001e e e greetings and welcome to the Sako school board meeting for Wednesday November 8th 2023 call this meeting to order at 7 p.m. let the record reflect that all Schoolboard members are present with the exception of Schoolboard member Truman who has been excused uh with that we'd like to invite you all to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America thank you very much item three is approval of the school board meeting minutes dated October 25th 2023 is there a motion to approve the minutes Mr Mayor School Board memoral of Fortune I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated October 25th 2023 motion's been made is there a second second second by School Board member prel any discussion roll call to approve
002the minutes School Board member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richard abstain School Board member of Fortune yes Schoolboard member Gail yes and School Board member Johnston yes five Z with one abstention that brings us to item four any adjustments to the agenda this evening seeing no adjustments moving on there's no correspondence under item five that brings us to item six a public comment section of the agenda if there's any member of the public that would like to speak to the school board please come forward and be heard with nobody seeking recognition moving on from the public session to item seven superintendent report superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody uh several items to report out or informational matters um just uh for everybody's reference we are hoping that on Friday
003the actual bleachers will get on a delivery truck um and be delivered here uh over next week over the next week if that occurs and they're actually an invoice that they're shipped we will then proceed to um dismantle the old bleachers on the 16th and 17th with installation um during the week of November 27th so um that will be done um the new scoreboard that was uh donated uh by the St Louis Alumni Association has been installed we will be waiting for signage on that and we will plan a dedication date uh at a hopefully a basketball game once bleachers are also in and uh we're happy with uh all the work that has been done our reminder to parents of middle school students that uh November 15th at 700 p.m. uh there will be
004the ski club meeting that's usually a highly uh involved meeting as people want to make sure uh they're on that list if there's any people here that ski or want to volunteer to drive a van or a bus or tow a trailer uh we are looking for volunteers uh it's a great great event for our kids um on November 1st uh you may have seen on the news we had the dedication of our outdoor learning space at Burns School uh thank you to project greens space uh Jim gbo Plumbing and Heating and the Rotary Club for all the work they did on that and to Holly and Suzanne for their work on writing and receiving the grant um teachers and principes have started that budget process and they're due on December 20th um always seems
005early every year when you say that but uh gives us some time to really examine those uh over the next couple of months um one of the things that uh you may have read about this really an interesting piece is that through the budget process in Augusta uh this last year there was money that was allocated to saus uh and the bill uh from the representative in Kennebunkport uh stated that it would be $750 per homeless student uh in an effort to uh make sure that families had access to funds that schools would hold on to um to help with items that matched up with mckin vento when the allocation was actually given to School departments um larger School departments only receive $311 per student out of that um and what's really uh challenging is
006that there has not been clear guidance about how to disperse those funds and we're not typically um general assistance and so we're really kind of trying to work with the dop the doe to say we need to all get on the same page as School departments so that one school department isn't doing an offering assistance in one way and one in another way so that money is on hold a little bit right now until we work through some of those processes to make sure that uh there's some consistency around the state um winter weather could be on our doorsteps as soon as tomorrow morning so make sure if you're listening at home um that there's all of those avenues that we communicate um I do like our new our new system for um calling emergencies
007is so much quicker uh than the other one but you know even as early as tomorrow we could be dealing with uh challenges with weather so make sure that your email addresses text messages all of your signup things um are working that you communicated those with the schools and many times people change cell phone numbers or email addresses and that doesn't get into our system um so it's important for that you can always look on uh television Twitter Facebook uh we try to cover all the soci social media applications um in a collaboration with youthful Maine uh and with our burn uh Burn School Fairfield and SMS green houses we're going to be working on um some ability for youthful main to grow and produce some of the foods on site um which is uh
008something new that we're working with to try to make sure that those are utilized a little bit more um for anybody in Sako it looks like on December 15th it will be kind of Sako night at the main Celtics I know our schools are promoting that piece um so that's an exciting event uh and then finally um I really want to uh give a thank you to uh some of our city Crews from uh police fire Public Works codes Rec departments um really have developed strong working relationships with those uh directors in those positions and those departments to help us in a lot of different things uh you know whether it's U I tend to work with Chief uh Clemens quite a bit uh in communica with him often about school safety issues uh or
009with you know the fire department or the codes department on housing and residence and some of the questions we have for buildings or you know with Ryan at the rec department of sharing gym space and Fields um and Patrick at Public Works who uh is a great resource for us um especially with this traffic study and and some of the other things just a really great relationship we have with those I want to thank them uh for the support that they provide to the school department um because in some of the situations that we deal with it's great to know that you can reach out to those resources pick up the Fall have a great conversation and uh they're all problem solvers um that's what's great about working with them so thank you thank you
010superintendent Ray any questions on superintendent Ray's report School Board member Gail um not necessarily a question on any of the items in the report but um I guess I just wanted to thank you for all the communications um with the events in Leon and I think um everybody was very well you communicated very well with everyone and the public um one of the the questions I had now kind of looking back on that I guess two questions one um how did and you mentioned the the collaboration with um City staff on on everything but just now we've had a little bit of time reflecting back is there anything that um we could do better in terms of those Partnerships um it seemed just from the outside that everything worked really well and again the communication
011was excellent and then the second question I had was um one of the calls the automated calls that uh I received um had an Arkansas uh number associated with it and so initially it felt like it was spam and just in the events and and everything that was happening um frankly I didn't listen to it I saw that the voicemail was there but I didn't really pay any attention because I get tons of spam from Arkansas California you know wherever um is there any way that we could have that be a 207 area code in the future and kind of what what that process looks like but thank you again for for all your hard work on that so let me answer the questions in reverse order uh the phone number situation is already fixed
