001e e oh yeah good evening everyone and welcome to the city of Soco school board meeting for Wednesday May 8th 2024 at 7 p.m. would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I'd like to make note that um all school board members are present with the exception of Jeff Richards this evening okay item number three is the approval of the Schoolboard minutes dated April 24th 2024 is there a motion Madame mayor motion made by uh School Board member Truman no I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated April 24th 2024 second motion made by Schoolboard member Truman second by Schoolboard member Preble any discussion on the minutes Madame mayor yes no discussion except to say that I will have to abstain because I was not present for that meeting
002certainly okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes and School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston abstain motion passes 5 Z with one abstention okay item number four there are no adjustments to the agenda this evening item number five there is no correspondence takes us now to item number six and that is public session any members of the public wishing to speak please come up to the podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to um address the school board good evening everyone put this hi again my name is Aubrey bomb I am at 91 Lincoln Road um thank you for the time just wanted to say thank you to the board and superintendent Ry
003for today's agenda item addressing student to teacher ratios and any of the parents and teachers that are present today and also listening in I think this is a very important topic uh that we're all passionate about and looking forward to having an outcome that benefits both the students and teachers in the last meeting we learned that the elementary school student to teer ratios were combined which can be confusing and misleading so how do we create greater transparency and leverage data relative to current state again I also would like to reiterate the growth in North Sako and the housing developments that are continuing to pop up as I live in nor Sako I am acutely aware of at least three housing developments in my area area Alone um that are single family homes so this issue
004of student teacher ratios is not going to fix itself and there needs to be proactive and thoughtful planning which leads me to tonight's topic and the memo at hand I noticed as part of The Proposal that will be discussed later today that hiring a teacher was not listed in the options and given the growth in Sako I believe this should also be an option that was laid out there's always a need for a teacher or or sport due to the growth of Sako that we have seen retirement of a colleague or even natural attrition the role could also be potentially positioned as an elementary Flex teacher where pending class sizes could move between K through two year overy year obviously not during the school year the other item that I wanted to address on today's
005proposal that I'm hoping the school board will ask questions and discuss further is this concept of multi-age classrooms as I have learned this has been done before in Sako and have received feedback from parents that were directly impacted so my questions that I would like the school board to be asking and get answers to is what was the success criteria that was laid out for this option was it measured what was the output the last time this was done was there any initiative to survey the teachers parents and students to truly understand the impact because I will say the feedback that I received did not give me the warm and fuzzies the Sako school system is built on a singlegrade classroom structure so how can we implement this as a viable option and expect success
006when our structure is predicated on this single grade classroom now focusing on the teachers in this Dynamic will there be training and support available for these teachers for this approach will they have the res resources they need to be successful teachers were are in that are put in this situation will continuously have to monitor and assess students to determine if they are in the appropriate group and their eyes always have to be on every single student assessing every single need how can we even with this ratio of 1 to 19 that's still a lot to ask for a teacher and also with combining grades teachers are now expected not to do one lesson plan for one age but two so that means they're going to have to do double the work are we going to
007be paying them more are we going to be supporting them more how does that work that's not fair for the teachers and ultimately not fair for our children and students thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak hi my name is Aubrey heler I live at for buckthorne Circle in Sako uh I am parent to four kids including triplets who are currently in kindergarten at young school so the student to teacher ratio affects my family trifold this year yay um our kindergarteners will meet their new teacher and classmates on the last day of school they will go all summer getting used to the idea of that teacher being excited about which classmates they will be in class with now my middle triplet can roll with the punches although he'll be upset if things change
008he'll be fine the other two are much more emotional and have anxiety that they have to work through when it comes to change like that you indicated that we have the money in the budget to hire a sixth first grade teacher because of the cost Savings in the healthcare if you wait until over the summer potentially towards the end of the summer to hire that teacher it would create totally unnecessary stress on our kids who like to plan for situations so they can be more comfortable also when you hire in May and June you get the better picks of the teachers instead of who is left at the end of the summer by September or August I would like to think that that is a priority for the Sako school board and superintendent hiring the
009best teachers we possibly can for all of our students thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak please step forward just state your name and address for the record sure my name is Brit sreel mlin and my address is 63 Franklin Street in Sako um and I have a son in kindergarten right now um and we have been just so impressed with um the level of support he's received at Young he has an IEP um and so that's been really important to us and we've been incredibly grateful um with him heading into first grade we are concerned about hearing about higher numbers of um students to teacher um ratio um with that going up um considering his IEP and um kind of echoing some of the things that um Aubrey just said herself about
010her students or her her children and um just managing anxiety and managing expectation um we Echo um those concerns and we would be very very grateful to have a student um a teacher hired sooner rather than later um and keep those numbers down um in the student to teacher ratio so thank you thank you very much anyone else okay not seeing anyone wishing to be recognized moving on to item number seven and that is the superintendent report superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody uh several items tonight uh to talk about um first of all uh we had on see forgetting all the meetings I've been to this week Monday night uh was public hearing uh first public hearing on the budget on the city council side which went smooth um and we have second
011public hearing is it next Monday night Jody no final is Monday Night final is Monday night uh so final vote on Monday night for school budget uh which will be the number that then goes to voters we hope that within the next couple of days we will have the excuse me the new website um up and running for information on school construction um it is a dedicated website that will have all the links to all of the information videos Etc so that when um people want to learn more about uh question two they can just go to that link um and it will be a dedicated Plage and won't be clunked up with other information um and so that will be the next couple of days hopefully everybody got an opportunity to view the video
