001e e okay good evening I'll go ahead and call the school board meeting to order at 7 o'clock please let the record reflect that all the school board members are here and the mayor is absent due to travel please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance first item on the agenda is the approval of Schoolboard minutes from September 8th 2022 is there a motion Mr chair yes I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated September 28 22 second motion made by Sarah Truman seconded by Jen Preble any discussion Mr chair thank you um I wanted to make a couple comments about these minutes first of all I want to say that I believe that our minutes have been improving over the last few meetings and there seems to be more substance to these
002minutes it was quite a lengthy um quite a lot of information that was shared so I think that overall these minutes are quite good however I did want to comment um and this was my comment before when we had um minutes where someone was reported tardy that if we're going to be noted as being late it would be appropriate to list the time that an individual arrived um in the in this particular case last time the mayor was unable to be here on time um I would think that we could should note the time that someone's arriving and if there is information as to why they might be late include that in the minutes as well I do appreciate the fact that it was noted at what point in the meeting that that the mayor
003was able to arrive here but I think that's just one more thing that we could do to improve our minutes thank you any other discussion I have one small um change to make um under the chair's report there's a section Rel related to um whether or not we have the ability to help Thor Academy with the lunch program and one of the things that was noted in there was we need to provide a portion of our free lunch funds and I think what was I said and what should have been noted is that we are not able to provide a portion of our uh funds to TA to do that so I just would like to have that correction made I'll I'll connect with Jen any further disc question I would just say that um
004one of the things that Jen has mentioned to me that it's very difficult and she corrects me every time that if I don't speak directly into the microphone because I try to turn my head and look at people um it becomes very difficult for her to pick up on the recording um so just one of those pieces I'm going to try to do is to keep it's hard because I feel like I'm so loud here in the room when you do that but trying to speak directly into the microphone really helps her um doing those minutes it's difficult to hear sometimes okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie do we want to make adjustments to it and look back at it next week or do we can we can approve these now and then just
005have her make the change yes yes you could do that all right let's do that then yes okay Schoolboard member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes assuming the corrections that we have noted are changed okay thank you motion passes 70 that brings us to adjustments to the agenda I don't believe we have any okay and then that brings us to correspondence and there were no correspondences in the packet so no correspondence and that brings us to the public session if anyone would just to address the school board uh please come up state your name and address the school board seeing none I'll go ahead and close the public session and that brings us to the superintendent's report okay good
006evening everyone just a few items to uh update us on number one students throughout our schools are participating in the NWA State Testing um as you know that's done in front of a computer screen and uh was part of the change that the doe made uh last year for how the what used to be the mea test would be done uh and schools are working on that now um both our Fairfield uh school and young Schools parent teacher organizations um had very successful fall nights um they both were jam-packed and it's great to see the uh participation in our schools um Thursday and Friday of this week will be the last registrations that we have at the hotel so we're hoping that as we move into the next week we will have final numbers of
007what student count will be whether both at the elementary school and at the high school level now that doesn't mean that they will not fluctuate throughout the year as families come and go but we're at the point where we will have um registrations uh completed as I believe there U Meg correct me about 20ish rooms that will be filled in the next couple of days burn school yesterday there was the final Elementary cross country meet of the Season where we had 250 kiddos from Sako bord Dayton and St James participating uh in grades three through five um these are free programs for our kiddos in it's great to see kids um you know have the opportunity to participate after school stay after school um work with some great coaches and volunteers uh that put a
008lot of time into the program um and just they're great they're great events um so next year we'll get you guys out there to one of those events and uh you certainly can help volunteer because the Sako course is a little bit more challenging than some of the others because we're out on the roadways and if you try to get into central office or get stuck at central office during some times you're you're waiting a little bit um the last thing that I would like to just mention to everyone here and the community is you know next week is bus driver appreciation week and transportation staff Appreciation Week um and just like every school district in the country we work through uh shortages of Staff they have illnesses they have days they have to take
009off it's not easy um and first thank you to families for being flexible as there's been some times that we've had to U make some changes early in the morning if someone calls out sick and we are developing plans to kind of have some canned responses to what those would be that we'll be talking about at our next school committee meeting um I would encourage families community members to say thank thank you to their bus driver in the morning time uh because as we look down the bench of who's in line to take those jobs there's not a very deep bench there um and so we need to be thankful for the staff each and every day I want to thank uh jeie and the drivers who over the last couple of weeks uh they've