012um that uh has will be massed I believe it will come from what would be our central office number so it will be 64 whatever that number I don't know there's too many numbers up there but 4505 uh but it will come from that central office number and that is just something um because I got that same Arkansas number when I received my own or or the own message from from my kids uh and we know like oh that's something that has to be done you know the second piece will I appreciate your thanks but I also want to make sure that people recognize that these are a major team effort um and the work that Chris and Mandy and Meg and Shelly and Karen and the principles and Jen Partridge we have a very
013I think we have a pretty good system down of each knowing what our roles are in those and who's a writer and I tend to be the phone person and uh who's working the phones and knowing that again I believe it was a Wednesday night that we came home from a school committee meeting and uh you know I was just we we had the late meeting here and I was eating supper and teams texting each other and my wife is saying you just got home can you put the phone and I was like nope not right now but knowing that when I got up from the table I was able to immediately call the police of chiefs of CH police Chiefs in both communities and they pick up the phone and we communicate and text
014about the knowledge that we have because one of the the real challenges in that is that there is so much different information coming at you from many different areas you know I do think that one of the things that we might be able to improve upon um in the future is just thinking about what that communication change chain is and how we can keep things updated on a on a regular basis um from whether that's my communication with boards um or making sure that you know that night I was able to text city managers that that schools would be closed having a conversation with Headmaster manard at that Thorton Academy about what's going on here and how we work together uh I think superintendents uh and heads of schools do a good job sharing information
015and sharing resources that we have um but one of the things that we will place as a recommendation is is I think it's hard in our capacity that you know when we have those relationships we we rely on those but from a state level in the school state it's really tough to get on the same page and as as superintendent of schools and why I think we do so well with roles is that you know when a situation think that happens we're at a phone that just vibrates constantly did you see this Twitter have you read this piece are you watching this do you know those and it's and it's how I think we can we've done a pretty good job trying to slow down the process and make sure what we um communicate is
016factual and then knowing that our communities will have a reaction to certain media pieces that we have to try to deal with so you know I think every every one of those incidents that we deal with whether it's that or or covid or our bus situation or whatever we try to review those to think about how can we be be more efficient more effective um and put out uh a message that gets to the facts and make sure we don't add to any of the challenges that exist and I think that when we get to the point when we talk about uh letter e and the school calendar adjustment that I'm recommending um you know I'm someone who does not like to give up any days of school but we also dealt with a situation
017that the state and the Comm and communities have never dealt with before um and so we have to think about what we do this time what we do next time and how we approve on that so I appreciate the comments any further discussion points on this item moving forward from superintendent report to item 8 chairwoman prebble anything to report in the chair's report uh nothing this evening thank you thank you that uh brings us to item nine there are no staff reports in the agenda this evening brings us to item 10 and that is the board sub committee minutes uh the policy and Personnel committee met today uh at uh 5:30 p.m. finance and infrastructure committee uh meets on December 13th at 4:30 p.m. and the curricul ulum committee uh meets on November 27th 230
018excuse me 20 2023 at 430 p.m. uh that concludes the board's subcommittee minutes report uh item 11 is old business there is no old business on the agenda tonight so that moves us to item 12 new business and the first up is item a new hires school board members in your packet you received a memorandum uh regarding new hires with the I believe some requiring action and some requiring no action at this at this time I'll entertain a motion uh for the new hires school school board member Richard uh I move we approve the stipend nomination of Nicole Walton and issue a stipend contract for the 2023 2024 school year motion's been made is there a second second second second by School Board member PR any discussion roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard
019member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes Schoolboard member Le Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 60 brings us to Item B resignations again in your packet you were uh provided a memorandum requiring some action and requiring no action uh so at this time I'll entertain a motion on the actionable items Mr remember Richard I move we um accept the resignation of Sandra titom District bcba effective December 7th 2023 second motion's been made by school board member Richard second by School Board member prebel any discussion on the resignation Mr Mayor as School Board member Gail just a quick question what um that title District bcba what is that and what's that function so bcba and I'm going to get this wrong is board certified behavioral analysis I
020get it right analyst so I was pretty close uh that works in the special education department um and a lot of their role is working with developing programs and plans for children with disabilities andoor behaviors um and helping teachers work through the data to develop those programs for kids gotcha thank you I didn't mean to put you on the spies hadn't seen that title before us uh so thank you and just just another piece just to jump in that when you see the resignations and you see a position number um that you've been seeing recently what we're really trying to do is instead of the historical piece of tying a position to a person's last name and then saying oh well well Jeff replaced Jeremy and then Jen replaced Jeremy uh really trying to number
021things en code things so that we're can have a better tracking system uh for that so that's just all that that means any further discussion on this item roll call votes Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richard yes Schoolboard member Le Fortune yes Schoolboard member Gail yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 that brings us to item C and that is a school construction update superintendent Ray okay uh School construction update big Works has been around the traffic um permit uh in the last week we met with uh Patrick Fox because it looks like we have an intersection design um finally for Route One in uh was it the the road into the the business park um from that piece we are looking at all abutters Meg and I
022will be um writing letters to any of the abutters and going to visit them so that we can start taking questions or concerns does not look like um there'd be any challenges at this point with property acquisition as that wouldn't be needed but certainly um you know there may be some uh requests for uh kind of temporary grading rights to make sure that you're not leaving a hump when you put a sidewalk in those types of things that's the next step in the process it's also kind of a little bit of a chicken in the egg process uh as we work with the Department of Education in transportation of saying well you need to have this in order for us to move forward where I find it difficult to tell somebody what you might need
