001e e e good good evening everyone and welcome to the Sako School Board committee meeting for September 11th 2024 at 7 p.m. would like to note that all members of the school board are present this evening with the addition of superintendent Ray and would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you and item number three this evening is the approval of the school board meeting minutes dated August 28 2024 is there a motion Madam mayor I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated August 28th 2024 motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by School Board Johnston Sor her hand raised any discussion on the minutes okay no see no discussion roll call vote Schoolboard member waren off approve School Board member prebble yes
002School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion to approve the minutes passes 70 okay item number four this evening are adjustments to the agenda we do have one adjustment and we are going to move item 12g which is the elementary construction update under the superintendence report this evening item number five there are no correspondents to the agenda item number six is public session if there are any members of the public wishing to speak please step to the podium state your name and address for the record and you will have 3 minutes to address the school board okay not seeing any members recognized we will move on to item number seven and that is the superintendent report
003superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody uh and thank you for coming out tonight um just a few items uh before we get to the construction update um want to just remind everybody that while it's just the beginning of the school year flu clinics are just around the corner in our school so we'll be working with Northern Light home uh care and hospice to provide flu vaccines to our students vaccines to our staff if they if they choose to uh this is all opt-in but a service that we provide uh because we all know how difficult it can be to get a doctor's appointment or you know his well-intentioned there you are you never stop in at Walgreens when you have an opening um you guys might remember uh and we're probably going on five
004or six years ago uh locally between uh bford Dayton Sako in St James school we started Elementary School cross country we've talked about this um and on Saturday uh or Sunday sorry at Waterhouse field uh the running passion which is an organization that supports um students and their ability to uh have quality shoes um had their fall jamere and throughout the area they were able to provide 174 pair of shoes uh socks for a a low cost of $20 these are all brand new and one of the things that's really special about it is if you ever have gotten to one of the Cross Country meets is that all kids throughout the area are participating in the same Footwear and there's no distinguishable marks about the halves and the have knots uh and so it's
005outstanding to see and what we're really excited to announce um is that this year between the four School District uh four schools and districts we're going to be over 300 students participating in a free activity um that shows that when we break down the financial barriers our kids can be involved uh and I know that this weekend just at home hearing uh from my wife who volunteers or Works does that the cross country at Burns she was saying to me we have a weit list because we were at like 134 students I was like no there's no weight list we'll figure out how to add more adults to into the picture uh so that kids can participate so um if you get a chance to get out on either September 23rd or 30th at CK
006burn school or October 7th at Waterhouse field um you'll get to see our kids run if you don't want to go to the meet I suggest that you avoid CK burns on 23 third and 30th because uh the traffic will be it will be incredible down this but because I don't know where people going to park and but just to see our kids participating uh is great um I want to say um you know we have a openings of the year and there's just countless businesses and organizations um that Supply school supplies for our kids and backpacks we want to thank all of those um want to thank nothing uh Nothing But Cakes bun cakes for providing free cupcakes for our staff members as they return to school um I've received a fair amount of
007emails around Transportation it is really hard right now uh Transportation piece we're still down drivers between the Middle School and back to town into ta is a real challenge right now in the morning time um and so we hear you about getting kids to school on time and I've had conversations with Mr manard about uh you know not marking kids late but the traffic is uh on 112 is just slowing us up a ton and I know that a lot of people will say that and suggest that that the solution is to start earlier but I need people to understand that you can start runs earlier but then we're asking kindergarteners and prek students to be out at 6:45 or more so it's not that easy of a of a solution and I was I
008was talking to somebody that's like as a parent myself sometimes we forget the stages of life that we've gone through with our kids and as we move to the older ages it's one Challenge and I couldn't imagine like my four-year-old or if I had a four-year-old anymore trying to get them out at a bus stop before 7 a.m. and what that would be like so um we're going to continue to work with the police department on the challenge and come up with some ideas and I still ask people that the best thing you can do is to put your kid on the bus so that we can try to get less traffic away from our our driveways uh but we're going to get creative and we're going to continue to work on uh adding bus
