because I need to get on public record of my ultimate support for this considering it was a major major Scandal back in the day and I think some of us even on this bench as a result from what happened back then um but some don't know my my history not as extensive as best on the school
023side but I was had a lot of history that industrial park and the process that got that prek in the industrial park was just a disgrace but um with J her team it's people that make can make the difference there and uh Kudos you guys to take a situation that started off terribly and and to get it to where it is now um costs were of course a huge Factor probably the biggest one and that has been rectified looking at going over the numbers with Jeremy uh in terms of a prek in an industrial park that is still still problematic um but the schools have made it work and in one way I kind of like that kids can even at a very young age but especially their parents can you know drive by and
024see see businesses that are actually making things and manufactur ing Still Remains strong here um and I encourage as many Educators as possible to to take field trips out to the industrial park and see businesses and see how we work together as a community um the new school you know a lot of people believe that the new school is an industrial park too um it's not but it does have the entrance to the industrial park and and I think the prek experience helped us you know uh be comfortable with the spot of the new school um so with that said um yes you can mark the date and the time I was had the countdown clock at home of when the prek lease was going to end so I'll reset that clock and uh guess
025we'll go another three years thank you thank you anyone else Schoolboard member Truman I just feel like I need to also put on the record that I did not foresee us being here at the end of the lease as Kevin said partially one of the biggest reasons why I'm on here uh to begin with but um I appreciate all the work that you did to get the cost down I mean I it's still not the most ideal situation but it's better than what we would have peace mealing everything like we did of I think the schools did during Co when they tried to expand it and they had them in the church and they had it at the they had it everywhere and it was just kind of chaotic so I appreciate that everything's staying
026as it is for now I feel like the damage is done at this point with covenants and all the at this point so um thank you for doing this and making sure that we can continue this program that I particularly my middle child had the best experience um J killing it as always um so thank you very much appreciate that and uh that's it anyone else okay I'd just like to note on the up sco member Johnston um I just actually wanted to apologize to Kevin because he was involved back at that point in time he wasn't on the school board but he was involved so my mistake I misspoke there but um yes there for me for me there is you know a lot of and Kevin has a great Insight from a different
027perspective at that point in time there was a lot that went on at that point but I think we're all seeming to be in agreement that at this point in time for years is a good plan I just want to correct her correction no Beth Beth took the took the BR the beat down on Schoolboard so you have the more experience on that side we were we were in the the industrial park uh meeting with lawyers and all that stuff so so no no your your experience for there here is is it rules the roost there so okay superintendent Ray just also a reminder to the uh the school board is that you guys are just one part of the process in this uh also this uh lease needs to go in front of City
028Council we have proposed for Monday night it will be on our agenda for approval um I would like to add um I actually know somebody who was just hired in the gorm school department with their new prek program and when they knew that she was from Sako I will tell you that they were impressed and despite our history and all of the challenges that we went through during that time our program is leading the way and all of the other municipalities and districts throughout the state who are just starting their programs are following our lead and looking at us as a mentor so I would like to say kudos to this crew and the administration out there doing for the great work okay moving on to I think we need I'm sorry yep we do
029need a motion is there a motion I'm happy to make it School Board member Truman um I move we approved the lease agreement with toddlin for a three-year term of June 1st 2025 through June 30th 2028 second motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman second by Schoolboard member prel any additional discussion or comments okay not seeing any roll call vote School Board member preville yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 5- Z and again this will be on for Council approval Monday night okay now takes us to item e and that is the main Paid Family Leave Act recommendation okay so earlier this year I provided some information to you as we know that the main uh Paid Family
030Medical Leave Act um requires employees and employers to pay up to a half a percent to access paid family medical leave and that law went into effect January 1st so currently our employ employees and the employer are paying those in some situations based off where you were on a collective bargaining agreement in our budget for this year we have budgeted the half of percent um knowing that those things will come forward and that we would um be paying that tax one of the opportunities that you have is to not enroll in the state program and go with a private provider and we have our own tax identification number here on the school department side so as in some municipalities where you sha share the same tax ID number the city and the school would have
