001e e e good evening my name is Jennifer prebble I am the Saka School Board chair I am calling this meeting to order at 7 pm this Wednesday September 13th 2023 um please note that school board member Archie is excused due to illness um would you please kindly join me for the Pledge of Allegiance all right moving on to item three this evening I have approval of school board meeting minutes dated August 23rd 2023 do I have a motion chair proble I School Board member um Richards I move with the approve the school board meeting minutes dated August 23rd 2023 second okay I have a first motion by Schoolboard member Richards with a second by Schoolboard member Le Fortune any discussion regarding the meeting minutes seeing that there's no one seeking recognition roll call vote
002School Board member Richards yes I vote Yes School Board member Le Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 moving on to item four which is adjustments to the agenda do we have any further adjustments this evening seeing that we have no further adjustments moving on to item five which is correspondence do we have any correspondence received all right since we have no correspondence moving on to item six which is public session please feel free to come before the school board state your name and address for the record and have three minutes to speak thank you Holly trer Soo Education Association uh the Sako Education Association would like to thank the school board and administrators for a funfilled inspirational honoring District day on August
00328th Mr Ray and Miss Parker shared lots of meaningful prizes and Gifts kept the energy high and excited and helped Staff feel celebrated to kick off this school year we are grateful that our speaker came in person and validated the work that we do Mr comments about the upcoming building were succinct and informative answering many staff questions we are greatly appreciative for this opening day furthermore the Sako Education Association would like to thank the the Sako school board and administrators for our collaborative work on the last teachers contract the staff are excited by many of the changes going forward and we truly appreciate working together collaboratively for the same goals specifically exciting vibrant Rich environment for students to learn to their greatest potential thank you thank you anyone else seeking recognition to come before the
004school board all right seeing I see no others coming forward for recognition we will move on to item s superintendent report superintendent good evening everybody uh um as we've started up the uh first two weeks of school if I had any musical talent and had the ability to write a song I would write a country song called heat to Hurricane because I think that's what we would uh I think that's what we will probably dealt with the Heat and the hurricane maybe what we deal with next week um but I do think it would make a great t-shirt uh certainly our schools will prepare um for uh any Fallout that we may have from high winds I think if we remember I I believe we're about six Falls ago when we had the October six
005or seven Falls ago when we had the October hurricane and actually we were pretty good here but Inland in certain parts of town Dayton part power outages that were extended we'll work with uh any of our city folks in public works and recck to see what we need to do uh to make sure that schools are hopefully open and that we have power next week um you know if we have uh if we have the ability to have power in all of our schools we'll do everything we can to be open uh because we know that that uh certain parts of town could be in a different place than others but that keeps kids F keeps kids fed keeps kids in school um but let's hope for the best on that piece we are as
006we had talked about uh we had kind of received uh some grants and some fun fundings to think about a joint kind of director of homeless elll and opening a Welcome Center at uh young school we currently in the district have uh K through 12 144 students um that receive uh ml services and about another 35 uh 9 through 12 for a total of 179 that's a pretty big change for us uh traditionally um of what we had um but as we look at uh the challenges that some of our families have that homeless population continues to Rise um and we're upwards of a hundred now uh throughout the district while Middle School athletics have started Unfortunately they haven't had much weather and or ability to practice uh so hopefully things will change and we'll
007be able to get uh kiddos out on the field and uh games playing we are planning uh for early November uh a dedication for our Outdoor Classroom at uh Burns school so we hope that you'll be able to attend and we'll get confirmation out to you once that has finished um we have a scheduled joint meeting for Monday night at 6:30 with the city council we have invited Oak Point to that where that will be more updates um on our building construction prog project and then finally uh we welcomed our new facilities director Gary keski uh to the team this week Gary's around the district learning about all things Sako and where we're at um and we'll be diving into a lot of the projects that we are in the middle of right now um
008and that will be a sharp learning curve uh like anybody especially when you're in the middle of some construction projects that's always fun that's all for tonight as as we will be having our principles present uh given some staff opening reports all right moving on to item eight oh I'm sorry did anybody any members have questions for superintendent okay going back to item eight chair's report um I have no major Updates this evening so we can move right on to item nine which is Staff reports um which is um principal opening reports so I believe according to my list um Wendy LeBlanc is up for Fairfield school good evening everyone I'm Wendy leblan principal at Fairfield school and I'm excited for this opportunity to talk with you about our opening few days um our staff
009I think despite the heat we embraced The crucial days of students coming into our buildings and they just really work well as a team I feel the more I get to know them the more honored I am to work with them so a big thank you to them last year we changed up our dismissal procedure at Fairfield school and we've gotten it down to just under 15 minutes to dismiss the entire school that's taken a lot of um support and hard work from transportation and our crossing guards I feel like if with them is why it runs so smoothly and safely so a really big thank you to them um every day the buses come in a certain line and it is a well um oiled procedure at this point so thank you to them
