001No. >> Now I have to go ahead. Welcome to Augusta Board of Education business meeting. It is July 8th, 2022. We are here in the conference room off the CATC cafeteria. And with that, I call the meeting to order. But everybody, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> We do have uh some adjustments to this evening's agenda. So, I'm going to accept a motion to add the following. Add a 13 AF. Dor Lauren Dao, a fifth grade teacher at Gilbert Elementary. Add a 13 AG for Christina Stade, attendance secretary for Coney Middle and High School. We're going to include Ching Lin
002to the adult ed trip under 22F. And we're going to make a motion under 22 I a motion that will approve a resolution entitled resolution of authorized lease purchase of security cameras. So do I have and I'm also going to ask to move item 6A to rate after this for a 4A. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second? >> I second. >> The aforementioned items have been added to the agenda. The next item is the oath of office. We have our new student council represent representative with us tonight and she is going to be administered the oath of office by our [clears throat] superintendent Mr. Tracy Bot is our new person who we gladly welcome to join us. [clears throat] I Hanabot do solemnly
003swear >> I Hanabot do solemnly swear >> that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of student representative >> I will faithfully discharge the >> duties of the student representative >> to the Augusta school board >> to the best of my ability >> and will support the Constitution of the United States >> and will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the laws of the state. >> Thank you. WELCOME. [applause] [clears throat] The next item on our agenda is item 5A and I will accept a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA subsection 4056A regarding a personnel matter. Do I have a motion to ex enter executive session? >> So moved. Do I have a second? >> Point of order. >> So moved and seconded. Hang on just
004a second. Discussion. And now >> I have a point of order, Madam Chair. >> Okay. >> Go ahead. >> So, uh, Madam Chair, uh, my understanding, as you had told me on the phone, uh, is that this executive order is in regards to me. Correct. >> Executive session. >> The executive session. Sorry. Yeah. Thank you. >> Is in regards to me and and me getting censored. Okay. Thank you. So, uh, I know we previously sent you an email, uh, which apparently does not serve as a written notice. So, Madam Chair, in addition to the previous written request sent by email, please consider this and add an additional written request, a request which which uh, once made must be honored pursuant to statute. And the statute is in accordance with main law title one section 405-6A3.
005I request that any executive sessions regarding me to be held during the public session. >> There you go, Madam Chair. >> Mr. Shley, he's asking that we have the ex that we have this during public comment. I don't believe that's >> not during public comment, Madam Chair. During public session. >> Oh, how the open session. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. I misunderstood. Yes. And I believe that's in order. And and any opposition from the board hearing? None. We will hold this executive session in public session. It is therefore no longer an executive session. We have that in writing. So this we have a procedure in place. I'm going to make an introduction to this open session of the censure proceeding. The purpose of this portion of the agenda is to raise concerns about conduct of one
006board member and to consider the possible censure reprimand of the board member for his actions. And just bear with me because I've never done this before. >> I've asked our attorneys from Drummond Woodsome for guidance in this process and Mr. Peter Fley is here for that purpose. And with that, I'll ask Mr. Fley to explain what the process is. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, and good evening everyone. Um generally a censure proceeding is um a mechanism by which a elected body can control and um manage its its own members. The board has a right to enforce its policies. Uh you have no right to expel a member under statute or under your policies. Uh you can't vote anybody off the island um so to speak, but you can discipline members um through censure or through
007removal from particular committees. Um there should be a process uh associated with that decision and it should be a fair one. Um a censure is a reprimand which is to be distinguished from a sensor which is um an effort to suppress content. So sensure s u is different than sensor which is s uh excuse me cn s o r. There is no statute laying out the process. Um there's no board policy talking about how you go about um handling a censure proceeding. Um but I have designed an informal process that's been utilized elsewhere. Um the designed really to help the board navigate through this. It's really simple. Uh it involves concerns being shared um director or being handed or given an opportunity to comment or respond and then the board deciding what if anything it
008wants to do. It doesn't have to take any action but it [laughter] also as I indicated has the right to uh censure a member if you want. Um I [clears throat] will just clarify that I don't represent individuals here. I don't represent the superintendent or the chair or any individual me board member. I represent the board as a whole. Um, and I don't have a dog in this hunt. I'm just really here to kind of help the facilitate the process at the request of the chair. So, um, again, the process is really simple. Concerns shared, opportunity to respond, and then the board takes action. A couple rules of engagement I would suggest. Um, one, because this could be difficult, it could be adversarial. Um, we don't have to make it any more adversarial than necessary.