031to do the same thing I've been working with pacan and Carol um getting quotes on this and um there's a significant financial savings to districts and to employees um by going with private insurance first number one any of the employees that are currently paying the half a percent and the district's paying the half of the percent if approved by the school committee on April 1 we could stop paying that half a percent and that would go until um the program starts which scheduled to be in May of 20126 there's some talk that it could actually be longer so we're avoiding something that's happening the second piece is I think it's when you look at the plans that School Employees have with sick leave they are probably better than sometimes what small businesses or uh could
032offer and so by going with the state program you're locked in at the half a percent each whereas if you're part of private insurance company you may actually if not accessing the benefit you could theoretically go lower our quote came in based off our demographics is at actually 0.93 which would be less than um state plan by also by voting on this it would allow us to go back in and recalculate the half a percent that we have in our budget which would be approximately I believe I'm going to have about $100,000 that I'm hoping to to free up on this and so uh that's another reason that I'm Rec recommending this and then the final reason is when working with your insurance companies in a carrier they they've they've worked on these plans um
033and they provide customer service I'm not 100% sure that long term um I feel like the state will be able to service us as well because essentially we are more of a client in the situation and could choose to move other some of our other policies in getting this quote with Standard Insurance Company one of the things that we must do as part of this is have another one of their products and currently uh the way for us to do this with a premium of about $9,000 a year would then be able to offer um a $10,000 life insurance policy to all of our employees um so that would be something that would be part of this program for us which is another great benefit that we could offer to our employees so I don't
034see a lot of downside on this one um pretty much uh We've made decisions in other municipalities to go this route a lot of other municipalities and School departments are going the same direction um and anytime you know in my opinion if I can avoid a payment or a tax and push something off uh and save employees money even that half percent I would go that direction great thank you any questions or comments for the superintendent school board member roach all right it's the numbers thing so I'll ask um so when the law was passed it's not making Public Schools municipalities fund the program these these 18 or 14 months it's not making them do it no no you have and I I think there is a lot of challenges with this law yeah um
035because as I was saying to the insurance company today because everybody appears to be going in the direction of private insurance carriers while also trying to raise the state program that's going to be managed and my piece of it was typically education has great sickly benefits historically through collective bargaining agreements that I suspect that municipalities and or School departments will access us a lot and so the law in my the The View that I'm looking here is okay we have a law that's going to increase revenues for insurance companies coming from taxpayer funds that doesn't make lot of sense to me right but that's the direction we're going and My Hope being that as we bring more clarity to this program that there may be exemptions for schools and municipalities and I know there's a
036bill out there so we can delay that piece um because I don't I understand the concept and personally to make sure that somebody had some sick days I'm kind of personally not speaking for the school department I feel like that is a benefit for some places but for a benefit that I probably won't access at all I struggle with that uh for taxpayer funded and I think the other piece that is as you look at some of the programs that have happened in other states um I worry about people being out more and having access to something more than they contractually have because I need teachers in the classroom kids we struggle with substitutes already so you asking for there's a vote tonight because April 1st is a deadline to contribute to the state program
037for the next 14 or 13 months correct before it actually starts correct I just thought that was a mandate but I guess it's not yes not to get in the private sector but is it is there a level of employees to or is it all small businesses too so my understanding is that if you're under if you're 15 employees and under it's only paid for by the employee not the employer okay the half percent okay but all W2 employees in state of Maine have have to choose and contribute um so these private businesses have to decide by April 1st to contribute to the state yeah you can go past that date but April 1 by doing this now our hoping is that our application you know that you have to that the insurance company will
038be put in as soon as these votes are taken will then allow us to get approval as soon as possible so you can stop making that payment and then the last thing is the state requires the 1% total contribution the savings with the private sector is really the difference between the one and the 0.93 but our big savings is not contributing for the next 13 months that's the big that is correct okay so the risk just to clarify though the risk is though is that in 13 months from now 14 months from now the private sector could be above that one that one we won't be it could be but it for our situation it wouldn't because we wouldn't have any claims I mean up up to that point up to that point so I'm
039talking maybe then another year years down the road could be in a that's that's the risk and we could always shop it and decide elsewhere okay thanks Schoolboard member Truman how long um if we were to contract with this insurance carrier how long is the term is it just a one year term every time or yeah we could shop that like Insurance okay so just if it goes up too high we can join back in with the state could we ever join back in with the state if we wanted to at some point could yes I just don't understand how they're gonna fund this if everybody's jumping but neither do I that's for another group anyone else okay not seeing anyone is there a motion Madam mayor Schoolboard member tman I move we approve Contracting