023or ask of them without knowing exactly what that would be and I I feel pretty strongly that we shouldn't promise one thing and then ask for another uh through a process and so we're going back and forth we are still hoping to push for site approval prior to the new year which may mean that that date is said December 29th um may be the date that we make it um but we are still pushing hard on that and hopefully we'll be um this is and all about traffic right now thank you any questions from the school board Schoolboard M Gail I guess so are we still on track I think last time the goal was to get to doe on the December 13th are we on track for that we're gonna no we're we're we're
024probably now on to our next Target day is December 29th is the 20 okay that's that's what we're hoping gotcha okay all right sorry I missed okay thank you any further discussion on this item moving on to item D which is an enrollment update from superintendent Ray and there's uh a memo in your packet and really it was the enrollment count of um two students that when the timelines uh changed uh it affected the enrollment uh by two students I just wanted to update that in memo form any questions on the updated enrollment data with no questions moving on to item e uh and this was alluded to by superintendent Ray the memorandum in your packet with a school calendar adjustment request superintendent Ray so part of the the procedure for making a um requested
025and changes in the calendar is working with the school committee and the commissioner of Education as outlined in the letter um I think that for the days that we canceled school um and as we move into the winter time uh knowing that snow and other cancellations plus the impact that it had on staff and hourly employees I feel strongly that uh we should uh request a waiver for those two days many of the School departments in our surrounding areas in Southern Maine are going going through the same process I do not take lightly um the waving of days um because I believe the inperson attendance is something that's very important but I also think that we were dealing with a situation that was new to us uh and in this situation it warrants um that
026consideration so the waiver request is basically making it so that you don't have to make up those days which is what you would do in a normal snowstorm situation correct uh any questions on the memorandum from superintendent Ry regarding uh waving the two days Schoolboard member Johnston thank you Mr Mayor um my question I think is around the time frame of when we might get some response to your question Mr superintendent my understanding is that the department has been moving very quickly uh in responding to these okay thank you any further discussion on this item School Board member Gil I guess um you kind of talked a little bit T you touched on the the rationale I guess for cancelling these two days is there um I mean do we have anything in policy or
027or how do we make the determination of cancellation versus making treating it as if it's a snow day is that subjective based on events and up to you or I guess kind of how did we make this call cancel well again I think we look at you you take all situations have different responses that could occur and in this situation in order to request a waiver it is a school committee has to agree with it and the commissioner has to approve when we look at what are some of the Alternatives when when not requesting this is we head into our winter time knowing that we're down two days already out of five we have hourly employees who possibly would have missed um or had disrupted pay schedules uh on those two days and then if
028we look at a situation like last year where we had over five snow days and we were adding an hour to the end of some days in order to make them up I'm not sure that that's always the best choice some years it is um or extending it into the summertime I I think that that's what leads looking at all those factors that leads me to making the recommendation to you that in this situation um we wave those two days you know while some may question what led us to make the ca cancellation on those days dealing with a very new situation and the idea that um maybe a building in Sako was part of um of the threat um or at least as how that was reported um and then knowing that on the
029Friday on the next day when you know we were lying in bed that night watching the news and we thought that a house was surrounded we might have had a very different response than when we saw all the vehicles pulling out of there and nothing had changed changed and so um I think in this situation that is why I'm here is that I believe the circumstances warrant all of those considerations for our student staff uh and others going into a unpredictable winter that could start as early as tomorrow morning I guess just following up on that on the the hourly employees how does this affect them [Music] make sure that their paychecks are consistent over the next couple of uh over the last pay period um because when we budget for an hourly employee we
030Budget on a number of days in a school year and I made that decision right out of the out of the gate that we would pay employees for those days Miss if we don't we need to be prepared to budget and make adjustments to pick up two days of additional pay for hourly staff to meet the contractual obligations for the number of days that they had worked um I felt that at this point in time based off the situation knowing the economy that we live in um that didn't want people going without a couple of days of pay thank you School Bo member Archie so just to reiterate a little if if we pass the waiver and the goal is to get back to Five Stone days right correct superintendent Ray you are asking the
031school board to take a vote on this this evening yes they need to take a vote on the two parts of the process school committee approval and commissioner commissioner approval thank you School Board member of Fortune so just to clear to follow up on on um score remember rg's question we make a motion to say that we want to request this waiver it goes to the commissioner and if the commissioner approves then we are back to five still having five days if not then it's we're in a situation where we treat it it's like a snow day that is correct to three that is correct any further discussion on this item with no further discussion I'll entertain a motion School Board member Johnston um Mr Mayor I move that we approve the school calendar adjustment
032request that the superintendent has written and will be sending to the um Commissioner of Education motion's been made by school board member Johnston is there a second second second by School Board member L Fortune any further discussion roll call to council excuse me School Board member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member of Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes and School Board member Johnson yes motion passes 60 to approve the school calendar adjustment request that brings us to item F totle in next steps uh superintendent Ray all right uh last meeting we talked about uh totle in some of the next steps and I had provided the amended uh lease and there was some uh asked to see if we could dig out the original lease
033which we were able to do and that's in the packet um at our finance committee meeting uh finance and infrastructure committee meeting last week week uh we started to talk about um what might be some possible options throughout the community we identified I believe it was 18 or 21 spaces um Meg to think about that is nothing more than to examine um we felt that it was important that um in the examining of the brainstorm 21 spaces that we H develop a matrix much like we did for um land in new school projects so that it was very clear how we would evaluate one space over another space um and develop that Matrix of of things like number of classrooms Transportation access ADA compliance classroom size bathroom access school safety features proximity to Public Services
