001e e e good evening I'd like to call the school board meeting for February 9th 2022 to order at 7 p.m. let the record reflect that all school board members are present with that i' like to invite you all to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you very much item three is approval of the school board meeting minutes dated January 26 2022 is there a motion to approve the minutes Mr Mayor School Board member Richard I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated January 26 2022 thank you is there a second second second by School Board member Preble any discussion on the minutes roll call vote on the minutes School Board member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member L Fortune yes School
002Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes minutes past 70 brings us item four the agenda any adjustments to the agenda this evening seeing no adjustments the agenda brings us to item five any corespondence no correspondence at this time brings us to item six public session there's anyone to the public who would like to address the school board please come forward and be heard please state your name and address and please keep your comments to three minutes thank you mayor free to remove your mask if you'd like oh thank you mayor my name is Joan laalo I reside at s Margaret Circle and I have two children in the Sako School District 7eventh grade and third grade and just a few short comments concerning the agenda item F tonight
003of the review and decision of leadership collaboration and continuation with Mr Ray my personal opinion I would encourage each of you on the school board to to reach an agreement with Mr Ray and his team of Administrators last year I volunteered and attended at least three osac meetings because of my mounting concerns about our children not being in school because of covid of the 40 members of that osac committee we could not figure out how to get our kids in school but yet we looked right over the bridge and they were doing it in bord last year we had over 130 participants at Schoolboard meetings because of the dissatisfaction that was going on and now because of the satisfaction of parents and the smooth transition here we have less than 10 people here that speaks
004volumes on what this Administration is doing for our children believe me I don't want to be at these meetings I like that I don't have to attend them and I feel confident in the leadership we have from a parent perspective I'm more than happy at the level this school district is operating so again CO's not over yet we still have some hurdles to go through we have a new school building that is going to be constructed and I think we need a proven leader with a good track record that is going to lead this District Mr Ray and some of his Administration staff an not only Stellar at what they do they have an even further vested interest in Sako because their own children are students don't make a decision that will rock our school
005district and ultimately harm our children again I encourage you to continue this Arrangement long term because it works thank you thank you anyone else that would like to address the school board please come forward and be heard seeing nobody else moving on from public session to item seven superintendent's report superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody I have a few items um for tonight uh just we'll touch on um covid uh for a second even though this is outside the co update um but just a couple of pieces is that we are in this area thankfully seeing a reduction in cases over what what it was like when we came back from the holidays um so I really feel fortunate we're moving in the right direction I know that for the general public uh on
006the on the media side of things we've heard a lot of decisions about what other states are doing uh and I want to be clear that we have not received any communication from the doe or from our CDC on this side about anything that's happening I'm hoping that um during a regional super intendent meeting uh in the next couple couple weeks we'll be talking about those steps of what what is the next phase in all of this um but please know that we've not received anything from our CDC or from the doe about changes to the SOP and what that would look like so um no news at this time uh building committee um we have scheduled a meeting for February 16th that we will email out an announcement tomorrow uh to all parents blast
007on the Faceook Facebook page on the web page that will be at 6: p.m. at the Fairfield school and we will have uh Zoom running to the best of our abilities in that building so that people can ask questions there'll be two kind of big Parts about that of that meeting one is to really think about and talk about possibilities of sites and and all the work that the site committee has done and then also have some conversations about program meaning grade levels building configurations and start having those really 35,000 foot view ideas of cost to each option and again we're talking you know really zoomed out but the overall picture so that as we start to think about some of those decisions we know what's going on uh and we know what the impact
008would be so that's a really important meeting um I also think at that meeting uh you know kind of having the opportunities we've been at burn schools now we're at Fairfield School gives us an opportunity if you want to peek around and look a little bit uh I'm going to encourage the members there that night to step up on the stage and just look around because when we look at one of our buildings Having Eight offices up there Morin or something like that and I know that of course being new here and and going to and learning about the buildings when I walked off the uh stage a few months ago I thought to myself wow we've got to be better than this this is not um this is not ideal uh and so we'll
009get that opportunity to look at those so that we can start putting some some of those visual pictures versus what's just on a screen and what's on a slide or a drawing so that we can um start thinking about those pieces uh as you remember earlier this year we talked about um using some of our Esser funds for swipe card Key Systems in our schools so that we can uh enter each building you know through a key card for staff members you're not carrying keys and we don't have keys all over the communities the system is installed now we have about 450 swipe cards to print for everybody and program correctly So within the next couple of weeks we're we're going to be online so that staff have that ability to enter uh in a
