001e e greetings and welcome to the Saka school board meeting for mon excuse me Wednesday May 10th call this meeting to order at 700 p.m. let the the record reflect that all school board members are present with the exception of school board member Archie who has been excused I invite you to all to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you very much item three on the agenda this evening is to approve the Schoolboard meeting minutes dated April 26 2023 is there a motion to approve the minutes School Board member Truman uh I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated April 26 second second by School Board member Richard any discussion on the meeting minutes roll call on the minutes Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes Schoolboard member Le foron
002yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston I have to abstain Mr Mayor because I was not here for that meeting thank you uh 5 Z with one abstention uh brings us on to item four of the agenda adjustments to the agenda there are is no adjustments this evening with the exception we are removing under new business item G the second reading of policy KF Community use of Sako school facilities so that is uh being removed from tonight's agenda that brings us to item item five correspondence there's no correspondence in your packet this evening that brings us on to item six public comment or public session if there's any member of the public who would like to address the school board please come forward and be heard with
003nobody seeking recognition moving on from public comment to item seven of the agenda superintendent report superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody uh a few items for tonight uh first and foremost um we are celebrating staff appreciation week uh throughout our districts and um I can't say enough about the quality job that our staff does each and every day they put in in towards our kids our communities the families um it's an extremely challenging job and probably has only become more challenging over time uh and each and every day they get up they come in they put their best foot forward uh and we can thank them for all they do for our kids and our community so thank you staff um for that June 16th as a reminder to the community be the last
004day of school which will be a half day for students and for staff which is a Friday unless we have another snow day but based off the weather this out there in the last few days I think we the snow's gone by um couple of uh other items is that when you uh click on your on Sako City Pages and some of the web web pages or see parents uh I think it's safe to say that our families are enjoying the new playground at Fairfield school um there was a collaboration between Public Works Volunteers in the school department uh I I see I know that Wendy's pretty happy with having a facility out there that's safe and we're just thankful that everybody was able to come together um to support that effort uh for our
005kids thankfully the rain has gone away we did lose our swimming Pond that was out there uh but uh it's just it's it's a nice site um some events that are going on uh in our elementary schools is on Friday night at Young School uh on The Wildside night from 5: to 8 there will be uh many different events going on I was there last year and it was a great event on May 19th which is a Friday night we have playground paloa um which I'm assuming is a little bit of kind of a grand opening thing uh and some fun stuff for our kiddos and then on June 2nd at Burns schools we have our family night out uh the PTO uh basket raffle and classroom raffle is a big tradition and I know
006our kiddos get really excited about that so those are um three important nights for us uh and then finally last night the city council took up second reading of the school budget uh and City budget that was passed and we will head to budget validation on June 13th which is the second Tuesday and that's at Thorton Academy correct in the gym where the election is I'll have to check with the clerk because it's a much smaller turnout so but I think it will be because there won't be any school understand it typically a very small elections and I don't believe there's anything on the state ballot for this one that's my understanding that's all thank you any questions for superintendent Ray School Board member Gail another a question but just a quick comment on the
007The Young School playground as well um the drainage improvements there it's just night and day between what it was four months ago and now and after that huge Deluge of rain uh the drainage improvements really worked and it was we were back out there playing a couple days after that so thanks thanks to the city council and the school and the landscaper moving on to item eight on the agenda and that's the chair's report chair Preble um I don't have anything new to report this evening thank you very much thank you uh brings us to item nine of the agenda and that is Staff reports there are no staff reports to review in the packet and so that brings us to item 10 the board subcommittee minutes uh the policy and Personnel committee had a
008meeting tonight uh at 5:30 the finance and infrastructure committee has a next meeting on May 24th 2023 at 4M in the curriculum committee has a meeting on May 22nd 2023 at 4:30 p.m. brings us to item 11 old business there is no old business this evening so we will proceed to item 12 new business and item a is a new hire you you all received in the packet a memorandum uh for new hires I believe one requires action with two others requiring no action if I'll entertain a motion board member Truman I move we approve the nomination of Rachel Goldstein prek and CK Burns music teacher and issue a contract for the 2023 202 for school year second second second by School Board member Johnston any discussion superintendent Ray any followup from your memo see
009no discussion roll call votes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes Schoolboard member Le Fortune yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 that brings us to Item B resignations again in your packet was a memorandum on resignations from superintendent Ray School Board member Truman I move we accept the resignation of Emily Thompson social worker effective at the end of the 22223 school year second motion's been seconded by School Board member L Fortune superintendent Ray any update other than what's in the memo any discussion roll call vote Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes School Board member La Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 60 that brings us to item