040with a private insurance carrier for pfml insurance motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Purble any additional discussion or comments okay not seeing any roll call vote Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 5 okay that takes us to item F and that is the health insurance memo meab BT renewal so this is just informational but not the information that we really love to receive uh based off health insurance rates so as you can see from the memo um schools receive their insurance for the mea benefits trust um and in the budget this year we have 10 % uh in as a number uh for an increase
041which in most years has been totally fine but then this memo came out the other day um and you know kind of some difficult news to receive is that the trust in itself increase all across the state is going to see a 17.89% increase in other years the trust has had had money to buy down that rate from um some of its reserves or uh applied credit and last year they used $28 million um to buy down the rate well there was no Surplus last year uh and the trust uh has ended the plan year in a historically a positive position now it doesn't have that positive position and so I guess I'm what I'm saying here is while we have 10% in the budget until that number comes out in early April we may
042have to go on the other direction on that increase um this is the first time in my 13 years of being a superintendent that this type of letter has come to us about health insurance uh so that tells me that we're not going to see communities getting zero um and we're going to see more in that 10 plus percent range so just informational but definitely an item for us to watch any comments Schoolboard member roach what's what's an extra 7% to our budget I think that percentag 1% tends to be around $40,000 plus or minus and sometimes that changes based off the plan i' I'd want to calculate that out Kevin anyone else okay thank you for the information moving on to item G and that is a budget presentation Okay so as you know
043we have uh we've talked about several uh budget items uh been through a memo last week we've talked about our EPS funding and we know where that comes from and we' spent a lot of time talking about valuation and so in preparation for city council uh I want to talk through a little bit more highlight uh I guess this is kind of like a preseason game for the city council uh because it's the same presentation that we will get um but want to start talking about um Sako school budget and and where we are today and so when you look at um the Sako schools U you know prek through 8 we need to make sure that we provide a situation where rooms are staffed we are accountable to taxpayers we're providing a great education
044for our kiddos but we also know that it can be very challenging times for taxpayers because we're just one half of the municipal budget the other half is city council and we know as Citizens we still want to make sure that our recycling is picked up and the roads are plowed and we have pavement and all of those good pieces so we're one side of the coin the city's the other side of the coin and we have to work together to make sure that at the end of the day this is something that um our citizens can can deal with uh and live with as we move forward now the more challenging part of it is that while City councils are held accountable for budgeting through elections we in education get to have a vote
045on our budget every year and so when things are out of whack uh compared to public uh perception that's when you can struggle um passing a local budget one of the things that while we had great support last year for the budget I think we had also a lot of support of people who came to the polls last year which actually is is a good thing because we had what around 4,000 people last June who were voting on the school and the school budget and in both of those scenarios you had 70 to 75% of your public supporting that so that's a you know that's a good sign what scares me a little bit is that in some of the communities that weid consider affluent communities in Southern Maine the margin of Victory uh I
046guess if you that's what you want to call a budget validation boote or an approval is really starting to shrink gorum two votes um you know like 30 votes in gy so I think the public is feeling some pressure uh and we know that when we look at the economy or the cost of food there is definitely pressure out there for um our citizens and so we've spent a lot of time talking about valuation uh and I think as a school committee over the last four years we've understand the correlation between valuation um and what that does for your school funding and one of the things that's really interesting here about Sako is that we know that valuation has increased uh and increased quite sign significantly but it has been in a situation where we
047have been under the state average which is a very positive thing for us when you Eclipse State average that's where your subsidy counts uh your subsidy formula works in the wrong direction for you um and our city valuation has growth by 11.64% while the state average is a little over 125% now when you think about valuation growth there are two different challenges that come with that there's new valuation which is you know great when a new house goes up or a new business and that's like okay we're getting more than this the land value but if we're looking at Phil in the back of the room who's living in his house and doesn't want to sell and just wants to continue to live in Sako happily he has a value a increase on his house