010swipe situation uh through the first round we're going to look to add to make sure that we have a swipe card added to the front of the prek building uh and do that as well and that will just enhance security and then looking at how we make sure that exterior key locks have been changed out so that people we can really limit that access to the building uh that's an important safety piece tonight when you walked in in front of you you you all had your budget book uh with a memo on front of that I think it's 506 pages of detailed budgeting that will give us from every staff member to every pencil that we're going to buy in that book your assignment is to know that by the end of the week cover
011to cover uh in every line so if we quiz you and ask some questions uh got got to build that memory there but this is for you to look through ask questions and a little bit it's going to be a little bit different for us because now we're starting to build that Foundation of where we need to be financially so that we can predict what's coming next if a position needs to go here if we need to you know if we have to make a reduction we have to go to that book and draw the line through what needs to be reduced so those are some good conversations if we have to get that also in your book you have a memo that will outline um some of uh the budget process for you some
012of the additions in there some of the deletions in there your Revenue sheet uh and when we get to budget update here I'll talk a little bit more about that finance committee will start meeting after return uh return from the February Hol uh February vacation to start pouring through this piece um and then uh city council for that kind of monthly uh update meeting is looking to schedule something on February 28th I believe it is Bill uh to have that joint meeting so um thank you thank you superintendent Ray any questions for superintendent Ray could I get the date again for the joint meeting February 28th for The Joint City Council school board meeting Monday the 28th moving on to item eight chair's report chair Le Fortune um I don't have any specific report this
013evening I was going to mention the budget books if Jeremy had not gotten to them uh the only other thing that that I have which has been a question that's come up a few times over the course of the last couple months a couple nights ago at the council meeting there was a discussion about remote meeting um a uh policy around remote meetings and a pretty good discussion about the logistics of what that would take and I don't know if it actually ultimately arrived at a at an answer but I'm anticipating that at some point we' probably will be revisiting that here um based on whatever occurs or doesn't occur at the council I'm assuming we're going to want to move in the same direction so just mentioning that that is something that we'll probably
014see at some point before us thank you uh any staff reports this evening not seeing any staff reports brings us to item 10 board subcommittee meeting minutes uh there was a strategic committee meeting on26 of 2022 uh and then there's a meeting on the February 9th and March 9th for strategic committee uh finance committee has a next meeting on March 23rd at 4M infrastructure committee has no meeting scheduled at this time nor does the Personnel committee any questions on the minutes Mr Mayor School Board member Purble I actually had a question going back to um chair's report and I didn't get a chance to ask ask any questions on that because we went right into staff reports so um I just wanted to comment that I think it would be really nice if we could
015explore at some point going to look at Zoom if that's something we want to do for meetings just because it we had an increase in public participation and I think that's really important to remember I know we're still in these we're navigating covid Waters together but I think it's important because we did have a lot of parents who may or may not be able to come out because of child care or whatnot so I think it'd be nice if at some point if we maybe revisit that thank you thank you uh and the discussion on Monday night was we don't currently have the technology to do it uh we are looking at possibly using uh arpa money uh to take care of that uh and or through the budget process in the Communications Department budget
016uh so it will be going through the the process of budget but remember uh public comment you can always reach out to your Schoolboard remember your counselors uh through email phone calls letters uh or coming to meetings so your public comment is always welcomed uh in any of those forms back to the subcommittee meeting minutes any meeting minutes any questions on the meeting minutes okay moving on to item 11 old business there is no old business tonight uh brings us to item 12 new business uh in your packet there was a list of new hires under item a any questions on new hires from superintendent Ray or for superintendent Ray excuse me no we Mr Mayor Truman I move we approve the nomination of Stephanie Atkinson CK Burns teacher and issue a contract for the
017remainder of the 2122 school year thank thank you motion's been made by school board member Truman is there a second second second by School Board member prebble any discussion roll call vote excuse me School Board member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes Schoolboard member La Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 70 Mr Mayor there is one other in there that requires action as well School Board member Fortune um I move we approve the nomination of Kristen Hobbs young school special education teacher and issue a contract for the remainder of the 2021 2022 school year second motion's been made by school board member of Fortune second by School Board member Truman any discussion roll call vote to
018approve Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member L Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes nomination passes 70 any further motions any further questions on any of the new hires moving on to Item B resignations any questions on the current resignations before you superintendent Ray I'd just like to um thank Celeste hatch for her 16 years of service to the school department uh she was a vital part of central office um and again sorry to to see her um take a different position but very thankful for everything that she's done thank you any further discussion board member Johnston I would also like to thank Celeste for a lot of years of service um and I
