001Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Saka School Committee to order at 5:00 p.m. like to invite you all to join us in the pledge of allegiance. That brings us to item three of the agenda, approval of school committee meeting minutes dated September 8th, 2021. Is there a motion, Mr. Mayor? School board member Truman. I move we approve the school committee meeting minutes dating dated September 8th, 2021. Motion's been made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? Second. Second by school board member Prebble. Any discussion on the minutes. Roll call vote on the minutes. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. School board member Lefortune. Yes. And school board member Truman. Yes. Motion passes 40. Brings us to item four. There are no adjustments to the agenda.
002Brings us to item five. There's no correspondence in the packet. Okay, no correspondence brings us to item six, public comment. We have Susan Newire who is signed up. If you could come forward, please speak directly into the microphone, state your name and address for the record and present your comments to the school board. Thank you. My name is Susan Newire, 34 Wildwood Drive for 30 years. I want to thank you for the countless hours you put in as elected officials faced with making important decisions for the future of our city. When I stopped at city hall to pay our property taxes recently, three words came to mind. Value, education, and leadership. These words are defined by Webster this way. value. A fair or proper equivalent in money, commodities for something sold or exchanged. Fair price,
003the worth of a thing in money or goods at a certain time. Market price. Education. The process of training and developing knowledge, skill, mind, character, especially by formal schooling, teaching, training, leadership, the position or guidance of a leader, the ability to lead. We're all faced with personal and global challenges during these times of the pandemic. How educators respond to various circumstances matters greatly. Public education is very important to me. I'm proud to say that I'm the third generation to be involved in this endeavor. Although now I'm retired. I know the bottom line is imperative in many actually most of life's decision but public education is not just a business. It is much more than that. Collaborative decisionmaking is important for leadership within a community that cares about its children and its future. I urge you
004to approach this work wisely and thoughtfully. Thank you very much for listening to my comments. Thank you. Uh that is it that have signed up. Is there anyone who would like to address the school board that did not sign up? If so, come forward and be heard. Seeing no one seeking recognition, moving on from public session to item seven, superintendent's report. Superintendent Ray. Okay, good evening everybody. Uh, a few items to report. Our pool testing program will begin on October 4th. Uh, so in just two short weeks, we will beginning uh begin testing our students and and staff members to help hopefully protect ourselves from any major quarantines. We've been, knock on wood, very lucky so far. Uh and so we're looking forward to that work beginning. We've hired a couple of uh employees that
005will uh work with the testing and we have 10 to 12 uh students from uh some of the college nursing programs that will be helping us in this. Uh our nurses have just done a fantastic job, but it's a lot every single day to continue to go down this path. uh and there's just no way that we could um t they could take on that uh process by themselves. Transportation routes are getting better, but we still need employees. Uh getting employees in some of our hard to uh fill positions such as bus drivers, edte, custodians, teaching positions uh is something that the administrative team has been working on. We met yesterday as principles and directors. today as a central office staff to look on uh recruitment and hiring strategies, what kind of job fairs we
006might have, advertising that we could do, which uh you know niches would could we be advertising on and then also just looking at help with how we take applications, get them into the frontline system. It can be a process for some who may struggle. If you struggle with technology, that could be a barrier. So looking at ways to eliminate those. Tomorrow afternoon at 4 o'clock, we'll have a site inventory committee meeting as we begin to look at all of the sites in the city for the possible new school building. Uh we are starting to get some information coming in from the Google form that we've put out there. But if we have any other residents that listen to these and they're parts of land or things that people may not be thinking about, we need
007to have your ideas. It's very simple form to fill out. Basically, your address, an address of a piece of land. Um, and then we can start uh weighing those and evaluating those. We hope to have some work done by the end of uh November on that piece. The SR3 application will be submitted this upcoming week and we're going to talk about that during the agenda and that's for $2.4 million of federal funds. Um like everybody else uh school departments, parents, we're waiting to hear about what the vaccination um kind of rules will be from the FDA on 5 to 11 year olds and then once we get that information, we'll be actively looking to hold clinics in this area. um stat that uh we Chris has been spending a lot of time working on is
008homeless and we know that we have a large number of our students who have seen disruption in housing. We have 17 confirmed CA uh homeless students that we are serving in the district, 12 confirmed homeless uh situations which are outside the district and 19 that are still unknown and being investigated. So, uh, we're seeing that rise, uh, in every situation, uh, where housing here in the area is becoming harder for people to maintain, harder for people to get. Uh, I know when people, um, fall into one of these situations, they say, "Hey, we're looking for housing here in SACO." That's a really tough job for someone right now. Uh so affordable housing is uh definitely a challenge for many right now, but wanted to keep you up to date as we continue to worry. Uh
009thankfully our kids in preK through 8 have the opportunity to have that free meal every day, breakfast and lunch um that's provided. But uh as we work with our community partners on food insecurities and whatnot, um we need to be reaching out to every single partner. We're very thankful for our food banks and for Youthful Maine uh who does a lot of the fresh fruits and vegetables uh for some of our families. Any questions? Seeing no questions. Thank you, Superintendent Ray. Moving on to item nine, which is excuse me, item eight, which is the chair's report. Chair Le Fortune. Yep. I have um something very quick tonight. So, I have uh it's not really report. We are in a position where we've as a result of the last meeting now have some vacancies on committees.