010C A Schoolboard meeting calendar okay in your packet is the proposed meeting calendar for next year this is an opportunity for you guys to look at it uh and I'll bring it back at a next uh meeting for a fi uh for to finalize that for the upcoming year um couple of things that I want to point out on that calendar that are uh that deviate from our normal day uh normal uh Wednesdays would be the month of February uh I moved that up a week because typically uh by the last day in January is when we're supposed to receive our state subsidies and so I know that we'll be in the middle of budget pieces and people want to hear that information as quick quick as possible and then the April 2 uh 9th
011meeting moving that to a Tuesday night because of our April vacation calendar starting the next day um and so we move that ahead of night so we'll bring this back please reach out to me with uh any comments on this and so that we can um vote next meeting thank you any questions for superintendent Ray on the proposed calendar no questions moving on that brings us to item D probationary teacher contracts in the packet is memorandum superintendent Ray the probationary contracts is the nomination to move one year probationary teachers to move to year two of probationary teachers and then uh nomination for year year two and year three probationary teachers to move on to continuing contract status um the law changed a couple of years ago to move back from a three-year probationary to a
012two-year to the second set of people or a combined group that would all move to continuation uh A continuing contract thank you any questions for superintendent Ray School Board member Gail it's just at a high level um can you give me just a an overview on like what the criteria is in the evaluation from year one to year two for the for this list like how did what's the what's the CR criteria so people will go through the evaluation process as outlined in the contract and the state process is that a beginning teacher is on a probationary contract for the first first two years in any school department that they move to even if you've been in let's say the Sako school department for 30 years and then you move your family moves and you're
013now in cyle Maine you would go on to a probationary contract which would be the evaluations that we have for our teachers and our staff as outlined and through that process after that first year the superintendent of schools must recom men to a board to go to a seconde probationary contract or to non-renew that gives them their second year of evaluation after the um second year of that superintendent of schools would say to a board these are individuals who have satisfied requirements we're happy with them they're doing a great job and they would move on to a continuing contract status and gain that professional uh certificate thank you any further questions superintendent Ray do you require a vote on this yes the school committee needs to make a motion on this thank you School Board
014member Truman I move we approve the nominations of the second oh of the second year teachers as listed in the memo and issue a continuing teacher contracts for the 23 24 school year second motion's been made by Schoolboard member Truman second by Schoolboard member Johnston any discussion roll call vote School Board member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes Schoolboard member L Fortune yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnson yes motion passes 60 Schoolboard member Truman I move we approve the nominations of the first year teachers as listed in the memo and issue year two probationary contracts for the 2023 2024 school year second motion's been made by school board member Truman second by School Board member of Fortune any discussion no discussion roll call vote School Board member trebble yes
015School 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 60 that brings us to to item e an Esa preliminary allocations superintendent Ray assistant superintendent Parker will come up to present this item thank you I think um we gave a nod in an earlier Schoolboard superintendence report to some of the changes but I wanted to provide an opportunity for the board and the public to view the specific preliminary allocations which are usually finalized in the end of May early June as we prepare our complete application so we did see a substantial increase in our Title One allocation that was due to the city size of Sako which bumped Sako into a different Statewide allocation procedure so that
016they moved from using our free and reduced lunch percentages to using the percentage of poverty for the city as a whole in terms of determining how much of the state Pi of federal funds would be allocated to Sako which left us in a better position I think especially with the change in the free and reduced lunch setup there's certainly a different incentive and so those poverty measures are a much more accurate representation of the funding that we would require at present we have one Title One school we really have two schools that have qualified in the past both Fairfield and burns the school qualification is still based on free and reduced lunch forms we don't get to kind of use that same metric for our local allocations within schools in the past we have um
017had CK Burns as what's called a targeted program which means that we kind of have to nickel and dime every single student scene test score for that student percent of teacher time spent on that student whereas Fairfield qualifies for a schoolwide program which means that you can assume that a rising Tide Rises all boats and that we can kind of spend that money on the whole school while ensuring that the needs of students that are struggling are met um we have an opportunity this year after some discuss discusss with the doe to apply for CK Burns to have a waiver on the targeted program and move them into schoolwide for the past three years we have moved the CK Burns targeted funds to Fairfield schoolwide because it's um much easier and more beneficial to be