019appreciate the things that she's done for us in the past thank you thank you moving on to item C Co update superintendent Ray so like we've done every couple of weeks we've included a CO update uh in your in your board packet um one of the things that we were able to do is uh over the last couple of weeks we were able to have those two uh uh booster clinics and so the one that we held in bitterford had 125 students and then we had one at Sako Middle School um that had another 66 students between our communities I think one one of the things we should be really proud of uh as Community is is our youth vaccination rate is some of the highest in the area um which is a great step
020as you start to look at at the positive cases by the week you can start to see that we had that real Spike after the holidays and we're heading in the right direction so that's really positive and you know again big thanks to our nurses every time as we as we go through this because it doesn't get any easier for them uh I know the last uh couple of days we were just like oh please FedEx truck come and make sure that the tests come in and that we have enough of those I know we were a little nervous there yesterday um but things seem to be moving in the right direction any questions for superintendent Ray on the co update memorandum in your packet okay no questions there moving on to item D revolving
021Renovations Grant superintendent Ray okay so this is to notify the board and the community of a really great opportunity for us here in Sako um if you remember this fall we came with some grants that we put into to play around revolving Renovations and for those who are watching at home or here on the board that don't have an understanding of what revolving renovation funds is is essentially districts have the opportunity to apply to the Department of Education for funding for buildings and you lay out which product uh projects that fall under different categories from health and safety to repairs of buildings Etc and they look at those applications and then they award you kind of a grant and the way that the system works is that if you are awarded this grant for a
022project the state will pay the state share of Education of that Grant so in the last Ed 279 sako's State share of Education was 50.4 n% and the local share is 49.5 one% which means that we have these capital projects that we can do we've been awarded from the state and there's a placeholder for the money as a board there's kind of a three-step process for us is one the board would have to approve the projects and put those projects in their payment schedule we'd work with the main Bond B Bank to solidify the loan the city council would have to approve it um at their end of the budget before they po uh pass it on to the voters and then the voters get to decide if you take this out and the catch
023is the state pays for 50% of these projects and the community gets to pay on 10 years 0% interest loan for the remaining portion so that's a pretty good deal if someone said to you hey take a loan at 0% and somebody else will pay half of it and you get to make some Renovations uh those are good projects so a little bit about the projects that we applied for and we received now the first two projects uh or the first project we have until September of 23 to complete these and the first project is upgrading the bathrooms uh Ada bathrooms at Fairfield School the ones little tiny ones that are in the classroom now that's a project that we may want to consider a little bit more depending on some of the decisions that
024are made about where this the the larger State funding building process because you may say you know what we're going to not going to make that a that investment if something else is going to happen with that building and not you know spend $169,000 of taxpayers money we also received uh money to replace the exterior doors at Fairfield school and that is a situation that no matter what happens I really will advise you to make that P purchase because they're pretty rough and we're losing a lot of energy they're Rusty for for many reasons those should be replaced then we we turn to SMS and SMS had two approved projects the first project is to upgrade the indoor air quality and ventilation which is about a 1.6 million project but we can come up with
025a million here we pay half of it and we could look at how our Capital funds that we're you know when you look at your budget I still have Capital funds in there at a half a million dollar level uh in that budget that as we think about half of this being a roof this year maybe a roof next year and then a third year finishing a piece of this project we'll have the ability to to address that indoor air quality that over time has been kind of a pointed contention here um and we can um take care of that the second one there is exterior doors at SMS are also really a problem I see Jeff shaking his head he's been in the building only uh a few days now and there are some
026places that are large gaps um it is uh a situation where this is a good place to spend money because not only from poor quality to rust to gaps to heating to security these pieces will all come into play so it's exciting to get these um when you get those when you get the emails that say Hey this is something we can make happen for our community at a really good uh price for the taxpayers to upgrade buildings which again if you think about all of these projects on on here and the amount of struggles that communities tend to have around budgeting for Capital needs um you know where are you going to pick off the million dooll air quality project I mean we're fortunate right now that we're dealing with half the roof in
027another half of the roof next year um these become very tough budget decisions um and this is a good uh possible way to do this so um exciting news for us that we'll consider during the budget process and be able to share with the council thank you superintendent Ray any questions for superintendent Ray on the revolving Renovations grants Mr Mayor Schoolboard member of Fortune just a question on the on the date that was that you listed so you have to have you have to have work done by uh September of 23 okay so it's the work it's self has to be completed not it's actually budgeted corre right it has to be completed which one of the hard things that is you know as you think about this even if you said yes today to
