001Greetings and welcome to the SACO school board meeting for Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023. Call this meeting to order at 5:00. Uh let the record show that uh school board member Archie and school board member uh Gail will schoolboard member Archie is in traffic and may be here uh by the end of the meeting may not uh and school board member Gail has been excused. Uh with that like to uh invite you all to join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of Thank you very much. Uh item three on the agenda this evening is approval of the school board meeting minutes dated August 9th, 2023. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Board member Lefortune. I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated August 9th, 2023. Second school board member
002Prebble. Second. Any discussion on the minutes for August 9th, 2023. Roll call on the minutes. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard? Yes. School board member Lefortune? Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. School board member Johnston? Yes. Motion passes. Z. Uh, are there any adjustments to the agenda this evening? See no adjustments. Moving on to item five. There was no correspondence in the packet. So we will move on to item six, public session. If there's any member of the public that would like to address the school board, please come forward and be heard. For those coming forward, please state your name and address uh into the record. I am Holly Traier representing the Saco Education Association. And I have a couple of handouts. Thank you. Um, to our school board chair, Jen Prebble,
003the members of the school board, and superintendent Ray, the SACO Education Association respectfully requests that you delay your approval of the PG&E handbook until your next regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting on September 13th. We are making this request for the following reasons. If you've had an opportunity to read the document, you might notice that the steering committee has made substantive changes to be adopted and implemented this school year. Some members of the committee have three major concerns about adopting this plan as it stands. All of our concerns are tied to meeting the chapter 180 DOE rules surrounding professional growth plans around the state. It is our responsibility as a district to meet those requirements. Section 13, bullet 1B, requires that the committee must use a consensus decision-making process. I've researched several definitions of consensus and all
004include that all members at the table have a voice. At our last meeting, four people were unable to attend and in a committee of nine, that's almost half of the voices. Another common attribute of consensus is that the decision is something that everyone on the committee can live with. So if there are dissenting voices, the committee is to continue to work together. There were three members requesting another meeting for that purpose, but the request was denied. Therefore, the committee is not following a consensus decision-making process. According to chapter 180, section 5 bullet 4, the Kim Marshall teaching evaluation rubrics are approved as a model for districts to use. As a steering committee, we've made substantial changes to those rubrics, and we need to be sure they now meet the requirements of chapter 180. And quote,
005"If a school administrative unit chooses to use a professional practice model other than the models listed above, it must demonstrate to the department that the school administrative units selected model meets the criteria set forth in this section." unquote. We've changed the rubrics so that they apply not just to teachers, but to all employees in the district, including administrators and support staff. Therefore, we work to re reward the rubrics to meet all those job descriptions with language that is more vague and encompassing. We also change the rubrics to have just four indicators in each domain or category instead of the six or eight listed in the original rubric. We need to be sure that this is in compliance with the state expectations of a professional growth plan and the SACO Education Association is not sure we've
006followed our due diligence in this respect. Another concern is tied to the practice of observations in our district. The SACO Education Association also believes that the person being observed should be fully aware of the observation as we've agreed to by all parties in our recently adopted adopted bargaining contract and that teachers, administrators, and all- in school employees should be present during an observation of that employee. In other words, if an employee is not present, it cannot be written as an observation of the employee in the professional growth and evaluation plan for that employee. Since our district is following the Marshall's rubrics and plan, we should be following that for the observations as described by Marshall in rethinking teacher supervision and evaluation written in 2013. Quote, "If the district has a thoughtful policy on many observations,