009>> Maybe we could all agree not to raise our voices and maybe we could agree not to point fingers and um work to keep our emotions in check. Um, not not talking over one another during this process will make it go smoothly because the goal is to get from here to there. Regardless of what decision the board ends up making here, you want to do it. you want to do it because you know relatively you know in a confined part of the agenda because you've got 30 other items on your agenda. So um with that process are there any questions from members of the board? >> Yes. So I'm asked a question or there somebody makes a comment and I can reply back to that. >> Yes. I would [clears throat] suggest that um any
010concerns are shared. There's no answer answer. >> No, I would suggest allow the concerns to be shared and then you would have an opportunity in one fell swoop to address any and all concerns that you'd like. >> Okay. Thank you. >> If there are no other questions, then what are the concerns? >> Superintendent Tracy. [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone. Um, I again am here for my board and for our students and staff. >> I'm part of >> I'm sorry. I'm here for my board, the community, our students and staff. And I had concerns about the conduct of a board member in this particular case, board member, or in relationship to students and staff. And I'll just read I'm just going to read those if that's okay. I've received concerns from students and the principal
011of Coney Middlean High School on April 30th, 2026 that Mr. Or, board member or confronted and chastised Augusta High School students who were exercising their first amendment rights to protect uh protest, excuse me, related to cuts of the school budget. He also yelled at students, engaging them in name calling some of these students. Um, including referring to students as stupid. >> No, excuse me. I'm going to ask that there not be any comments from the public during this time. If you can't >> If you can't restrain yourself, we're going to ask [clears throat] you to leave the meeting. So, please be quiet and listen so that we can get through this. I just ask for for that please. Thank you. Sorry, Mr. Casey. >> And lastly, sought to direct the school principal to take administrative
012action to address student these students because of these activities. Having reviewed the video footage speaking directly with a couple of students, the principal, I find that this has been credible evidence to bring these concerns to the board. Um I'm I believe the chair also heard maybe from a student or two regarding the same. So those are the concerns that I brought to the board and again the students involved I had to bring these forward >> and just to share I did have several students who came to me asking is it okay for board members to call us stupid and it's like let me look into it let me find out and and we'll make take the appropriate actions so much >> so that that's what I have to present madam chair So >> one opportunity
013if you want to make a note. >> I just need you. I just want to make sure I try >> because I'm trying to hand jam everything here because this seems to be a little bit different than the concern. So make sure that I'm understanding this correct. Uh got the high school students first amendment right to protest, [clears throat] right? First amendment right to protest. >> That was what I said, sir. Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um then uh the claim that I called kids stupid. >> That's correct, sir. >> Okay. Was there a third one? If there was, I'm >> directing the high school principal that she should take administrative action against these students. >> Okay. Those are the only three >> in in your role as a board member in >> Yes, sir. >>
014Those three. Okay. Thank you. [laughter] >> Do you want to continue, Mr. Tracy? that that those are the three >> and this conduct is why is this conduct a problem? >> Well, the the board has policies that you've asked me to uphold [clears throat] and um administer. So policy BBA a polic states this super the superintendent responsible for the effective management supervision of the school system. Uh B and not the school board or any individual schoolboard member. BB AAA our policy states that individual members have the authority only when acting uh as a board member in a properly noticed executive session. BCA our board member code of ethics clearly states that a board member will leave the administration of schools to the superintendent also clearly states that the board members have no authority to act
015outside of meetings. BHC makes it clear that there's no direct supervision between the board and the principal. Superintendent is the person who's responsible for their supervision. And lastly, the mission of our school system is to teach students to engage with one another in a respectful manner to develop good citizenship and stand up what they believe. Mission is identified in policies A, AD and ADAA. So the concern is that a board member acting outside of their purview creates a risk of liability for the school system and that's what we're dealing with tonight. And so board members seeking to discipline students for engaging in this protected activity. And I'll just say I want [clears throat] to make it clear because I'll just I don't mean to go off on a tangent but I have heard some things
016uh being said about me even on Facebook because that get gets to me uh gets to me. will let me know and my understanding is that this that that I wasn't I I asked our students to protest and I just want to make it clear that I'm unaware of any staff members [laughter] and I myself did not ask [clears throat] protest. So you ask anybody when we >> when we were became aware that that was going to happen. We put out notice to families the day before that we heard this was going to happen. So we did our due diligence to try to notify families of the risk. We also as soon as it happened, we can't touch kids, block kids from leaving. We asked them to stay on campus. And furthermore, we went down
017to city hall with them. We engaged the police and I organized buses to take them safely back to school. I just want to make sure I've clarified what what my perspective is on on what happened. And so, um, I think that what what we have in this instance is simply the board needing to look at whether the conduct of a board member was out of line in reference to these policies. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. There's also one statutory reference I think the board should be aware of and that's 28 MRSA 1055. That's the portion of state law that talks about the superintendent's um hours and duties. And in that uh section of state statute um it very clearly states that the superintendent is the one that's responsible for supervising the school employees. [clears