028some of these projects probably the doors we can get done by the by this fall in 22 but when you think of like a project of ADA bathrooms and lining up construction and you think about movement and cleaning schedules and summer programming and all of the pieces that go into that that's something that could probably only happen next summer and then when we think about um the air quality piece at the at SMS we may want to be thinking about part of that occurring this summer or right after we replace a section of that roof and then as we move on to the next section hopefully in the next summer replacing that piece so that we're not up there uh getting the roof done first and then doing air we want to combine that work
029so that you know cmans ship and you're not thinking about leaks and all the pieces and tearing something apart that just got done we're going to want to time that um really well any further questions moving on to item e budget update superintendent Ray Okay so so tonight you were able to get your you're able to get your budget books uh with a detailed budget and a memo uh on top of that uh that information has been or will be posted to the website under the budget tab so that everybody will have access to the full detailed budget uh and the and the budget memo that's there that starts kind of talking a little bit about our Pro process um a couple of the pieces that I want to kind of draw some attention to
030uh in the memo and again we're going to spend so much more time on this after we get back from February vacation and through the process is as we moved through last spring we got really great news uh in the terms of of subsidy when the supplemental budget came out and Sako received you know 1.63 million more in state subsidy and we looked at the things that we had at that time as oper opportunities and we thought about okay we have a building project that's coming on that we need to put $300,000 for uh in pre-planning we had a debt that we needed to take care of and so we made some really good decisions not to use that money and take care of some of those things so that when we started this budget
031cycle we weren't like starting from behind we actually knew there should be some additional Revenue what's challenging about that piece is that in July because of different valuations different student counts and the way subsidy works you received $1.63 million more but then six months later when the new subsidy comes out and you're saying to yourself as a superintendent wow I just hope the subsid is the same and it's 1.6 million more and you realize because of the the rising valuation in Southern Maine and the 7% property valuation increase in Sako that from 6 months ago your subsidy is now $514,000 less than what you received so that is a a glimpse to what we're going to cons continue to see because we know that state subsidy basically Works off two things property valuation and student
032counts and as you can see in this situation when you look at the data we have a declining enrollment situation where we're 55 students uh less than uh the year before that's not untypical to any town in Maine we know that declining enrollments are happening class sizes tend to be getting smaller we have to be able to use uh some of the information that we will get um through the build and construction project of what the 10year Glimpse will be but when you think about it realistically and you think about just looking around your neighborhoods and are there as many families that have three kids or four kids as there used to be when we were growing up that there that's a change and then you also have to look at housing stock are there
033houses available in communities uh and is there a you know enough of a supply that people can move in and we know that in Sako when a house goes on the market there's not many days or hours that it stays on the market uh and so there's just not that that stock what I would really want to and again you you'll always hear me talk a lot about valuation uh because that's such a driving factor and if you look at the at the first page and you look at the second chart down you kind of get a a glimpse of what sako's valuation has done since 2016 uh I went back a little bit and you can see that the threeyear average of valuation has been creeping up time after time and again you went
034up $3 million and then there was a jump $32 million and then you added $86 million and then in in in 2020 they changed the formula a little bit and added a three-year average back into valuations versus a two-year average and you get to a situation where the last two years the valuation in Sako has increased 165 uh almost $165 million each year and then as we look and so it increased $165 million and we look at our subsidy and we lost a half a million dollars okay so that's troubling and then we look into what the threee average will be next year when we sit here at this time and we're looking at an increase of $11 million so it's going to go up more so unless more State subsidy is pumped into general
035purpose Aid you're going to continue to have these problems if Sako outpaces the valuation increase of the rest of the state I think I shared at the last meeting that there there was $30 million placed into general purpose Aid in this year's uh budget and 140 um school districts received an additional $35 million into their funding formula and there are 24 districts that lost money well which we know which category we were in and we can also look and see that those are the towns that are in York and Cumberland County where that you know you're getting that valuation increase in the budget we have um right now and again probably a little bit of an overestimation or let's knock on wood and hope that it's an overestimation but we've we built in 10% of
036an increase on health insurance last year I think we were only at 4% here in Sako Json four and a quarter 5% um but as you look at other kind of insurance is and not understanding what the true impacts of covid will be on some of these situations uh for right now we have a really safe number of 10% which equals um the health insurance is550 $9,000 of an increase in that budget but some of that is changing health insurance coverages but you're looking at about when we get to a point where if it only comes back at 7% we're looking at about 443,000 a percentage Point each reduction that we could take in that budget um we also uh you'll have listed some additions that we've made to the budget that we'll cover some