012that we put out um I say that was Friday correct Meg uh that when when we posted that that gives you the flyby of what both schools would look like um there will be another version of that coming out with some voiceovers but we wanted to get that out as quick as possible um a video like that takes about 40 hours of the computer just working to render that um and so to change like as we' go through and say hey oh we wish we could change this one little thing that all goes through back through that process so there has to be a point where you say this is great uh and so hopefully people can see the outside of those new schools of what they would look like um inside structures we estimate
013a a video that would be that piece we'll go through the design phase you're probably six to nine months before you would see inside features in the next portion of that um with a successful vote um we are working on uh the support uh staff contracts two contracts that we are negotiating right now um one of the things that we've got to look at as a school committee is is um our meeting date for June 12th is a Wednesday night we're going to need to um change that because that is eighth grade promotion night um and based off our ability and all of the voting and high school graduations and then we had a couple of snow days that was a night that we were able to grab uh and use Thorton Academy um for
014our uh celebration that night so just we'll need to discuss that piece we have our family Wildside night at Young School on Friday night um hopefully the forecasts um will be good for that event on the 17th and then Fairfield wathon is the 17th our Burn School Community night is on the 24th um another piece that I just want to mention to you guys is that uh Sako bitterford Rising which is an event for our ml families uh is happening on May 14th from 5: to 7: um at bitterford middle school and that's where we will get a lot of our Community Resources together for our ml families interpreters to help uh fig figure out how we can better serve and uh you know establish uh better lines of communication resources um and then finally
015there was a article in the paper uh this weekend about the rising trends of homelessness that we are facing within our schools and within our communities um and this is something that um we all really need to pay attention to um because when we're talking about homelessness we're not just talking about who we may see on the street we're dealing with a situations with families who have two young kids and another on their way and are being priced out of hotel rooms as the summer comes on and we have limited funds um that come to us through either donations or the state um and we are facing having to be out of those to help families we're not necessarily designed as School departments to help with finding housing and clothes and all of those pieces
016I'm so impressed by what the staff does every single day um to make sure that we are keeping kids safe but we've got to really think about the needs that we have here in our community one one and four kids in poverty over a 100 Kids k through eight homeless we got to start figuring this out as as as a group because um um we get $311 per homeless student for State support which we're grateful for but once summer rates come in to hotels that's like three nights three nights and so I urge us all to be Advocates your County Shelter full and state funding didn't get past the Appropriations table today to fund shelters throughout the state those are the battles that we face each and every day on top of everything else of
017building schools and doing other things and our staff so proud of them this week to make sure that we were able to extend a week of a family who are going to be gone with a mom who has two and one on the way but that that that funding Runs Out And while I should have mentioned this first after just talking about homelessness and I apologize it should have been my lead off not the end um because it's hard to come back from when you talk about some of those other pieces is just making sure you reach out to staff this week staff appreciation week from our bus drivers to our Cooks to our teachers to our support staff say thank you tough job if you have a I always reach out a couple of
018times a year to a couple of former Educators I think made a difference for me I think those are the most meaningful conversations is the one teacher that you can reach out from 20 years ago that turned things around send a nice note pop in on Facebook say hello but uh remember the staff that's in our building um because we thankful for what they do thank you he that now takes us to item eight and that is the chair's report School Board member chair Pur uh Schoolboard chair Purble you have an update um I don't have anything major I just it's kind of hard to follow up after that Jeremy so um I want to say thank you to staff and everything that you guys do every day administrators too the principles God bless you
019guys all too um but all staff bus drivers all of them you know they're dealing with a lot this week I feel like with changes in traffic and everything too all of that so that would be my only thing I don't have anything else major to report but thank you thank you okay item number nine there is no staff reports this evening item 10 is the board subcommittee minutes item a is the policy and Personnel committee agenda next meeting is 61224 at 5:30 Item B is the finance and infrastructure committee agenda meeting uh agenda the next meeting is 52224 at 4:30 and the curriculum committee agenda the next meeting is 6324 at 4:30 Madame mayor yes uh just a quick clarification on uh the June 12th policy meeting will we move that as well I'm
020looking at me same Personnel committee Meg is that something we'll move okay great so that will carry to whatever night the school board is changed okay okay item 11 there is no old business business this evening item 12 is new business item a is new hires there is a memo in your packet and is there a motion Madame mayor Schoolboard member Truman I move we approve the stien nomination of Matt the barge sorry if I butchered that summer school coordinator and issue a stip in contract motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Archie any discussion okay roll call vote School Board member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board me uh School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman
021yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 okay that now takes us to Item B and that is resignations there is also a memo in your packet this evening is there a motion Madame mayor board member Truman I move we accept the resignation of Jason dado Finance director effective June 30th 2024 Gary kesy maintenance director effective June 30th 2024 and Hy Hawks SMS School counsel effective at the end of the 2023 24 school year motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second Schoolboard member Johnston second any discussion Schoolboard member roach then Schoolboard member Johnston yes for staff appreciation and and and the and the resignations I'd like to give my own personal thanks to Jason um we've had a lot of ups and downs over the years but I'll never
022I'll never doubt how hard he worked um to get information to boards and superintendant and staff to try to try to make things move forward so um just a public thank you to him School Bo member Johnson well I want to um concur with Schoolboard member roach um I think I've worked with Jason D denado for longer than anybody else here um and I am regretful to see him go but I understand he's got reasons for doing doing that as we all do when we make changes in our lives but I have immense respect for him appreciate all that he's done for the Sako school department before that rsu23 I think he's extremely hardworking and industrious and does deliver the information so I really want to thank him and say that I regret the fact
023that he's going but I appreciate what he's done thank you thank you Schoolboard member Truman I just want to say thanks to Mike G for uh continuing to hang out with us despite his retirement so thanks anyone else wait wait a minute I didn't see Michael I didn't see Mike over there he's hiding so hi Mike we'll catch up okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member Preble yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 okay item number c is a budget update and discussion I kind of hit that with the superintendent report that we'll have our uh second reading on Monday uh Monday night okay item D is the school construction update two items to go over
