001e e e good evening everyone everyone and welcome to the school board meeting for Wednesday July 10th at 7 o' would like to make note that we have all school board members present with the exception of Ry Archie and will Gail and Kevin roach um will be late would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance Al FL unit stes and I would like to note that uh superintendent Ray is absent tonight and we do have assistant superintendent uh make Park CSE with us okay item number three is the approval of the school board minutes for June 11th 2024 is there a motion to approve the minutes Madame mayor I move we approve the meeting minutes school board meeting minutes dated June 11th 2024 there's been a motion made by a school board member
002Truman is there a second second second by School Board member Johnston any discussion on the minutes okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 40 okay item number four there now are no adjustments to the agenda this evening item number five there are no correspondents takes us now to item six and that is a public session if there are any members of the public wishing to speak to the school board please step up to the podium state your name and address and you will have three minutes to speak okay not seeing any members wishing to be recognized now takes us to item number seven and that is the superintendent report good evening I have several updates in conjunction
003with superintendent Ry this evening um the first one is a follow up on an item that has been discussed at two previous school board meetings related to hiring while we were able to find two first grade students that elected to attend at Fairfield school next year we also had three new grade one enrollments at Young School we did have the option to reassign those students to Fairfield instead of young but as you are all well aware of some of our transportation concerns we um have elected to move forward with the hiring of a one-year position for grade one which will put us at six teachers at young school for grade one and five teachers at Fairfield for grade one it will keep the class sizes commiserate at both schools so we have some classes of
00417 and a couple of 18 at Fairfield and with those six teachers and our current enrollment we'll have us at classes of 17 and 18 at young school as well um the only thing that we kind of discussed is that we are keenly aware that historically I think it was 16 161 17 we did have class sizes of 21 and 22 at Fairfield so we will want to be ensuring that moving forward if we encounter this again before our new buildings are available to us that we are having Equity between schools and adjusting those class sizes accordingly in those grade levels when we're seeing those numbers another uh update on hiring other than that new position which we will be posting shortly we are fully staffed for our teaching staff bus drivers and edcs are
005still acutely needed so if families are interested in um being in our schools even if it's part-time or on certain schedules we would certainly love to help folks get trained up for either of those positions huge thanks to uh a lot of our staff working on building work we have the entryway being renovated and redesigned for better traffic flow and security at Sako Middle School we have cafeteria wind windows that will be added to the hallway at Sako Middle School carpet tile installation at Fairfield in the hallways and then of course we have our custodial and maintenance staff working diligently even in the Heat this week which we're very grateful for for deep cleaning of our buildings our new building project continues to move forward we've now been able to work on next steps of
006closing on the land following the vote and have a date coming up in August for that closing as well as some additional meetings regarding initiation of off-site work and beginning to figure out what the bidding timelines will be to put those projects out as well as the specifications that will need to be included in those bids our student summer programming is well underway uh just under half a week for our regular education summer school and some of our extended school year special services students having attended last week as well as this week I believe we have just over 200 students involved in that programming and um we as as of that second day when I checked in with our director tras at for Summers programming we only had two snafus of a kiddo who didn't
007know they weren't supposed supposed to be there or was there accidentally and needed to be accommodated in a different way so that's a a good record for us and it was a great start to be able to have the staggered start with our esy students starting earlier it made for a much smoother entry and exit on those first weeks also thanks to our nutrition staff Transportation staff and all of the teachers and Ed tecs who have stepped up to support that summer programming it's uh can be tricky to want to extend your school year but without their efforts we wouldn't be able to serve these students that are desperately in need of that additional programming we've also have our outdoor program for middle school students up and running that is uh funded through a grant
008and that um is just kicking off I haven't looked at the signups recently but we were thrilled to be able to offer that and did hear from our director there that they they serve a mix of students through Sako bord and Dayton and were able to take some kiddos that had never been to the ocean before so a really great opportunity to have uh students who may not have access to those experiences to be able to enjoy the beauty that's right in our own community in a really well supervised way for our staff we also have a lot of Summer programming going on already in the these three or four weeks since the end of school we've had over 175 staff members we did work Tri District between Sako bford and Dayton to offer crossover