010at Fairfield and at young school as many of you know we start with first and second graders first which gives us the opportunity to really practice and set up some of the routines in our school get things running nice and smooth before we welcome our kindergarteners this year our kindergarten students their first few days of school were very very warm and that's a long day for them um but as a school we did a lot of popsicles and fans and dim lighting and and really there were more Smiles than complaints and and so it was awesome to be able to create that learning environment in first few days as a school community so I was grateful for that one other thing I wanted to share um as a district we had the opportunity to have
011to listen to a motivational speaker Adam Peterson as part of our opening days and his slogan saying is be the yellow which is just kind of being the sunshine and supportting people's day and from me as um an administrator and as a person I really took from that the importance of building a sense of belonging for people um his his um push was really for our students and we absolutely do that and um you can see that at Fairfield for sure um I also believe that means for our staff to feel like they belong there and our families to know that they belong at our schools as well and so this year moving forward we're really going to do some more learning and implementation of some of his resources thank you thank you up next
012we have J Walker prek good evening everyone I'm J Walker and I'm the coordinator for sako's prek program our prek program program is off to a great start this year I'm pleased to report that we have had a significant increase in our enrollment numbers a feat that was made possible through a combination of reconfiguring our halfday placements model and through the collaborative efforts of the old orchd Beach School District over the past few years our district has faced the challenge of accommodating the growing demand for prek Education as I'm sure you are all aware early childhood education plays a pivotal role in a child's development and ensuring access to a high quality prek program is crucial however it has been a daunting task to meet this demand within our District's current resources and infrastructure the
013reconfiguring of our halfday placements model allowed us to add eight more enrollment spots to our roster with the five students we were able to place in Old Orchard Beach we were able to place a total of 17 more students this year than during the 2223 school year of the 11 students who remain on our wait list More than 70% were at least offered a halfday enrollment spot we were able to offer a full-time spot in Old Orchard Beach to almost 90% of the eight students who were currently enrolled in a halftime placement but remain on the wait list for a full-time spot while the Old Orchard Beach spots were not optimal for all of those families we were at least able to provide an option to those families waiting for a full-time spot the special
014education teacher that was placed with us during the 2223 school year has had a dramatic positive impact on our students success I'm happy to report that our communication with CDs is much improved in the model in which District employees are able to build through CDs to provide special education services to our students has resulted in much more streamlined and consistent services to our Young Learners our increased enrollment numbers are a testament to the amazing prek program that this district has built in just five short years I thank you not only for your time tonight but also for the commitment you have made as a board in providing a high quality Early Education to our youngest learners thank you thank you up next is Jeff mir's Young School good evening everybody um I just want to
015say we had a great uh start to the year we had four to 500 people uh show up at Young School on August 24th for our open house and our pop schools in the park um it was super fun and the energy was great and the teachers were well prepared um and we did have AC so we were pretty comfortable just saying um I'd also like to I I gave you guys um this vision and Mission this is something I'm really proud of um our staff and some parents and and a few community members I wish I had some more community members we worked on our vision and mission statement and this is something I'm really proud of um we are making all of our decisions and we funnel through this vision and Mission and
016and it certainly falls under the umbrella of Sako schools and I'm trying to prepare our staff to really think about the future and have some of our DNA come into the these new buildings and I think this is part of that process um we welcome 314 students um U and we have a lot of K students so we have a lot of new faces we're getting to know but they're excited to be there and the families um we're just welcome them and having a good time with them um I'm really proud of our staff how we I just see everyone rally around each other and whether it's we're short on duty or we need help you know with kindergarten breakfast or lunch people jump in and help they don't ask questions they jump in and
017help and I'm really uh proud of our special ed staff who were a little short in our Coast program but our Ed tecs rally around each other and I'm super proud of them on how they step up and they get it done and they get it done really well and I'm proud of that I also want to thank uh lastly the the kitchen staff um they just done a great job preparing um breakfast we have a lot of kids who have you know some allergies and also we've had to make some adjustments where we're eating in the classroom not in the cafeteria and they jumped on it we even changed the schedule a little bit and they were like no problem so I'm just really it's an honor to serve at young school so thank