018able to spend those funds freely at one school with the opportunity of increased funds we believe in conversations with the state that CK Burns will be able to get a waiver for the targeted program and will then be able to qualify for schoolwide which will mean that we can split those funds between both schools ensuring that the school that has the higher free and reduced lunch portion gets a greater portion of the funds which we'll certainly be able to do as in the past we've used all of those title one funds at Fairfield for our uh title two allocations we did see a bit of a decrease there are a couple of different areas that tile 2 addresses they're around teacher quality and professional development traditionally we have used those for a classroom siiz reduction
019project which is that um idea that by shifting class sizes we've done that at CK Burns in the third grade that that's a transitional year for students and we want to keep those class sizes smaller title three is an allocation based on English language Learners and immigrant students we did see quite an increase in um that funding and use those funds for a variety of measures to improve communication improve access to education and um materials and other support for our English language Learners title four is around student supports and academic achievements these have uh some pretty strict spending requirements as they have to be balanced across three different areas with different portions and so we really need to look carefully at technology well-rounded education and um safe School environments those are the three areas that
020we look at with title 4 and determining how we can best address those needs uh in the coming months we will continue to look at the way we've spent those funds in the past brainstorm the best ways for us to maximize and leverage the use of those funds moving forward and um welcome public comment on the current allocations on the past spending that's outlined in the memo and we'll look forward to Preparing that application in the beginning of the summer one last thing to mention is that there is a private school allocation that's required by law So based on the number of Sako students attending Sako schools in the town of Sako we need to allocate certain percentages to those schools and so um below there you can see that of the um funding we
021do have quite a bit of title two and title four going to TA for our 912 students and then to sweetzer and Margaret Murphy which also get a smaller portion based on that those schools can elect to follow the guidelines outlined in the title spending and be part of that application or they can elect to not take those funds if it's onerous or prohibitive to try to spend those we have had um sweetzer and Margaret Murphy at different times decline some of those funds uh because it is a little bit tricky when your amount is a little bit smaller to then try to divide that pie further into different groups and then meet the reporting requirements um but we certainly work closely with those privates to make sure that they understand the spending limits the
022time frames and the invoicing requirements so that they can access those funds happy to answer any questions thank you any questions for assistant superintendent parkur thank you very much School Board member Gail so so then just could you just go over the timeline one more time for the public involvement over the next couple months yeah so generally we have a um group that will meet and certainly if there's any members of the public that want to be part of that group we welcome them to complete the form to go over how the school department proposes to use those funds that generally occurs in June June and then in by the end of July we try to shore up that application uh to send in to the state and then get have an opportunity for revisions
023sometimes or it can be immediately approved so we look to have that submitted by August 1st so then the next time you come back so there'll be a meeting in May for the school board and then uh a meeting in June don't believe we have a meeting in July so then um that meeting in June then will you present on kind of a more developed plan of where we're at with these funds or suggested so as long as we have the final allocations by that June meeting and even if we don't we can give a ballpark of from the preliminary allocations of how we intend to use those funds in preparation to complete that application great thank you thank you any further questions thank you very much thank you that brings us to item f
024a school construction update superintendent Ray all right um School construction so since the last meeting Meg and myself and Patrick Fox and oako and is it Emily from the city um spent about three hours on a zoom call with the Department of Transportation talking about light counts every direction in the world traffic could come from and to get to a new school and how many uh pass through intersections they assume that cars will come through um it was very interesting meeting but one of those meetings that when you don't fully know or are ingrained in the topic and you don't do it every day you walk out and you say well was that good or was that bad um and we were able to uh get guidance from oako and from our traffic Consulting that
025they actually felt that it went very good and that the request of more information because obviously looking at turn Lanes uh and queuing and those types of things are concerns that uh the do would have about any project a lot of discussions about trying to anticipate where Cars one not only will come from but where will they go once they drop their kiddo off at school will you be you turning right and heading up Route One to continue on to Portland or would you be going across um the Industrial Park Road and jumping on the interstate or how many uh cars will go south so there's a very interesting meeting we have kind of some homework assignments to bring back at the end of May is that correct Meg um and then um we will