009programming so that we could increase choice and timing and access to date there's been a total of 1,500 hours of learning across those staff members we've had some curriculum work in literacy and math a training in the pheic awareness resource that we use a trauma informed practices across cultures training our climate change professional development in collaboration with the ecology school that included an overnight opportunity there grant-funded and then a multi-day resilience Retreat where we were able to work with the fairy Beach Conference Center um to host that Retreat which was a great way to get some of our staff trained up we also have additional work planned to come before the start of school around social studies curriculum work at the middle school a main solutionaries project which engages teachers to think about project-based learning
010in a service-minded framework Mentor teacher training and a book study around making content accessible our central office leadership team was able to attend the Commissioners Conference held by the doe and superintendent Rey is currently at a professional development opportunity legislative opportunity down in Washington DC so we're very excited to be able to have his Regional voice impacting some of the national educational political landscape down there highlights of the doe conference included some work that the state will be moving forward to develop a portrait of a graduate and a keynote by Tony Wagner who's a speaker that talks about the future of learning and some Innovative educational practices we also were able to hear a little bit about the close of the second session of the 131st legislative session couple of top things that you may
011see impact Schoolboard policy are Title Nine changes those changes were proposed by the federal government rolled out around I think late mid to late May and um Drummond woodsom will be then populating a model policy for us to change our policies locally and those do even though we haven't gotten that model policy yet those changes take effect beginning in August so a as soon as you see that model policy come out our our policy committee has shifted to have eyes on that before our August meeting so that we can make sure that that's ready for us to train up our own staff the paid FMLA law that we've I believe superintendent Ry has mentioned before is a Statewide department of labor law and we're continuing to work with the Department of Labor to understand how
012that will impact our business office and our human resources department because staff will essentially be working with individual entities to figure out how individuals apply for the state funded portion or which portions folks might elect to have already covered under current collective bargaining agreements so we're still trying to iron out uh which types of leave fall into each of those categories and how that will impact though we've already put into the budget starting in January 2025 the additional portion that will have to be contributed by employers there's also the uh continued understanding of that shift of child development services to School departments there are districts piloting as soon as next year that will shift special education services for three and four year olds to School departments rather than the child development services so that certainly
013um creates a a challenge for School departments and a huge opportunity to be able to have continuous service and have eyes on students before they're enrolled in our schools as well as be able to have a better understanding of that programming and less transition for families who receive special programming at three and four years old to be able to have that programming continue while we do work with CDs often on those transitions having that oversight will allow a little bit more handson eyes on continuity of programming couple other items to watch are the minimum hourly wage requirements for edex and school support staff that will start in the 2526 school year at 125% of the state minimum wage for Ed teex and 110% of State minimum wage for other school support staff and for that
014first school year of 2526 it will be funded through the EPS formula so it will be fully funded by the state and after that um districts will have to take that on we should be in a pretty good place though we haven't completed negotiations for edtech but with that timing and the EPS funding we should be um pretty well keeping Pace with those percentages there are a couple of resolves that will come out with respect to uh the legislature asking that things are studied including increasing the funding ceiling for renovation a look at the EPS formula they'll present those findings in March of 25 which 2025 feels like a long way away but a a review of the Statewide EPS funding formula and a study of that that's a pretty quick turnaround so we're certainly
015going to be involved as a school department in understanding exactly what we would like to see changed with that to make sure that it's a little less fluctuating from year to year and decrease those fluctuations based on property Etc another resolve to study some clean energy in schools and then some other bills that did not pass in this session but are being held over so we'll want to watch them closely are a Statewide mandate for a minimum salary for teachers again I think will be in in Fairly good shape based on the numbers that are currently being presented and the timelines we we should be already above that but definitely something to watch as those numbers change around the state another LD that may require schools to compost to a greater degree which again isn't