048there really is false money uh and that's what I I say like you can sell your house for this but if you don't want to leave and you have to buy another house really not that good for you right now um and so you know that's the piece that we have to think about in all of this is that people's houses are become more valuable because of sales around us but yet they have no desire to leave their house or leave Sako and we have to worry about tax rate as we go to the EPS formula page uh on this we've gone through this uh here as a group and we'll go through this on city council and they've gone through it the last couple of years but we know that our student counts our
049ratios between um teachers and students are important to us and then on page two is a lot of our weighted student counts and one of the things that we know about recent change in this community is just last year we were talking about how one in 25% or one in four of our students are living in poverty in one short time that number is now one and three so we're seeing an increase of um you know upwards of 7% or more and it's on another slide of our students and families who are struggling economically we also know that we have had a large influx in um multi language Learners here in the district and at the same time while that has brought an additional weight in count we do have to be careful um On
050The Backs side of this because as we've talked about um the hotel and that funding program leaving and possibly less students in our schools on the back side we could see a student count drop and those in awaited count situation drop which could then plunge our subsidy in another year uh so we just have to be very mindful of that um there are a couple of big bills that we've had uh in work with um representative Archer has sponsored one of those um and there are two bills uh ld93 and then LD 501 that are very significant builds bills for us LD 193 which is U representative archers Bill puts a 0.5 weight for students living in homelessness on page two and ld5 uh 501 increases the weight from 0.15 to 0.25 for economically disadvantaged
051which would help our community in the funding pieces uh those bills will go to Workshop uh in the coming months and if there's testimony or any of those pieces Megan and I are happy to work with you uh really working both sides of the aisle on that one of the importance when you continue through our funding formula and you look at our our valuation in a lot of ways we're still in great shape um because the state share of education for Sako next year is going to be 51% now in the prior meeting that I was at just two hours ago we're talking about a state share of 37% it's a very different situation uh that we have today um and we have uh just in our own area in the SCH School departments that
052I'm presenting on tonight a very different type of scenario playing out and we'll talk about that a little bit about where we are Sako wise and show you where some of the others are one of the things that I want to draw your attention to in the next slide is when you look at the cost of students that we spend to educate Sako students and we've had some discussion about this uh earlier but what I want to draw your attention to overall in this is that when you look at where we compare in Southern Maine we're kind of at the Midway point to the bottom half of this and so when you talk and listen to to people out in the community this is the slide I want you to carry in your pocket because
053you can look at all of the other communities around us that spend significantly more per student so if we were spending at the level of Ky let's say there'd be an extra $12 million in our budget I think those are important things to look at and understand as we go through this we have a great educational program and great facilities here uh or or programs and we're moving to Great facilities um and we're operating just slightly above State average it's a pretty good thing we're efficient in all the places that we like to be uh and are manageable and we try to use our resources as well but also look up look up the chart don't look down the chart look up the chart because we could be at a level that could bring more
054programming to our students when we look at the demographics U of our students here one of the things that you can see is that we do have more students um in 20145 than we have in Prior years but ALS Al remember that approximately 80 some odd students uh are occupants of the hotel and so if that program goes away our numbers are going to be more similar to the enrollments that are like 171 18 uh than the upper TW Trend looking at the percentage of our students that are economically disadvantage and seeing that that's gone up the number of Els we serve is 8 and a half% of our current population and special ed counts are around 18% of our student population now when we look at this budget and we think about what um
055our needs are and you think about budget adjustments currently in the budget uh based off our current situation I've got um one and a half El teachers added to that budget and three new El Ed teex now this budget was started to be put together prior to having a full understanding of what was happening with the hotel and still not having a full understanding of where that will look at but that's an area where we'll probably spend a little bit more talking about once we get more information I think also I don't think that just if the hotel program was to go away that we could cut back on all of that because I think we're a little underserved right now we know know that last year outside of the budget pro pro uh process
056we added an additional teacher um at young school and that's in the budget to maintain those levels throughout the springtime throughout the budget process as we look at things we are going to have to continue to do have to do two things on student population one look at the enrollments at Young School look at the enrollments at Fairfield School and possibly based off where the growth is we may have to go back to thinking about hey parents which ones may want to go to Fairfield school and if class sizes are too big and too small over there the ability to shift another teacher over to Young School really isn't there it's just Prett Tapped Out on space and so that would be more about having the conversation of what if we have to redraw lines