037decreases um possibility of some reallocation and some things that we have to consider um whether that be uh construction project health insurance um special education bulk purchasing those pieces but the overall scenario of where we are today and again there's not sure I reloaded correctly enough um but you have a situation where the cost to the local right now is under $300,000 of what we'd be asking for now you can say okay if we're only asking for under 300 I think the number was $217,000 Jason right now is what we'd be looking for uh if we made no changes we can say that that's a great thing or that's a good day and we've started the B budget in a good place but I want us to be cautious of the fact that our spending
038is still going up that we had the fortunate situation where subsidy is helping us out here that we didn't spend it all and we were able to do some of those pieces and that valuation is going to continue to grow so that we're not sitting here surprised 365 days from now on the fact of what do we do this time because now we are looking at a 1.6 $ 1.7 million increase uh because subsidy went down and costs still go up so I think this is one of the a budget situation while it's good from a surface view we got to continue to dig down and think about what are some of those long-term driving factors in the budget um and think about what a strategy might be as we move over this because I
039I really strongly believe when you think about budget in a 365 day calendar um that you're taking too much of a short view the work that we do here sets us up for the next year um and after you approve the budget that's when you immediately start thinking about all of the things that happen next uh and so we want to we'll want to spend some time talking about okay so what does that next piece done because I I think over time of of being in this position as a superintendent if you can avoid budgets that go up and down and up and down in large spikes um that's right what you want to stay away from you want to try to say what is how do we consistently keep something managed uh and and
040not having these drastic ups and downs um and spending all revenue just to make sure that we're good on one year and and not understanding what that impact would be in the in the second year so uh more to come on this this outlines it um and certainly happy to take any questions through the mayor any questions for superintendent Ray Mr Mayor School Board member L Fortune I don't have any any questions at this time i' I've only just started to look at it but I I just wanted to say that I really like the concise layout of the starting point of this of of this budget book just with all of the descriptive information that you just laid out you know in nice concise readable terms um that's that's really helpful thank you thank
041you School Board member purle um I have a question for superintendent Ray is our budget book essentially gonna what's the format that's going to be on the website is it going to be readable just the same or sorry on the website it's going to be all 56 pages so that everybody can look through perfect okay just as well and when we have questions about things we're going to talk about page and requisition number and you know I think the idea that can be if you take things from a super Global piece is everyone says well just cut $100,000 or just cut this well when you cut things it equals something and we have to be able to understand what that what that equals what it also will show when you look through a budget like
042that and we will get you the percentages is most of it probably 75% plus is salary and benefits or salary benefits in in this situation tuition there is so little money in a in a budget this size that is any that is supplies and I and I always I always say to uh School committees or Finance committees that we work with if we spend eight or nine hours on pencils and paper clips we're not getting very far because there's not much there now you got to pay attention on those things you know don't don't step over the pennies to pick up the dollars because it all adds up um but these budgets are about Personnel tuition programs utilities utilities are one of the pieces that really worry me right now because everybody can go and
043look at their electric bill in the last month or if you had heating fuel some of that stuff is locked in but some of it you got to bid out and go for every year you know does it cost you a dollar gallon more uh next fall to drive buses those are some things that we can't control uh and it's really difficult because we're in a scenario where I don't know that the average person feels like there's this great property tax increase that can come um and while things cost more in your home as a consumer there are items that cost more in a school department as well you know when you while there's small amount of monies and and pencils and crayons and and pieces fact of the matter is is that box of
044crayons probably cost more than it did one year two years ago um and we may have to think about you know how do we go about purchasing items like that are we traditionally in and still going with um you know kind of the large vendors or are we going to do something a little bit differently uh and and and think about local and what can you get here versus what can you get there and so um it's going to be an interesting uh budget season while I don't think there's again we're not here saying that this is bad news in the one year but we just have to keep our eye on what the future holds and not make short-term decisions because they're easy thank you any further questions on the budget moving on to
045item F which is review decision of leadership collaboration and continuation cherl of Fortune okay so this item is uh the culmination of many months at this point of uh both collaboration with our current leadership team that we have as well as discussions um again over over several months with um our counterparts across the river uh and up um in Dayton around how well this has gone how each of the parties has been feeling with respect to whether it's something worth continuing and um I'm happy to bring this forward this evening um from the perspective of the last couple of meetings in particular the one that that we had most recently um with a couple members from from bit everyone is very happy with how this process has been going and is excited about the prospect