018you so much thank you and um up next is assistant principal Mr Thomas Partridge for burns school thank you everybody um first off we just wanted to give a shout out out to the custodians who worked all summer through the rain and humidity to ensure that all the rooms were cleaned the furniture is moved and the shelves are hung uh there was one point in late August it was torrential downpour and two pallets of math books was delivered and a custodian jumped out and was able to move two pallets on his own um in the rain so we really appreciate everything that the the custodians do every summer we welcome 601 students into the building on the first day of school one of the things that we do is re reestablish a lot of the
019schoolwide Norms in the hallways and in the cafeteria it was newly painted with some sound panels um so they spent a lot of time in the classrooms developing what um Quality expectations in the cafeteria would look like talking to some teachers about the new sound panels um one teacher noted she's above the cafeteria and she said her entire career she's had to listen to the noise coming out of the cafeteria during lunchtime and she can't hear that anymore so really appreciate the renovations that happened in the cafeteria um want to give a shout out to the PTO they worked in collaboration with parks and wreck who installed permanent basketball hoops outside CK Burns it's pretty nice out there now you know I leave work in the evening and I see you know athletes out there
020shooting hoops and kids just practicing with their parents so it's a really nice scene behind CK Burns now having those nice basketball hoops uh the PTO also got us some new soccer nets and they got playground balls and a cart to keep everything so the kids really appreciate everything that our PTO has done to help our building out we also have a new camera system to help with security uh we appreciate that there's new Wi-Fi routers outside too the Wi-Fi came in huge during the heat wave a lot of classes had to go outside and they were able to utilize Wi-Fi outside um before those new Wi-Fi routers were installed Wi-Fi probably lasted maybe 10 ft beyond the building so now it extends about 30 45 ft so they really appreciate having that and we
021appreciate it too and last is we're awaiting an update from the state department regarding Title One Grant to turn status to a full-time Title One school where we benefit from additional funds to support interventions so thank you everybody thank you moving on to um Marie Susi for Sako Middle School good evening thank you for having me I would like to start off by acknowledging our central office staff and our administrative assistants who work during the summer and help keep things moving forward and ensure that they're ready that we are all ready for the opening of schools we could definitely not we could definitely not do it without them especially given all the new registrations that we've had this summer we have had all kinds of exciting updates and positive changes at s middle SCH School
022we've had quite a few building updates the gymnasium is in process of being updated um currently we have new backboards a separation curtain and some new Nets and we are awaiting the bleachers new bleachers and a scoreboard um there was more work to done on the roof and all exterior doors are replaced so soon it will look good as new a few of the highlights from the beginning of the school year include an updated cafeteria library and addition the addition of re to date most of the library Furniture has been installed and books are being reshelved it will be open to students next week with further finishes coming in the following few weeks our cafeteria Furniture now provides students with options in the form of booths high top tables circular and rectangular tables we've quickly
023noticed the change in the cafeteria noise and behavior of the students just being given an option of seating choices makes quite a difference we are now composting as an entire school so last year our sixth grade project-based team brought comp composting to SMS the students informed their peers as part of their project and sixth graders began comp composting midye at this point we're happy to report that the entire student body through the support of grant money has been composting and last but not least recess has been a huge success so students have recessed for 25 minutes in the middle of the day and they report for enjoying being able to see their friends on other teams that they don't get to see throughout the day and getting some downtime to just decompress and have a
024break midday I would like to thank the PTO who also provided us with a card of equipment and the Soco parks and wreck who um generously installed Hoops for us as well and just a final shout out to all our staff working through as superintendent Ry said the weather changes in the last few weeks um especially our Athletics director Tetro and his staff trying to provide students and teams to a chance to get going even throughout all the weather changes so thank you to all of them and thank you to you right thank you um do any school board members have any questions for the group of principls school board member trumman I just want to say how excited I am for the middle school kids getting to have recess because I know they're still
025in that age that they still need to move around and and I do remember it being um kind of a bummer for my oldest when they couldn't see their friends who were on different teams so that's nice that they'll be able to do that now so small things that make a big change School Board member Johnston I would just like to say that I'm excited about the composting I'm very excited about the composting but I'm also very happy happy to hear that there seems to be sort of a calmer environment in the cafeteria and I'm excited about pretty much everything that I've heard tonight so thank you all for that school member Gil yeah just following up on that I mean I think it's uh great Testament to everybody's leadership there um that we just
026heard all those great initiatives and exciting things that are coming uh great job to the staff and the teachers for pulling off of another successful start of the school year um and just excited to see more stuff coming out for the rest of the school year so congratulations on a successful start all right any other comments or questions all right moving on to item 10 board subcommittee meeting minutes policy and Personnel committee meeting was this past evening at 5:30 p.m. finance and infrastructure committee our next meeting is September 23rd at 4:30 p.m. and a curriculum committee is going to meet next on 9:25 at 4:30 p.m. any questions or concerns about that from the board all right moving on to our next item which is item 11 old business I see none noted so moving