024this evening one is the guide to the new school construction information and two is the exterior building video yeah um we had hoped to be able to at this point and we're just not quite ready we had hop to be able to put a new link there prior to the meeting um of the website that we'll be going out which will be info on to um and we expect Meg we're hoping by Friday we're really close just it was more about proof reading and editing and making sure that everything's there which will be a direct link for us to be able to share that where people can just go to one section get all the information all the documents um and put that out of about the new school um and then the other piece
025was just more to put continue to push out into the public the exterior building video um that you can click through and walk you about four uh four and a half minutes that starts with coming in one entrance and returning to that entrance it gives you the view of playgrounds it gives you a look at what entering the elementary school versus entering the primary school will look like um I would say that right now the the middle you see a lot of grass and I suspect that through design that between both buildings will not be able to be grass like that because that will just be total mud uh for a lot of parts of the year and impact our crew so there'll be some changes in that design uh it gives you a good
026opportunity to see the outdoor uh eating spaces um that we' have at the 1 through five school um and then really the wraparound on both buildings where you can see the upper parking lot and then the playgrounds of where they would be um those aren't obviously exactly what the playgrounds will look like but it gives you an idea of the space in between um we're really I think one of the pieces that we continue to work on it's just making sure that uh you know you're going to have two different playgrounds to meet the needs of different size of kiddos and unless you're a parent of three one age you a lot of times you've got kiddos who are at different levels sitting on one playground and and one will be on the other and
027I think we're a little bit light on shaded space somewhere in the middle uh and and that will be something that we'll continue to work on and see what that looks like um and so hopefully people um will get to see the design um I believe voting is early voting is already open is that correct Jody or no no because after the after the after yeah and so early voting will be uh available um in a couple of weeks and we'll have I don't believe the ballot has been approved yet M Michelle's working on that once everything's finalized and then we will have um a whole lot more information and other pieces that will be coming out throughout the month um on that piece um you did probably see a slide or information that came
028out uh whether that was on the news story or the others but we were able to calculate um what the cost would be for the medium residential home in Sako in that Medium home value and remember not necessarily sometimes you think about sale value but what's actually on the corner of your tax bill is what the town values are that and if you're at $412,000 of land and house value combined you'd be looking at $284 uh of an increase in in taxes uh with a proposal uh for these schools um if that number if you were like one of the communities that we talked about if you were looking at a scar brro or or Cape or one of the others who was um doing that all by themselves with no State funding without State
029funding on this project you'd be looking at well over $1,100 on a tax bill so 284 versus 1100 is a big difference and it will definitely be a situation of the community making uh their decision expressing that piece um because all of my kids have gone through young school now and they're out and that's a that was a 20 year that was 20 years ago and we did uh we were able to start locating some pictures of that piece um and so we have this opportunity at uh at our doorstep and we have to solve this problem long term and everybody who's been involved over the last 20 years I think that's why Mike keeps hanging around because he's going to be part of it uh is that you know there just been so much
030put into it and we have a solution um and so hopefully we can continue to provide quality information and um if people have certain things that they question about that's uh you know there's a way to contact us through that this one you know we'll have that contact so that we can get that information up there um and just to follow up um I did just double check on the city site the absentee ballot applications are available so you can apply for your absentee ballot um with the state or the city and the regular ballot and the sample ballot will be available 30 days before the election and at that point the in-person voting here at City Hall would take place Schoolboard member Archie uh just to clarify has the city decided if that's going
031to be question two yes it is question two okay and question one is the budget is that right will be the regular budget okay yeah thank you yep and um with those updates for the construction I would like to throw out um for anybody that knows or if you don't know on Tuesday nights from 4:30 to 7: I hold open Office hours right in my office outside of Chambers um this Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:00 I am going to dedicate um to the school construction so any residents or parents that have any questions or concerns please feel free to stop by um if we have a lot of people at one time we can do it as an open session or we can do it oneon-one and I have put an offer out to the
032school board anybody that would like to join me so hopefully we'll have a school board um present as well um so yeah this Tuesday I would like to dedicate specifically to the construction update and the referendum and that's the 14th okay any discussion or comment on School Board member roach yeah I just want to put some uh well first a question Jeremy on the video part there's going to be voice over right correct you're trying to get on there will there be any numbers put on the video part like this building costs this this building cost that yes okay yeah we get some people out there that think that you know what goes on at school board stays at school board but we we are on video and council's on video and we have talked
033about this wide open but the numbers do get a little confusing so I just want to take just a quick moment just to remind viewers or or what have you that that the that the state part that one through five that is a $7 million local contribution so that is an all state money and then the rest the the the the prek through K is 32 million not 39 it's 32 and if we do nothing first off we pay $7 million over 20 years to the prek building if we did nothing $350,000 a year for 20 years we did nothing and if we did want to combine prek into one of the schools I can bet you that over 20 years it's going to cost at least 32 million Okay so the staff talk about
034staff appreciation they do wonders in the buildings we have now those buildings I don't know what people remember from 20 30 years ago no offense these buildings are a disgrace okay our kids deserve better staff deserves better this city deserves better so let's get to 2024 now and get to reality and um you know spread the word that this is money wor well well spent thanks thank you anyone else Schoolboard member Gail just a quick thank you for um hosting the the office hours for that I mean I think it's critical that we get Council and and you mayor involved in and you're taking the lead and really thank you for that okay moving on to item e and that is the school committee calendar for 2025 just trying to get those dates out as
035early as I can for everybody uh on the calendar pretty much the same setup as beforehand um do you need approval I I we don't necessarily need approval we just will send calendar invites unless there's a change by the board um but just trying to get those dates out there as early as possible so we can get that posted and everybody can uh look at it on your calendar uh beforehand and we try to keep things as consistent as possible sometimes a school vacation week throws a little bit of a wrench into things or a holiday um but I think this year it worked out uh other than looking at the where uh Thanksgiving is place this year it's uh and then our winter break it's uh fairly consistent I appreciate the uh heads up