010Um there's very low likelihood that any of these committees are going to meet before our organizational meeting after the election in December, but I'm going to go ahead and backfill them anyway just on the off chance that we do need um to have one of these meetings between now and then. So for strategic, I'm going to add in the open spot Jeff Richard. For finance, I'm going to add Beth Johnston. infrastructure. I'm adding Sarah Truman and personnel. I'm adding Jen Prebble. Um and that is the all of the standing committees that had an open um at this point in time. And so that'll be just to get us through to December, which may ultimately not be needed anyway, but just so that we have it there, we'll go ahead and do that. Thank you. Brings
011us to item nine of the agenda, staff reports. There are no staff reports this evening. Uh item 10, board subcommittee meetings. There are no subcommittee meeting minutes to review. Brings us to item 11, old business. There's no old business to discuss. And brings us to item 12, which is new business. Uh, several items. Item A and item B are new hires and resignations. There was a memo in the packet. Superintendent Ray, do you want to follow up on any of the memos that were received in the packet? So, new hires, there are there are none that need to action. the school committee and then resignations. U resignations. Uh we have a res accept the resignation of Maggie Thorne uh school secretary at Fairfield School. Thank you. That brings us to item C, a young school
012auxiliary building and contract and floor plan. Superintendent Ray. Okay. So, as part of our SR3 application um that we'll be putting in part of our reopening plan talked about an auxiliary building um to be built at Young School, which would be four classrooms. This money would come from um as I said, the SR3 grant at a cost of about $1.2 million in contingencies. One of the pieces that we look at is that we continue to have um kind of a squeeze at Young School. It's it's tough there as we look at all of the new building and homes that are being constructed on that side of town. And then the fact that every single springtime if we have a bump in a classroom, Jeff doesn't have a classroom to put them in. also long-term looking
013at we know that we will be five to six years before we have a new building or new school commit uh new school in this community. We know that the toddle in lease will end before that time. So as a community we're going to have to make some decisions around where is prek going to go in four years. And so as we look at all of those conversations, the fact that you have a conversation every springtime around are we going to need a portable or not on that side of town by building this building using federal funds over the next four or five years until we're into a new building. You've taken care of that situation. You have the space. Now, in addition, we've worked with Ryan Summer at the uh Sako Parks and Wreck
014to think about what could be the long-term uses of this building for the wreck department. So, after we're in a new school, could this be a place for senior citizens? Could this be a place where you have larger scale meetings? we would construct this building and the floor plan to have removable walls that could go could fold back and forth because one of the place things that we struggle with even as a school department if we try to bring 15 to 20 people together to talk about something the only location we really have here in town is here a cafeteria or a library at the middle school and during parts of the day you can't do any you you know you can't just take over the middle school library to have a Um, when you
015look at situations in our special education department, safety care training that needs to happen every year, if Jess needs to have a training, there's no space for that. So, this gives us an opportunity to solve some possible problems along the way, construct this building using federal funds, not at the local taxpayer expense, something that could meet the needs of Ryan and Sako Parks and Rex in the future. and always give Jeff an out when we have 22 kids in a classroom and we say no, it's time to add another teacher. Um, so I'm recommending that we approve the contract on this building so that we can begin to take the steps with planning board all the water pieces to make sure that we have something in place in the fall. Any questions for Superintendent Ray?