009drivers um so all those pieces um as you heard uh a couple of weeks ago when we talk about elementary School construction we were able to finally get that land uh in the city's name and we will be moving on to the next piece uh you'll see later on in the agenda uh you'll see um construction funding and ban update of you know how we move through the process of going through the band and the bonds um currently uh we're working a lot now on the inside design uh of the building and starting to have more of those convers ations about next steps while at the same time working a lot on sight and safety which brings us to um an exciting point in time because you know recently until a few weeks ago uh
010did we really know how quick you had to name a driveway for 911 access um and here at the board level we kind of threw around some names uh that you guys had voted on and so we're here tonight um to think about and to um reveal what that name of the driveway will be um and so we went a little bit in a different direction than what we had uh kind of all filled out our our points on and know we didn't go J Ray way that was that was number two um but we're here tonight um for a significant Milestone um because as a as a group uh through the school committee uh in the city council um we would like to reveal the name and then talk a little bit about that
011and so I'd like to have Jody and Jen prebble uh the mayor and the chair come and open up the sign with me for everybody to see we got our [Applause] so so as these two hold the sign we as as a group talked about consistency in the in the city and the work Beth that you have done over starting your 20th year and have been through all of the meetings I am your ninth superintendent that you've worked with and my lucky number is number nine because I was a big Ted Williams fan and so I'm hoping that this continues the good luck on this being number nine um but thinking about the meetings you've been to the uh budget battles the RSU with thals and how you've always kept that Vision on making sure
012that this new school becomes a reality that the board the city council the mayor felt that there was only one way to name the driveway for this school and that forever it will be Beth Johnston way [Applause] and so Beth we'd like to present you with this honorary sign if someone comes to your house know you didn't take it off the post uh but we hope that uh this is uh something that we were able to get your family and friends here to enjoy this moment with us and thank you Beth for everything you've done to make this a reality for the city of Sako for the students we really appreciate this thank you oh Mr superintendent my comment to Jen just now was I think I have to hug the whole room I I'm
013absolutely I'm absolutely speechless to tell you the truth I I don't know where this came from but um I will have to say it is a total surprise and honestly I voted for Blue Jay I mean for J Ray way blue J R whatever you could be blue J way too so I feel like I should just express my incredible disbelief and appreciation um a total surprise I I'm speechless but I appreciate the recognition for having spent a lot of time doing this quite honestly I love it I know it's a little demented and I know my family tends to think are you ever going to stop like going to meetings and reading policies and you know trying to be prepared for for what you got coming up um but my family also has done
014a lot of that my ex-husband mark my son Nathan and everybody else in my family has put up with all of the rest of it like I have I've three everybody yeah okay um I have good friends here and I don't want to take this up forever but um I've really appreciated working with the people I've worked with over the years and um thank you thank you again I got family here everybody my my daughter who's in California but I don't know if she knows about that on video does she will well you know she'll send me a message I'm sure to try and she'll say Mom did you do this did you do that but anyway I wish I had something more to say but I'm actually stunned so thank you all very very
015much and I I can't believe this I'll try to keep doing a good job and Beth I would just like to point out that to your point of the entire family I would like to thank all of the Johnston family for all of your service that you've done over the years um I know I've learned a lot from everybody sitting with Nathan for five plus years on Council um coming in as a new person and listening and learning and Mark you've been a word of wisdom as well over the past couple of months um so thank you to all of [Applause] you okay so moving on to item number eight this evening and that is the chair's report super uh School Board uh member purle hi um I can't follow that up that is a
016beautiful thing I have nothing to report this evening but I'm just so excited that this is happening thanks okay item number nine there are no staff reports this evening item number 10 is the board subcommittee minutes uh policy and Personnel committee agenda uh they did meet this afternoon 9:11 at 5:30 p.m. number two is the finance and infrastructure committee uh the next meeting is 9:25 at 4:30 p.m. and and the curriculum committee excuse me curriculum committee will be meeting 9:23 at 4:30 p.m. there is no old business this me evening item number 12 is new business item a is new hires there is a memo in your packet with the new hire information is there a suggested motion Madame mayor I move we approve the nomination of William Temple one-year art teacher at Fairfield young
017and issue a contract for the 2024 25 school year motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second second second by School Board member waroff approve I'm sorry who was oh Beth I'm sorry Schoolboard member Johnston any discussion on the new hires okay not seeing any roll call vote School Board member waroff yes School Board member Preble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member Roach yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and School Board member Johnson yes motion passes 70 item number B this evening is resignations and again there is a memo in your packet with the listed resignations is there a suggested motion Madam mayor School Board member tumman I move we accept the resignation of Julia Gordon art teacher at the Fairfield and Young