046of continuing it um and so this evening attached to the agenda is a memo that basically highlights the um the primary points of what continued collaboration is as well as what continued collaboration is not because there's a lot of rumor and in uendo and assumptions about what this actually means um and so that um memo basically in introduces the topic and to get us started I will'll uh ultimately make a motion and then we can discuss it further afterwards so I move that we um that we approve the interlocal agreement between the bitterford school department Dayton school department and Sako school department uh for a contract for sharing administrative services to begin July 1st 2022 uh and ending on July 30th 2025 second motion's been made by school board member La Fortune second by School
047Board member Preble any discussion School Board member Gail Mr Mayor just a I guess um so chair I guess this is the the meeting that was had with bit of referred this is like culmination of that or I guess I I guess I never I didn't get any sort of like report out aside from what you just mentioned that so bord agrees with everything the the terms um that's correct so we we had had after um our last couple of of executive sessions some some additions Corrections clarifications um and the the follow-up meeting that um myself Jeff and jeen had with mayor cavant and two members whose names I escape Escape me at the moment um from bitterford um basically just confirmed that the last update that um that we had discussed that that they
048were fine with all of the corrections additions and you know any typo cleanups that we had in there so there's been no substantive change of any kind from the version of the agreement that you all have seen um um at the last couple of meetings uh executive sessions and the one that we have now so it's essentially the same oh sorry Mr board chair um I reviewed the contract with the things that we were hoping to add changed and and whatnot and it did include that and and I think from the standpoint of of you know we're kind of talking in you know in generalities right now but but the primary items that we were um fairly adamant about having included in the agreement and it a lot of it is really just cleaning up
049the language that's in there to to suit all of our part all parties one is that the primary purpose of this entire um Endeavor is that uh and I'm I'm going to just read some things directly off of of the draft agreement that we have the bitterford school department and Dayton currently employ an administrative team Sako wishes to contract with the bitterford school department and Dayton to secure the services of a superintendent and a leadership team for the benefit of our school system that's in a nutshell what we are doing um that's what we started to do in April um when we found ourselves without a superintendent and that's what we would like to continue doing that's essentially the Crux of the entire agreement that we have here um the other items we had been
050discussing whether extending an additional year um was something that everyone was amendable to and as of one of our most recent schoolb meetings we had entertained the possibility of that being longer than a year and so we had discussed a couple of options is it two is it three is it you know something in between we've landed on three and so that's one of the other changes um the others that were in there were more around um having some of the Lang anguage be uniform there's uh a number of sections under the payment portion of this that have to do with um what the division of expenses would be for such things as you know if there's central office costs and things like that there those weren't carried through through all of them so it
051was more of like a typo um and then one thing that didn't change but I think is really worth calling out um is that this agreement comes with a 90 day termination notice so if at some point during the course of the next 3 years any one of the parties decides that it's not working and would like to go our own path um that's true for the city of Sako it's true for bford uh that we get to get out in 90 days um that's a fairly powerful not only incentive to see through that it works because you wouldn't want to go into something if you knew that anybody could just jump out at any moment um but it also provides a measure of security to um to basically all three parties that if it
052isn't working you're not stuck in it for three years um that's that's a pretty good Clause to have in there um and I'm trying to think if there's any other substantive things that are there um one of the things that that I think is part of the memo if I remember correctly is that it's really critical for people to understand that all three of these entities maintain their independence there is no change to what is going on up here right now we're still a school board that governs the city of sako's school system um we own all our buildings this is not a consolidation it is a sharing of services where it makes sense and nothing more um will we have points in the future where there may be opportunities for additional sharing of some
053kind maybe but you know I'm not going to read the tea leaves and say that it's going to be one thing or another what this agreement provides is essentially a framework for us to want to try to some some of those things in the future um maybe you know this board is in its current figuration when something like that presents itself maybe if a future board decides that this worked really well and they want want to extend it beyond the terms that are here and some other board down the road decides they want to do that or they decide they want to terminate that's that's stuff that's all available to us as a school board so I think I've monopolized the topic for long enough if anyone else has questions um or comments or anything