018throat] Now obviously the board supervises the superintendent. superintendent in charge of of supervising everybody else in the school organization. Now, he can delegate that to other administrators [clears throat] for evaluation purposes just for efficiency, but ultimately supervision by state law rests uh for all uh other school employees other than him uh with the superintendent. >> Thank you. At this point, we've heard the concern and we've heard your your request for a response, Mr. board. So, this would be the time for your response. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have anything prepared at all, believe it or not. Um, because I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen on this whole entire thing. So, I guess I guess we'll start off with the first the first item. [clears throat] Uh, can I ask questions
019or am I only able to respond? >> I think you can. This is your your moment in time, so to speak. >> Mr. Superintendent, >> do we have policy in our schools uh for a dress code that says what a child is allowed to wear or not wear? >> We have a code of conduct that has a dress code. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh do we allow profanity uh to be told to the teachers? Is is that a suspensionable offense if that happens? If if if a student uses profanity with a teacher, >> Yes. >> is that what you're asking? Uh then there's a discipline there's a progressive discipline, >> but it it it amps them above just a a somebody swearing at potentially at another at another student. >> It's a disciplinable offense >>
020and then and then they go and have a a discipline, but this is a more because that's a level one discipline where this would be a level three of of of uh shouting profanity at a teacher. Correct. on the movement. >> Sir, I'm not sure how this relates to the concerns [clears throat] that were addressed at your particular conduct. >> Okay. So, I guess so they said that this is a first amendment right for ch kids to be able to go and walk out of school. That's a protected right. I would disagree with that while they are in school. So, we have a dress code that says this is what you is appropriate for you to be able to wear what it is what you're not supposed to be wearing. You're not supposed to wear
021a shirt that has profanity on it. You're told you're limited as to your first amendment rights uh in clothing. Uh you can't even wear a hoodie as a dress code [snorts] uh to go up there because that is a punishable offense. um you can't go and start swearing at at teachers because uh by the rubric I believe that's it it goes beyond detention and takes it up to a potential suspension by the administrative team. Uh if a child is caught swearing it is potentially that that child could get detention. So in school they're on taxpayer time. This is their place of duty. Just as if somebody was going down and working at McDonald's or Popeye's, uh you're there, you clock in, you work. If you go and leave work, you don't clock out and you
022decide you my first amendment right says I'm going to go out and protest. Well, you're going to return back to there afterwards expecting a king. So, their place that they're supposed to be is at school. So I believe that they don't have 100% constitutional rights because their place of duty is in the school. They already have limitations on policies because you can go out there in public. So at 205 when these kids go out, they can go and swear up a storm if they want to. They can put whatever t-shirt on that they want to. That's a first amendment right that's guaranteed. They're limited in this in this public school. Um when uh the parents send their kids off to school in the morning, putting them on the school bus, waving goodbye to them as
023they walk to school, dropping them off to school. The those that have driver's license, they drive to school, they come here, they have to be here at a certain time and be ready to start class. Once again, limited constitutional rights. So, I was never against them, and I even said that while I was out there, this is not the time and the place for them to go out and protest. They're on taxpayer paid time. They were on my dime for them to go out there do and and go out there and do their little protest, right? So, you know, the the the absolutely hilarious part about the whole thing is is they were out there to protest because this the the budget wasn't high enough for them because they wanted the only way they were
024going to get that money was by increasing Augusta taxpayers dollars. And so how they managed to protest what they did was to actually leave a school that is funded by taxpayer dollars. It is complete insanity uh to think of any any else or any other way that there's a a standard of behavior that is expected of children while they are in school. when they are outside of school at 2:05 bell rings gone you're on your own you're doing your thing the school is no longer responsible for that their education for that day my taxpayer dollars every Augusta city resident's taxpayer dollars are done they've completed being spent for that day so [clears throat] I I don't believe I violated anybody's constitutional rights and I even said it while we were out there if you want
025to protest do it at 2:05 on your time not tax, pay, or dime. Um, in so far as calling kids stupid, I did not. I did not. I know what I said. And I will stand here all day long. You can parade as many children up here [clears throat] or whoever else you want to to go and say that I called them stupid. That was never once said to a child from me. Nor was it ever said that I called them dumb. Never once did that I say that. What I did say and I will stand by this right here. I will convict myself on exactly what I said. I said what this is going on, what they are doing is stupid and ridiculous that they need to go back in school because that's where
026they belong. They do not need to be going out and protesting. They do not need need to be walking off the school grounds and putting the liability the actual liability the liability risk of me by the for the school board for telling telling children to go back into their class. There's no first amendment violation as per this per this is what you claimed in here. I could be potentially setting the school in in Augusta for a lawsuit because I'm violating their First Amendment rights to go to speak while they're on school time, taxpayer time, my time. >> No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. So the the real liability that happened on that day was the fact that these kids were allowed to walk off a school property. >> You had to get how many uh police