016Mr. Mayor, school board member Truman. Um, how many classrooms are there currently for preK? Looking at the numbers, it's like five or six classrooms. We're at seven classrooms now. Seven classrooms. So, as you start to think about, let's just say it stays at seven. And let's hope that in four years Jeff doesn't need more classrooms or space. There's four of those classrooms that could be taken advantage of. Uh ideally you would want your prek all in one space, but if you're looking at a year out from construction of a new building that solves that problem. As a community, you might say, "Hey, we're going to do this for a year or we're going to do that for a year." But it gives us an option um because we know that the the total lease is,
017you know, in five years that eclipse is $300,000 per year. Um and this might give us a little buffer for a couple. Thank you. Any further questions? Superintendent Ray, do you want to vote on this? Yes. So, I'd like to have a motion to move forward with this uh plan and building. Obviously, this is a plan on our end that we still need to have our SR3 application approved. Um, but it can get the process rolling. Is there a school board member willing to make a motion? Mr. Mayor, school board member of Fortune. I move that we accept the contract with AIA to uh build this auxiliary building at Young School. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Roll call member Leforge. I all I wanted to say is that we had um had
018a very similar discussion at the finance committee meeting earlier and this from all of the for all the reasons that Jeremy stated is a sound decision. I mean we do have all of those things coming down the line that we are going to have to figure out. Space at Young has been a problem. Space in all of our buildings has been a problem, but space at Young um seems to be an ongoing issue. Todd Toddle's going to go away eventually. Um this seems like a really good way to acquire some space that we wouldn't otherwise have. Thank you. Just uh folks, just make sure to speak into your microphones so that everyone can hear you. Uh, Superintendent Raid, the I can't remember off the top of my head, but the total in lease does allow
019for a year-to-year extension beyond the five years. Is that correct? Off the top of my head, Bill, I would be able to say yes or no. There are some causes to do some pieces. Jason, do you know that piece? Is it year to year afterwards or for the next five years? We may want to look into that because I seem to remember a year to year as long as it was approved by the school board and city council. Uh, with that, any further discussion on this item? Roll call vote on this item. School board member Prebble? Yes. School board member Richard? Yes. School board member Lefortune? Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. Motion passes 40. Brings us to item D, an updated student count from preK to 8 and TA. Superintendent Ray. Correct. So, there's
020no action that's needed on this item. This is moreformational, just uh giving you the numbers of students in each grade level at this point at 1827 preK through 8th grade. And then uh at this point in time based off calculations last week, 98 students at Thornton Academy. Um I know that numbers down just a little bit based off some work that we did today. Uh but we are verifying enrollments and this is where we are heading into the October one subsidy counts. Thank you. Any questions for Superintendent Ray on the student counts? Okay, moving on. Item E, transportation update and changes with bullet points, next steps, morning runs, hiring and recruitment. Superintendent Ray. Okay. So, uh, in your packet is the letter letter that we sent to families looking at how do we improve our
021transportation across the city because there are just runs are just way too long uh, for some of our younger kids. And this is part of it is a couple of different phases. one just the solid work that our principles did on looking at dismissal and want to take Burn School for example having construction there while we're trying to hasn't necessarily helped at all and I know that tomorrow afternoon is going to be a tough one for us um Patrick emailed us today and they're gonna be digging up the street in the water man and hoping to be done at dismissal time but one of the things that is just you know a super challenge is that in a in a change that we made is that we were loading buses at our ele at our
022two youngest schools, bringing our buses from young school across town, hitting the lights in the traffic, loading and then sending them right back through it again. And so at the end of the day, any delay that we have because you were sitting at the light for 10 minutes or you know the pavement uh brick work right here on Main Street uh just as you go across the lights if that was delayed. We had our middle school who had buses just coming in at all different times throughout the afternoon. And as we were looking at a 3:15 dismissal, he had times where uh Ken was having buses there at like 3:40. And so we worked really hard in the afternoon piece to think about, okay, what can we do to make some quick changes? How do
023we get buses out of Fairfield and transition them into burn school uh when there's not a lot of traffic and not having the young school buses? So we made some changes on that end so that the young school buses start at the burn at burn school and once we head that to that side of town we stay there which has improved u the bus times at the middle school. Traffic is certainly uh another concern and really looking at uh how parents come into our schools and we've done some pieces about one-way streets and Jeff at Young School has kind of changed his drop off just a little bit. Uh and as a parent there it seems like it's going pretty smoothly in the morning time asking people to turn one way out of the school
024in the afternoon. um you know most people can do that and accommodate that for us so that we can keep traffic off from Industrial Park. Uh in the afternoon it becomes very difficult. Um and then the the the last piece that we really need to look at is um we need to hire more drivers. We have three open positions and not a lot of applicants. So, anybody who is watching who would like to become a school bus driver, we will train you. We will support that piece. Um, we have three open positions. One of those positions needs to go to prek uh because the runs at prek for our four-year-olds are just way too long. We believe that we have a bus driver in the queue uh who can pick up that route which will