016a bad thing but may shift the way that we need to operationally work within our schools and then um a hold over on the review of the social studies standards happy to report that on June aid for Sako kids which is a nonprofit organization that was spun up out of the school department as a way to have a nonprofit supporting some of the struggles that our students have that aren't covered by school funding backpack programs uh boots jackets the sorts of things that we would not be using taxpayer funds for but certainly prevent students from participating fully shinguards cleats all the those things that um make school all the more enjoyable and allow kiddos to access that that fundraiser raised over $6,500 and it was uh great to see families out enjoying some mini golf
017and uh getting to hang out with some of our staff that were able to come out and volunteer on that day we have a lot of ideas about how to expand and enhance that for next year and we're aiming for the swing into summer theme to continue on like that week that school is out as a way to bring families out I think this year the coordination with our school construction vote made it a little bit tricky to promote the event because we wanted to make sure that we were really leading with the importance of new school construction um lastly we wanted to share that we have an exciting development to be able to purchase new uniforms for for our athletes at Sako middle school and we're looking towards that District Unity as we have
018the new building project and have elected to go with a color scheme of Blues and Grays so that we can kind of continue to work towards all of our elementary schools coming on the same color palette and being united as a full district and we're really looking forward to having our athletes be able to kind of step onto courts and pitches and Fields in a way that makes them feel like they're really representing their entire community and and it's always fun to get something new to do that in a unified way happy to answer any questions great thank you very much any questions for Meg okay now takes us to item number eight and that is the chair's report Schoolboard chair prel I do not have any news to report this evening thank you thank
019you so much all right item number nine is Staff reports there were no staff reports this evening item number 10 is the board subcommittee minutes uh item a is the policy and Personnel committee agenda that meeting was held this afternoon at 5:30 there is a special meeting on 7:29 at 5:00 and that will be held at central office Item B is the finance and infrastructure committee the next meeting for that is August 28th at 4:30 and item C is the curriculum committee and their next meeting is 7:29 at 4:30 30 there is no old business this evening now takes us to item 12 and that is the new business item a is new hires there is a memo in your packet and we do have two separate motions um for the new hires is there
020a motion Madame mayor School Board member Truman I move we approve the nomination of Teresa olon Director of Finance and issue an administrator 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 Preble any discussion on this item okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 4 Z okay and that takes us to the second motion Madame mayor Schoolboard member Truman I move we approve the nomination of Erica Swift Young school teacher Nicole Ary prek special education teacher Ben Higley SMS social studies teacher and Kelly fry SMS special education teacher and issue a contract for the 20242 school year motion has been made by
021Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Johnston any discussion on those items okay roll call vote Schoolboard member Preble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes School School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 40 okay that takes us to Item B and that is the resignations uh there is a memo in your packet but there is no motion needed on those this evening item number c is the special education audit report I'd like to invite uh Dr Clark to come up and share her Memo with a report out on the main Doe audit of special education which we were pleased to get their feedback and um look forward to hearing a little bit more sorry all right um so three years ago we had an audit and
022uh we were given a lot of corrective feedback in the area of transitions in the area of goal writing um and so the state uh in the subsequent 3 years gave us another audit as as part of their practice uh this time they tried to make it a little bit easier on School District so we were able to Select 55 IEPs for submission um for overview and then we also uh contributed towards an assessment uh with the Department of the federal coordination programs as well as a self assessment and then an on-site day during March 13th where our files were inspected as well so uh this audit team was also uh it also included Kelsey Netto Abby tras and Karen Danley they all also worked very hard on this uh for quite a few months
023so the results that we got were really encouraging out of the 55 uh there were 51 that were found to be 100% compliant which is really important for us because it means overall we're meeting the goals and we within the timelines we're supposed to be uh the four that were found to be deficient were as they consider isolated deficiencies so just clerical errors that might have been a date that wasn't carried over or something that was copied over and not erased so we were able to fix those um unfortunately we didn't make tier one uh tier one would have been a six-year cohort but we made it into the next tier uh so we don't have another audit for four years uh so tier two is also really good um as you can see it's
024less than three Federal findings uh 20 or fewer findings and five or fewer uh so the D1 B1 is the kind of the biggest Federal um State offense where you just don't serve or you don't have IEPs that reflect Direct Services um we're looking for 70% or greater participation and alternative assessment which we have a very high rate which is uh pretty good and then uh we want to make sure that any previous indicators that we had were closed within one year which they were so one area of deficiency that was noted across the board um was that all the time that we spend in evaluations and doing evaluations we have to make sure that those evaluations are linked directly to Baseline which are directly related to goals which are directly related to progress we