010been assisting wherever they're needed um and that's a tough job at the same time for anybody who's out there um that would like to become a bus driver we can train we will support you whether that's full-time part-time just doing sports trips uh or field trips um districts all across the state all across the country are in need of bus drivers and uh certainly would uh anyone who's interested we will support you in your journey to become a licensed driver thank you any questions for the superintendent I just want to say that I can hear whenever there's um a meet at Burns and I love hearing all the cheering it's been really great my my kid had the pick between cross country and soccer and he's remorseful at picking soccer sadly but he's uh hopefully
011going to sign up next year okay that brings us to the chair's report I don't have any specific report but late yesterday afternoon um I had the opportunity to meet with the land owner um that owns the land that AB buts the Clare parcel with Jeremy um the land owner Brian canra from the city um the broker just to dis discuss whether there was any interest in um in what potentially might be proposed and that will come up under item E when we talk about the land that's I mean that's essentially all that took place was we just um met with him just kind of discuss briefly the the potential of whether or not the piece would be available and um you didn't really discuss any terms of any kind associated with it was really
012more just to gauge interests so that we're not ultimately um asking for something that isn't actually available like we've done a couple of times already okay and that's all that I had so onto staff reports of which there or none uh board subcommittee minutes there was a strategic meeting um earlier this evening at 5:30 finance committee next meeting is on the 26th at 4:30 um at actually at 90 Beach um infrastructure and Personnel have no minutes um but I wanted to point out because I know that it's been asked a couple of times whether or not they should be meeting the chairs of those two committees have the ability to call the committee together um should a topic come up um and that's actually one of the policies that we're going to look at a
013little later in the agenda um for a second reading but that can happen pretty much at any time kind of at the discretion of the chair and and connecting with the committee members to pull it together so if there's if there are needs for either of those to meet then then you guys can can do that all right that brings us to Old business first item under old business is new hires and there's a memo in the packet Mr chair yes uh I move we approve the nomination of Amanda trip ml teacher and issue a contract for the remainder of the 2022 2023 school year second motion made by Sarah Truman seconded by Jen Preble any discussion roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes I vote Yes
014Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes yes School Bo bber Johnson yes motion passes 70 that brings us to the next item which is resignations also in the packet Mr chair yes I move we accept the resignation of uh James Mack CK Burns teacher effective November 11th 20122 second motion made by Sarah Truman seconded by Beth Johnston okay any discussion okay roll call vote School Board member Archie yes School School Board member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes a motion passes 70 that brings us to the next item which is the enrollment update okay just uh another update on where we are um for enrollment um as I said earlier in my superintendent report we have two more
015days of registrations um at the hotel which will you know increase our numbers um we are hoping that those numbers will be included in our October one counts as certainly over time they've allowed some uh variations in those because of situations just like this um but this is where we stand today and I will update you next week when we uh next meeting when we will probably be a lot more final on what those newcomer numbers are going to be okay any questions for the superintendent okay moving on that brings us to the next item which is review professional development day which is October 7th and Meg will come up and discuss that so last Friday as uh students enjoyed a 4-day weekend our teachers were quite busy we were able to coordinate over 600
016attendees over three districts our Focus was on both social emotional learning and best practices for instruction we were able to design the day so that staff could select sessions that best matched their needs as professional Learners we had 36 offerings over the course of two different time slots in the day we had a combination of internal teacher leaders Department of Education Specialists and paid professional presenters that led those sessions some of the Sako sessions that were offered were using fontas and panel word study K through five place-based learning led by the ecology School Eureka math squared online tools Administration and interpretation of the Wyatt which is a special education screening test the welcoming Library using diverse literature with students which is a $2500 grant that we were awarded to provide a library that will travel
017across the district and then a staff wellness and self-care session so those were just a small sampling of the 36 offerings some of the challenges that we experienced were trying to hold hybrid sessions and having some audio and video difficulty with trying to coordinate both the in-person attendees and those attending from Zoom and just the logistics of the day and and finding space getting links and coordinating those many sessions but one of the benefits that we were able to build in as a result of that is a a pretty lofty transition time which afforded teachers to have the opportunity for really the first time in two and a half years to engage with one another professionally in a non-structured environment where they could kind of check in informally and see one another so that was
018wonderful to see some of the successes that we experienced were that three District partnership which allowed for a more robust set of sessions and shared resources that would support offering sessions for smaller groups of folks that might not be maintained with only one district and a keynote speaker from Maine Health that anchored the day allowed additional breakout sessions and then uh hosted a targeted workshop for resiliency coordinators in the afternoon across all three districts some things that we're looking to change next year as we up the ante and make it even better our consideration of offerings specific to educational technicians so that we target that group of Staff members which are often new to the profession thinking about some of the details like coffee and snacks and different ways to help folks relax and engage