018School effective October 30th 2024 or until a suitable replacement is found motion has been made by Schoolboard member Truman is there a second Schoolboard member Johnston any discussion on the resignations okay not seeing any Schoolboard member waroff yes Schoolboard member prebble yes Schoolboard member Richards yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 70 item C this evening is is the stien memo uh there is the memo in your packet with the stiped information is there a suggested motion Madame mayor School Board member Truman I move we approve those listed in the stien memo and issue a stien contract for the 2024 25 school year motion has been made by school board member Truman is there a second second second by
019Schoolboard member roach any discussion on the stiens okay not seeing any roll call vote Schoolboard member waroff yes Schoolboard member Preble yes yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach yes School Board member Gail yes School Board member Truman yes and School Board member Johnston yes motion passes 70 okay item number D this evening is a fa facilities director collaboration with the city all right so uh just to update everybody where you at I included uh the email that um the city manager City administrator had uh sent to the city council uh as you know uh one of the items that we had talked about was um combining school and City uh facilities departments and we had done some work over the summertime and the fall in order to make that happen uh
020in this situation um we were able to move forward with Don Roth uh from the city Side to begin overseeing facilities on the school department side that does not mean that Mike G uh who has stepped out of retirement is going to immediately go away because we feel that one of the things to do is to have a great transition and to think about all the projects that we have on hand uh while it gives Dawn some time to really understand what resources he needs get the lay of the land we've already started some projects that Mike has a hand in and we want to make sure that that finishes out because during transitions you know that delays and things can come up um so pretty excited about having um Dawn come on board and
021figuring out a way that we can manage this um and again right from the get-go we said that this won't necessarily bring cost savings from a budget piece but it is intended Tove better quality to think about our operations as a whole which does mean that we can build towards creating some of those savings and efficiencies long term uh and I think Don's uh going to do a great job being in in this position right any questions or comments regarding that Schoolboard member Gil just a quick comment and and just a big thank you to you Jeremy and and and Jody and the city council and and the city um man administrator on looking at this issue kind of innovatively and some out of thebox creative thinking to to hopefully kind of kill two birds
022with one stone and look at some of these long-term issues and set us up for a good foundation to hopefully um have it a win-win so congratulations on moving that thank you and I know it's been a goal for a long time this has been a conversation that's on the table and when I initially started in this position we weren't set up for the success at that time but I think we're feeling now that we're at the point where so much as we've been able to accomplish so much get the new school building uh voted for and move forward that we're in a position where we can be successful long term anyone else okay moving on on to item e and that's the construction funding and ban update so with this item um one of
023the things we've been working and this is purely informational um but when you go out to bond on a project like we have done on the school department side there is a cash flow that will need to begin to occur for certain things like paying ourselves back for or the land that we purchased um that the city has gone through and this is the schedule that we have put in place to have um the ban so that by October 30th hopefully we'll have a settlement because we're going to need to start drawing down on some of those funds this is for an initial $1 million um that will start the process um one of the things that will happen throughout the process is when we're at the point where more funding is needed you will
024then go out for your full bond for sale hopefully at that time if everything Trends correctly based off predictions from economists our interest rates will be lower uh and that's an important piece because when you think of about a percentage point on something this large you're significant amount of money um but not only do we have the city piece to repay um but we'll talk a little bit about our fund balance and the initial money if you remember when we came on board we put $300,000 from school department funds kind of overexpanded that piece over time because things got going on and we've been able to carry that um we did have to now that the vote was Final we did have to book that in the 2023 2024 Financial year and then we will
025repay ourselves back from the ban in the fy2 budget so we'll you'll see a little bit less carryover this year and you'll see this increased Revenue that's really just a timing issue uh between the two budgets but we can get that back into the fold and we'll talk a little bit more about uh where we are financially with fund balance okay great thank you uh Schoolboard member roach so it um the balance starts in May here at 1 Point almost 1.2 million so and then another 2 million here in AUST so where does that come from I got to let me reopen that Kevin I'm sorry it's the that cumulative spreadsheet there so what was what is one of the requirements is that oako did a costing for the state and again without having all