034proximity to other schools playground outoor space access to lunch and school nutrition that's not an inclusive list there could be others added but to know that when space X was looked at that would be how it would be rated when space y was looked at we would use those same factors additionally uh the finance committee I promised them to look at um kind of a the a oneyear cost of the last year in operations what would we be putting into next year's budget which we will be in that space next year but to anticipate what the operational non-academic nonpositional additional costs are uh and we've outlined that in the memo that when you look at an operational expense from lease to contracted services to sewer water copers telephones those types of things that number um
035is around $400,000 non-positional um and so we wanted to make sure that was on the table so that when we had evaluations and other uh items that we were bringing up to say hey this could be an option and this could be an option we had known what the basis of our financial obligation operationally would be prior to making any new Arrangements be happy to answer as many questions as I can any questions uh regarding this uh informational um memorandum on the lease and potential options School Board member La Fortune I I don't have a question per se but I do have a couple of observations so first off the only one that I I've and probably most of the board has ever seen is the revised amended one uh thank you for finding the
036original and there's some I guess enlightening things in in the combination of the two when you put them together so one of the things that stood right out immediately when I was looking at this was the term runs in the original through the end of June of the final year in the revised one it ends at the end of May which is not the completed end of the school year so we're if we were to get to that point we're kind of in a bind anyway because we have a school year that's not gone to the end and a need to lead the building and so one of the things that we were talking about amongst ourselves in the finance committee meeting um this past week was while you know is it possible maybe to
037just stay for an extra month and one of the other things that's in this which is section 31 um is the hold Over clause which says that yes you certainly can stay but if you do that your monthly fee is 200% of what it is right now so that just to be aware of you know when we start putting together the like the grid of numbers here if the assumption is that we're going to go to the end of the school year and add a month there's some additional expense that I don't think anybody really knows about but there's I mean there's other you know other things in there but that that discrepancy of date was was one that really stood out considering we're talking about a school year which generally you know based on
038the topic we just had if there snow days is going well into June that's that's all I had just an observation thank you any School Board member Gail and following up on that um I guess for those who couldn't make that meeting and then also just generally for the the public um I guess I'm I'm curious the the reason for the amendment so the original agreement um original lease agreement I think was in May and then we amended it to what kind of we've seen generally is the exhibit a First Amendment was made in June um and there are interesting amendments that were made to it I'm curious as to kind of how that process came about do we know what those conversations were like that precipitated the need for an amendment on that I
039was not around at that time so Kevin or Beth Or um others may have a lot more history than I have on that topic I I was only around as as a spectator at that point um I was not on the board but looking through the original U which was the one I was first put together and remembering and probably misremembering some of how that um set of meetings around that went um it looks like there was a 10-year term with some extensions that you you know when you add it all up you could potentially be into this for 20 years um and I think there was the at least at the time the the dollar figures that tied up in all of that as well as um you know it requires not just Schoolboard
040approval to do this but Schoolboard and Council I think there's a lot of apprehension about the original one that resulted in some of these these revisions at least that's how I remember it but it's you know looking at the the original with lots of Clauses that are sort of alluded to in in the amended one um but aren't actually listed having the original with what those are supposed to be really kind of ties all of it together and you can sort of surmise how it went down based on all of that but I I think you probably have to go back to meeting minutes or you know recorded meetings from that time period to get the full scope of what actually occurred School Board member Gail to answer that question uh to the best of
041my knowledge because I was here at that time uh the lease that was originally approved uh had in it some language that uh the school board could not enact on their own which was to potentially purchase property uh so as a result uh the city started discussions with the schools and toddle in and as a result of avoiding legal cost and litigation this amendment was was struck between all parties uh and that's why you see the the years were reduced the money was reduced the option for purchase was removed uh and any further extension uh is at the will of the school board and the councel uh to make sure that the council has kind of a a say in what space is going to be utilized uh going forward and that's how we arrived
042at this amended document from the previous executed first document thank you um I guess just also want to keep in mind the identification of the 21 sites and as we evaluate that I mean I I guess just personally I'm I'm wondering why when that list gets whittel down to some that's more actionable the um and maybe this is a discussion in executive session of uh amending the lease yet again um to terms that potentially could be more favorable for us on a shorter term basis uh once there's an alternative um I think that the totle in um at least from what I've hear and see the the cost of it is an issue and um yes there are some other kind of physical issues too but um it seems like it has been working well
043and just from my experience with my kids going through it um you know it it seemed to to be all right but I just want to keep that potentially as an option as well of of not going through too much if there is an option to go back and and discuss with them alternative arrangements for a year 14 months or whatever if that's if they're agreeable to it as well School Board member Johnston thank you um thank you Mr Mayor for your explanation some of the history about what happened um it was a fairly convoluted situation from the very start and I will say that I think that the amended contract is more advantageous to the school board in the city of Saka than the original the original is had uh a very lengthy amount
044of time involved and so I think we're in better shape at this point I do acknowledge that the time frame at the end of the contract is a little bit awkward for us since we're in school beyond the last day of May um but I think we can we can figure out something on that um I don't know that it would from my perspective it would not make sense for us to try to go back and re um do another amendment to the contract um I think while the facilities itself may be fine and it may have um you know from your experience will and others it may have served a purpose very well but I think that we need to be looking in the direction of um clarifying what our situation actually is sort
045of sticking with our I would say convictions that it's time for us again my opinion it's time for us to uh figure out what we can do with the the potential that we have excuse me under our own supervision um which I think we can do and will be less costly than trying to engage in anything further with the situation um and obviously we're we are looking forward to a new school I know it will not be ready by the time that we are up with this current contract but I think that we can given um the criteria and the real focus on what we could do instead of this then we will find a way to do it thank you School M of Fortune yeah just to um follow up on the the finance