025be able to split those runs and get those runs hopefully under 45 minutes. The other piece that I um just need to say a thank you to John Suddy and uh Old Orchard uh school department because uh one of the switches it allowed us to take our Rundle runs that we have and they're able to transport our Sako Parks and Wreck kids instead of sitting at TA and uh the Old Orchard School Department is bringing our TA vocational students back over for us because it made no sense to have two buses sitting over there uh and they're doing that um as a favor to us. So, a lot of work to continue to do on transportation. I think morning runs are the next piece that we need to look at to make sure that uh
026kids aren't there too early or too late. I know we have a situation at the middle school where at 8:15 a large group of kids arrive um and the buses need to get on their way to Thornton Academy. Uh so it creates a coverage issue for us. Uh, and I would think say that the biggest piece is that as we start planning next year, we need to look at probably slightly adjusting our school start times in you just can't have Fairfield Young and Burns all start and end at the same time. It doesn't work. It's not possible. We need to have 10 minutes in between those buildings so that we can get that flow and not lose instructional time. Any questions for Superintendent Ray? Mr. Mayor, school board member problem. Just to clarify, um, thank
027you orchard for helping us. And again, Orchard helping us in that as a favor is not costing us money. Superintendent Ray, is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Moving on to item F, Essunds 3, application update. Superintendent Ray. Okay, this was an item that we went over in finance committee tonight. Just looking at um how we would spend that money uh that is given to us by the federal government for reopening of schools. And there is a breakdown uh in your memo that 20% of that money has to go to learning loss which will go towards paying the salary of an instructional coach. We have 1.345 uh 1.345 million uh of that money would go towards the auxiliary space at Young School which again 1.2 2 for the building, but we
028have 100,000 for contingency as you know in construction costs fluctuate up and down and then $45,000 for furniture. We have $50,000 in the bund budget for all of the reopening costs um that tend to pop up from week to week of new things, new testing kits, new nurses stations, carts that we need to go here um that we would have to spend. We have $120,000 uh in this for a swipe card system. Um I think one of the things that we all have felt not very comfortable with with our buildings is the keyed access and be able to have people have badges that can swipe into the buildings in and out. Uh having kind of the the call monitors with the video there so if someone's at the door buzzing in you can see what's
029there. Uh I think that's a weakness of ours that we need to have um available. We also want to move towards uh time cards access. So with the swipe cards, we have money in there for pool testing employees and additional nursing support over time over the next three years. Who knows how long we're going to continue to do this piece and we need to have additional nursing uh support there. Uh, docuine has been a great feature in the district that we will fund. Again, we have coaching and leadership stipens. As with the amount of new staff that we have, we really need to make sure that there's time after school um for instructional coaching and to have employees that we hire to do that. We have money in there for um moving to electronic employee
030files. We still have everything in paper and files and that's a big bite that probably would never you without some funding coming from the outside you would never have the opportunity probably to budget for that piece. So looking to make go into electronic storage of employees files. Um, one of the things that learned here, uh, since my time here is that there is some conversation and concern about the plowing piece, um, at the middle school and not having a good piece of equipment there. And so, we have a Bobcat with a sander. You have a lot of walkways there. uh worked with Ryan and Patrick on this piece of what would be the appropriate um piece of equipment up there that not only could help us during the school year but could serve the city
031uh in the non-school plowing times the years that would be a useful piece of uh equipment for them. And then also we have a phonics program um reboot that Meg has requested and then $100,000 for cleaning supplies and equipment as we look at um just the the increase in cleaning materials that you use right now. Uh try to offset that from the local plus at the same time as we move forward can we redo floor machines, add floor machines as employees become an issue. Sometimes you got to just have better equipment uh so that you can accomplish more more in less of a period of time. So questions about SR3 application. Thank you, Superintendent Ray. I don't see any questions. The only um the only clarification that I have is aside from the auxiliary space,
032there's really no there's no action that we need to take on this evening. This is correct information. So all of this stuff still has to get approved by the DOE once we write it and then it will come back to us. They may have be some projects that they want more information in or not. Um but that those are the next steps for us. So this isformational I just wanted to ask one more thing too with the the plow and sander that you mentioned um because I know you were talking to Ryan about that. That's something that is for our use when school's in session, but if like it's school vacation or something and we get a snowstorm that they're welcome to use that. Is that how that's working? Yeah. Well, we we kind of
033looked at uh all of the equipment and and put this out to Patrick and wire and said, "Okay, so what would be the best equipment to meet our needs and then what would be a piece of equipment and this is what they recommend the Bobcat Flower that could also meet the city's needs during the summertime, off off season, those types of things because um I think we really want to make sure that we're not buying anything that duplicates something else when we could buy something that serves all." Perfect. Thank you. Any further questions? Okay, moving on to item G, which is pool testing requirement for staff. Superintendent Ray. Okay. So, in the last two weeks, we there is a memo in your packet that talks about uh our request of the school committee uh to