026the information I couldn't tell you what those big pieces were um I assume it's design but it's design and all of those pieces and so for uh Bond counsel and for our advisor they had and for the doe they had to do a cash flow analysis based off the design and the permitting and all those of where they estimated it so that they could figure out basically how much the bond anticipation note would be needed before he went out for the bond sale and so this was calculated by um Joe couta who worked for the city and done the bonding piece for years now I don't know how many years but he've been there a while so it just it's more of education for me what so the 11 million of anticipation note comes in
027in September or gets applied for this month or it gets applied for I believe we settle on October 30th and you know what Kevin before I speak too much about this because this is the first time I go through this large of a piece I'd rather have somebody come in and at the next meeting and explain it better than I can okay because you mentioned interest rates and we're hoping interest rates fall this month right now correct the FED interest rates yeah but on the and again I want somebody who's better at this and even probably uh the city administrator who's had much more experience doing this thing could explain the piece of how you take the bond anticipation note you do some financing off that piece there's some laws about how much can bring
028in to cover charges um but it it's what gets you to when you're ready to go to bond and play the market so I I'm I'm going to line somebody up to come in and explain this uh so that you guys and myself have a more clarity about how it all works Beth won't have to give back to sign though right we have money for that right okay yeah we're good on that piece we're all set thanks we could even possibly set that up at our next uh joint meeting yeah that probably would make a lot of s the council and um knowledge of it as well so hey anyone else with any questions or comments okay moving on to item G was moved item H is the enrollment update oh uh hold on I
029just have uh F uh I'm sorry yep item f is the fiscal year 24 estimated fund balance yes so um when we finished the the year last year uh and I want you to remember that about $450,000 came out for to cover and book the payment for um all of the uh pre-work that done on the construction project that's where that payment came from it will get back um we were a little bit Revenue low uh from Main care items but we finished the year with um a fund balance for the year at $76,000 when I started this position I think it's like four years ago now at that point in time the school department owed the city somewhere around a million plus dollars and we were able to repay that piece um from budgeting
030from carryover funds while at the same time we've done a whole lot of Capital Improvements at Sako middle school and others so I'm happy to report that if you look at our prior fund balance we look at this year's ending balance minus what we have used uh in the FY 25 budget the school department will have a fund balance of about $2.3 million um what that should allow us to do in the next budget cycle is one have some conversations about that number two prepare ourselves for we know that the two biggest challenges before we move well there's several challenges but two big challenges is we have prek conversations we need to address that portable at the middle school so that we can find finally when we get ready to open that school look around
031and be no Portables in Sako we have some space issues at SMS because we all know that all kids need to be integrated into that school appropriately with appropriate space and we need to look at some of the space that we currently have for UA special education and others um and so one of my goals was to over this time was to build that fund balance so that we could make decisions that didn't hit the tax bill at one time and we can continue to solve some of these problems so that again when we open up that school we've solved some of our Middle School problems we've solved some Equity problems for a correct space for kids and we have no more Portable Buildings being used in Sako schools um and so I'm sure there'll
032be plenty of other things that come down the down the line you guys have negotiated contracts and settled those you've raised wages for our hourly employees and so I feel financially we're in a really good space uh moving forward thank you questions or comments okay moving on now that takes us to item eight and that is the enrollment update so when we look at uh enrollment in our schools um there's some pretty unique things that happen one the first week two weeks of school that seems to change every five minutes uh and it's up and down and it's like one minute someone's calling we just got five kids that registered and then like 10 minutes later oh we just lost three um but overall uh our enrollment on the and I'm talking prek to8 here
033uh because we work with Thorton Academy to get that piece and that takes a long time too um and I know that when I get the initial uh enrollments um it would look like we're up a little bit at Thorton Academy but I also looked at uh the Dayton spreadsheet which was down I was like maybe we just got to figure out some things of where people are so that process will come as and evolve over the next month we're up about 20 kids uh on the elementary side biggest challenge that we have when we look at you know 20 kids isn't the hugest piece is that burn school just really can't handle much more uh class sizes are getting up a little bit at Burn School we're at that piece Fairfield School were a