027on to item 12 which is new business item a new hires superintendent right we have a memo in our packet um with a select few for new hires um and it looks like there's a couple motions if I'm correct School Board member Truman I move we approve the nomination of Sarah Wy resource room teacher Renee Kazan social worker Carrie Sterns ml teacher and April Joe Cook ml teacher and issue a contract for the 2023 2024 school year I have a motion from school board member Truman do I have a second second second by Schoolboard member Richards any discussion I just want to say I apologize if I butchered anybody's names all right roll call vote School Board member Richards yes I vote Yes School Board member L Fortune yes School board member Gail yes School
028Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 60 and I think there may be another motion up in this section School Board member Truman I move we approve the sipen nomination of Emily havena CK Burns Cross Country Coach and Megan orlandella SMS drama instructor and issue a stien contract for the 2023 2024 school year there's been a motion by School Board member Truman do I have a second second school um second by School Board member of Le Fortune any discussion roll call vote School Board member Richards yes I vote 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 all right moving on to Item B resignations there's a memo in your packet um superintendent rid do
029we need a motion on that this evening sure I don't think there was any I don't believe we do I think they're there's no motion okay all right seeing that we have no need for a motion there is a memo in your packets um that is accessible online to view that moving on to item C which is a school construction update superintendent Ray all right uh just a couple of things school school constructionwise as you know we have the joint meeting with the city council on Monday night and we are hoping to have Oak Point there so we can talk School construction School construction the biggest meeting that we have upcoming um is on the 19th correct Meg the 19th um is a meeting with the Department of Transportation which will be about traffic flow
030and the intersection on Route One and the drive in and out that is the piece that is holding things where they're at so that's an important meeting for us um so hopefully we can start to get some approval so that we can think about hopefully in October having uh that straw whole meeting and then our plan would be for site approval to make the November agenda for the State Board of Education but it is all hinging on finalization of the traffic uh and uh dot planning so any of that piece I missed Meg y um we did get from oako late this afternoon a copy of the site application pack pet that goes to the doe so that's really exciting it means we at least have something in writing as a result of the Department
031of transportation's work to provide to the state and on a second note this afternoon uh oako and I had the opportunity to present to our full prek through five staff and give them an opportunity to kind of see a lot of what our public meetings have provided but isn't always provided time in the school day for staff members to come up to speed so we were able to share a lot of the progress that's been made with staff as well as provide a good opportunity for questions and answers which will help us in our continued design and planning all right just on a couple of other school construction things as uh principal Susi said um the work in the gymnasium is now just basically waiting for bleachers to come in um and to install the
032score uh the scoreboard we did have um a new freezer refrigerator unit through um food service installed at the middle school and one of the things that needs to be on our radar screen is the amount of Electric electrical capacity in that building um it is not a building that has a lot of extra um capacity in the panel box and something that we're going to need to have on our radar screen for an upgrade uh in the near future I know that having a conversation with uh Marie just if you kind of run a couple of microwaves in the cafeteria at the same time it doesn't work out for us um and so that's going to have to be a project that is um probably pressing in the next budget cycle or so is
033to think about that electrical service uh my understanding is pretty longstanding issue um that's been there and uh you know buildings uh that were built a while ago just don't have the capacity for what we have today so just know that that's out there dangling too for us all right any um questions from the board for superintendent Ray um School Board member Gail um quick question on the two questions the the presentation that we we had last well not the last school board meeting but the uh new school construction presentation from two school board meetings ago that we had um I remember I think there was a discussion that the layout and some of the things can change a little bit from now to the final design but um is there I didn't see that
034that was available publicly uh or the the link made live to that is that something that we can post on there or ahead of the 18th the meeting on the 18th or will the 18th have an updated presentation my guess my guess is that things probably even changed since that point that one okay um and I would also guess that probably there would be some changes based after the meeting with the Department of Transportation based off roadways you know if they make a change out at the roadway that might make a change uh to something with the drive-in but we can we can talk to Rob tomorrow and see if we can get that for Monday night okay and then I guess just uh can you remind me what the what the high level schedule
035is to get it actually on the ballot assuming that this meeting with do goes well and we can move forward and the doe uh is it's on the ballot I guess on the doe you said in November so so there's two there's two parts to the doe piece first would be once the trans the application the site application is done and we have approval from all of the the transportation aspects of it then you go to the State Board of Education the State Board of Education Our Hope would be for a November um approval process then there is the next piece of it is concept which is the design portion of the facility which would be talking about square footage and those types of things it doesn't mean that you're like 100% locked in that