034approve is that we know that coming down the line and this was kind of in motion before uh we got word from OSHA that the Biden um kind of requirement that any business over 100 people would require their employees to either be vaccinated ated or test weekly. When that announcement was made, um, municipal and school employees were excluded from that. But Maine is one of the 26 states and/or territories that has a state approved OSHA plan, which basically means that requirement now comes to us. And while the rules have not been written yet on what the vaccination and testing will look like, our nurses, our staff cannot continue to operate daytoday knowing who may test and who may test positive and have to go home or do we have to uh ramp up serial testing
035for an unvaccinated staff. It's just too much. Um, and they've been doing this now for, you know, well over a year. And we need to make sure that our children and our staff and our families are as well protected as possible. when we deal with some of the testing pieces that occur or we deal with COVID coming uh COVID situations at school, nine times well let's say it's more than nine times out of 10 these are cases that are coming from the outside get reported at school and we deal with the kind of the calls to parents and quarantining and whatnot puts staff in a tough place. Uh, and we want to make sure that staff are protected. We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make sure that school
036is a safe place and that our schools can stay in five days a week. And so we're recommending taking the step to before the rules are written to make sure that vaccination staff is status is reported to us. Um, and if not, we have a testing program put into place so that we can meet the federal requirements when that all comes out. Um, I think that for any of us who read the paper and you looked at vaccination status of the employees here, uh, that was in the press herald a couple of weeks ago became very frustrating that we had a situation where we needed to report out on our vaccination status. But the guidelines that were given to us by DHHS and the DOE is that we could put out an de unidentifiable survey
037so I could send you a survey. You didn't have to fill it out. I had no idea which ones filled it out or not because I wasn't allowed to track it. If you didn't answer the survey, it was an automatic no. Um, and so we want to have a situation where we know in our schools and if we have this and a person doesn't want to either tell us or they choose not to vaccinate, we will test to make sure that we're safe. Superintendent Ray, are you looking for a vote on this tonight? Yes, I am. Thank you. Any questions for Superintendent Ray? Is there a school board member willing to make a motion? School board member of Fortune. Mr. Mayor, I move we approve the recommendation um put forth regarding testing. Motion's been made
038by school board member Lefortune to approve the recommendation from the superintendent for pool testing requirement for staff. Is there a sec? Second by school board member Prebble. Any discussion? I think it, Mr. Mayor, I just think it makes sense to explore those things because if we're going to keep our schools open back to five, it is a good measure to move towards. Thank you. Any further does school board member Forge? A quick clarifying question. So if if the guidance comes down or things ultimately change where this either morphs into something more restrictive or goes away alto together um we're we're ultimately free to come back and revisit this. Correct. Correct. I think one of the pieces that right now we have the tool of pool testing and part of the reason that we would require
039pool testing is that there is a shortage of the BX now test test kits out there. So as this ramps up and as all employees employers start to put this into play um I suspect we'll see a greater shortage that's out there. What we don't know is whether pool testing will meet the standard of a negative test prior to coming to work once we hit the OSHA guidelines. So I suspect one way or the other, Kevin, we'll be back here with a modified plan of what we need to do based off that guidance. I think there's also another piece in the law where it says that you must test at least once a week. Um, but what that means, uh, whether we want to do more or need to do more, uh, is still a
040little bit of a wait and see. Any further questions? School board member Truman. Uh, I just want to say that I think this is wise to start a start some sort of expectations for staff just so that they know what could be expected of them. Um, just so that there's no, I don't know, noise about it later. I guess. Any further discussion? Roll call vote. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard? Yes. School board member Lefortune? Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. Motion passes. 40. Brings us to item H. An appointment of a board member for Ward One. You've received in your packet a couple of applications or resumes. one from Arthur Archie and one from Anthony Pleski. Arthur Archie, are you here? If you'd like to come down and say something to
041the school board, they're more than welcome to do so. So, Mr. Mayor, just from the standpoint of there not ever really being any definition of how the process works. Um, I'm completely fine with the with the direction that we're going in. I'm wondering if the path is really to go down the introduce yourself, let us know what you're why you're interested in school board and then potentially there would be additional questions that might get asked. That is the path that I'm on the similar path that we did for the city council. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Archie. Hi. I'd just like to introduce myself as Arthur Archie. Um, I am a concerned parent and a a younger, fresher face to the community and I would just like to take the opportunity to say hi to everybody.
042Um, I did submit a letter to you. Um, I tried to keep it short and sweet because I anticipated some questions. Um, and I'd just like to pass it off to Anthony. Thank you, Hardy. In case there's any questions, any questions from the board? school board member Lefor. Um I don't have a question per se. It's um maybe more of a little deeper dive into um what sort of drew you to interest in um filling this interim spot. Um well, I was uh I was concerned that nobody would and I'm already on the ballot um because I would like to represent my community. Um, and I own a local lawn care business and so I talk with a lot of the people in my community and so I can hear a lot of the comments
043and complaints and um I feel like our ward is going to miss Christina and I feel like we need somebody to step in and make sure that we're represented right Arthur, excuse me, have you uh sat on any boards or committees uh uh before this uh not in my adult life. Are you familiar with the FOYA or what is known as the Freedom of Access Act? I have done research on it. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? School board member president. Hi. Sorry. I have a couple questions. What's your availability? Because often with school board committee meetings, as time goes on, um there are added meetings. So, as a candidate running as well, but also in a potential position, are you available? What's that look like for you and your are you looking for