057a little bit to accommodate those pieces hopefully do it through Choice um is that's the best scenario because in through choice is the best way to do it and get through three years uh because you don't want to split up families or people who've been in school for a while but I'm sure there's a process that we can get to um from a curriculum piece as we look at our spending um one of the things Meg's doing with the principles is really examining software programs uh that you use throughout the district curriculum um just looking at our children and feedback that we get how much examining how much time a Kido during the school day is spent on top of the laptops involved in a software program versus direct instruction and I think that's needs
058to be a greater conversation through curriculum committee and at the budget process because you know I don't know that through the day we need kids totally glued to these because they're they're probably more than we want them to be after hours as well um think about those things continue to think about uh Staffing ratios and where we are at the surrounding communities think about our Capital Improvements at SMS we've done a lot and there's still a lot to do um examine our fund balance uh you know four years ago we were in a tough spot we owed the city some money and you know now we have a healthy fund balance as a school department and I really hope that before we move into the new schools we can address the one portable that is
059left at SMS um and figure out a solution to that uh without there being um a tax hit but more of using fund balance that we've been able to manage throughout the process um want to continue to look at energy and fuel costs um out of District placement and alternative programming um making sure there's Equitable assignments as we talked about between the two schools um and then also understanding the staffing needs as we continue to refine what's going to happen as we move into the new complex we've talked about that a lot of where are we going what do we need and how do we get there in a way that doesn't impact employees when you look at the the cost drivers um in this scenario 9 through 12 tuition is an increase of about
060$1.3 million salaries is about 1359 million health insurance is $236,000 but remember that we people have different plans from year to year year and so that 236 encompasses some change in plans um because we did see um some changes from going throughout the district whether that's full family down to a single or two adults through the hiring process and others that seemed to be something that stood out to us um and so as we look at a percent increase that number throughout the district is much larger that 1% than the 236 the 129 in benefits about $100,000 of that would be the half a percent reduction that we could take out of the budget School construction is 1.1 million so that is your first Debt Service payment one of the pieces is is you're going
061to get state aid for that amount of money once the bond is sold in the fall so when you look at um a 4.3 million increase please know that 1.1 of that is going to be offset with a revenue coming directly from the state for the building project you will not see that in our EPS formula um but it will be added money once that bond is sold they've earmarked that at the state level when you look at the overall picture for us we received about a million and a half dollars in more State subsidy so that was a positive based off 279 and the information that came out and we factored in all of these costs so in this scenario when you look at our expenditure for expenditure you're looking at an 8.35% increase
062in expense when you factor in adult education and the subsidy that you get and the state construction project currently you're looking at a 4.89% increase to the tax taxpayer so just for the other side of the coin where the expenses are higher than the tax increase here in my other life two hours ago I was giving just the exact opposite where the expenses are lower percentage versus a tax increase because of the state funding in land and property valuation so you know for the first draft of where we are today in looking at a 489 I'm fairly positive going into the council piece it doesn't mean that this is where we're going to end up because there are some factors that um from health insurance to the pmla um to just looking at what our
063student population will be next year and then also looking at some of those comparable services and making sure that we're staffed either are we too low or are we too high um and then working with the city council um to think about what the overall picture is for our taxpayers is where we need to go next uh and I think that typically we'll get some good feedback on Monday night and as the next month starts to occur we'll start to have a better understand understanding about where our community can um and what they can handle because certainly I am not unrealistic to think that we need to be concerned about families pocketbooks elderly um and all of the uncertainty that we live with right now and be cautious the other piece that I will make
064sure to you know remind us and the council about being cautious is that while this payment for school construction is offset by the state Let's Do Re that in just a few short years we will be picking up a local share of that um about 40ish million dollars or 3540 million that will be a local debt payment that will add to our tax rate so happy to answer any questions about we are today any questions or concerns for superintendent Ray Madam mayor School Board member Richards so for health insurance it's just up up in the air at this point yeah I mean I usually we so typically what happens is the last week of March you'll get an email from the the benefits trust that will say the band of this year's increases will be