046um facilities meeting that we had so the discussion around Alterna this was really a brainstorming exercise more than anything concrete and it was really sort of a sort of revisiting what we have done in the past whether it was around covid and looking at what would we do if we needed alternative space and and ultimately we started the discussion if I remember correctly from the other day with what did we actually do when we started the program and we had no building to begin with and so a lot of the initial discussions around what might be available out there really revolved around well how did that would really work out previously so that's the origin of the sort of the criteria list and you know maybe some brainstorming of what is available for for things
047around that might suit the need for you know a classroom space for a short period of time was really around that type of type of thing it wasn't any wasn't like a this that we had already it was just sort of like hey what about that what about that that's kind of how School Board member Archie so where we're not required to have the prek uh is there a set amount of days that they have to go or could we manage the the 31st of May uh prek is allowed to have a reduced number of days there's always an option for the school board to re-engage with todal in because if you look at the renewal section uh 3.2 the renewal term uh todal in can execute the three-year uh renewal but it's subject to
048city council and Schoolboard vot uh and if there's and again this is kind of negotiation uh procedure that we're talking about out loud and this is not good strategy uh but there is an option where you could uh re-engage with totalan and say hey we need x amount of years and this is the budget that we can fit in uh can you do it uh and again that's for uh superintendent Ray and and school and the school board to look at uh and also the city council to look at uh as as you all embark on where to put uh the kid until the new school is ready uh so again there's always an opportunity to negotiate School Board member of the fortune yeah I I think we also would need to get some legal
049advice on it because the way that it's written and the way the Clauses are put together there is within the confines of this agreement right now an opportunity to go with an extension of three years there's there's another clause in there that says that you could stay as long as you want it just means that if you go beyond this you're paying twice what you would normally pay for rate and that is not acceptable from my perspective I think that's why you could indicate that you're not going to renew uh and then just openly outright negotiate a new contract for three to five years or whatever is necessary based upon your needs but again that's going to be up to all you uh and you know I don't want to belabor that but uh we
050also don't want to talk about negotiation strategy out in the out in the public correct and and I just want to our role is to provide multiple solutions to consider and what the impacts of those Solutions and those could range from a to z um as we build that menu of items for school committee budget process city council uh and Community to weigh in on um and that's the work that Meg and I and the team has committed to doing is to say here are all these options but let's also make sure that we're looking at options that meet some of those criteria um that are very important to successful School programming School Board member Archie um I definitely think that it's something we need to look into and weigh our options um and I
051feel like we are all very committed to this I know that you would put it through finance committee and I know that we can't all be there is there a way that we could kind of do a little revolving door so we all have our own input is that possible so I think what what would be really appropriate for us to do is to First go through some evaluations and provide some solutions so that we can talk about real options and whether that's in a board Workshop part of our budget process um part of school planning um but again I think part of that is what's out there what are we looking at what what are possible solutions to the problem so that we uh as a board are not talking about hypotheticals but talking
052about real things that could happen that Mak sense and that could happen that could happen in in a at a board work so you're thinking more of a workshop yes okay open to the public here board Workshop everybody can come um but let's let us do some of the work so that we have something to actually talk about that's definitive and real um that seems like an important first step to me because even once we it's also important to remember that even once you talk about multiple Solutions spacewise whatever those may be then there are operational challenges consequences realities that then need to be put into place much like saying you know how do you bus how do you serve lunch how do you do play and and those options may require very different resources
053depending what they are some may be more extensive some may be not uh so those are some pieces that um would be great second steps after saying hey maybe these five are worth studying more what's the impact then you know um right now we know that our current solution which um one of the challenges is young kids get on a bus some as much as 6 as early as 6:30 in the morning I I hope we can find a solution that's better than that you know um so whole a whole lot more to come and we're like 18 to uh 20 months ahead of that time so I feel like we're in good shape yeah I I appreciate the fact that there's steps and I I just want to make sure that we all have
054um our our fair share of input because I know we all really care about it any further discussion on this item moving on to item G uh we will have a nwea update from assistant superintendent Parkers thank you so tonight I am sharing with you some information which um may feel a little strange given our usual timeline for sharing sh ing assessment data I am sharing tonight the spring data from last spring even though those of you with students who have taken the assessment might recall that the assessment Administration window for the fall has just closed uh a little bit of background just on the assessment it is a computer-based assessment in the spring of 2023 though the assessment appeared visually the same to students the back end of the assessment was quite different we're
055used to taking nwa's map growth assessment which is an Adaptive assessment that adjusts several grade levels above and below depending on a student's response to individual items the main threeyear assessment used a similar question Bank as map growth but focused on grade level proficiency and so it had a much larger portion of questions that were at the students identified grade level rather than simply adjusting to the students correct or incorrect answers and adapting to those answers the intent of that was to comply with a federal requirement that m not just use a norm referenced assessment as map growth is but used a proficiency based assessment which is what the main through year was for that reason it is uh a little bit complicated to try to compare our spring scores over time so the snapshot
056that you see tonight is really just looking at what main determined was proficiency and does not give you a snapshot over the course of history of how main students have performed or how Sako students have performed as compared to other districts nearby the fall data was released to us in its entirety this Monday and so I look forward to presenting something more similar to what you've seen in terms of a historical con you know context of this data and how students are performing pre and postco when we're able to share that data in in December a couple of things that we need to kind of understand about what that means for Sako parent reports will come in two different forms as we send them home the individual student reports for the spring were available to