007has negotiated certain key elements with the teachers union, including a shared understanding of what good instruction looks like, and provides training and collegial problem solving and support. that is truly a formula for success. Through his research, it's also been determined that 10 minutes is enough to form a meaningful impression and have a substantive conversation with the teacher. Anything less than five minutes with a teacher has a supericial is was superficial and he was unable to give teachers feedback that was credible or helpful. In no place does Marshall recommend doing observations without the teacher present. Furthermore, Marshall states, quote, "Principles who frequently and systematically visit all classrooms have a unique schoolwide perspective and are constantly seeing ideas that can be leveraged to improve teaching and learning in other classrooms. All of Marshall's descriptions for what constitutes
008a quality observation that can be later discussed with the teacher are taking place in the classroom during teaching and learning. The PG&E system is supposed to improve teaching." On page 66, Marshall says, "Administrators need to slow down and be good listeners, taking the time to hear what's on the teacher's mind." Ideally, teachers walk away from a feedback conversation with specific ideas for improving their practice or a warm feeling that their work is appreciated by an intelligent and thoughtful colleague. This is definitely the perspective the SEA agrees with and hopes you agree with. As a school board, we would like to have this more well- definfined within our PG&E plan. Right now, it says walkth through, which is too vague to define an observation for an administrator. Our last concern is complying with the training protocols
009for evaluators. In chapter 180 section 12 bullet 3B, it includes that the training in in observing and evaluating professional practice of teachers and/or principles must include the following. Training and evaluating performance based on evidence and without bias. Adequate time for evaluators to practice and become familiar with the model during their trainings. Opportunity for evaluators to work collaboratively. training and assessing evidence of performance not directly observed in a classroom observation or direct observations of principles and incorporating that evidence into a summitive evaluation and training designed to ensure a high level of interrator reliability and agreement to continue to serve as a trained evaluator. An evaluator must maintain an identified minimum level of interrator reliability and agreement by participating in training or recalibration at intervals specified in the PEPG system plan. Considering that all but one of
010our administrators is new to the district within the past two years, the SACO Education Association would like evidence that these training requirements are being met. It's our understanding that currently a video is supplied to administrators which does not seem to meet the requirements set forth in chapter 180. For these reasons, the SACO Education Association respectfully requests that you delay approving this redesigned PG&E handbook. We recognize that approving this plan is timely and our proposal is for the committee to meet, clarify missing language, and still be able to present the plan to staff at an upcoming abbreviated Wednesday following the next school board meeting on September 13th. The SACO Education Association is grateful for your time this evening and your consideration of these concerns with adopting our revised evaluation system, which will impact all the employees
011in our district. Thank you. Thank you. If there's any other members of the public that would like to address the school board, please come forward and be heard. With nobody seeking recognition, moving on to item seven, superintendent Ford, Superintendent Ray. All right. Good evening, everybody. Evening. It's still evening, I guess, late afternoon. Um yesterday we had a welcome of new staff to the district for the initial training. Um all three districts got together to uh work together and do some great touring of the districts, the standard paperwork stuff. Um presentation from our resiliency coordinators uh on working with students with trauma. So uh very good day. We have all staff who will be returning uh to the buildings tomorrow uh for our opening day. uh which is very exciting. Uh we'll have our kind of
012opening ceremonies I guess to say on Monday uh at SMS at the middle school. Uh any of anyone that wants to stop in uh Bill would love to have a bigger audience for a speech and uh but you're all welcome. Uh 8 a.m. Just a reminder to families that you have students uh who will be returning on Wednesday of next week. It's important that if you are taking a bus or if you have a change or the drop off locations that you review the information that the school sends out because we know that the first couple of days of school can certainly clog up traffic within our city. Also be aware of any of those construction projects that are out there that may change your timing in the morning um as that's really important. Um