036for the the calendar thank you okay any other questions or comments School Board member Gail just a comment that I bring up every year that this comes up uh I really feel strongly about this 5:00 pm start time on these dates I don't think it's in the best interest uh of of our school department of our school board um and I'll just bring up again is there any way that we can move those to even 5 30 or 6 I I know there's a lot of different opinions but again my opinion is that the 5:00 pm start time isn't conducive to public comment um to to get a lot of folks engaged um personally and coming to coming to these meetings so again I throw that out there I do it every year um but
037I I feel really strongly about this and and hope that we can find an alternative time to that 5:00 p.m. start time as we've discussed this before I'll just Echo what I've said in the past is that not everybody works a 9-to-5 job and sometimes five o'clock is better R is a good uh representative of not working a 9 to-5 and likes to be out of here as soon as possible um so I think that all things considered I think this actually gives more opportunity for people to come say s o'clock doesn't work for them um maybe five is better so um I'm happy with the way it is anyone else Schoolboard member roach I haven't been part of the prior uh time debates but on the 530 idea though um just throwing it out
038there um if we have a known are we able to be flexible between 5 or 5:30 meaning that if you have a known agenda that probably won't take more than an hour of debate that we would have those meetings maybe at 5:30 um and then um if you had like Jeremy your situation if you had to get going maybe at that point later in the meeting we don't need necessarily to have you here I guess I don't know I think it sometimes is hard to in anticipate what will draw a debate and what won't I mean over 12 years of running uh or you know there are nights where I thought o we're going to be here a long time and then I look at the clock and it's like 30 minutes later and you're
039gone and then anytime that I've thought oh this is going to be a 20 minute meeting it's like two and a half hours later it's like you know Murphy's Law on some of those things uh and so I think you can try to structure agendas and I do try to structure them that way um where like when we're having big budget discussions I always like to have that be the seven o'clock meeting um yeah I mean I think that again it's hard to predict um so it's you know 715 helps people out a little bit I'm not like worked up about that piece obviously your meeting um but you know I do think that there are many boards meet at many different times um and I don't know how any just having kids myself if
040I wasn't in the seat I don't know how I would get to meetings at seven or 5 because I run home and at five o'clock it feels like it's dinner and 18 hours of Youth Sports or some event and at 7 o' it's bedtime bath times and some nights that's when dinner's starting so I I don't know that life is like it used to be and I Think It's just tough for everybody Schoolboard member Johnson I would just like to concur with superintendent Ray that it is very unpredictable how long meetings take so again I have also had the experience where I thought it was going to be short and it was long and I thought it was be long and it was short so I think we can't really count on the amount of
041time as much as we might want to we cannot really count on the amount of time that a meeting is going to take and I have to say that I agree with Sarah that I think the schedule that we're on now has been working for the most part I mean not everything works for anybody and or everybody and we all do a lot of us do not work in the same time frame so I would agree that we should keep things as they are but thank you and I appreciate will for your your contribution anyway I guess just on a Clarity so we we don't need to vote on this to adopt it or what we actually do yeah um you vote on meeting calendar traditionally we do it by the quarter and I do
042three months worth of um dates not times because our time is always set but the dates um and then we do pass the a consent item so I certainly willing to make you certainly willing to approve it okay I'm happy to make a motion I move we approve the school committee calendar for the 2024 25 school year or calendar year second okay motion has been made by school board member Truman second by Schoolboard member Purble any additional discussion Schoolboard member kale can I move to make an amendment to that to change the meeting time to 5:30 p.m. on the 5:00 P PM dates okay an amendment has been made by Schoolboard member Gail is there a second second okay he second by Schoolboard member Archie any discussion on the amendment okay not seeing any roll
043call vote on the amendment only Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member prebble uh I'm gonna vote no on that one Schoolboard member roach no and I'll be back but no Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman no school Schoolboard member Johnston no I'm sorry Schoolboard member Johnston what was that sorry no okay motion fails three four I'm sorry 52 42 42 didn't have a motion already written no okay so back to the main motion on the existing calendar as it is any additional discussion question and maybe an amendment do we have the flexibility uh with enough public notice to change a meeting from 5:00 to 5:30 understanding it's unpredictable but if yes the board has the right to change a meeting time you would have to match your posting requirements set for assuming the posting
044requirements assuming your posting requirements my I don't think that allows for people to plan um but yes I mean I think that one of the conversations you could have would just be looking at you know is this exactly the agenda format that you want to have there are many different agenda formats out there too um that you could look at uh for setup of a meeting that might allow for some savings or some added pieces um yes you can do it I think that for public notice sake I'd rather us not say 5:00 this night 5:15 the next 5:30 I think the the other piece is that like for some of these meetings you're also planning your committee meetings beforehand and so that that would be the other piece okay if if that flexibility is
045there uh um I won't make an amendment on that I will say that on one hand if an issue is important enough to to you and to the public we had to do this for the for another group I'm part of we had to do this for the county that the issue was important enough we we got there at 4:00 we we got there and and made our case and yeah we sacrificed work time and other time but but on the other hand you know you want as many as many eyeballs this is the schools you do want as many eyeballs on these meetings as you can and and be be flexible and and us as board members too I mean you know maybe I I share a similar schedule with some of the people
046here but um but uh yeah as long as we can just have you're posting it you're letting everyone know but we can also be flexible under those posting rules I'll I'm I'm okay with it hey anyone else Schoolboard member Arie uh this will probably be a no for me again um I am a firm believer in uh we should do two meetings at 6 o'cl I've always said that um and I think that um to make it fair to Jeremy I Meg what was it two meetings ago did she did a very good job at it so I don't know if there was a a way you guys could alternate between the two of you um but that's just my opinion I mean I work at 2 o'clock in the morning so like really the
0475 o'clock meeting works better for me and staying here till 11 o'clock at night at a 7 o'clock meeting doesn't really work for me that well but I think to make it easier on the community and having the same amount um this the same time frame for every meeting it seems to make more sense so I've re I'll reiterate every everything that I've said last three years six o'cl every meeting anyone else okay not seeing any uh back to the main motion only Schoolboard member Archie no Schoolboard member Fel yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail no School Board member Truman yes and School Board member Johnston yes main motion passes 42 okay that takes us to item F and that is the class size update and historical data okay um so obviously class