054that I've forgotten from any of the previous discussions we've had um please jump in I have a question um I've received phone calls calls recently that have concern around and I'm doing this for transparency purposes concern around um a conflict of interest and if memory serves correct we've been working with our current superintendent and the leadership team for well over I lost track of time God bless it but the point is I feel like our attorneys would have alerted to this us to this back when we had our original discussion and interview process um so I just wanted to put that out there and have a conversation around that uh I felt that was important that we clear the air and be very aware that we did when we went through that process our attorneys
055were involved in Consulting when we entered the initial agreement that's correct and so to just to clarify on on that point the the intent of the service centers and Inter local agreements like this is collaboration the state of Maine uh Department of education not only recognizes that communities will do those things they encourage communities to do those things and as the process you know from a process standpoint this agreement has a couple of paths a couple of stops along the way between this meeting tonight and it going into Force so if we should approve this this evening the next thing that will occur is the bitterford school department will get together and have a similar conversation um probably within the next week to also um signal their approval of this if that occurs the next
056stop on the on the the on the train is with the Department of Education the commissioner of Education still has to sign off on this being an allowed approved encouraged Arrangement between the two the three communities um that are entering into this agreement so in terms of us doing this my personal opinion is that if there was a significant conflict of interest we would have learned that in May um so I I don't think that we're going to get to the end of the rainbow and have the commissioner kick this back and say no you can't do that because there's a conflict of interest here but that's I mean that's my opinion on on the topic thank you any further discussion on this item Mr Mayor I guess School Board member Gail unless anyone unless
057there are other school board member Johnston did you want to say something yes I guess I do um I think that although it may be it may seem con convoluted I think this contract really seems to be pretty straightforward um and I I believe Kevin is absolutely right that if there were going to be a problem we would would have already heard about it months ago um and I guess I just wanted to reiterate what I've said times before which is that I think this agreement this Arrangement has worked well for for this district and I certainly would like to see it continue but I don't think we're going to have any obstacles from a legal standpoint thank you thank you any further discussion Schoolboard member Archie uh I would just like to say that
058when it was brought up um we were talking about a one-year extension which to me seemed kind of like a waste of a time so I suggested a a three-year contract um I think that that is going to get us closer to the end of the school process and uh I think it's gone well so far um and to me that a threeyear only makes sense uh for the board board member pral I'm going to have to agree with Arty on this one I think the the progress we've made in our collaborations over the last year the getting back to five we needed that so desperately and not just parents everyone I'm thrilled with how things are going and and I'm in support of continuing for another three years I've really really took to heart
059both sides of the topic I've lost sleep over this and at the end of the day I still come back to the same conclusion thank you any further discussion School Board member Gail just uh I guess a couple real quick comments one I think it's I would like to have the finalized agreement in front of me I think that that would have been nice to see just a vote on on that but um I guess if we're going to move forward I think I had a couple thoughts just in general so so obviously this this decision is going to be one of the most important that we make as a board um and because of that I've had strong concerns throughout the decision-making process that that we've discussed uh that we didn't follow a full
060and open search for this permanent position um I want to be clear that I understand the benefits that are presented in the memo in our course of conversation and I really appreciate everyone's points of view uh a lot of great topics were were brought up and discussed and and I think um obviously I took goes to heart um I also want to be clear that my concern isn't a reflection of the success of of the superintendent or his leadership team over the past year um I think obviously we we've seen and we've heard from from the community from parents um about you know what what great job and and the benefits over the last you know eight months have been but really my concern is just a reflection of my personal strong view that the
061decision to hire a superintendent should be a collaborative process that involves the community parents teachers and staff and in my opinion shouldn't just be a decision of the school board alone to extend from from um from from this stage to a permanent position so uh I think with that I'm actually going to lean no on the vote but again I just want to highlight that it's not a reflection of of the work that's been done or the superintendent uh or his team thank you thank you any further discussion on this item okay uh I just like to Truman just like to add that you know this despite the fact that we aren going through a full search I feel like we've already done a 9-month interview and the proof is in the pudding like there's
062no other way to really put it but uh I think standup job on everybody at smack and uh to not move forward with this just seems foolish and there is no conflict of interest um making phone calls to our attorneys uh behind our back is uncalled for in my opinion and I think um you know I think what we're doing here is is transparent everything is been in here the final agreement is in the uh agenda for the public to see for all the school board members this SE and um Mr L Fortune thank you for sending that to all of us ahead of time before it went public in the agenda so that's all I want to add any further discussion Mr Mayor School vo member Archer um I have to agree with um