057us about three weeks ago we made the decision to hold off on sending those reports until we had the fall assessment data because we felt it was incredibly confusing for families to get a brand new report that they've never seen for an assessment right after their students finish the fall on an assessment that was in the spring without the fall scores so in the coming weeks uh families will receive the parent report that they're used to seeing it will have the spring score on it and the fall score on it and right behind that will be a proficiency report that will show not just the students growth over time but how Maine determined where that proficiency bar was and whether or not that family's individual child was below those expectations well below at expectations or
058above expectations so families can expect to see that Traditional report that they're used to seeing for NWA in addition to a comparison to at above State expectations for both reading and math the main through year will continue to be administered Every Spring so from 2023 moving forward we should as long as they continue to use that same assessment have some ability to compare and luckily the fall and winter and wa scores will still provide us that longitudinal comparison where we can really look at growth over time for both individual students and for um grade level or cohort numbers a couple of things of note in the overall threeyear graphs and percent of students U meeting expectations or above expectations is what's shown on that that graph grade three is currently the largest percentage in terms
059of grade level with students at or above expectations in math in grades 4 through 8 we have the reading percentages meeting expectations higher than um math and that is historically how that has looked even though the percentages have been very different based on different assessments we have generally seen Higher Achievement in reading than in math overall the percent of grade six students meeting or exceeding was the highest with uh just about 70% at or above expectations in both math and reading when we look grade over grade it's important to remember that this is just one grade level so we really can't make generalizations uh to say you know that eth grade math is a particular problem as you might think from looking at this data because we don't know if that's a consistent issue that
060we see at grade eight or if that's more of a cohort that has come through with some significant challenges so though we um do see kind of a decline over time or over grade levels in achievement we have yet to see if that's a pattern or something that would require kind of a curricular review at certain grade levels and lastly we see that that percentage of students meeting or exceeding reading expectations stayed relatively stable from grades 3 to 7 and that range was 59 to 71% with a little bit of a bump as we got to the e8th grade level our next steps with respect to this data is work with building administrators next week where we will have an opportunity to look at some of that cohort data and grade level data a lot
061of work has already been done at the building level to have teachers see student scores from both spring and now this week from the fall Administration and dig in a little bit more to see how that impacts the interventions that we're providing and the classroom instruction but our administrators will have the opportunity to do some of that big picture work with us in preparation for presenting that information to the board in December and we're continuing to work with the Department of Education as there have has been a lot of discussion with the main curriculum leaders Association and um assistant superintendence around the comparability of that data and what the change to the main through year means both going forward and for this individual Administration window I'm happy to answer any other questions about the data
062presented this evening any questions from the board School Board member Gail uh thank you for providing information um I guess um and and you I sent an email earlier today and I apologized for the short turnar around and you had replied back with a lot of great um insights answering some of my questions but I just also want to I think it's important to for contexts and people watching or or someone looking at this in the public um I guess just at a high level here I I'm still concerned um looking at this graph for the spring 2023 results and how does you'd mentioned in in our next meeting in December there'll be more comparative data that we can look at historical Trends and this is the first year presentation of the this so we
063can't go back and look at at previous Trends it's still alarming to me that for 8th graders less than 50% are at or meeting above expectations in math and regardless if it's it is a cohort the fact is we and let's just say it is a cohort that there's some issue with the fact is that we're kind of failing them right now based on this assessment on what I'm seeing and so I guess I'm I'm still struggling with what is this telling us what action do you want the board to take and the value of of this like can you help me with the value of what this one year's worth of information is compared to what we're going to see in December I think the most valuable information that we have is looking at
064student growth over time because if we have students at any level not making a Year's growth in a year's time we have serious concerns if we have students that are significantly behind not making more than a Year's growth in a year's time we have concerns if we have students that are performing above grade level that are aren't making a Year's growth we have concerns I struggle a little bit more with the expectation that every 11-year-old must perform at this exact metric I'm not saying that I don't find Value in grade level expectations or in using those standards to kind of litmus test where students are but we have kids at all ages that have feet that grow at different rates and they all learn to drive we have kids losing teeth at different times and
065they all eventually end up with permanent teeth so am I concerned when I see some of those numbers yes do I think we can continue to make improvements in that yes but I find the ultimate value in looking at how many students are making the growth that we would expect them to make in a year and what are we putting in place for students that aren't making that Year's worth of growth to sure that they do that moving forward or that they have multiple opportunities to access that grade level content as well and I think that makes a lot of sense I mean it sounds like you know I'm just thinking at pediatrician's chart the important thing is the growth curve not necessarily where you're on it but that you're continuing on that curve unfortunately
066this is the it seems like this is the measurement that's being used right so is there anything that you know whatever teachers or any association is is doing or saying to say listen this isn't all that helpful to make decisions because it's a moment in time and there's lots of caveats to testing and all that I mean it I guess I'm just a little frustrated about you present not you but just generally this testing is presented uh the results aren't great and then there's a bunch of caveats as to why they're not great and it's not a good tool Etc but unfortunately this is the tool that we're using right I mean to your point about everybody learns at a different pace that's I completely agree with you and can we incorporate more of that
067type of measurement rather than this does that makes sense I guess I'm not yeah I think the value of the assessment is as valuable as the stock that we put in it and yes it's a required assessment yes the results are published that's why I think it's really important to share that information with the board do I think it's the most important indicator of the success of our school system absolutely not I think the the most important things that we produce from the students coming out are probably never going to be reflected in assessment numbers for reading and writing but it's a piece of the picture and a measurement in time and certainly we will continue to dig into those results to see are there particular groups of standards that are weak areas what can