048size has been a topic of discussion uh and I wanted to put some historical data uh together uh for everybody just to look at what historically class sizes have been uh in grade uh one over the last you know so we got like 12 years there uh and as you can see in different scenarios they fluctuate obviously class sizes over time have Peaks and valleys and uh and differences throughout them and this is not uncommon for any school department Andor District um to go through these things and you'll continue to have Peaks and valleys we also listed a lot of possible options and no there may not have been hiring a teacher on that list but as I said last meeting if the data suggests that we're not going to go into the next school
049year at 22 um but there's also been a lot of things that can change knowing right now that we don't have firm numbers for kindergarten enrollment that's a challenge we don't have numbers for what uh went uh fairfields a little low right now and so that gives us an opportunity we have been through have looked through our superintendence agreements and those numbers are we just you know we won't have superintendence agreements at young school for grade one that will be something that we'll have to limit uh because you do get some you get some ask from time to time we we also have um several students that are in a high highly you know mobile uh situation that we have to monitor their enrollments and and what's going to happen um and then you know
050we also have to think about Equity too and what the release valve is on either of these um school committee adopted finally we have a policy now on class size that we didn't have uh and we're very fortunate in Sako uh for our class sizes compared to some of our neighboring communities that are 23 24 in some of those lower grades um we're very lucky to have that the other piece that I want to you know have people be thoughtful about and and the reason why some of these things um that you do wait a little bit of a time is I actually had an experience uh here in Sako myself as a as a parent where a couple of years ago go the decision was not made and then there was actually contraction in
051a grade level after school year started at Young School few years ago Midway through September they actually pulled a teacher out of kindergarten I believe it was uh because I was a recipient of getting a new teacher in my son's classroom Midway through September because class size shifted at that point and so we need to let the opportunity to get a better handle on what our kindergarten sizes will be because our open houses aren't until 31st correct uh the 31st is our open house for step up for kindergarten parent parents our numbers are a little bit low I would hate to see a situation where they continued to be low and then there was like a situation where now we're reacting and there's actually contraction um that's not a good thing we have the ability
052that we can ask families and several families ask from year to year hey can I go to school over here or can I go to school over here um based off Child Care needs a lot of it um and if you're a parent who now maybe didn't know this was a possibility and you had an older child that is transitioning to Burns that may make a lot of sense if you're a driver or whatnot say hey I'm willing to go over here and we would want to guarantee any family uh who took that option a continuation in that school uh and I think that we also have to look at um one of the things that's really important to us as we look through this list is equity and I think that we need to
053ask those questions and be prepared as a board that if if we do this at Young School that we are fully prepared if anything changes at Fairfield school and Fairfield school is a school that has over 40% of its students free and reduced lunch more poverty and as we look at the Historical class sizes it's the school that had higher class sizes so if we really want to talk about class sizes we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and make sure that we are making sure that our most disadvantaged kids have the same opportunities I can tell you right now as parents we're not going to have 22 we're not having 22 but we need to go through a couple of these other things first before we get to that point um and
054I understand wanting to plan and do the other things but let me tell you the experience of contraction Midway that was not good um and um that was an unfortunate situation and if we're going to make that here we just need to make sure that we're willing to make that in all situations throughout the year on a consistent basis one of the things I would say longterm a little bit worried about and I had this had this conversation with Kevin the other day and we do recognize that there is some shifting demographically and in building around the city we're going to get we know we're going to get more in nor Sako going that way what concerns me more than anything is that if you look at home sales on the Fairfield side of town
055right now and the price for a single family home I don't know when one's for sale how many of those are going to have kids coming back into it and so we are going to have have to be you know I don't I don't remember a conversation and certainly if someone's been here a little bit longer than I have but even when my both of my kids were at Young School I never saw anything about a redraw of the lines of you know where it's at in Beth I don't know if that's ever been I'm sorry thank you nothing to my knowledge has been redrawn as such in terms of a line for I can't even remember how long when my kids first started into school and they're well over like you know they're well
056you know Nathan he's right on Council now so um I don't recall the line ever really being dealt with in all those years it's a long time ago and and of course you know again you're not going to you're not you're not going to redraw a line and say oh by the way family that has a first grader and a second grader I'm sorry that you're second you're not going to do those types of things you're going to look at it wisely you're going to look at it in balanced class size you're going to look at equity for all children you're going to look at the transient piece of the uh our new neighbors that come in where where there are some kiddos and Families said I believe it we have limit they have time
057on that piece and then I think we can put some of those options out there and make those well before the start of the school year um but I think that key date is starting to look at what happens on our family night for kindergarten uh because right now uh at Fairfield school where we've got 47 prek and 21 uh enrollments and we estimate somewhere around 80 kiddos um which would allow for some possible switching to address uh the the multi-age piece multi-age was done at Fairfield school for years whereas a looping model was done at um Young School and so there was really no consistency in what our model was like what was what did you value as a district you had one model in one school that happened to be there in one
058and another school um and I think that there can be benefits to both of those done really really well um I would say that you know again every parent is going to make their own choice but I've seen situations because I also have the privilege of working in Dayton where sometimes they've had some of that mixed grade levels because in a very small community you might have a class of 12 and a class of 25 and they've done some of that and that can work really well for some families um I tend to actually think that one of the challenges that we have with our educational system is that it seems like you just get to know a kid for a year and then you're off to the next piece I would love to see
059more teachers in larger groups working with a smaller group of kids historically and get to know them um but that may not be in our future right now and then again if we all go out and vote and think about what could to come this problem goes away for us in the long term because you'll have those abilities to have some flexibility mix kids up um but whatever we do in this situation we need to be prepared to do in any of the situations across the district and again sometimes fairness is this but Equity is another thing uh and we need to make sure that our most disadvantaged Learners have the same class sizes across the district if we make this one um and so I'll take answer any questions from the board I Schoolboard