034little bit softer in some spots and certainly we see that um young school is starting to get a little bit of a rise and so um you know sometimes the best laid plans of when we looked at the building to have prek be at Young School in the coming years May wind up having to shift directions and we may be thankful that we have classroom space on site um so we continue to watch these numbers uh look at our staffing levels the other piece that's important to recognize and I I need to bring up a different uh spreadsheet that um we were working on today and this is something something that I hope to have um joint discussions between um both cities on because this is a an impact in both is that we came
035together and did some grant writing about creating Welcome Center um because you know one of the things that happens a lot is whether it be from our ml population homeless population the number of families that cross the river in any given year back and forth is super high and we've talked about things about how we uh collaborate on having similar procedures in our nursing offices uh between both school all three School departments because the amount of kids that switch and then eventually they go to a high school in a different place and then eventually kids may come from Thorton Academy to The Vocational Center and how we think about um streamlining information but a couple of years ago when we came on board here um we had about 40 ml kids in this District in
036Sako that number right now is 234 so that population is continuing to grow and they're growing roots in our communities and they're buying homes and renting apartments uh and so that is a population of our students um that is here at the same time when I put my bitterford hat on two years ago we were at 215 or sorry 201 and I sit at 410 so between the two cities and a lot of these students like a lot of the the back and forth is that students may be here and then there's a whole slew of kids that are coming to school in bitterford because they found housing or vice versa back and forth that that when you look at the between the two cities we are 644 students and I believe Chris you said
037that combined behind Portland Lewiston and then us combined we are the third largest demographic in the state educating one in every 10 mL in the state between these uh two communities we're going to have to work together to figure out a solution how we properly educate facilitate manage welcome provide resources and think about uh this as a group because this is not a singular Community issue this is a regional piece and while it's one and 10 in the state Chris what was the like when it's York County it's pretty much us in a in in Sanford um so when we think about enrollments there are many de different de different demographics we have to consider um and that's why you will always hear me talk about not only thinking about our diff demographics but our
038poverty levels and why something like cross country is so important and why free lunch is so important and why we need to eliminate barriers so that kids can have access in our community because we know the cost it is to live here and imagine if we didn't have the means to pay our way or to help some of those pieces it's real challenge uh and so at the same time it's a great opportunity because our kids get to experience other families other children's cultures um and I can I just think about how much it brought has brought to my own children who are in Sako schools uh into when we have our great cultural fairs and and pieces between the districts just exposure and so got to keep an eye on this but we also
039have to probably start developing some plans for programming thank you any questions or discussion um I have one so hypothetically looking at this like the CK Burns those three classes were showing we have 635 hypothetically if those numbers stayed the same in four years those would all Ru to S Middle School is that capable of handling 63 I mean that's almost 55 54 kids yeah well there's several different factors of certainly sometimes you have some kids that peel off and choose other schooling for Middle School uh that happens can you handle the space yes do we have to look at the space and make sure space to educate kids in what we need today which means that there needs to be equal access for all got to update some things um I think that what's
040really important for us is when we think about the modu or Outback of how we can expand that using some of the carryover funds to provide some new UA spaces or larger Hands-On spaces for our kids um so that we can remix the school um you know sometimes when you look at numbers and again just pieces of it that when you think about the difference between current middle school and what's at CK Burns that's spread between all the classrooms and 10 or 12 teachers we have a little bit more space at SMS but those are not the biggest rooms in the world um I cannot have more kids at CK burn school because there's not a classroom like if if April came to us and we had to add a teacher at C we're now
041having conversations about uas having to be mobile throughout the school and that's not what you want to do no one can teach art appropriately and good for kids when you're pushing around a cart full of paint pencils crayons markers so we would have some challenges there um I think what's when we look at these numbers as a whole what I do feel really good about is the fact that we have a school and a new elementary school that's designed for 1100 kids from the state that's a great thing because we know that we will have some of the space there but we will definitely have to manage and you know I do think that some of this this is really important information for the city council to have um because as you think about growth