013there's been a lot of work being done at our schools. Um from some new flooring at Fairfield School that's happened for a couple of classrooms to a beautiful uh change to the cafeteria at Burn Schools to cafeterias and furniture at the middle school. But just we are just like everybody else. All projects take a little bit longer than you would have hoped. um from supply chain to the availability of people to complete uh the task. So there will still be some construction throughout um the fall time that will be done in our buildings, especially SMS um with some installation of bleachers um which will be a big one. The roof is at SMS is wrapping up and they should be done by um by the start of the school year. And it looks like we
014had a few more doors for the revolving renovations door project that needed to be installed at SMS and some painting that needs to be done. Um I had a meeting with um Chief Clement uh and Jim Tras a couple of days ago. Um, and as you are probably all all aware and probably the mayor even more so, the hiring of police officers is not an easy thing right now. Uh, and there's a lot of openings. Um, and our police departments all around southern Maine are short employees. And so in looking at what we would do for an SRO um and not being able to provide one to both schools at this point, uh having a conversation of sharing that for the first half of the year with TA um until January is hopefully uh when
015someone new can be on board. But I think that's uh an important thing for us to look at is making sure that there's coverage at Thornton Academy as well as coverage at Sako Middle School. And so we'll be working out a schedule at the first part of the year. Uh and then finally, uh received a a very nice email yesterday from a member of our community. And as you know, uh two teachers at Burn School had written a grant for an outdoor classroom that member of our community picked up and um said, "Hey, I'll spearhead that. Make sure it's all taken together." And um for anyone who knows Jim Godbau who has about the biggest heart in the world, uh he emailed me yesterday and said he would not like he would not does not
016want to be paid from the grant. He wants to just donate that to our community. So um things have changed. It will allow us to use the remaining uh money to maybe buy some other pieces for the outdoor classroom. Um, but I want to make sure that in public a big thank you to Jim Gutbau for not only just making sure it happened, but for donating um the material and we'll have a an opening that we'll plan uh for that space. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Moving on to item eight, chair report and chair Prebble. Um, I have nothing new this evening to report. Thank you. Thank you. That brings us on to item nine, staff reports. are no staff reports in the agenda. That brings us to item 10, reviewing the board subcommittee
017minutes. The POS, excuse me, the policy and personnel committee uh has minutes from August 9th, 2023 and their next meeting is September 13, 2023 at 5:30. Finance and Infrastructure Committee uh meeting was today at 4:30. And the curriculum committee has a next meeting on 8:28 at 4:30 p.m. Any questions on the board subcommittee? No questions there. Moving on to item 11, old business. There's no old business, so we'll move right into item 12, new business. Uh, under item A is new hires in your packet. There was a memorandum. Uh, some of the memorandum requires action, some of it does not. School board member Truman. I move we approve the nomination of Gary Kpski as the director of maintenance and facilities and issue a contract for the 2023 2024 school year. Second. Motion's been made by
018school board member Truman. Second by school board member Lefortune. Any discussion? Roll call vote. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. School board member Leforin. Yes. School board member Truman? Yes. School board member Johnston? Yes. Motion passes. 5 Z. We have one more. School board member Truman. I move we approve the nomination of Megan Leblanc, district OT, and issue a contract for the 2023 24 school year. Second. Motion's been made by school board member Truman, second by school board member Prebble. Any discussion? Just had a quick question. Board member Richard. Yeah, I I noticed a district OT. So, I just wanted to make sure we have enough coverage for OT's throughout the district. I Yeah, when it says district, that's more of that they'll be working at multiple schools and not assigned
019to one building. Any further questions on this item? Roll call vote. School board member Prebble, yes. School board member Richard, yes. School board member Lefortune, yes. School board member Truman, yes. School board member Johnston, yes. Motion passes 5-0. That brings us to item B, resignations. There was a memorandum in your packet with requiring some action and some requiring no action. School board member Truman. I move we accept the resignation of Lisa Penley resource room at CK CK Burns effective immediately. Second. Motion's been made by school board member Truman. Second by school board member Johnston. Any discussion? Roll call vote. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. School board member Lefortune. Yes. School board member Truman. Yes. School board member Johnston. Motion passes 5-0. That brings us to item C, school construction update.