044actual hours or um I am looking for the fact that if your availability for meetings and things in with your in conjunction with your adult life? Um yeah, so I I get out of work I go into work very early and I get out very early. So, I have most of the evening to do um anything that's necessary. Any further questions? Okay. Thank you very much, Arthur. Uh up next is Anthony Pleski. Anthony, if you'd like to come forward, if you'd like to state anything that you haven't already in the letter that you sent to the school board. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Tony Pleski. Anthony is reserved for my father and bill collectors. Um, I live at 7 Chantel Way with my wife and two children who have just recently left the
045prek to 8 system. uh our youngest is now over at TA. I have been coming to these meetings for the past five or six years very regularly uh prior to Zoom. Um there were times where I was one of three non board members, non employees in the crowd. Uh and when I say there were times that way, there was years where it was that way. Uh I'm not here because I want to be here. I'm here because someone needs to be sitting over there and I think I could do a good job for the next couple months. I don't want to run. I don't want to do it long term. I think there's an end date there and and I think I could do a really good job so that you guys don't have to
046teach anybody any anything or at least not much of things for the next couple months. I also have had a couple conversations with Arty. Uh he'd be a good in that position as well. So, if you decide to go that way to get someone uh some on-ramp for who might win the election, I think you'd be fine in that regard, too. But I'm ready, willing, and able. To your question about time, I also run my own business. Uh I work from home, so I'd probably be available. Uh in full transparency, uh I've looked at the scheduled meetings, and I would probably miss the one during uh Thanksgiving week. We have an April 2020 vacation that has been rescheduled three times and will be occurring then. Uh but other than that, um I'd love to join
047you uh help out for the next couple months and uh if you have more questions, let me know. Thank you very much. Any questions for Tony? school board member for question I have is um I've been keeping track of the questions that we've asked and I'm assuming in the spirit of consistency that we ask the same ones to to everyone. So I guess that I'm going to just follow up with um if you could just outline some past involvement with committees in town. Sure. Um and then the foyer question was also asked. Sure. I have volunteered for and been appointed to uh a couple of administrative interview committees. So, a couple principles in town that I helped uh interview and select. Uh I was on one of the new school construction committees. There have been
048several in the past decade. I was on one of them. Uh I have attended not just the board meetings uh but also the subcommittee meetings uh for finance, infrastructure and strategic planning I believe uh and participated in discussions and uh conversations for those as well. Thank you. Any further questions? I think the only other one was the FOYA question. Oh, yes, the FOYA question. And I'm not sure how you are you familiar with the Freedom of Access Act and how that works in general? Yes. Thank you. Any further questions? Okay, Tony, thank you very much. Thank you. So, at this time there there there are no more members that have put in. Uh so the choice is up to the school board. Uh I think we can either have some discussion beforehand and then make
049a formal motion which I think is probably the the best bet or you can make a motion of a candidate then have some discussion and then make a vote on the candidate. Would you like to do discussion first or make a formal motion? I'll accept either. Is there a school board member who's ready to make a motion? I just want to say that um considering the circumstances where we have people already on the ballot. It feels I don't know if I can vocalize this. feels weird to for us to vote for somebody who's may or not may or may not be on the ballot. Um, and like perhaps we'd be giving them an upper hand. I don't know if that's if they are on the ballot, do you know what I mean? Like if someone
050is looking to run, I just I feel like that's up to their ward and it's still up to their ward to vote for them, too. But I don't know. It feels like a weird situation to be in. So, thank you, school board member of Fortune. I I I definitely see where you're coming from. I know the shortness of time in with respect to how close we are to the election. It's definitely something that is is something to consider. Um, but we have had instances in the past where someone has been appointed and then ultimately they run in the fall anyway. Um, I could go either way on that. It's either a tremendous advantage or potentially a tremendous disadvantage depending upon how the next few meetings go. So, I'm sort of on the fence. Any further
051discussion or are we ready for a motion? the the choice is up to the school board. So, uh at this point you have two candidates. One is on the ballot for uh December or excuse me for November and will take office in December. the other one is not on the ballot but has been a regular and active member uh of you know coming to these meetings and so forth. So you have two great candidates out there uh and now it's just your opportunity to make a choice uh for the next two months. School board member Truman I guess considering where I'm how I'm feeling about this whole process in general I I think I would be leaning towards Tony Pleski. Did I say it right? Okay. I was like Um just and I I think
052you guys are both great both great candidates um both have you know great interest in the schools and I think that um because Mr. Pleski is just looking to do short-term and is pretty familiar with the process and so we're not giving anybody on the ballot any kind of upper hand. I'd feel comfortable making a motion to um to have him be appointed. Motion to appoint Tony Pleski has been made by school board member Truman. Is there a second? Second. Second by school board member Prebble. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. School Board member Lefortune. I I just want to thank everyone, even the ones we haven't gotten to yet. Um given how short the window was to do this that um to have anyone interested in coming to join the school board even for a very