025can make sure that everything is articulated towards um make kids making progress and making sure we have evidence to back that and so the state will be providing US District training and we'll be providing individual building training specific to that goal um and we set Department goals specific to making sure that we meet those goals next year um overall we're really excited about it it gives us an idea of how we're doing and the federal programs coordinator were wonderful to work with uh so I'm happy to answer any questions great thank you very much any questions or comments M I would just like to add my thanks to the special education department for the additional work that goes into preparing for this as well as having that mindset of really wanting to be giving forward
026information so that we can receive information back from those folks about how to improve and certainly with the turnover that we've seen in staff across all areas special services in particular it can be a challenge for us to gain consistency and now we know exactly in which areas we're able to do that so we look forward to continuing to improve great thank you very much thank you okay that now takes us to item D and that is to nominate a local delegate to the msba and annual delegate assembly M did you want to kind of give a overview of the assembly yeah I can give a little overview of that so the Maine School Board Association in the state of Maine uh provides a delegates assembly it will take place virtually on Saturday October 19th
027and it's an opportunity for Regional Schools and other city schools to get together and kind of hear from the msba directly have a voice in some of their programming and hear directly from them exactly what is going on at msma msba and we have the opportunity to nominate someone as the Sako School Board to participate in that we can do that tonight or if folks want to have an opportunity to think on that a little bit more we can hold off until our August meeting to nominate and elect does anyone have a motion to nominate a Schoolboard member or would you like to hold off until the next meeting comments School Board member Johnson um I do not at the moment have um the inclination to nominate anyone but I think that the board should
028probably Talk Amongst ourselves as to who feels that they would have the time the ability um I'm sure that any one of us would be you know en would enjoy and you know benefit from such participation but I know we all have limitations on our time so I think that although I know that we should make this decision fairly quickly I think it probably could wait till the next meeting just my thoughts on it yep thank you okay everybody in agreeance that we'll hold off to the August meeting okay so that will be moved out I just want to add one more date to that as the board considers their nomination the delegation is on that October date there is a regional meeting on Thursday September 12th prior to that that's 6: to 7:30 p.m.
029via presume that they encourage attendees to participate in before the delegates assembly that's not required so you might just want to keep that in mind as as you consider your availability great and all that information is in your packet as well can I just ask yep how long is that um the delegate assembly on the 19th of October I know it starts at 9:30 but does does anybody have any idea like how long those usually run I can find out I'm not sure right now okay Schoolboard member Johnson and another question for you um Meg is on the September at the September meeting same sort of questions around is first of all is that a virtual meeting and secondly I guess the same question that Sarah asked about time frames around it would be helpful
030for us to make a decision yeah the September meeting I do they are both virtual I know that for a fact both the September and October I don't know the length of the October meeting but the September meeting is is listed as 6: to 7:30 p.m. so that one does have an end time noted can I I ask one more time to what the September date was again I know you just sold me but I didn't write it down fast enough it is Thursday September 12th okay that's what I thought okay so that now takes us to item e and that is the first reading of two policies is there a motion School Board member Johnston thank you um I move we approve the first reading of policies IM MB teaching about controversial issues and
031IB a-r La plan program for multilingual learning Learners motion has been made by Schoolboard member Johnston is there a second second second by Schoolboard member Truman any discussion on the policies Schoolboard member Johnston thank you so I have to to be honest with the board and everyone that I have had a um difficulty with the the teaching about controversial issues um in that I've been on the board for a while and I've always been told that it's important to make sure that your policies are solid in terms of you know being able to stand behind them there's not ambiguities Etc um and we've worked through this policy on a couple of different occasions I know that assistant superintendent Parkers is is very anxious for us to get this on the books um because it has
032been highly advised by the msma that this is a a policy we need to have on the books so I totally respect that and I think that I would love to see all of the board members actually Trace our work with this policy because we have made some Chang changes in what was the original originally proposed policy and I think that it's a very important policy for all board members to understand before we actually have a second reading so this is the first reading tonight and we have brought it forward with certain changes that we've already made but I think that if all board members truly understood from the begin what we started with what was on in front of us at the beginning and followed our progress through several meetings it would be very