020Superintendent Ray, this is always just a standing item, but since the last meeting, we have not heard anything different on from the DOT transportation um permit. And so that is the piece that we're waiting on. Uh Megan and I will meet tomorrow morning without point again for any new updates. Um they're continuing to work on on some of that outside piece and you know the design piece but our where we stand is traffic traffic study and traffic permit and that is the next big domino that has to fall for us to move forward. Thank you. Uh any questions on the school construction update? Moving on to item D, professional growth and evaluation. We'll hear from Assistant Superintendent Parker. Thank you. So, as you see in your board backup, the revised proposal for the professional growth
021and evaluation document, and I'd like to just walk you through some of what the team discussed last year and this year and how we came to this point, as well as highlight some of the changes in the document for you. This year's team consisted of nine members, four teachers, two instructional support staff, two administrators, and one school board member. Thank you, Beth. And our team met last year once, which is the requirement for meeting to review that, and determined last year in March, that we had some changes that we wanted to propose, but they were probably too lofty to make those changes through the end of the 22 school year and that we would um launch a more robust set of meetings into this school year. The team met in October, November, January, March, May,
022June, and then an additional requested meeting in July. We also conducted a teacher and edtech survey as well as administrators to identify priorities for change and highlight some of the areas in which the PG&E was working well and should continue. through that survey. Some of the positive aspects of the PG&E that was already in place was the ability for teachers to access their documents through Google and folders, the ability to access notes from the administrator quickly after the observation or walkthrough was conducted, the quality of feedback from administration, and the timely followup to observations and walkthroughs with the administrator. Some of the aspects of the system that were identified as a need for change were the fit of the rubric for the position, the number of observations and walkthroughs being too large, as well as
023the followup to the observations and walkthroughs allowing those to be optional. Sometimes if it's pretty straightforward, we uh thought it might work to have it that be at the request of either the teacher or the administrator where there are some that may not require a lengthy follow-up and then the ability for administration to complete all requirements of the PG& given the number of observations that were required. So as a result of those survey data and the team meeting throughout the course of the year, there were three major changes that I want to highlight for you. There were 12 rubrics that each rubric for each of those 12 positions was six pages each. We shifted that to being one rubric that applies to multiple positions. Even with those 12 rubrics, they were so positionspecific that there
024were some positions within the district that felt that the rubric didn't necessarily fit some of their criteria. So, we worked with the language in that rubric to ensure that we were able to narrow down to language that would apply to multiple positions. There were 60 scored indicators and some of those indicators range slightly depending on the position. We were able to look through those and identify 24 scored indicators that would highlight skills that crossed multiple jobs that fall under the PG&E. And then we looked at the walkthroughs. We have kind of off-year evaluation staff and on-year evaluation staff. The prior requirement was three to five walkthroughs for off-year staff and five to 10 walkthroughs for on-year staff. Ony-ear staff is first and second year hires as well as every third year after you work through
025those first two years. So you can imagine at um some of our larger schools such as CK Burns and Sako Middle School, if you do the math on the number of staff members in each of those areas multiplied by the 5 to 10 or the 3x5 3 to five, you're looking at quite a few observations. The new language was changed to include one a minimum of of course always encouraging our administrators to be in those classrooms and provide feedback as much as possible. Um one walkth through on an offyear and three walkthroughs and one announced observation on the onyear. One of the pieces that we uh discussed through the course of this is that a walkthrough is a really great opportunity to see what's happening daytoday in a classroom. But as a teacher, there are
026some times where you'd like to have a discussion with an administrator prior to and then be able to say here's some of the things that I'm focusing on in my instruction. I'd love another set of eyes to get some really specific feedback as to how I'm doing with that. And that announced observation provides an ability to say, I've been working with some flexible grouping. Here's a lesson where I know that's going to happen. And then making sure that the observation is allowed to occur through that. While we did aim for consensus decisionmaking, of course, in a consensus, we don't always reach a unanimous decision, but we strive to have all stakeholders heard throughout the course of the meetings. there was no change to the definition of a walkthrough or the definition of an observation from