053short period of time is um is a really great thing to see. Um and to have it be more than one person as well is an as an an excellent um outcome, you know, given the circumstances we're in. So that that's basically all I wanted to add for discussion is that I'm I really thank you all for coming um to the front of the line and saying I'm interested and willing to help out. I want to second that as well. Any further [Music] discussion? Seeing no further discussion, roll call vote to appoint Tony Pleski uh to school board member for ward one until the until the election. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard, yes. School board member Lefortune, yes. School board member Truman, yes. Motion passes 4 Z. Brings us to item
054I, appointment of a school board member for Ward Five. There are three candidates that provided uh documentation in the packet. That is Justin Chanette, Charles Massie Jr., and William Gail. Uh, at this time I'd like to invite Justin Chanette to come up and address the board if he'd like to. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Superintendent Ray, and uh, school board members. I'm Justin Chanette, and I reside at 284 Bradley Street, Unit 5, with my husband, Edward. Um, I won't read you my uh, lengthy letter, but hopefully everyone received that and had a chance to look that over. Um so just to kind of answer some of the questions that have come up um tonight of some of the reasons why I would like to put my name forward for consideration. Um obviously for the previous eight
055years I served in the legislature and education was really a highlight of my service. Um we focused on elements such as raising the state share of education funding. Um focusing in on our anti-bullying laws and making sure uh we're getting feedback from our districts regarding implementation of our bullying laws. Uh and then made making service learning a component of our graduation standards and making sure that young people um have the tools and resources they need to live happy and successful lives later in life. Um had a great relationship with the education commissioner uh Pender Min uh took her around to our local schools um even though she doesn't need any introduction because she actually went through our school. So she's a proud product of our Zaco school system as well which is fantastic. uh we'd
056like to leverage that relationship as we continue with the young school project. Um I did serve on the state board of education. I was a youngster. I was a student. Um but it was a really great experience to meet individuals all across the state and actually be a part of the process for approving school construction projects. So to kind of see the other end of that process uh would be fairly interesting uh and might be useful to you all um over the next couple months. Um and and just as sort of a last note, I have spent a great deal of time um in our schools helping to teach the next generation civics education about how their government works. Um and we use Whoopi pies as an example, which is always fun. Um but I
057find that that work is really enthralling. Um to see a child light up and excited to use their voice to make an impact in our community, in our state, and in our country. Um it just that's if I was to identify one thing I really could take away from my legislative experience is it was actually my time in the schools uh with the students. I really enjoyed that piece. So I would hope to continue that if uh if selected for the school board. Um so I think some of the questions that came up related to um our freedom of access laws. I actually serve on the state's right to know advisory committee. So we're actually providing recommendations and advice to municipalities and school districts. So definitely comfortable uh on that front and be happy to
058answer any other questions that you might have. Thank you. Any questions? School board member of Fortune just to cover everything again. Yeah. Um the uh the availability question that was asked what your availability is over the Absolutely. Um luckily I I also work from home so I can um pop over. We live right on Bradley Street so it would be no problem to to serve in that capacity. Any further questions? I have a quick question. Member uh Mr. Chanette, are there currently any other advisory councils or things that you're working currently in your everyday life during the week that might may or may not interfere with a board meeting or anything? I know you have a lot of amazing things you do and just curious around that. Absolutely. So, I do have another state appointment
059um but at this present time there are no scheduled meetings for the fall. So, I think it all kind of shakes down so that I can serve over the next few months in this capacity if selected. So, and I would just say as an aside, I would not put my name forward unless I could give 110% to the cause. Great. Thank you. Any further questions? Justin, thank you very much. Thank you. Up next is Charles Massie Jr. Hello. Uh, Chuck Massie. Either way, um, I' I've known Art Tardiff since ever since the day I was born, my a neighbor of mine. Um, and when I saw the ambulance taken away a few weeks ago, I figured he wouldn't be able to finish his term out. And uh I thought for a month I could help
060fill in for him. I got three kids uh three grandkids in the uh system. Um Burns and Middle School in Thornon. So and I went through the all the you know from Sweetser on up. Uh I thought I could give something back or or help out. I haven't done much for the city since I used to coach baseball at Notre Dame, but it's been a while. Uh, I work nights, so I could I could make the meetings. I don't work Wednesdays, so thank you. Uh, any further questions, school board member of Fortune? I'm pretty sure we covered them all, but um the FOYA question I guess is to be asked. So, the Freedom of Information, Chuck, are you familiar with the Freedom of Access Act or the Foyer request? Yeah. Yeah. And have you served
061on any boards or committees? Uh no. No. Not main that stuff, but not not in SAO. Just generally any boards and committees? No. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions? Thank you very much. Uh, up next is William Gail. Good evening. I'm William Gail. I live on uh 17 Cherryfields. Um, and I'm running for for school board. So, similar to Arty, you know, one of the things that um the reason why I put my name forward is just to just to make sure that there was somebody here representing W five and obviously kind of with the with the direction of the board. Um, you know, I I think that makes a lot of sense in terms of of candidates who are running and understand and appreciate the the position you all are in. Um, and I