060member Archie I have a couple I'm sorry um so do we have any idea on how many of the new of these students are the new neighbors Meg and yes we do can I ask what the number is I'd rather not single out that students but it's under 10 okay because my only thought is is that it is temporary housing and eventually there will be movement around that's my thought so the other aspect of this is um what if it is a bubble like if hypothetically we hired another teacher at Young and we put them in first grade what happens when all those 111 kids go to second grade are we proposing that the teacher just moves with them or like to me that doesn't seem realistic well I think that's again you'll have fluctuation
061from year to year you think about kids who access the classroom on a regular bases versus some that don't you'll have movein you'll have move outs you'll have kids that go here and go there I think the first piece is just seeing is there any interest from families who may want to have you know for daycare purposes or that didn't say hey I didn't know that was an option if we saw continued declining enrollment like if we really believe that home prices in certain parts of town might box out some families and you know that we're hoping that this is only a three-year challenge that we continue to face there may have to be a conversation at some point about redrawing lines because at the same time if you had continued declining enrollment there's only
062so many classrooms that you'll have at young school over the next couple years we have a prek lease that is expiring that we have to deal with and so there may be some pieces where you say hey you got to shift something a little bit in order to make this happen and then we're going to get into this funny place where uh you know hopefully in two years you're starting to see a structure of a building and then after that you're saying oh we're all going to be together anyway you may have some more families that want to do that piece can we put a time frame on that yeah I mean I I don't want to wait till the last minute like yes it would be great if we could convince 11 families to
063let their children go over to Fairfield but I don't want to wait until Labor Day to decide no I think you're making this decision in July early July and you know um give people some time you you know you'll get some conversations that we will have with certain organizations about what they expect to have happen you'll start to have conversations with people you know Wendy just going back is you know once end of June around it's not a huge enrollment that you're going to get over the summertime it's not going to be tons 20ish over the summertime so you know once we're we know what we have on on you know May 31st and then you're saying 20 is about the number that historically has happened you're going to have a pretty good idea um
064and you start to think about those pieces I think the other piece about approaching Families First of having that happen is that you know if they make that choice and you can even things that way then you're not having a conversation with a staff member that may want to not want to move from one school to the other because they've established relationships so I think there are some pieces that you put together on this and see where we're at and I suspect that if we send something you know tomorrow to parents I don't think that's going to be a long decision for people you know I know that if I got that email and I was a family I probably could make that decision like without even closing the screen um and so you know
065maybe you come back a week later and you say hey you've already got 10 it's a big difference SC Truman then sco Johnston I just wanted to speak on the multi-age piece because um my current second grader uh was in a multi-age class last year but then uh we asked all those optional like between the looping and the multi-age and I know there were some questions from the public about like is that effective it works when you have two classrooms that are multi-age and then kids would go the second grade kids would go to one teacher and the first grade kids would go back to the other teacher and they would do first and second grade stuff with that teacher um and then go back to their classrooms when it came to math um and
066I think it was a phenomenal experience for my for my second grader and he was actually disappointed when we got rid of the multi-age because he was very excited to be the older student this year and he doesn't have anybody to rain over this year so um and he loves to see his third grade friend they're now in third grade and he loves to see them and they have some days and they've come over there was a whole slew of them last week in Darcy's class but um so like I think that you know I know there were some concerns with that but I think it was a very positive experience um for my family with that multi-age piece so um he liked having older friends and he was really looking forward to being like
067that Mentor kind of older classmate so so um just in that aspect I wanted to speak on that just that it's not that scary as it sounds it was actually a very positive experience and then as far as like there's so many kids that are moving in and out of the districts my my now fourth grader I just had a friend that left like last week he moved to another school district and uh you know as timing could have been better I mean you move when an apartment or whatever becomes a available um in in his family's case they moved to a different school so like so many things are going to change between now and I'd say even September there's going to be changes where people are enrolling the first month or you know
068six weeks of school so things are I mean the school year changes I mean we do October numbers and April numbers or is it March it is April I was like am I making this up um you know the numbers are constantly fluctuating so I mean it could be anything come the first day of school so that's all I have to say Schoolboard member Johnson couple of things one I also had a child my young child who was in a multi-age classroom at 1 two worked out really well I think teacher was great and there were quite a number of kids in that classroom I don't know at this point how many but probably more than we would normally have now um I think the kids tended to help each other and essentially it was
069a good experience third and fourth grade I think I'm right it's a long time ago um he was in a looping classroom so he had the same I I might be wrong with the terminology because it's been a long time but he also had the experience of being in a classroom where he went from one grade to the next grade with the same teacher in the same classroom and it was another really good experience so I don't have personally from my own experience with this one child I only have I don't have any fear about that type of situation and I do believe that it's manageable and probably positive for the kids in a lot of different ways um yes I was looking at the the historical data that superintendent Ry has supplied us with
070and honestly it does it fluctuates from I don't know I did a little bit of math here and I'm not very good at that but I think that you know the difference in Fairfield and young in terms of class size for for this grade level over time has sometimes been very close and sometimes it's varied from like 24 kids to what we are now looking at potentially next year of 23 kids um and we can't really control that but I do Wonder um one of the things we I mean I think we should get this figured out before the kids actually go into the classroom but and I know that a lot of kids are looking forward now or soon to where they're going to be who their teacher is going to be and that's
071difficult but I would think that we might consider pulling a staff member from one school to the other to maybe rather than to hire a new staff member potentially I know that's occurred over time occasionally don't know that that's the answer just throwing it out um and superintendent Ray if we were to find some parents who would liked their children to shift to another school what does that do with our busing situation do we offer them busing still does that complicate how would that work so there would be a lot of factors to consider one would be closeness to the boundary line would be number one we already um are busing some kids across town anyway so that would be part of it we would be looking at who drives their kid to school because