068we do in our instruction to change that I think there are some things we can do to kind of help kids get over the hump in certain test taking aspects and things of that nature but I don't necessarily find those in alignment with the way that we want those students to perform as Citizens in the future so I think we kind of have to weigh those two objectives and uh land somewhere in the middle and and that's a just a couple other real quick so the so who does this so you're presenting the data to us is this going up to State doe sorry go ahead and and I guess what what do they do if they look at this if anything they give us this information after our students take the assessment there's a
069state data dashboard where you can look up any district and you'll see these percentages is both current and historic they're not publishing the data dashboard for the state yet I believe until December or January so this is kind of the window where districts have access to look at their own data but it's not publicly available so we don't even really have a sense right now of how did we perform compared to our York County counterparts because we don't have access to their data yet we will have an opportunity once that data is made fully public does that answer your question yep and then just lastly as is our Benchmark for this like what is our Benchmark for this I guess in in this specific test there in lies the million-dollar question the state sets a
070benchmark and we look at the grade level standards that's what they determine as The Benchmark but in terms of their being a non-moving Target I don't think that exists unfortunately I think it it is a moving Target and there's not an agreed upon National Standard of or state standard for that matter of what all students should know and be able to do in terms of one test I think really the best way for us to look at that is to look at this data look at our national assessment education the nape and how Maine is doing with respect to that and then kind of triangulate that with what we're seeing in our own district and try to make a determination about how well we're doing and continuing to move that bar forward in terms of
071improving those results over time thank you so much sorry for the no it's fine questions and stream of thought there thank you Schoolboard member Archie I always love these presentations um I you you guys do really well with them and it's refreshing to get your input on it a lot of times um from what I have understood to hope you understand well from my perspective is there really isn't any weight behind it um that we get a we you know they give us a Target and it moves that's what that's what I'm getting out of it um but I guess it it will give us a target from what we did last year correct and that that's how I take this information um and then we can see is it this is this one grade
072as they're going up you know falling behind from everybody else but I just don't want you to put too much weight behind this one particular graph yeah I just yeah I hear I I appreciate that I just the data presented regardless of how is collected is showing something that that's not great well it could be the whole state could we could be right there with the whole state for grade eight you know I agree but at the same time like we should be higher than one out of two students meeting that student in my opinion but I think it's also important that we don't necessarily know what that this is also the first year of it our kids took the test on a computer last spring at some point in time um we also have
073uh which will be something that Meg will also present uh in December is a very changing demographic I mean when you think of of some of this this of H this occurring last spring we know that 85 students came new to our community with English not their first language and as a as a society we said computerized test is exactly what they need right now I mean the other piece that we have uh that I think is important is we have a community experience and as much as this is valuable information about the work that we do in our schools and always trying to do better and to look at you know when Meg talks are we struggling with a particular standard that we can incorporate at into a into a different way of teaching
074um having a conversation is that seat work or is that very relevant work that a kid Dives right into um just like you who will have I don't know if your kids have taken this one yet uh I've I've experienced that one when I get presented with those things for my own children I know that's one day one snapshot and that might have been the day that we were fighting with my son to get out of bed on the way to school and they didn't make it that could set that day off and and he's fortunate whereas some of our kiddos as we know might have just been worried about whether they were going to get fed that morning and so I I I believe that it is a piece of the puzzle and a
075data point that we can make decisions on but there's all these other things as a community we feel really good about uh and that our teachers care and our bus drivers care and our community cares and we provided this provided that and then what are we on uh like number five test in six years that we have no ability to build upon anything and even after we do this three or four years I suspect someone will want us to try something different and I think that's the frustrating frustrating part for educat in the classroom who are working their fingers to the Bone to make sure that everyone's kid is reading on grade level and they're pulling that piece off and then we as a society sometimes allow a test score or an experience on a
076computer to drive a narrative when we all care about our kids and what I think we're doing so caution us but at the same time School departments districts states have the requirement to report this stuff out to their boards and in those pieces and um it's just a convoluted mess and I think that if we had our Commissioner of Education here talking to us about this she would give us even another factor to consider is how business testing companies and textbook companies really have a lot of Leverage in what this is all about um and when you sell a program to test kids and then remediate kids afterwards a lot of money to be made off of stuff I see your bait I'm abstaining from further discussion in public about that any further discussion on
077this snapshot or data point in time uh that we'll most likely change well I gotta add I gotta add one more thing that again which is interesting nwaa who were they just purchased by Holton Mifflin one of the largest textbook companies in software education software in America they now own NWA the testing company I I agree and I think that's that's what I part of the frustration of this whole thing for me is kind of that very point of what is the point of this because there's you can poke they tell us you have to do it right right right but but this is presented to the public and so again if I'm a member of the public and I look at this graph and I see 8th grade is under 50% I'm saying what
078the hell are we spending all our money on $10,000 a student and you can't even one out of two can't even read in eth grade yet to an eighth grade level that's all they know based on this this chart and and it's frustrating as a school board as teachers as school to then have the doe say well you got to do this and then you have all these other backend issues which I and I and I want to say our doe really has fought hard against these pieces they wanted to talk about growth which was in the other two years when you talked about 87% of your kids making growth they pushed really hard and advocated hard as the federal government did not all want us to talk about growth they wanted us to talk
079about um you know percentiles proficiencies what was awesome about nwaa and I remember it so clearly as a principle is that when you would get those tests back and it'd be the next day and a teacher and a principal was having great conversation about kids and that you can learn very quickly that yes J Wendy and Jeff who are students in your classroom are struggling with measurements and it gave you opportunities and helped guide you to say hey I can provide these lessons so that we can deal with measurements that was awesome about nwaa or to make sure that kids were selecting books that were at the right RIT level that was great about nwaa and superintendents who had that experience as Educators and principles and teachers initially said yes this is a great metric