036you know this cubicle is going to be in that place or that bathroom's there but you're really looking at the overall square footage and you know initial design piece I think our goal would then be um hopefully December but if not January with you know work with the city council that we'll discuss on Monday night the the ultimate goal would be able to have a referendum sometime in this in the early spring um people would say well okay you're having an election in June why wouldn't you target that date but the biggest issue is that by moving it back to the even losing that three months it could affect construction by up to a half a year because of the way things are Bid budgeted and and start date so that it takes about a
037year to go out to bid from that point in time after the election um through the design process and so you're really pushing back and losing a summer season if you don't if you don't okay so it's around March 20124 is that would be the ideal that's the that's the goal yep okay thank you any other question for superintendent Ray all right moving on to um item D which is student enrollment superintendent Ray okay in your packet there is our student enrollment counts that have been updated today uh based off information is certainly you have kids uh who will come and go in the first couple of weeks of school uh we have 1,924 students prek through eight and you can see the corresponding uh grades in class sizes and then uh we received our
038information our our first spreadsheet that we'll go through with Thorton academy uh from Marsha Snider uh the other day and it looks like at today's number would be 870 students at thoron Academy um below you can see our ml families and our accounts for those of 144 prek through 8 and 35 9 through 12 all right any questions from the board for superintendent Ray School Board member Gail I guess just um thinking about last year I mean is is there discussions with Catholic Charities continuing with welcoming new folks into Sako or how do we see that I mean I think that again some of our enrollment for much of an increase is that housing has to be available and that becomes uh part of our challenge when we deal with our homeless population uh and
039for people who just may be looking to move whether it's into the city or within the city um those are sometimes some challenges it's just finding houses um we continue to work with Catholic Charities on a regular basis and have great communication with them from you know the little things that pop up to the bigger things that pop up um Jeff and his team I know has done some work on uh trying to make sure that some of our students have access to after school activities that's that's a big one um making sure that uh kids whether can can join the soccer team or making sure that kiddos at at Burns have the ability to uh stay for the cross country I think Tom my last update is that you have about 140 kiddos great
040160 kiddos be running Elementary cross country so probably see another coach come your way on that one um but we we are working with them and trying to take steps as the school department to make sure that involvement level is High um I know a couple of Friday nights ago the um the bitford taco Rotary Club did a movie night at the hotel and so just a lot of positive things that that go on there any other questions for superintendent Ray All Right Moving On on to item e which is first reading of policies um I have two strike um policy GC d-r recruiting hiring and employment change procedures policy ihcda postsecondary enrollment options and policy I [Music] J-1 School volunteer requisition form registration sorry um do I have a motion for that this evening
041School Board member Johnston thank you I move we strike policies gcd dasr icda a and i j o C- E1 second I have a motion by Schoolboard member Johnston with a second by School Board member Truman any discussion on those policies all right see no one is seeking discussion roll call vote Schoolboard member Richards yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member Le Fortune yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 60 all right moving on to item F second reading of policies I have polic policy ibea program for multilingual Learners policy ihb a life sustaining Emergency Care policy IBG homeschooling policy ibga homeschooling participation in school programs do I have a motion for that this evening School Board member Johnston thank you I move we approve the first
042reading now the second reading sorry um this I believe is the second reading am I correct on this sir according to what I see on the agenda School Board member Johnston yes it's the second reading okay because I'm seeing it in two different written two different ways yep I I see that as well okay I move we approve the second reading of policies ihb EA IH b a k IBG and ibga second I have a motion by School Board member Johnston with a second by School Board member Truman any discussion on the policy I just wanted to say we got confirmation from assistant superintendent parkur that it's the second that is the second reading okay thank you so much for the clarification and I just wanted to say having read these things on numerous occasions
043sometimes I lose track of where we are with them but thank you very much for the clarification thank you all right um any other discussion okay roll call vote School Board member Richards yes I vote Yes School Board member Le Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston motion passes 60 all right moving on to item 13 other information superintendent Ray is there any other information this evening all right since there isn't we'll move on to item 14 executive session I do not see one scheduled for this evening all right moving on to item 15 which is adjournment so moved so move by School Board member Truman do I have second with a second by School Board member Richards I'm going to assume no discussion regarding adjournment
044um roll call vote School Board member Richards yes I vote Yes School Board M Le Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 60 thank you so much and have a lovely evening everyone