027the prior document. Um the first time we brought that up or that was brought up to the group was in June. So we had worked through some of the rubric revisions and observation revisions through the course of other meetings and as we left our July meeting had agreed to kind of put back the final draft to all stakeholders even those that weren't able to attend in July and we were able to land with a vote of five in favor three opposed and one abstension of the nine team members. The items that we want to continue to look at through the course of this year for PG&E is looking at the administrative evaluation process and timelines and making sure that those make sense for that specific position. Additional clarity on what belongs in an observation document
028and what belongs through a disciplinary process. Use of an automated system. We currently use an internal process in which we generate a Google document for each staff member and share that with them. However, that does not allow us to create summary documents. We had discussed that in policy committee recently. We don't have a way to kind of average all teachers summitive scores and see if there are any patterns. So, we um could certainly explore the use of a more automated system. And while we do have training systems in place annually through our leadership retreat as well as refreshers during the course of leadership PLC meetings and leadership meetings over the course of the year, there is a will of the committee to continue to look at streamlining or better defining what those training procedures look
029like. I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any. Thank you. Any questions from the board? comments. Thank you very much. Thank you. Superintendent Ray, are you asking the board to approve this tonight or is this Yes. Okay. Is there a motion to approve? School board member Johnston. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move we approve the SACO school department professional growth and evaluation that is PG&E system handbook for teachers, educational technicians and administrators effective beginning the start of the 2023 2024 school year. Motion's been made by school board member Johnson. Is there a second? Second. Second by school board member Richard. Any discussion? School board member LeForge. Just a question. So the do the document that we have is suggested revisions but it's not the plan per se. Is that correct? It's a suggested
030revisions document because until the plan is approved by the board, it won't become the document for the district. But that is the document in its entirety with the suggested revisions included. So ju just to clarify because maybe I'm just not following this. We're not approving the suggested changes. for approving the document with correct school board member Johnston. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I've been fortunate enough to actually sit on this committee and not just recently, but also in the past when we've been formulating the ideas of what PG&E should actually be like for several years. And I would just like to say that this is a pretty complicated in bunch of information for somebody who has not gone and sat at the meetings. So I know this I'm suspecting that a good number of members
031of this board tonight are not quite they're a bit overwhelmed with the information that's being that's being supplied to us. Um, Assistant Superintendent Parkers has done a very good job of trying to fill us in and I think the information that um, Holly Trudier Trudier um, supplied to us, the association president is also pretty complex. So my feeling after being involved with this over a lot of time is that this document that's being that we're being asked tonight to vote on is a much more compact, easy to understand and um efficient document than what we've had in the past. And I believe that we would have to say that there have been certain concessions made in this last round of this is why we're going to do it. Um which I think are that the
032association was happy with. One of which is um if you're on a I'm sorry the right term escapes me but if you're on a a plan to improve then you need to be observed by two administrators not just one. That was something that was very important to them and we agree to it. So, I guess what I would say is that in order for this board to actually really understand what they're grappling with, if we're not going to vote on this tonight, we would probably need to have a workshop on it so that the board could actually understand what this is really all about. But, um, I would I would suggest voting for it. I think we're we've never closed it down to the point where this is it. We're never changing it. We're never
033going to review it again. We're never going to evaluate it. So, I think we're totally open to continuing having this committee working into the future, but for right now to get this going for this school year so that all of these staff members actually understand and I think they want to understand what it is that is expected of them. I would say we vote for this tonight. Thank you. Thank you, school board member Truman. Uh, quick question about the because I think there was a mention about there being a conflict between the teachers bargaining agreement and if I remember if I understood what you said earlier, Holly, um, does that override the bargaining agreement overrides whatever is in PG&E? Am I understanding that correctly? I think if there were a directstated conflict between the two,
034the contract would be more binding. I don't believe that there's Did I a conflict at this point in my mind? Okay. From where I sit, probably mis misheard that part, but I was kind of panicking in the middle of when Miss Trudier was talking and this being presented, I was like, don't know which one would override. So, Any further questions on this item? Uh, Mr. Mayor, member Richard, to Beth's point, as far as this not being something that's, you know, definitive or final, u could this be passed so there is something moving forward for the beginning of the year, but, you know, have the ability to tweak it at some point. I mean, during the school year or what, you know, from my perspective, any changes should really start a school year and then close