027officers had to escort them down beyond beyond the school RSO and I believe another one of the security officers who were paying were paying them. That's this is this is this is school dollars that we're paying these these these people which was miraculously also part of the budget that they wanted to increase by the $500,000 because there was by position a security officer that they wanted to keep. So that security officer that they wanted to keep walked down with these kits as part of that as part of their their walk out protest, whatever it is that you want to call it, their little runaway thing. How many police officers are ended up being involved in protecting these children? Do you happen to know, Mr. Superintendent? >> Madam Chair, come on. Yes, please. >> Um I
028believe six to eight, sir. >> Six to eight. >> So how many do you know how many of those officers were actually taken off of patrol >> to go and and and and to cover down on this? >> I don't know that, sir. You don't know. There were approximately six to eight. >> Approximately six to eight. >> Okay. >> That would include our SRO's, Mr. 68. The six to eight includes >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. superintendent. When I talked to uh Jared Mills, the Augusta city manager, uh he said there was more likely about 10 to 12 that were actually there. Um because some of them were uh marking off crosswalks as the kids were walking down. Uh there was another bunch of officers that were had come off uh from their office and walked
029over. on some of the patrol cars had actually uh been taken off of patrol to come over here to make sure that these kids were able to make it down to city hall safely. So again, they went out and protested protesting of the lack of taxpayer dollars while incurring more of an expense on the city of Augusta by the police having to go off of what their duty and their job was of protecting Augusta City at large to cover down to make sure that these kids were protected. >> [clears throat] >> So, [clears throat] I'll just kind of skip that for a part second here and then I'll go back to uh directing admins to punish people. So, it was loud right on the bell at 9:00. These hund and some odd children were in
030the breezeway or the entryway off of Coney High School. So they weren't in their class because it was RAM time. Ram time, administrative time. So they weren't in any class that they were supposed to been. So I I guess [clears throat] you can say that it wasn't coordinated or whatever, what have you. But yet every single one of them while they're on their RAM time is all out in the hallway uh waiting for that bell to ring at 9:00. I got here at 8:55 that morning and as I [clears throat] was walking up uh everything just kind of happened. All the kids come running out and just I said this is this is stupid. This is ridiculous. And I did say you need to get back to class. Somebody needed to say it because there
031dang sure weren't any other teachers or administrators that were out there that was telling them that they should have gone back to class. So was I acting as a member of a school board? that I have the authority of the school board. The answer is no. I do not. I fully understand where when and where I have the authority as a school board member and that is here now or at subcommittee meetings and that is only if this board votes to give me the ability to speak to some place to somebody someplace to give me the authority to speak on behalf of the board. That's the only two times I have the authority as a board member. Other than that, this guy is James Or who happens to be a board member. And at no
032time did I go walking up to any administrator, any leadership and say, "I'm board member James or you better give every one of these kids that I did not do that. I did have to speak louder because there's 150 or so kids that are come screaming on out because well some of them did it just because that's two and a half hours of school that they got to miss. Others had other intentions and those other intentions of course were to go down to the wrong building to go and protest these school budget cuts. What I had said and which was the same thing that I had said to leadership down at city hall was were they told that they were going to get detention if they walked out of here? Because if they hadn't have
033been told that they were, well, chances are some of them probably would have gone back to the classroom just because they knew something was they were going to get punished. And uh the response I got from leadership on two different occasions was a deer in the headlight look when I asked that question. So I I guess me just being James or a private citizen who asked to be on the school board with absolutely zero authority uh to speak as a school board member would have to take that that as the answer as no they were not. And I did say well they should get detention they should get suspension and and they should get detention or suspension up to potentially up to 10 days. I did say those things. Now having said should, should is
034not a directive. That is not a directive word. That it was not supposed to be meant in a directive manner. That I'm telling you, you need to do this. being in a directive manner is literally me going up to leadership and and telling them you will get the names of all of these students and you will give every single one of them detention suspension whatever is because we have school board policy uh that's in our that is the rubrics that literally says [clears throat] if you skip class detention or you can get a behavior discussion That's [clears throat] for one time. The second time could be two hours. Of course, we're going to have a behavior conversation again. The third time is going to the uh going up to the office, uh defiance training, guidance
035counselor, um and referral to the admin. And then well it it goes all the way up to potential suspension. So stuff that I was saying there's more policy. It's in your student handbook guys for all of you that that are kids out there. It's in your student handbook. Here's the stuff. You do something bad there's consequences. So, I think that takes care of anything that was brought up about me and any hearsay or false gings up at the high school. After that, [clears throat] while the students went off of property, which is a suspensional offense, and they and they marched down, I drove off and I went the opposite way and got to the intersection before they did, thankfully. and uh made my way down to city hall uh where I parked and stopped and
036waited and there was already cops that were there at the crosswalk waiting for kids to come through. But what I also saw was that the so the group had just left. There was six to eight boys that were in that island coming off of Bridge Street, coming onto Rotary that were just standing there. They weren't part of any group because they just marched off. Now, I ain't sure exactly of how they got there, but they were all standing up there in the intersection. Okay, I said, "Parents, I just want to let you know that's where they were at." And I drove down to city hall, as I said, and waited. So when the little graduation ceremony happened uh with the remaining students as they came down to to go and protest at the wrong building.