033informative to them I think that it is a very very important policy to actually have done right um my major concern is that it to me was too open-ended at the beginning um it still is to some extent for me now I won't today go into the details as to why but it is it is a controversial policy about controversial issues so it's controversial um and and certainly we aren't when it comes to controversy we do not all see the same things but I I do believe that when we're talking about teaching about controversial issues and who and how those things are dealt with it's very important to get it right um I would just say that in general we want to have supervision over what happens in our schools and so my concern about
034this policy is that we actually do have Supervision in an appropriate way over what happens in our schools um so I hope everyone on the board and anyone in the public um will actually look into how this has come along and think about what think is appropriate for us to vote on for second uh reading thank you Schoolboard member Truman then School Board member roach you know I was going to retort on this one um just Beth did have a lot of um concerns with this one but I think the purpose of this policy is mostly to give some guidance for teachers but also cover us as a district and kids ask questions and sometimes that puts people in a weird position and also I think um some people can find things very controversial as
035you said that others may not and so that someone can't come in and say you shouldn't be teaching my kids these things this allows us to have discussions um age appropriate so um there's nothing specific it needed need to be left open-ended it can't it couldn't say anything specific like you can't talk about this or anything like that it had to be very it had to be sort of vague but also allow our teachers to have these conversations as they come up and so that someone cannot come in and say that's controversial you can't teach that to my student so School Board member roach so the policy ref refences curriculum curriculum appropriate so would there be a case where this could be just assigned to a specific social studies class that is that what it
036means by curriculum or I mean I don't see this applying to math you know math is math right we're talking Health classes um social studies um maybe reading like a an Ela class if there's a book that someone deems a controversial book it covers all those things because social studies especially like in the middle school and very much in the high school but Middle School where kids become more curious about the things around them they could talk about certain things or if they had a certain social like as an example that we talked about like um if they had a social studies class where they needed to find a topic and give their side of what they think or like a not give their side but like say they wanted to talk about I couldn't
037even remember one of the topics that we had thrown out there but to allow them to talk about like say they want to talk about religion they can talk about it as a broad scope but not like this is the right religion or this is a it's to be able to talk about it as a broader scope of you know like if a student wanted to do a a paper on the different types of religion that should be yeah it's just it's just to broaden it so that a parent or another Community member can't come in and say I can't believe you talked about religion in class whereas it might be a choice or just a broaden of Horizons kind of thing so because like religion race sexuality that that can be covered I I
038I mean put that put it as controversial and now said that yeah these tops are controversial but even when I was a kid it was like comparing to history to today and and today's controversial subjects come up yes you can't promote a certain religion or or overemphasize um you know you know of course One race over another anything but but certainly those topics should easily come up and I'm glad it's specific to Middle School right you know age appropriate um yeah I'm I'm not too afraid of this um but to best point it's a little bit still I don't know I just if you can be more specific a little bit I don't know to the class or not I I feel a little more comfortable on it I think the problem was too is
039like if they're talking about a particular topic and then a student says to the teacher like what do you think or gives a teacher a way to say well I believe or they can say this is a topic maybe you want to talk to your parent like whatever they feel comfortable with in that respect but it is something that is allowed um to be discussed age appropriate and Meg maybe will clarify that for me a little bit more yeah I think I would just say that the two main objectives of this policy are one to support the rights of students to have access to information even when it may not be the information like we we don't want another student or another student's family shutting down the choice or the right of that student to
040study a controversial issue when there is a project of choice so the student side and the students right to explore a controversial issue that is within the scope of the curriculum is allowable and then the second bucket that's important is how can we provide some general guidance for our staff around objectively sharing information and not subjecting their own personal views on a controversial issue when discussing that with students promoting the understanding of multiple sides of a controversial issue and students forming their own opinions so it's namely around the rights of students to have access to information even when it may be controversial and the responsibility of teachers to present that information in as non-bias of a way or give access to the two sides of the controversial issue in so much as they are able