062think we're lucky enough to have uh two other folks in Justin and Chuck apply. And one of the big things that motivated myself to run is to increase engagement and participation. And I think it's a great sign as as everyone has said and um, Chair Lefore you had mentioned is that it's we've got multiple people coming in from Ward 5 to put their name in even for a month. So, I think that is a good sign and and um I'm really happy with with the folks that applied and um I think either of them would do great on it. Um obviously, I would also like to be uh appointed just to be able to hit the ground running. I think I've got uh you have my letter and resume. I think I've got a lot
063of experience uh on the budget side and on the public sector side that I could uh provide support and and leadership towards. Um, I guess the in terms of the FOA, um, I'm currently the public information officer at, uh, at Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, so I'm familiar with with the requirements there. Uh, in terms of the boards and committees, I'm currently sitting on the traffic safety committee here, uh, which has been terrific. And um and I think oh in terms of time uh yes obviously the um realize the time commitment one of the things that before running having a discussion with my family and um everyone is very supportive and and I would make the time but u yeah so there's any other questions. Thank you. Uh any questions from the board? I
064think the only other one was if you have done any other committees beside I know you mentioned the FOYA one and you're on the traffic. Are those the two that you're on? Uh yeah. So the the FOA um as my role for my job I'm I'm designated that person. So it's not really a committee but just in terms of FOA requests coming in um I'm the one who handles all that organizes it. So any further questions, thank you very much. Thank you, school board members. We're at that uh sometimes difficult point again to uh you know basically choose between our neighbors is who uh you'd like to have on the board with you. It's not an elegant process. It's not a process that's in my opinion the best, but it's the process we have here
065today. So with that, any discussion or is there a school board member ready to make a motion? Again, this is a another example. We have a great opportunity with three candidates all coming before you and uh putting themselves out into the arena. uh for your consideration. I was just going to say the same thing to kind of give myself a few more minutes to think, but I do agree like this was I mean sometimes you wish you only had one option just so that you could just be like okay you're it. But at the same time like it's nice to see the engagement and I like to see that people are really uh interested in our schools and I appreciate everybody coming in for both wards. um as difficult of a decision that this is.
066So, thank you. I would just like to say I think we have a beautiful, rich, amazing experience across the span. We've got a nurse, we've got Justin, we've got um people that know about the Foye Act in their daily lives in their job. We have an amazing candidates to choose from and it's very hard to choose from all three. So, thank you again. It's nice and exciting to see the multiple awards showing up participating. I think that's really good for public engagement. So, oh, it's so hard to to difficult to make a choice. Any further discussion or is there are we ready for a motion? We want a little bit more time to to think it over. Does anybody have the Jeopardy theme song? Like the little I'll I'm prepared to make a motion. I
067think school board member Leforge. Um I I move that we um nominate uh William Gail for this position. Motion's been made by school board member Le Fortune to nominate Will Gail for the position of a board member for Ward Five. Is there a second? Motion dies for last lack of a second. Someone had to go first. Any further motions? Mr. Go ahead, Jim. I'd like to make a motion to approve Chuck Massie Jr. for the vacancy in W five. School board member Richard has made a motion to approve Chuck Massie as the ward five school board member. Is there a second? I'll second that. Second by school board member Truman. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, a roll call vote on approving Charles Massie as the uh board member for W five until the after the
068election. School board member Prebble. Again, it's such a difficult choice for me because I think we have amazing candidates. Um, I am going to go with yes. School board member Richard. Yes. School board member Lefortune. Yes. School board member Truman. Yes. Motion passes 40. Congratulations to Tony Pleski and Charles Massie for your appointments. And again, thank you to all those that uh put themselves into the arena and came up and spoke before the school board. It's it's never easy thing to do. So, thank you very much. Uh with that brings us to item 13, other information. There's nothing in the packet. Does anybody have anything at this time? Mr. Mayor, school board member of Fortune. the foyer question that you asked actually is a good um leadin to a need to do some form of
069orientation for the two new members. So, I'm I guess I'm going to ask the superintendent the best approach to do that. I don't believe we have an orientation packet. Um but there are some basic things that do ultimately need to to get covered. Yeah, we can pull some things from main school management. They have a handbook uh for new school committee members that we can provide a copy of. We can sit down and talk about those pieces. We would need to have email addresses created. Um I do not know, Mr. Mayor, what the I'm assuming there must be a swearing in process. Uh yes, Michelle Hughes will be in contact with the candidates to get them sworn in. Okay. Prior to your next meeting. Okay. So, I'll have to do some work on that end,
070Kevin, to make sure we have those pieces um available for them. And I'll be in contact with the new members about setting up email addresses, getting contact information, phone numbers, those types of things. And the other thing is the um the provide the link for where they do the self um there's that training that they they need to do uh online on the state DOE website. Any further other information? Okay, moving on. There's no executive session tonight. That brings us to item 15. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Moved by school board member Truman. Second by school board member Prebble. Any discussion? Roll call vote to adjurnn. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. School board member La Fortune. Yes. School board member Truman. Yes. Motion passes 40 to
071adjourn at 6:05 p.m. Thank you very much everyone. Have a wonderful evening.