065between this percent and this percent then you go to your experience rating and you say oh this is a good year or a bad year I'm going to be on the upper piece or the bottom of it and our experience rating is not good this year um and so you have that news for about a week and a half and then they have a meeting and then usually first Friday and like April you get an individual letter of what your rate's going to be estimated to go up about 7% 8% so I have 10% of the budget but they had 17% scared me in that letter uh so if we had to add an additional 7% I I just don't know I and you estimated what for was it 40,000 per percent yep so you're
066looking at potentially like another 300,000 280 yeah that would be that's not the news that we're looking for thank you anyone else Schoolboard member roach thank you Jeremy hopefully didn't didn't uh uh we have city council guests here hopefully they're still awake back there how you doing so um but um they just like the presentation that much that they wanted to hear they want dou up they want to double that up don't want any guinnesses affecting them on St Patrick's Day for the real presentation so bring your own um so um now for basically 5% hair under hair under 5% um now not to say we should Pretend We're another Community but you know South Portland made the news here with um they got some you know know some serious uh issues to deal with
067um and I'm not saying where would go that road but you know in case on the city Side they're going to need less of an increase from us um and we'll kind of let that meeting happen to really go into numbers but there are areas here that you would look at in case uh Council does want to point point I mean I I brought up at the last meeting that you know all the federal government the state government it might not be best to um adjust revenues upward but you know main care could be could be higher and it could cut a half a percent from the budget um um UND undated fund operations what what is that there's a slight increase for that similar increase oh just let me look at that one so
068that's um that's the fund for operations of from the undesignated fund which is our carryover yeah that's uh I put an extra $50,000 in there from last year but that's also matched with an expenditure and then other you know big areas are of course each of the schools um special education you know is there you know without without squeezing it too much is there are areas there that you would you would see um you know based on student count say for TA or or um where classes come in between Fairfield and young you know what you see anything that that could yeah I I think that you know after our meeting with the city council and again looking at all the economic factors like take main care we've added $50,000 to that possible Revenue income
069because you know Jess and the team have done a really nice job uh Billing at that piece that's actually one of the more scarier ones that I'm a little bit worried about as as as a as a whole because I don't know what's going to happen on the main care level um or you know Medicaid uh Nationwide if there are reductions to that that could be a scary one the other piece is that without the budget being the supplemental budget being passed in Augusta we could see major delays so having a good idea of exactly what's coming in we may not see a lot of that until the fall from this point forward because it sounded like for 90 days uh things were going to be pretty tough we do sit on a strong fund
070balance um which could help us with those but I think it's also just like you always have to look at what your population is and your student needs and what your service levels are and uh staff time and all those pieces just to make sure that we do The Balancing Act to make sure that if we need something I I want to have a a situation here as an always if we're coming and asking for something it's because we need it and if there's an opportunity if something shift within the district and you don't have the same level of need you need to be willing to say we've got to give it back um and I I say that as a need give back situation because if you always come ask ask ask people are
071thinking that there's never any shifts and I want to make sure that we have that relationship with the council and here is that hey sometimes when we needed when we needed the teacher last year at Young School I don't think any of us really blinked and I don't think anybody in the public really blinked but if I didn't have the numbers to back that up to request that again that's where you have uh distrust build and we want to make sure that that doesn't happen great thank you anyone else okay not seeing anyone all set thank you very much okay moving on to item H this evening that is the second reading of the 2025 2026 school calendar are we just looking for a motion y any backup explanation or additional superintendent so on the
072second reading of the calendar seems like everybody is uh for the districts around it is choosing the version number number two um we were able to make a switch on um the open house nights uh and so we'd like to put this version to that second reading um Madam mayor is there a motion School Board member Truman I move we approve version two of the 2025 26 school calendar motion motion has been made by school board member Truman second by Schoolboard member pribble any additional discussion or comments Schoolboard member Truman I just want to say thank you all the principles um I know we got a request from pto's to move the open houses I think it was important not only for the volunteer aspect but also to accommodate parents I'll be in that boat
073next year having kids at Burns and at SMS having them on the same night uh was going to be tricky but also if you consider parents who have one car or one parent and trying to split their time I know I'll have a very anxious sixth grader next year who I'll probably need to spend that whole two hours there um and I don't want to neglect my other child so um thanks for everybody being super flexible and making that open house change in there and I'm really excited about the two weeks off in December so great thank you anyone else you plus the dads who avoid conferences appreciate the switch I'm not second I know okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Truman yes