072we know we have a large population of families that drive their kids to school we probably would also be looking at the after care situation um because someone may say hey I'll do that because I'll just drive my kid to school in the morning that's something that I typically do and I go to Sako parks and Rex in the afternoon which we already transport to so I think that there would be uh a lot of different considerations that would have to you know be asked in that piece like if you're yes I'm interested in exploring this more it are you also know the clicking the box that said and I would need transportation because obviously that would be a consideration so you've got to ask more than uh one or two is not just a
073yes or no there would be some other pieces where's your after care what are those some of those plans um that people would have to give us some information so that you could think about what options you would be able to present to families School Board member Gail Gail and then German I just also had one more comment that um I know was it last year was at the third grade we ended up having to hire several teachers in that grade so a lot of kids at the end of the school year had no idea who their teacher was going to be like there was just no way because we had retirements or someone was just leaving the district so that is an not that is a possibility for any student first grade or sixth
074grade you just may never know we had three right it was three that year and so there was I mean some of my friends kids didn't know who their teacher was going to be and I assured them we got some great people so and that's there's so many different factors that are going to go into that so go member Gil just a a couple of questions that I had um so just to be Crystal Clear going into the next school year first grade will not have 2 the average size will not be 22 correct that will not be my recommendation to you guys okay um and then looking at the memo just a rical question it looked like in 2021 uh school board made a decision to to hire a teacher that we had roughly
075the same same thing that was happening here we went in 1920 from 84 and then 2021 and went the number of students went to 114 so we made a decision I guess to hire a teacher then and then in 2122 we went back down to five um and I realized that you weren't the superintendent then but um I guess there is some precedent in the past for this in your experience kind of what what are the challenges then of of doing that is it a budget or a classroom issue like what so in in 2021 during that year you're also doing some hiring using federal funds that came with covid relief and you were also looking at um you had to make class sizes that were half as piece so that's where your hiring came
076from in that year and I think there's probably some other examples throughout the district where there was there was doing that piece um you know one of the pieces that you're going to run into with this group of kiddos at some point in time if there isn't if there's continued growth and there isn't disparity outside is that couple years they're going to be over at burn school and uh we don't necessarily have a room there uh at all in that building so that's one one challenge I mean again I've had an experience over time where you know some years you have 10 teachers in a grade level you know and I'm talking the entire span and then the next year you have eight in that grade level because while we don't tend to have that
077here in Sako I have seen some situations you know like I'll say in Dayton in Dayton it seems like there's this every other year thing where there's 25 kids and then there's 12 and then there's 25 again and then there's 12 and in that tiny small community you know you can then say oh well that's a family of two and their kids are close enough apart and you see that develop you'll see some up and down Trends where you'll get a a wild number for year for uh one reason or not and then you won't when you look at um a couple of years ago uh well there was you had a spike and I think it's uh like second graders right now that's a high class because families who were sending their kids to
078kindergarten the year when we were returning from covid there was huge numbers of families said you know what I'm not going to have my kindergarten year be the every other day thing I'm just going to hold out for a year and then you tend to see all around the state that grade level of of K of that class size just be kind of inflated with the year prior to that severely depressed in numbers uh because you know 20% of the families held kids home so you have those fluctuations over time you know I think that overall when you look at Sako school department numbers and I'm talking prek through eight our numbers have not significantly increased since what uh like three or four four years ago even prover and remember we have aund almost kids
079living in a hotel room if that wasn't there we'd be 100 short uh and so when we talk about um you know we see housing and those things come up state of Maine just historically there's really nobody that's growing um and so that's one of the factors and half of that is because you know we're not generationally there's not families that have huge number of kids like in when we grew up and you know three to four were common and that's not that way anymore so no we're not going in with 22 I think we run through these options we'll have you know some better data uh probably even at our June meeting uh and then we can make a a really good decision about what's happening because you know again it wasn't more than
080a couple years ago in June when I was saying hey I'm getting hints about this hotel that that came online and we made some decisions that year and that was a year that we did hire a teacher because I said to I said to Jeff we're just going to hire one and we didn't even know exactly where it was going to be because Meg and I would be we'd get like a spreadsheet every day that would have something different on it um and I think that worked out pretty good for that situation um so just following up on that timeline so when do we think that we're going to be able to get the information sounded like there was a the family night yeah I think we'll know a lot before that June meeting whenever
081we schedule that because we do have to move that from promotion and we may move that forward or back based off schedule uh to pull everybody together but we'll have that information we can put out a thing for volunteers um you know I wouldn't uh when we talk about asking for volunteers I wouldn't recommend that we send that out on Friday because that will get buried in the weekend email probably that would be like one of the Monday morning things that we would send out to families so it was fresh on everybody's mind um and then you know see what the results of something like that is before we start making a Next Step decision and then just lastly so the the goal is to get the class size down to 20 right because that's
082what's in our policy is the high high end of the correct okay um and so the goal is 20 not I mean I think the range it's was saying it was between 16 to 18 20 yeah yeah okay okay thanks okay anyone else Schoolboard member roach so again not you're saying Jeremy that I'm not saying guaranteed but you you are telling us that by July 1 you'll have this you're targeting this to be resolved yeah I mean I think that's the fair thing to do and again I think we will know so much more after registration night and have better information uh to make a quality decision of what direction the board wants to go on something like this that I do you know what I will say to you is whatever decision we make
083on in this case we need to hold true in other situations that could arise over the summertime um and make sure that you know there's an equity of programming for all kids and you know there are situations where you will just you know I suspect that in you know 23 which was was just a couple of years ago when we had 20.8 kids at Fairfield school so you had some 21s there and you had some 20s that that just was that was a you know some kids moved in over that summer and that's what we did that year um and then you know 1819 you had 20.8 kids at Fairfield school and so these were October numbers so we we pulled October one numbers because that's everything that's reported out on and you know in