041to while still making sure that all of that is within the framework of the curriculum and that too being a responsibility of the teacher to ensure that they're not just lobbing out things that have not been articulated in the curriculum as as an important scope of study thank you are more articulate with that than I could ever be thank you very much School Board member Johnson I'm sorry Sarah I didn't actually hear what you just said I just said thank you she okay all right so I guess since we've gotten into this as deeply as we have um one of my big concerns about this is and I'm quoting it I think accurately the teacher has assured themselves that the controversial subject to be discussed belongs within the framework of the curriculum um I guess
042I can stop right there because the part that concerns me here is that we have a hierarchy of supervision and this particular line bothers me a lot because I don't understand why it would be fully under the opes of a single teacher to assure themselves that this subject would be appropriate for the curriculum I feel like there should be some sort of collaboration with a principal somebody else even another teacher it just seems that it's too much control in one person's hands and I'm not saying that any body would misuse that I just don't think it pro provides the proper supervision so this is one of the reasons why this policy is still I'm still unsettled about it I mean there are other reasons as well but I just I'm tonight we talked about student
043Publications which is another policy that we'll be bringing before the board soon and there is there will be the requirement that if there's a there's certain delineations between something very informal like a poster on the wall to get people to come to an event as Meg pointed out or if you're talking about a student publication which is a yearbook or some other type of publication but that the student really needs to be supervised in terms of what that information is to be brought forward so I guess I'm seeing a conflict between that being necessary and I'm not saying that's wrong but that being necessary and it not being necessary for an individual teacher to con to assure themselves that this is appropriate for whatever they're going to bring forth to the students just food for
044thought as far as the sorry as far as the curriculum goes that's something that we're trying to build in and make some continuity amongst the classrooms if I'm understanding so it would be something that would be hopefully discussed within that realm School Board member wrote you at something I was me with a statement saying with appropriate supervision com comma handle that or you know because yeah I'm a little bit like has aure themselves but they're working in a hierarchy of administration and you know the complaint might go to Administration and administration doesn't even know or yet so I don't know that line it's kind of self-evident that you know again I use the math teacher example you're not supposed to go off this way and talk about things that aren't related to math but but
045um I don't know just some some kicker in there so what you can possibly do is if anyone reads through that policy and they have any concern concerns or questions should be able to um get it back to the policy committee Meg Endor superintendent Ray for re-review um that's traditionally on Council if we have issues we will throw out Alternatives the way that you would like it and then it can go back be re-reviewed um and then the committee can then if they find that A change is appropriate they can change it submit it back in for another reading um so it you have the opportunity to take that information and bring it back to the policy committee um for re review yep just to respond um I think for me what's been important is
046to just bring this situation this particular policy to the attention of the board so that exactly what you said can happen we appreciate that certainly okay any other discussion okay roll call vote Schoolboard member prebble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes for first reading yes motion on the first reading passes 5- Z okay that now takes us to item 13 and that is other information um I would like to throw out information regarding some familyfriendly events that the city has coming up um on Tuesday August 8th I'm sorry August 6 from 5: to 7 we have National Night Out and that again is being held at TA and on Saturday August 3rd we have the harborfest fireworks fireworks will start
047at approximately 8:30 down at the pier at Camp Ellis and on September on August 4th Sunday we have the actual Harbor Fest Festival um and that will run from 9: to 4: if you need additional information on the city website san.org harborfest we have a list of all of the events the timing information on parking transportation and more importantly we are looking for volunteers still as well um there is a link on the website um if you would like to sign up to be a volunteer for the day we have times you can do an hour two hours the whole day if you'd like to um whatever your schedule would um suffice to that it would be uh nice I've thrown the opportunity out to the school board members hoping to see some of them
048down there um so that is two fun family events that we have coming up in August okay item number 14 there is no executive session item 15 is adjournment is there a motion to adjourn so move second motion made by Schoolboard member prebble second by Schoolboard member Truman roll call vote Schoolboard member prebble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach wave that flag yes School Board member Truman yes and scoreboard member Johnston yes motion to adjourn at 747 passes 5 thank you everyone and have a great evening