042in your city even though whether it's now or over time thinking about where the the pots are and I suspect um and I know that I've had this conversation with Kevin before that there was a point in time where probably Kevin in your neighborhood there was a lot of young kids running around and I know now you're saying like there's not as much of that and so we just have to think about where those new pockets are where housing's going where the young kids live because it not only does it impact this piece but it drastically impacts Transportation pieces of mileage right spots how you get kids to school where you program buses etc etc thank you School Board member Gail actually just on that Transportation piece um is the the bus app available in
043in different languages do you you know I don't know the answer off that to the top of my off the top of my head I don't know I'll have to check this might be something yeah something I don't know to look into on that piece and uh they may not because of the way that you know it's developed it may not be available for that but something to look into thanks yeah okay anyone else School Board member G uh roach Jeremy you mentioned uh you know the issues with Burns if that expanded the numbers young and Fairfield combined of the grades that would move up straight up doesn't doesn't look as high but do people move here in between second and third grade to to uh heighten the worry there that in the next couple
044years until the new school's Built Well I think what's what's difficult and I and correct me if I'm wrong but when you look at that third grade class that's our like group of people that would have been kindergarteners during covid year correct because you you had a you had a point where like people held their kids out that one year and third grade would be they were prek they were prek yeah and so you saw people not send their kids to school that year and then they kind of moved into the future and so there's some bubbles that have naturally existed I think we get people that move in all the time and you know Kevin I think it's what's what's the interesting piece is that having the ability to over to to look at
045the population movements in three different communities that border each other I'm plus 80 in bitterford and I'm saying to myself okay where is 80 kids coming from and we get registrations all the time here coming throughout I do think Kevin that one of the things that's interesting about this area is what we hear a lot of is people who maybe have purchased outside of this region but work in this region and now they're ready for that second their like maybe their second house that's a little bit larger or F that's when and that's when that time comes that third fourth fifth grade level now you've got two kids they're both in school and we're making a move I do worry um and I think it's one of the pieces that we as a group are
046going to have to talk about maybe even as early as next fall is the affordability for homes on the Fairfield side for young families that I think we're probably going to have to be forced to have a conversation about does Jeff have enough room you know are if we're using those other classrooms and we have ancillary services that have to are we going to have to think about some of those options that we put out this summer is like there were some families who who went over but I worry about the difference in affordability of families that are are are going to purchase closer to the shore and whether that can happen in Sako versus some of the newer developments out you know Skyline out that way is it's it's different well yeah I mean
047my that's my neighborhood's Ward 4 near the shoreline where people are holding on to houses and you know our kids have aged out kind of miss the uh Halloween crowd that would come around so we'll be down this year this is public I'm not encouraging everyone to come down but I do miss some kids but uh no but but that's the problem overall probably in Sako that um yeah to attract young families it's it's tough I mean um even with the attraction of of Sako in general thoron Academy thoron Academy is down 150 kids from five years ago seven years ago and it's you know it's it's the affordability and and and the availability to to to get here that um you know we just I don't know it's it's an overall Council side you
048know issue that we all got to you know work on and be able to you know teachers to also work and live here and and uh yeah and I think that's like one of the things that again over my 13 years as superintendent in bitterford I bet on two hands I can count the number of kids that have lived in the bitterford pool area and now as you see the pricing changes I worry that we're going to come into the same boat down on the shore side um because quite frankly over over the years uh in bitterford when a family has called me and say I'm like way closer to kibun and I'm saying to myself yes you can go you can work there because we didn't have a bus to send for one kid
049uh and so I think it's worth studying the the 10 or 12 years of sizes differential between uh young school and Fairfield school and seeing what's happening uh so that we can hopefully predict a little bit what's going to happen in in you know in the next three years thank you anyone else okay that takes us to item 13 this evening and that is um other information there is no additional information this evening there is no executive session item 14 and item 15 is an adjournment so mov there a motion to adjourn by School Board member Truman is there a second second School Board member Johnston roll call vote School Board member waroff yes Schoolboard member prebble yes School Board member Richards yes School Board member roach and honor of Beth are you kind the
050answer is yes yes yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion to adjourn at 746 thank you everyone and have a great night for