0842016 2017 I don't know the board composition at that point but whatever the conversations were that year you had 21.6 at Fairfield when young school was at 17.8 I don't know what the conversations were about r draing lines or asking people to move over but I just want to make sure that uh we have a situation where you know a school that has higher free and reduced lunch situation is treated exactly the same and we have those same conversations so Kevin we'll have a decision before July 1 we combo of you know Lov kids in kindergarten you know that' be the extreme existing loving kids in kindergarten going from Young from F to first grade at Fairfield that's the if there's no movings which is unrealistic people moving in and out of Sako just a
085geographic question North Sako Cascade where do those kids go right now they go to Fairfield or young I don't think we have many out there uh at that point that's that's Kevin I'd have to look I don't know top of my head I'm just saying like a certain area not necessarily redrawing the line but out at Cascade and Blue Haven I know goes to Fairfield goes to a Fairfield so I I think it on that side of Route One You're Fairfield and if you were Jenkin you know heading up towards Jenkins Road I guess that's a hard draw of a line but I I would I would say that you know maybe if there's someone moving or going to there that they would go to they would they would definitely go to Fairfield uh I
086don't know if the other side of Route One if they're going to Young go to Fairfield what's the difference right it's route one so you have to drive the same road um so all right well not to say I mean you know principal MIRS is doing a great job at Young everyone wants to go to young but you would think that maybe there's some kids maybe Playmates in Rex Center that may say yeah I'd like to be with friends at Fairfield I I don't know um um you know I trust that you guys can work that out and figure it out um one comment on the uh shared grades thing I didn't know if that was done because of balancing class room sizes but that goes way back to my time back in 06 and
087' 07 at Fairfield and now at that time a lot of people wanted to get out of young because that was a couple years after the uh the new trails are brought in but um but uh yeah my my daughter had a you know she reported me she had a great great experience back then um yeah she was maybe a smart alec and wanted to be smarter than the second graders in first grade but so it sounds like her dad maybe but um but um but it's been a while like that's been that's been a while you know I'd like to hear maybe in another meeting another session what the issues were to stop it uh last year but um but I remember the teacher too so and she's still here so it worked out
088at least well for our family and that was now getting up there in years so thanks anyone else Schoolboard member purle um I was just hoping if we could add this to when we get closer to June add that to the agenda just so we can allow the public to have an update that'd be great thank you School Board member Gail and then I guess just one other item for consideration as we move in there as an alternative is can we include what the impacts would be for hiring a a new teacher okay moving on that takes us to item G and that is the probation Schoolboard member Johnson sorry just a quick end of this conversation I guess I am looking forward to the time when there isn't a line and when we actually
089have a new school where all the kids have hopefully at least through the building and the and then the shaing the same opportunities so I just wanted to say that thank you thank you okay so now that takes us to item G and that is probationary teacher contracts there is a memo in your packet is there a motion Madame mayor motion yep uh I move we approve the nominations of the first year teachers as listed on the memo and issue a two-year probationary contracts for the 2024 2025 school year motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by School Board member Johnston any discussion okay not seeing any roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes and
090School Board member trumman yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 60 Madame mayor one more uh I move we approve the nominations of the second year teachers as listed on the memo and issue a in teachers contract for the 2024 25 school year motion has been made by school board member Truman is there a second second second by School Board member Gail any discussion okay not seeing any roll call vote School Board member Archie yes Schoolboard member Pebble yes Schoolboard member roach yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 okay that now takes us to item a and that is a second reading of the policies is there a motion Madam mayor we missed you last time Beth I appreciate that I'm sure
091Sarah took over with that nomination just I mean with that second reading or whatever just fine um I don't get out of town much but once in a while I do um I move we appr approve the second reading of policies IGA curriculum development and adoption I student submission to surveys analyses or evaluations JJ AA private school students access to public school curricular inter Scholastic and extracurricular activities JJ fundraising in schools JEA compulsory attendance jfa admission of Resident students jf-1 title one parent involvement policy and that would be the end of this thank you second motion has been made by Schoolboard member Johnston second by Schoolboard member Truman any discussion on the policies quickly uh I think you read the last one wrong kbf D E1 I think you said JF I don't know if
092I have to make a I believe yeah I mean you get excited with all your letters all right to make sure that we have it accurate kf-1 title one parent involvement policy which is a very important policy thank you thank you any discussion on the policies any additional okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 60 okay there is no other information this evening item 14 we do have an executive session is there a motion to go into executive session mad moved no can't do that uh I move we enter executive session for the discussion of compensation of employees pursuant to 1 Mrs RSA sub section 4056 a and
093for the discussion of Labor contract negotiations of 1 MSA subsection 4056 D second I just wanted to hear you say it motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman second by Schoolboard member Archie roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member Preble yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion to enter executive session passes 60 at 826 we can do so moved for adjournment and executive session is down in the conference room e e e okay welcome back everybody and thank you is there a motion to exit executive session I move we exit executive session second motion made by school board member Truman second by School Board member prebble School uh roll call vote Schoolboard Archie yes Schoolboard member prebble yes
094School Board member roach yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion to exit executive session at 9:26 passes 60 is there a motion from executive session yes I move we approve the non-union salaries and the memorandum of agreement between the Sako school board and the Sako Education Association mea Nea motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Johnston roll call vote School Board member Archie yes School Board member preville yes Schoolboard member roach yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and School Board member Johnson motion passes 60 okay that now takes us to item 15 and that is an adjournment is there a motion to adjourn so moved second who was that
095I'm sorry who made the motion okay motion to adjourn by Schoolboard member prebble is there a second second by School Board member Truman roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member Purble yes School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnson yes motion to adjourn at 927 passes 60 thank you everyone and have a great night I