019with one another over the course of the day and then probably the elimination of hybrid sessions in favor of either all online options or all in-person options so that folks can they still really appreciated having that choice in sessions but trying to do the both kind of put us at a compromise where neither one was as great as it could have been and some of our online only or inperson only sessions got some of the best feedback any questions not a question but just it it sounds great the for next year expanding it we're focusing a little bit more on the edtech position so I'm excited to hear next year bigger and better and it sounds like a great event so great job thank you any other questions I don't have a question but I
020same sentiment I'm glad that everybody could get together and have that time I like that you know all the districts could get together too and kind of feed off of each other and learn from each other at the same time and get to hang out at the same time is uh learning some great things you seemed very enthusiastic about it so I'm happy to happy to see that so I am PD days are my favorite schard M Johnson Mr chair thank you um I was GNA say a similar thing Meg to what um was just said and that your enthusiasm is pretty evident which leads me to believe that it was a really successful day and in spite of your technology technology issues or little things of that nature it still seemed to be worthwhile
021productive and I'm sure that you're reflecting in part the enthusiasm of the participants as well which is great thank you thank you thank you okay that brings us to item e which is the state construction project property selection there is a memo in the packet that came from the construction committee okay so first and foremost before we get into this I just I want to be able to recognize all of the volunteers that we have on the school construction site building committee these people are spending a lot of time um making sure that we have this opportunity that we take advantage of in Sako working with oako looking at different sites and land and while we certainly have hiccups from time to time and difficulties um we got some folks who are very very determined
022um to make sure that this happens uh one of the pieces as we noticed we've spent a lot of time over the last month talking about site and providing opportunities for people to to weigh in on those um we had a site selection uh inventory selection committee um a week ago where we had 27 members uh from all of the Committees come here in the room and you know talk again of the differences between uh CLA property and the SMS property um and in that meeting the Committees kind of we added as okay as a as a group of people how are you directing the superintendent to write this memo and from a kind of 26 to one type feeling in the room they were recommending that we write the memo to move forward on
023the CLA Parcels of land um that we've had presentations on of of the fit and knowing that as Kevin mentioned there isn't a butter um that we would be working with to possibly secure additional land uh you do have an option of building the school on current land that it's that the city would own um but there is uh probably a better option for us if we were able to acquire some additional land um after that meeting we had planned on that day to go walk the site but the weather did not cooperate with us on that day um but we did have an opportunity the next day for I think Meg you had like 16 17 people uh from the committee that had an opportunity to go and walk that site and certainly that
024would be uh available to any of us as a group once uh decisions are made because I think um what happens when you start getting your feet on the ground you start building a picture in your head um and it's hard not to get excited about that um as we looked at the site matrixes the presentations all the challenges that ites and present to us um the Committees feel very strongly that we should be moving ahead with the Clare Parcels um starting this process moving towards what would be a straw pole more testing uh and assessment of traffic and environmental conditions so that we can get on the agenda later this winter for the State Board of Education and then begin starting to focus us our attention on the real true exciting parts of the
025project when you're starting to talk about classroom space design what the next uh 50 years of education will look like for kiddos um and that's there's a lot of work that needs to be done because in order to make the ballot uh next November uh by this spring we have to have concept approval uh um and so there's a lot of work that needs to be done between now and then by staff and so the site selection committee and myself is putting forward a recommendation tonight for the school committee to move forward with the Clare uh Parcels so we can begin that work and uh take the next steps okay so I guess we will start discussion first or should we make a motion first and that discussion because I think there's probably going to
026be a lot of discussion Mr chair I move that with the Sako School Board recommends the clar asite for the school construction project second motion made by Jen prevel seconded by Sarah Truman any discussion School member Truman uh I'm really excited to get this moving forward and taking advantage of the uh State funding that we're up for grams for right now young schools well overdue they've waited a couple decades for a new building and I think um it'd be shameful of us if we didn't move forward and get the schools that our students deserve in the city so I'm really excited about the Clare property I was happy to walk on it last week um and uh it's nice to see it's a nice flat property um and I think there's a a lot of
027learning uh advantages um to the outdoor spaces that will be available to them as well to the students so um you know despite our setback that we've had um losing our first choice um I'm still really excited about this um about this property so School member J thank you um I am also very excited about this property after having walked it last week it it just gave me a a new vision of what could be there um I will admit it was not initially my favorite location but I think the property itself shows a lot of promise it was exciting to see it on a day that was sunny by the way and not raining um but I do think that this committee and all the volunteers that have been involved in it have really