074and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes uh 5- Z and that is to accept version two okay moving on to item I and that is the nwaa winter dates winter data so I just wanted to provide this informationally we spent some time digging into the data at curriculum committee and talking about some specific grade levels and areas of either really high growth in Winter to Winter or lower than expected growth everything that you're kind of looking at on here average is 50th percentile on the left left hand column you have that growth percentile so did you grow a year in a year's time which would be 50th percentile above is more than a Year's growth in a year's time less is less than a Year's growth in a year's time but also remember that we're
075looking at average scores so we're not comparing necessarily Apples to Apples we're looking at the average of that grade level the year before and the average this year so it can be impacted by particular high or low scores for movein or moves out move outs um on the right hand column you see the achievement percentile which just means on average the average score of all of our students in that grade level is it at the 50th percentile which would be equal to the national average or above or below that so generally speaking we see that we have some growth percentile highs and lows our achievement percentiles are generally hovering just above or below the 50 percentile for Math and in Reading we see about the same thing again with pockets of higher growth or slightly
076Higher Achievement and then some Pockets that seem like anomalies I will share as I always do with this data that the really powerful work that happens happens within our school level team meetings both in looking at individual students that are either receiving additional supports and how well are those students growing growing or are there students that aren't showing the growth that we would like to see from them and what supports are we going to change or put into place for those students so that they do make growth another really great aspect of the work that our coaches have been doing is looking at the subgroup scores both for grade levels and individual classroom teachers and that allows us to actually say okay this teacher or this grade level is really strong with computation but maybe
077not so much with data analysis and what can we do between the winter and the spring to Target those subgoal areas that may be of particular need or how can we capitalize for those teachers or grade levels that have that as a particular strength to make sure that's spread out across multiple areas happy to answer any specific questions thank you any questions Schoolboard member roach so on the growth percentile on the lowest numbers um for third fourth and fifth grade even though seventh grade is a little low um is that due do you think to the covid effect that they're coming from the prek up to that point we talked a little bit in curriculum committee about like which grade levels were in covid at what time and if we thought that had an impact
078I think we while we had a lot of discussion around that I wouldn't say that at this point for the grade levels where we're seeing that lower growth percentile that it is that it is related to covid personally I mean there's there's like a longstanding lag that we're still seeing nationally and in the state of Maine but I don't think it has to do with that I will say that our um the second to third grade test is a change in assessment so the band of how difficult the questions can be changes like our K2 test the S even since it's an Adaptive test our kids can only go up to I think it's like fourth or fifth grade skills whereas when they're in third grade we're in a 35 or two five test but
079they can get harder questions if they answer things correctly uh we can't look at individual we can look at individual scores but unlike a paper final exam that I was used to having as a kid you as a teacher you can't say oh this student got this question right and this question wrong you kind of just see that in generalities so we we will definitely keep a close eye on that sometimes it can be because there was a really high average the year before and so it's like hard to keep that average up so when we look at our fifth grade in um sorry let me look at math when we look at our third grade in math at the 34th percentile for growth which is certainly concerning but then we look over into the
080right- hand column and see that in this assessment they were in the 52nd percentile so that kind of means that they were performing much higher than the 50th percentile 52 percentile last year which is why that growth percentile is not at 50 this year also the achievement is based on the national so correct So Co wouldn't necessarily have an effect there because it's the whole nation experience in it yes though they have not rored their last Norm set of data is from 2015 to 2020 so it is those percentiles are compar compared to preco data NWA has released some data since then not to rorm them by percentiles yet though we're expecting that soon but just to say that in looking at recent data kids are generally speaking performing below the percentiles that they were
081performing which is consistent with that nape data as well thank you anyone anyone else hey not seeing anyone thank you thank you Meg okay that now takes us to item 13 and there is no other information this evening item 14 there is no executive session and item 15 is a motion to adjourn so moved second motion made by Schoolboard member Truman second Vice School Board member purle okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 0 to adjourn at 8:20 and thank you everyone and have a great evening