035out that school year. I'm not opposed to keeping in place what we already have. I think this is a better alternative, but I think that if we were going to make any changes that we would be looking to implement those for the 2425 school year at this point where we have staff returning and kind of already pushed that with the additional July meeting to a place where in my mind we're up against that finish line and if if we don't cross we can try again next year and that would be fine. But um I don't think a mid-year change would be recommended from my perspective. Any further questions, discussion on this item, school board member Truman, did you have something? I did, but I'm I'm good. Okay. Uh, with that, this item was uh motioned
036by schoolboard member Johnston, seconded by school board member Richard. If there's no further discussion, a roll call vote. School board member Prebble, yes. School board member Richard, yes. School board member Leforin, yes. School board member Truman, yes. And school board member Johnson, yes. Motion passes 5-0. That brings us to item E of funding for English language learners. Superintendent Ray, just got to bring that document up. So, if you remember last year when we had a a newer influx of ELLL learners into our district, we were able to there was a pot of money that was available for us to apply for based off our new piece. and I reported out midway through the year that we had received like $200,000 based off the share of money um that was available at the state through the
037budget process uh in Augusta. they have done that a little bit differently and we were informed kind of through the press release that I put on there of what our allocation would be and this year we could expect uh $110,000 of additional subsidy um as we monitor you know our ELLL population. In a prior meeting, we had already made some changes based off new numbers at prek and at burn school to increase staffing. Um, but they're using a different process than in the past. This money will not be available for us until um o at the end of October because of the 90 days that when a law and a bill comes into place after the session, that's when it comes in. So, um this is good news for us. I do think that we
038need to continue to watch our numbers and our levels. We talked about that a little bit at um finance tonight. One of the things that baffles me a little bit right now as we look at enrollments coming in is that typically at this time of year, you tend to get the kids who are coming to the district. Um, and a lot of times you don't know the ones that have left yet, but as we see enrollments of new kiddos coming in, I haven't seen that many more apartments andor houses being built. So, I think that there's probably just a replacement of someone who is living in another place and we tend to not know the kiddos that are leaving until they register in the new school or the new school requests records. That's something that
039can happen a lot, but this is something that we're keeping our eye on. Um, and we'll update at the first school committee meeting of where we are support-wise for our kiddos. Thank you. Any questions on the uh new funding? Moving on uh to item F, there's a first reading of policies. policy. IHBA program for multilingual learners. Uh IHBA, life sustaining emergency care. IHBG homeschooling and IHBGA homeschooling participation in school programs. Is there a motion? School board member Johnston. Thank you. I move we approve the first reading of policies IHBA, IH B A K, IHBG, and IHBGA. Second. Motion's been made. Schoolboard member Johnston, second by school board member Truman. Any discussion? With no discussion, roll call vote. School board member Prebble, yes. School board member Richard, yes. School board member Lefortune, yes. School board member
040Truman, yes. School board member Johnston, yes. Motion passes. 5-0 brings us to item G, which is a second reading of policies. Policy GBI, staff gifts and solicitations. GCF, professional staff hiring. GCGA, substitute teachers. GDA, support staff positions. GDF, support staff employment. GCO, GCO, GBP, earn paid leave. GBP-R earn paid leave procedure and GCSA employee use of schoolisssued computers devices and the internet and lastly GCSA-R employee computer and internet rules. Is there a motion? School board member Johnston. Thank you. I move we approve the second reading of policies GBI, GCF, GCGA, GDA, GDF, GCO A, GCO, GBP, GBP-R, GCSA, and GCSA-R. Second. Motions made, excuse me, motions been made by schoolboard member Johnson. Second by school board member Truman. Any discussion? The only question I had is GCOA and GCO. Uh all the others have some
041sort of item after that, but these two don't. Do we know what those are? School board member Johnston? I should have clarified that when I made the motion, but GCOa is super supervision and evaluation of professional staff. and GCO is evaluation of administrative staff. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Any further discussion on this item, the second reading of policies? Roll call vote. School board member Prebble, yes. School board member Richard, yes. School board member Lefortune, yes. School board member Truman, yes. School board member Johnston, yes. Motion passes 5-0. That brings us to item 13 this evening. There's no other information on the agenda. And item 14, there's no executive session. So that brings us to item 15. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. School board member Richard. Is there a second? Second.
042School board member Prebble. Any discussion? Roll call to adjurnn. School board member Prebble. Yes. School board member Richard. Yes. School board member Lefortune. Yes. School board member Truman. Yes. School board member Johnston. Yes. Motion passes 50 to adjourn at 5:41 p.m. Have a great evening everyone.