028put a lot of thought and time and energy into making the best decisions that we can make so I have to say that under the circumstances of where we are now I am in total support of this property as our site thank you I had the opportunity as well to to walk the site um this past week with the group that went and then I followed up over the weekend um to walk this the land behind stco Middle School it's been probably decades since I've been in the woods back there um but the thing that really stood out is the CLA parcel they're both beautiful pieces but they're not beautiful in the way that we need them to be equally so the Clare parcel struck me as being flat I mean it's the absolute opposite
029of the Sak Middle School parcel I mean there is not a single flat piece of that um the other thing which was really interesting is that we were at that CLA parcel in the middle of a weekday and it was amazing to me and granted we're going to be cutting trees down wherever we go to to put a site it was amazing to me how quiet it was I was at the S Middle School site on a Sunday morning and the noise that you could hear in the middle of the woods was unbelievable it was totally different but the thing that really intrigues me about the the possibility of the the the site at CLA is the possibilities and we did discuss this at the meeting that we had this past week with the site
030selection and program committees the Clare parcel is really the one that makes it possible for us to put the concept that we're trying to achieve into place um there isn't there there really doesn't seem to be the likelihood that we would have to carve things off in order to make the concept fit there there wouldn't be the need potentially to say oh right the discussions that have happened where we'd like to maybe add some fields or put an auditorium in those seem possible there just looking at the way the land is laid out it's I think I don't I don't view it as a second choice it it it Rose to the top in my opinion because it's a really good piece of land and it would fit this concept really really well and on
031top of that it's near the bus barn it's near Public Works we've have multiple buildings where I know many of the principles that some who have not had a chance to go through a winter yet here will you know we've had issues where sidewalks weren't done and it's because of how far apart some of these buildings are they're kind of the last thing to be gotten to at some points and so we're like right in the middle of the city this is probably about as close to the center of town as you can get and I'm when I say center of town I'm not talking about right here out in front of this building I'm talking about the center of Sako and it it's a it's a beautiful piece of land and I think um
032with it being October and hunting season if you want to look at it do it on a Sunday um but it I would encourage anyone to go and take a look at this piece of land because it really truly is a beautiful piece of land Schoolboard member Gail can you expand a little bit about your conversation with the abing property owner and the willingness uh to sell and where we're at with that definitely I can I can start and Jeremy can can jump in so the a butter is he's he is open to selling the land he doesn't currently have it on the market he has a concept that was approved already for for use of the land he's just not ready to really start a project so it's kind of this is kind of
033come sort of at the right time where if we are interested in expanding the foot print that might be available to us he's definitely interested in in selling property to us because he's he has other things to work on um that's essentially the the extent of the conversation um there would still need to be you know appraisals and you know perhaps a uh a what was the term I using Y like anou of some kind that expresses his interest in and willingness to perhaps sell to us and our willingness to perhaps Buy just to weigh in on that is we would need to follow the state process of um entering into the discussions and having two appraisals done is a requirement of the Department of Education from those appraisals they would take the average uh
034of those and that would be the starting point for discussions on the property uh in addition we still have to do once we move forward we still need to look at traffic in Environmental Studies and full Wetland delineations on all of those pieces and what we would be hoping to be able to come to uh fairly soon would not necessarily be anou but an option situation where based off again we have a lot of the process to go through having that option to buy that piece of property once we've gone through state board voters all of those pieces um and that would be something that we would be working with in conjunction with not only the Landover but the Department of Education to make sure that we are following all the steps that they require
035um so that this would be a piece of property that was paid for by the project one of the things also to note is that the the interest in the additional piece of land is to expand the amount of space that's available to us to fit this concept and future expansion um and it should be noted that even though that's desirable the Clare parcel would be able to fit the concept we have in some form so the the additional land purchase is a way to make it you know future proofed in a way where we have more room to expand in the future whether that means the buildings themselves expand or there's something that you know nobody's thought of 25 that that 25 years from now is really important to school district we would have
036space to build something like that whatever that might be so that's really the the concept around the land and the the conversation was really just an opportunity to sort of gauge interest kind of in both directions as to whether or not the land might be available um and where we're sort of heading into this was another thing that that was talked about was that where we're heading into winter the pressure for for um the land owner to want to do something with it is kind of you know waning given where we're headed into winter um If This Were to drag out that might be different say in March um but that's kind of that's kind of where we where we landed was to bring the idea back here and the con the overall concept and