037They come running down the hill, slid down the hill going into where city hall is located at and then kind of joined in with the group for a little bit um while they're all going down through there. Now, did I have conversations with the students? I did. I did have conversations with the students. I had the conversations with the students inside city hall. And I asked them, I said, "Why are you guys here? What are you protesting? We're protesting the budget cuts." Okay. Do you know that you're at the wrong building? City Hall and city council only said that we had to cut $500,000 off of the budget. They were protesting teachers that were getting fired. positions that were getting removed. And where did we get this information? We got it from the superintendent because
038he said it right during the budget meeting when we had to go through this and he was very emphatic on the first goound when we had this because we couldn't quite get to the cuts that we needed to get to. and [clears throat] he said, "These positions, this dollar amount, these cuts, this $100 paytoplay, all of those items that students were coming up here and talking about during our budget meeting time were the cuts as the superintendent adamantly said. These are the positions that myself and the a team made. These are the things that that we are recommending that you go and make cuts. I tried to make other cuts. Nope. Stick to this. >> Don't do anything else. [clears throat] Madam Chair, it is my time. Please do not interrupt me. >> I'd like
039to bring it back around to the issue. >> Madam Chair, I am >> okay. >> I am bringing it around. Thank you. No, please don't. >> Is she allowed to interrupt me when I'm when I'm trying to talk? >> She can encourage you to move things along. >> Okay. Well, great. Thank you. So, I told these kids that they were all protesting at the wrong place, that they should be actually protesting, every single one of them should be protesting outside the superintendent's office because the superintendent with the A team is the one that made the cuts, which is literally what happened. And yes, Mr. Superintendent, I I did see you walking down the stairs, see me talking to these kids, and then turn around and take a couple steps back up cuz I saw your
040feet. It would have been nice if you had to come down here and join with me and talk with those students, but unfortunately that didn't happen. So, after I got done with that, there was a blind man that was in there with this whole mob of kids that were outside city hall. I walked the blind guy to the end of the street so that he wasn't going to get run over with all these kids as they were grabbing their uh their coffee and donuts. Thanks to >> Main RS and I had some other conversations with other kids while we were there. Had some conversations with some parents and some other people. had a conversation up on the hill with the police officers, the three police officers that were at the top of the hill and
041with the uh security officer that was at the top of the hill. And then I while I was there talking with them, a group of kids started walking off. Eight, 10 of them just started walking off. And he yelled back to a bunch of his little buddies and said, "Hey, we're taking off. we're going to go back to school or we're going to go and stop at McDonald's and then we're going to make our way back to school. There wasn't any safety. There was no security for these kids. They literally walked off. Now, who was responsible for these children? Well, according to the policy and what the superintendent said and the lawyer agreed with, the superintendent is 100% responsible for every one of these children. So, I walked down the hill, had a conversation with
042the superintendent, and let him know you got a whole bunch of you have a whole group of kids that have just walked off. They're all heading McDonald's, and they said at some point they're going to make their way back back to school. When these kids had initially got there at their little graduation ceremony, I'll say a group of kids, so there was like three or four of them. As soon as they got there, they turned around, walked off by Fort Western, walked across Bridge Street. I have no idea what happened to them. I don't know where they went. I can pretty much guarantee you they didn't get back to school. And I addressed that with the superintendent. again, not as a board member because I don't have that authority to speak as a board member
043and and asked what is he going to do? I asked the same question. Are they kids going to get detention? Are they going to get suspension? Should they should? And I said because they should. Again, not directive. Should is not a directive word. Should is a suggestion. Deer in the headlight look. No answer. So when I get a deer in the headlight look, I guess the answer is no. And again, talking with Jared Mills, the reason why the buses came down there because it [clears throat] was not planned for because the city manager said that he could not afford to have the city and have the police stay there with these children that uh the superintendent needed to get some buses down here to go and bust them back. So, three buses showed up. Brody
044in the hole on transportation. So, I'm sure that that didn't cause any more uh chaos on that. [clears throat] And when I was talking to one of the the kids down there and I asked them, you know, why did why did they leave and what have you, [clears throat] and they said, "Well, we were told, my understanding was that as long as we got back to school at 11:30, nobody was going to be in trouble." That that's hearsay. You can shake your head. That's hearay. That's what they said. Just like these children said that claim that I was calling them stupid and dumb, right? He say, but [clears throat] that's what what was being said. And okay, I don't know if that's true or not true. To this day, I don't know if that's true