063Sarah Truman that it it has been a long time that we've been doing this interview process and up until this week I haven't heard anything from the general public as far as what they wanted um unless I sought it out myself and that kind of swayed me to making the decision that this is what we we want to do I understand the silent majority but I put myself out there and I was asking people in my ward what they wanted and I I didn't hit everybody but I I got a a good number saying that this is the way we should be doing things um that's why I advocated for the three-year contract and because of the 90-day Clause Is Why I'm deciding to say yes thank you School Board member peble um question for
064the board chair when we're finish this entire process correct me if I'm wrong the final contract that we have are agement will be posted on the website correct thank you yeah the the final so for all intents and purposes the final the one that says draft that you already have is the same one that we're talking about there's been no change whatsoever from the one that was sent out um I don't know was it two weeks ago right no I understand that what I'm what I'm asking is once the entire process is completed with the main doe everything that contract will be available to the public on the website correct that'll be that'll be available as will the memo in the same place which is attached to the agenda right now and there was um
065sort of a you know a one pager you know PowerPoint sheet with the highlights of the agreement in a much you know more digestible form that was being worked out that would accompany all of that that would be on the website thank you any further discussion on this item roll call vote on this item Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes School Board member Le Fortune yes School Board member Gail no school board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 61 brings us to item g a first reading of policies as revised is there a motion Mr Mayor School Board member Johnston this is a lengthy list so bear with me while I read through it um I move that we approve the first reading of
066policy AC which is non-discrimination equal opportunity and affirmative action policy acab harassment and sexual harassment of School Employees policy aabr employee discrimination SL harassment and title nine sexual harassment complaint procedure procedures policy adaa school system commitment to standards for ethical and responsible behavior ACA a-r student discrimination and harassment complaint procedure ACAA harassment and sexual harassment of students ACA excuse me AC AC Service animals in school and ADC and the end of this sentence is I move that we we um move these for first reading as revised because we did revise them just recently second motion's been made by school board member Johnston second by Schoolboard member Truman any discussion on the first reading of policies uh identified and read into the record by School Board member Johns Schoolboard member of Fortune just a really quick
067thing um I'm actually quite amazed that you covered all that territory in the meeting that you had and I just wanted to um give a shout out thank you to to Meg parur and and Chris andorf for helping shepher that stuff through um it's quite incredible that all of that ground was covered in a in a very short meeting and uh thank you thank you any further discussion on the first reading of policies I was going to say the same thing um thank you for um putting that all together for us Mr indorf and Miss perur um it was really um was really great very comprehensive and it was I would I'm sorry sirar School Board member Johnston I would just like to add that the work that they did behind before they brought this
068all to us it is certainly they they've sort of pointed us in the right direction it can be sometimes difficult to focus on policies you can get tied up in Little Words um sometimes that's really important but they certainly have advanced this process and I'm looking forward to continue on with it thank you any further discussion roll call vote on the first reading of policy Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member L Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 70 that brings us to a another first reading of policies is there a motion School Board member Johnston I move we approve the first reading of policies AC a and ADF as reviewed and
069that was excuse me ac a is hazing DF is School District commitment to learning results second motion's been made by school board member Johnston second by School Board member Truman any discussion on the first reading of a policy acad and a policy ADF roll call vote on the policies first reading School Board member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member L Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 70 brings us to another first reading of recoded policies is there a motion Mr Mayor School Board member Truman I move we approve the first reading of policy acaf workplace bullying uh as recoded as GBF oh no gbb motions been made by school board member Truman is
070there second School Board member Johnston seconds any discussion on the recoded policy IES policy acaf see no discussion roll call vote School Board member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member L Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 70 brings us to uh item 13 of the agenda is there any other information this evening I have just one quick thing um and it is just something that I became aware of at the very beginning of the meeting I wasn't aware that you could not view the agendas that come by way of email because they're on Google and I'm wondering if there's another way U by which we can either Grant access or send them uh to
071the mayor because it is I can imagine it is difficult to try to negotiate through what we're doing based on the paper form if there's additional information on the on the agenda I just wanted to get that out there so that we at least head okay seeing no other information item 14 there is no executive session this evening brings us to item 15 is there a motion to adjourn so moved School Board member Truman is there a second School Board member Preble any discussion on adjourning roll call vote to adjourn School Board member Archie yes School Board member Pebble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member of Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnson yes motion passes to adjourn 70 805 have a great
072evening everyone