037then based on whatever we determined tonight that would give um Jeremy essentially the opportunity say tomorrow morning to start lining up appraisers to look at um getting us on a schedule to have that site um appraised so that we could actually have a real number to go with it again so just to follow up on on that question though so so it sounds then that we are not dependent on the sale of the abing parcels to move forward with the new construction on the city-owned CLA parcel part is that that is correct obviously design changes yeah right right right but no not dependent on that sole feature and would there be any instance where we would construct the school and then that property owner develop I don't know a uh a uh a parking lot
038or or not something that is not compatible use wise to having a school next to it well I think anytime you have property that you don't own you are always at the risk of somebody who does own it making different choices um and certainly anybody has to go through a process with the town and and and the city and all of those planning pieces um I think in this situation we have the ability to build a school on the current Clare Parcels that are owned by the city but we also have a um individual who owns land that is very interested in working with us and um that's very encouraging uh from the from the get-go one one of the things that we did discuss briefly was that by building on the CLA site we
039still have an easement and so utilizing the easement to provide access to the site that we're talking about using bisects that property and essentially Alters what you you could really even do with it it's not like there's going to be something in the middle of this road that would be in the way of the school the road is still there and now becomes two Parcels that have you know varying degrees of development at that point so that that's one of the things that you know is probably you know in my own opinion is probably would be driving an interest in selling the parcel member Truman I know we've hashed this out before but for the sake of Sanity um with the rumors flying around that this is a cesspool piece of property that somehow the
040city approved uh purchase of when is the and this might be a better question for oako but when is the testing with the um environmental folks to occur it's at some point after we approve this point right it's not like we're going into this blindly I just I know that there's rumors flying around and I just want to kind of put this to bed absolutely so we already have a consultant lined up to do an environmental site assessment um so they'll be starting with their work tomorrow so we'll get answers pretty quick one of the other things that that was also discussed is that the landowner does have um some preliminary environmental paperwork that he had done when he purchased the property and um he expressed some willingness to share that with us and there
041were there were no scary things in it from my understanding of the conversation that we had perfect thank you any other discussion oh I'm good I was just going to reiterate um that I while I do appreciate we put a lot of energy in SMS um I think Claire is going to be the better option at this point just moving forward so we can get going get access to our funds and get what the kids need any further discussion SCH member Archie well I would just like to say that um you know this this was a little difficult for me because it wasn't um it wasn't our first choice and I felt like last few well almost five months we've been talking about why these partials don't work um but I think that we've done
042a lot of work with de Clair paral um and I think I I agree with what you were saying Kevin that it has become a good first option um and looking at the SMS site I would love to have the new school in my ward but we can't we can't can't handle the traffic you know and I I don't agree with discussing um driveways in subdivisions and it just I'm not for taking people's land I'm not for invading people's spaces and I think the clear partial is perfect for what we need thank you I need further discussion I just want to say thank you to the site selection sub committee uh building sub committee and the program subcommittee I know the site selection you guys have put in the hours for sure um and I
043just really appreciate all the teachers public members uh you know staff members and Oak Point for going through our roller coaster I appreciate it so okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member Preble yes School member Richard yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnson yes okay motion passes 70 okay that brings us to the next item which is a second reading of policies BCC nepotism Bia new board member orientation bde board standing committees and BD standing committee operating procedures is there a motion Mr chair I move we approve the second reading of policies BCC B A bde and bd-r second motion made by Beth Johnson seconded by Sarah Truman any discussion hey roll call vote NOP just a just a quick note on the
044bde the board standing committees with some of those revisions I think uh as we look and over the past year with committees and and how many times they've met and Etc like I I think these changes are really going to position us uh moving forward to have um have a lot of good dialogue and and uh discussion at the committee level and and have that come up so I think these are great great changes to what we have and um hopefully soon we'll see the the fruits of all their labors so any other discussion okay r call vote Schoolboard member Arthur yes School member Preble yes Schoolboard member Johnson Richard ahe Rich yes it's been a long day I vote Yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes
045okay motion pass to 70 okay there is no other information noted and I don't think we have any do you have anything additional Jeremy all right there's no executive session this evening and so that brings us to uh adjournment I'll entertain a motion so moved second so motion made by Sarah chuman seconded by Jen Preble okay any discussion okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richard yes I vote Yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes okay motion passes 70 and we are adjourned at 7:41 thank you and have a good evening