045or not true. Um I do know that as far as I'm aware of, nobody no child got any detention or suspension or anything. Um there was no repercussions. Um, according to the uh for those parents that received that text message with this little uh with a memorandum from the superintendent and it says and it says that uh you know once again the school had nothing to do with this and that there were going to be natural consequences that were going to happen. Okay. So I my assumption was well maybe maybe there will be somebody that gets detention or suspension or something. Maybe they just got a a very behavior disruptive conversation saying good job. Thank you for going out there and protesting for us and our and our money and our schools and to keep
046all of our jobs. I don't know if that happened or not. They keep on saying it wasn't coordinated. I don't know. But I do find it sad to say that barely the only thing that's a natural consequence is to go after James or who happens to be a school member on that day and decide that they want to go and lodge a complaint saying that I violated school board policy in the code of ethics. But everybody that watches, comes here, they've heard it before. Code of ethics, code of ethics, code of ethics by several members of this very board making that accus very accusation to me all the time. So, we'll just go and tack on some more code of ethics things that apparently I don't honestly believe I'm violating any of them because I
047was not in any official capacity. So, I guess we're not going to have any rebuttal. When I get done, we're done. Correct, Mr. Lawyer. All right. Thank you. So on that day, what I saw, which was completely student council le with donuts and coffee for main wraps, um that a city councelor's company, nonprofit brought down uh with another city councelor who was not in their capacity uh was part of that handing out hoodies and everything else. Um, we're all we're all part of this charade cuz what you didn't actually see, what actually didn't happen was students doing what students are supposed to be doing, which is being in school and getting the best academic [laughter] education that they should be getting. That's where I stand. That's where I've always stood about improving children's education. And
048so when a hundred some odd kids go walking out of school, yes, this guy as a taxpayer in the city of Augusta, I've got an issue with that. And I have absolutely the right to go and talk to leadership as a private member about are these kids going to be disciplined for their actions [clears throat] all day long like anybody else does because I was never in that official capacity because again I only am here right now at subcommittee meetings doing official business or if this board votes, which they never will, to give me permission to speak on their behalf as a board member on behalf of this board at city hall or whatever function that might uh need somebody to do so. So, I believe firmly that this is all just a just a
049a show. This is a show. This is ridiculous and absolutely mind-boggling. And I'll say when I received that in my email on the 30th of April, I had to read through it two or three times. It upset me. Upset me quite a bit. I was more disappointed because I felt like I got stabbed in the back. But I've got no angst. I've got no malice. I got no hate against the superintendent or anybody else that helped to go and write this thing up. I don't I just got disappointment. [snorts] We keep on talking about we want to make uh school matter. Well, I got an idea. How about we actually do that? How about we actually go and take time and make school matter? How about we do something different? How about stop going after
050me and everybody start doing their freaking job? >> Amen. >> That would be fab. [applause] I'm I'm going to ask the audience to please refrain that this is a business meeting that we really want to get through tonight. So, if you could do that, it would be much appreciated. Thank you. >> Mr. Or, are you finished? >> Madam Chair, I've got nothing else to say. Completely is. Oh, I have I do have a recommendation though if I can get if I can get that as part of this. I have a recommendation. Uh I make a recommendation that this board has a workshop uh so that we can go and actually have somebody experienced in the English language that can go and talk about exactly what this uh our our board code of ethics are so
051that everybody's on the same sheet of music as to exactly what they are when they apply and all of that because I'm getting tired of this. I'm getting tired of this honestly. Really [clears throat] getting tired of >> me. >> I'm finished. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> To move this forward at this point, we've had an opportunity to hear from Mr. Orur, and I'd like to I to move this f forward, I will entertain a motion to adopt the following censure resolution. Resolution to censure board member James or July 8th, 2026. Whereas the board of education, the Augusta school department or board is committed to ethical governance, transparent operations, adherence, adherence to board policies and the law. And whereas board policies BBA and BCA make [clears throat] clear that individual board members have no individual
052authority to direct school district staff, manage daily school operations, or make unilateral commitments on behalf of the board. And whereas board policies AD and ADAA make it clear that the mission of the Augusta schools is to teach students to engage with one another in a respectful manner to develop good citizenship and to stand up for what they believe in. And whereas director our overstepped his role as an elected board member on or about April 30th, 2026 by number one, confronting and chastising Coney High School school students who were expressing their First Amendment right in a protest related to cuts to the school budget. And two, yelling at students and engaging in name calling of students, including including calling students stupid. and three seeking to direct the school principal to take administrative action against the students