026make other recommendations obviously um Patrick Fox will be a big part of that piece of the recommendations of the city and what they experience uh traffic wise um and so through the traffic study that's kind of the next that's the piece that's really between us and site approval is the traffic study um and given having the dot kind of give us the go-ahead uh to move forward and so that's the work now uh there was definitely the de Department of Education understands our timeline and process that we have in the city to get on that November ballot and doing everything in their power to help us stay on that piece and considering how we may even present site and program at the same meeting um they're just being fantastic to work through because they know
027that that process for municipalities is a little bit longer in months and it is in an RSU to get to that November election so we're continuing to push hard um we continue to meet every single week to get updates uh around around uh the building you'll see here in the um chamber tonight there are a couple of big posters with floor plans and location proposed those are or will be at every single school there will be a couple of spots within the community we will be getting them to the little league and softball field so that people will be able to start seeing kind of that Vision um of the schools as we hopefully move towards that November election thank you any questions for superintendent Ray no questions moving on to item G of the
028agenda and that's second reading of policies ebcc for bomb threat ecad for security camera system EC a-r security camera system administrative procedure ECB Pest Management in school facilities and on school grounds gbb workplace bullying gbbb staff conduct with students gbec drug-free workplace gbg light work return to work GBF work related injuries gbo Family Care leave gcfa employee social media policy and GC fb- recruiting and hiring of administrative staff administrative procedure is there a motion to approve the policies Schoolboard member Johnston um excuse me I move we approve the second reading of policies EB CC EC a d e c a d-r ECB GB EB GB ebb GB e c GB G GBF gbo um gcfa and GCF b-r second motion's been made by Schoolboard member Johnston second by Schoolboard member Truman any discussion on the
029policies second reading of policies I just wanted to mention I mentioned it to some people but KF took off we took that one off until our next meeting because we just had to make a few minor uh adjustments so I'll be back on hopefully the next meeting thank you any further discussion on the second reading of policies no discussion roll call vote Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes Schoolboard member of Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 brings us to item H policies and procedures to strike and that is kf- R use of school facilities kf- a school facility form eb- safety program administrative procedure eb- R1 safety and wellness program administrative procedure eb-2 Sako school department safety and wellness committee
030mission statement eb- chemical hazards chemical hygiene plan eb- R2 employee chemical Education and Training record eb- R3 record of trainings received ecc-1 bomb threat procedures and EB cc- R2 bomb threat checklist and e a ea a-r drug and alcohol testing of school bus drivers administrative procedure is there a motion on the policies to strike School Board member Johnston um I move we strike policies kf- r kf- a eb- r EB e- R1 eb- R2 EB a A- R EB a A- R2 EB a A- R3 EB cc- R1 and EB cc- R2 second motion's been made by Schoolboard member Johnston second by Schoolboard member Truman uh on all the policies with the exception of e a ea A- R any discussion just wanted to mention that we are this is similar to last time where
031we were taking off the procedures to open that up so that because that's the administrative piece of it we just need the policies in there and there were some paper forms that were kind of redundant because a lot of that stuff is done electronically it was just no need for them to be in there thank you of Fortune so so just a clarification on that so kfr and KFA are being struck regardless of what happens to KF comes right these are just so KF will when that comes back will be our policy kfr and KFA will are those are the forms that they used to require but they have other things it's just not no need for us to have it in our policy manual the administration should have it their their form should be
032readily available to administrators if they use paper forms but I'm guessing that a lot of that stuff is all done electronically um and this way also like if any procedures need to change for streamlining and all that stuff their hands aren't really tied you know what I mean they don't have to that's more of their Corner if you will so any further discussion also which one did you did you comment on about taking off that with the exception of uh Mr Mayor School Board member Johnston did not read into the record EA EA a-r I did read it into the record but it was not in school board member Johnston's motion so we are not dealing with that item at this moment that that sorry that is true I did not read that particular one
033um if you'd like to amend your motion you can certainly amend it okay um let me how how would you suggest I do that Mr Mayor just you can do a friendly amendment to just add in by reading that into the record and then if okay School Board member Trum in seconds uh it'll be considered friendly I would like to add to the list of policies that we will strike EA a e a A- R um yes to the list of policies that we've already that I already motioned thank you Schoolboard member Truman do you accept that as a second yes it's been motioned and seconded any further discussion roll call vote School V member prb yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member L Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board
034member trp rman yes Schoolboard member John yes motion passes 60 brings us to item 13 of the agenda there's no other information this evening in the packet there is no executive session under section 14 and that brings us to item 15 I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved School Board member Truman second by School Board member Richard any discussion roll call to adjourn 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 60 to adjourn at 7:34 have a great evening everyone