080for us and then policy and comes in and takes over some of those pieces and it's hard because we don't necessarily know what the me you know it's like hey it's it's measuring with a a ruler that's not always know was that a foot or not consistent any further discussion on this item moving on from the nwaa update thank you assistant superintendent Parker thank you Meg thank you that brings us to item e excuse me item h a second reading of policies policy JL cdb now lock Zone policy uh jli procedure for reports of dangerous Behavior by students j-e procedure for reports of dangerous Behavior ihba individualized education plans ihba referral and use of interventions ihba a-r referral administrative procedure uh strike HD Neti replac with ha negotiations goals priority objectives and policies to be
081recoded ihb the grievance procedure for persons with disabilities to be recoded as ac- is there a motion to approve the second reading of policies School Board member Johnston thank you excuse me I move we approve the second reading of policies jlc DB jli ji- e IB IB a a ihb a a-r and to strike policy HD and replace it with policy polic ha a entry code policy I HB a l s a-r motion's been made by Schoolboard member Johnston is there a second second second by Schoolboard member prebble any discussion on the second reading of policies roll call vote School Board member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member Le Fortune yes School Board member Gail yes and School Board member John yes motion passes 60 that
082brings us to item 13 there's nothing on the agenda other under other information however uh I just wanted to thank the TA students who uh sat last night in the lobby of the voting booths and raised over $3,000 uh for the victim's families of the lewison mass shooting so again thank you to those students and Tor academy uh and and everyone that put in the hard work to make that a reality and thank you for all the generous donations from community members and and folks that came out also I would like to congratulate uh mayor elect Jody mcfa also uh chair prebble for your reelection uh and also uh School Board member Truman on her reelection I would like to also thank School Board Mella of Fortune for your long service to the community with
083that uh this is my last meeting in this role uh so I do want to one apologize for the missing of meetings but due to uh my job and travel I was unable to be here so I do apologize for that but I also want to thank you all well we did all always agree and we won't always agree that's the purpose of the Democracy that we live in so again uh while we may have disagreed I just want to thank you all for your service and then also for just putting up with me for the last couple of years and then thank you to all the administrative staff all the staff that go in and put in the hard work every day so thank you very much with that any other information for this
084evening thank you Mr Mayor moving on uh there's no executive session this evening under uh section 14 so uh Article 15 I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved School Board member Preble is there a second second School Board member of Fortune any discussion Mr Mayor yeah quick discussion on the adjournment before we adjourn following up on on uh AR thank you so much for all your service over the last couple years on the school board and it's it's uh it's going to miss you and and uh thank you for again thank you for all your service thank you I would have to Echo um everyone it's been a pleasure and yes we haven't always agreed on everything but I think it's very important that you were here to help us along the way I
085appreciate the experience learning how to run a Schoolboard meeting that's been great um so I've learned a lot from you and we we all thank you for being a part of this so thank you it's been my honor and and privilege so thank you very much with that roll call to adjourn one second oh School memoral of Fortune since this is your last meeting um I don't think it's mine because I think we have another correct do we now oh we don't okay well this may be mine as well I have a second one in November because of Thanksgiving break and your Inauguration Day here saring is December 4th Monday December 4th will be the inauguration of the new mayor counselors and school boarders but we will definitely be inviting you back and Mr Mayor
086back um probably early in January so with that since this is my last meeting as well the one thing that I think really should not go without saying um is that this configuration board and it's unfortunate that Sarah isn't here tonight um is probably my favorite and the most enjoyable group of people that I've worked with on a board whether that is the RSU the initial um fory into doing our own thing as the Sak school board and then the various configurations after that and it's no offense to any of the other boards um that I've been part of but this group of people has been absolutely fantastic to work with um I've thoroughly enjoyed it I really have felt like every meeting that we have everyone has really come here with the right mindset
087not just to do the right thing for the community but to also be open-minded enough and thoughtful enough in the way that questions get approached and asked and it's it's a really you know as a as a group I will I will miss you know working with you guys um I'm not going anywhere I'm going to still be around but it has been a very long journey I think this is probably about my 10th year you know on and off of doing this and it's been very challenging at times but it has always been absolutely rewarding I really enjoy the subject matter it's totally different than what I do in my day job I'm an it and you know I don't I don't deal with such you know it's interesting stuff but I don't deal
088with things that are so you know real I guess you know that affect people in my community the way that things here do and I have absolutely you know really loved the subject matter um I've enjoyed you know working with administrators when I've had the opportunity to do that um it's just this I consider this to be a really fun job and I think that that is how it's supposed to be when you when you join a board that's a governance board like this and so I just want to say thank you and also thank you Mr Mayor and I know we haven't always agreed and um it's one of those things that it just comes with the territory it's part of democracy and that's the way it works and I have you know selfishly
089I was somewhat happy when the transition occurred where you presided over the meetings because a lot of those early meetings that I was doing that were quite challenging um but uh I you know I cannot say enough um and you know as far as how much you know how proud I am of the Sako school department and all the people that are in it to to get us to where we are right now it's you know I you know I really feel like I'm going out you know on a on a high note happy with you know the way things are it's kind of like a you know wow this is you know this is really a good time to step aside and have you know go on to the the next chapter and and
090you know have some other others rise to the occasion and take the spot so thank you i' like I said I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all of you and thank you I'll see you at a future Schoolboard meeting I'm sure thank you and and I would be remiss I actually missed somebody I also like to thank uh School Board member elect Kevin roach uh as he will be taking over in the W four position again thank you for your service to our community with that uh roll call to adjourn School Board member Archie yes School Board member prebble yes School Board member Richard yes School Board member Le Fortune yes School Board member agil yes and School Board member Johnston yes the motion passes 60 to adjourn at 8:26 p.m have a great evening
091everyone