053to address the students protected protected activities. Whereas the foregoing conduct stands at odds with the role and responsibilities of an elected schoolboard member to uphold the [clears throat] law, to engage with others in a dignified and respectful manner, to respect the fact that individual board members have no authority except when acting as a board during a properly noticed public meeting. and to respect the fact that the school board members have no authority to supervise or direct school staff as this is the statutory responsibility of the student superintendent. Whereas at the Supreme Court of the United States in the 20 in the 2022 case, Houston Community College System versus Wilson unanimously upheld the authority of elected board members to formally censure their own members for misconduct or overstepping their roles. And whereas censorship by this board
054is a collective judgment of stern condemnation and a formal expression of dis disapproval with directors or's unacceptable conduct. >> [clears throat] >> Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board hereby formally and publicly centers Director James Or for his actions and conduct incompatible with the responsibilities of an elected school board member and directs him to immediately cease from overstepping his elected role and interfering with daily school operations. [laughter] Yes, >> I'll entertain a motion. >> So moved. Chairman, >> do I have a second? I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded to accept this resolution. Now will be an opportunity for discussion. Do I have discussion from board members at this point? Our new member Pierce Barbe Pierce. Give me a minute. I'll get I'll I'll get Thank you. Thank you, Chair Mitham. Uh, I
055am deeply frustrated that my first vote on this board is not related to the education of our students, but instead consideration of the breach of the code of ethics that we are all bound to. In keeping with my obligations under that code of ethics to at all times think of the children first and base my decisions on how they will affect children. I am mindful of the parting remarks of our former student member Reika who graduated last month. The message I heard loud and clear from her was that adults must disagree better. We must remember that every minute is an opportunity to teach our children how to move through the world and how to participate in civil society. Whether we are in the classrooms at a parade or exercising our civic duties, we are teaching
056our children and quite frankly it is up to us to determine whether we are going to teach them well and so I will be supporting the motion. >> Thank you. >> Other board members, >> I'll save you for last, Mr. Comments. >> I didn't know >> other board members comments. member parks. Uh because I um made the motion, I do agree with the motion and I will vote for the motion. I um really >> Madam Chair, you said that when anybody disturbed us during this time that they were going to be asked to leave, they're still here. Why? I will remind you please to be appropriate and polite while members of the board are speaking. This is this is the my second warning. Thank you for reminding me. So I I was shocked when I
057heard the news of member or going to this event on April 30th and was ashamed. Um, and if I had done the same thing, [clears throat] I would expect the board to use the code of ethics to reprimand or censure me. This code of ethics is for all of us to remind us of the huge responsibility that we have as board members to this community, to our schools, to our students, and to our staff. Thank you. Any other board members? I'd like to take an opportunity to share my thoughts with this. Tonight's issue was board member or's actions, not [clears throat] the students. My concern is Mr. Orur's continuing violation of our policy on schoolboard code of ethics. [clears throat] Mr. Mr. or shared publicly a previous letter of admonishment that we gave Mr. Our
058regarding his violations of the code of conduct and therefore the next step was a public censure which is what brings us here tonight. So my concern is that in order for the board to follow their own policies, it's necessary to hold individual boards members accountable to our code of ethics. >> Further comments? Mr. War. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Sorry, didn't mean to jump you thingies there. >> So again, I didn't do anything wrong. I already knew how this kangaroo court was going to go and operate. It's been operating the same way. So, you know, they they get upset by the false claims that I call these kids stupid, which never happened, but they're fully okay and actually voted in policies and procedures and internal procedures that say that a boy can say that
059they're a girl and go into the girl's bathroom, that a girl can be a boy and go into the boy's bathroom. So again, >> instead of actually taking care of the things that we need to be taken care of, we keep on going down this this path, as Robert Frost says, this path less taken. So this path less taken is something that's only been going on for 10 years. is this craziness of the Democrat Liberal Party. And here's where we are. So all the blue dog Democrats, this ain't your party no more. This is the party that thinks a boy can be a girl, that thinks a girl can be a boy, thinks that somebody can be called X, Zah, Zickory, Zickory, Dock, whatever. It changes every day, so I can't keep up with it.
060But they're more concerned about that than the potential of me calling a child stupid or dumb. That's more of a concern to them, than the policies and federal law, Title N, that they are not following. They are failing to follow Title N. They are failing to protect our children. They are failing to protect the girls in their private spaces. I have said this continuously since my very first vote in December of 2023 when I voted down the ACA which would have made that a school policy of where somebody I'm not even going to sol call them trans somebody who's gender confused somebody who was suffering from gender dysphoria. >> Amen. This is the fight that I have been fighting for the last two and a half years to try to protect your kids. >> Mr.
061or can you please bring >> I was trying to protect your kids >> when I was trying to let tell them that they need to get back into the classroom and instead of running around the road going out to McDonald's walking across the bridge during nothing more than something that is advocates >> board members to direct their comments to the board. I think that's the >> I am I'm just making a statement. You want me to look at anything? >> We could ask the attorney. >> We don't need to ask the attorney anything. Nobody else was Mr. or >> I'm just asking the board chair. >> So this is the things that are that are going on. So once again, this little kangaroo court that for whatever reason the city of Augusta decided every single
062Democrat on this board except for lo and behold this guy. So if you don't think that politics are in play, of course it is. It is sad. It is sad the actual state of what our school and what our school board and what Augusta has unfortunately become because of of stuff like this. Mr. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I am I am done. >> Any further discussion from board members? Hearing none, I will ask the board to write on the resolution regarding censorship for board member James or July 8th, 2026. Those in favor of censorship, please raise your hand. >> And a vote of six, those against. >> I I don't believe I can vote during my censure, right? >> Yes, you can. >> No, I can't. Well, I'll vote no. I do. It's absolutely
063stupid. In the vote of six to one, the censorship is enforced and therefore the board formally and publicly centers James Orford the actions and conduct incompatible with the responsibility of an elected school board member and directs him to immediately cease from overstepping his elected and interfering with daily school board operations. >> Thanks, Madam Chair. >> Moving on to what that means right there. >> And so I'll see you at the next school board meeting. >> It's funny because you actually I'm not going to be part of this kangaroo court for this crowd. >> Let's call for the next 10 minutes. >> You actually got us in federal law. He did it. >> The board is recessed. princess. Ready? I'm going to say to the audience, the police will issue you one more warning and then
064the next time it will be a removal for disorderly conduct. So, I'm going to ask most respectfully because not only is it important for us to get through this meeting, I really feel it's our job to set the example for our kids. This isn't it. Thank you. >> We will now go on to number six, the state of the school's address. Mr. Tracy, >> good evening board. Thank you. Uh we have I will try to be brief. We have a lot of great things in spite of sometimes how it feels. um going on in the school department. We had the board's priorities schools address is something we do with city. So if you're city council room, I'm sorry you're going to hear this twice, but um I will be I'll I'll be brief with with
065this and myself, assistant superintendent or business manager. >> Can I ask one question, Mr. Tracy? Is there a link to this on our agenda for anybody? >> We just um we just [clears throat] completed it this week, so we'll be attaching it to the agenda in the minutes. Um but and I believe there are copies. Anybody who's interested in following along our copy, >> please share. All right. So >> it'll also be on our website under about us. It'll say academic reports and the last Tuesday the schools have done that and then this one will go live shortly. >> Thank you. So, um, one of the board's priorities was for us to report to the board three times a year, uh, in reference to academics. And this is sort of the culmination of the school
066year. Um, and so I'll I'll just highlight the front page, and I'm going to go quickly through this. What you're looking at is mathematics scores at the state level. Um, I'm proud to say that our grades three through six are uh above state expectations. This is an improvement over prior [clears throat] years. um seventh through 7th, 8th and 10th are still uh under state expectations. We're aware of that. We're looking at curriculum changes um related to mathematics at the middle school level. Um and and we have we have plans in place to work on improving as we teach a professional development curriculum. And I'll also I hate to I hate to use this as an excuse because people hear this all the time, but those are the COVID babies. Those are the kids who during
067COVID uh struggled to get the you know they were learning at home for a couple of years. So um I'm going to throw that out there. I don't want to blame CO but that's part of that I believe. Next page uh same state level scores. These are the throughear assessments by the way that occurred this spring. Um again you'll notice reading the third, fourth, fifth and sixth grade scores are all above state expectations. again. Um so we are seeing some slight improvement. Uh seventh grade is at expectation and uh 10th grade is at just above expectation and eighth grade in this graph is the only one below expectation. So we're really we're really proud of our reading scores. The other thing is um it's important to note that we we've slowly are improving on postsecary
068um efforts, post-secondary commitments with kids to colleges and universities etc. So if you look these are just there's just a handful. I mean, I'm proud to say we have kids going to We've got a kid going to college in Germany. We've got Indicott. We've got a student going to Emerson, uh, Princeton. These are some pretty, uh, exciting schools for our kids coming out of Coney. That's about 60% just under 60% of our kids that are going to four-year education. 46 kids staying in Maine. Uh that's over 80% of our students have uh designated two, four-year or military or moving right into a career. So just a select few that you know we don't know exactly what they're doing, but we're really proud of uh moving in the right direction because when I took over four
069years ago, those numbers were in the 70 percentile. So we're above 80%. We are improving with po postsecary positioning to students. Um, we have one of the other priorities was to bring in our universal screeners for our MTSS program. I'll let assistant superintendent Tibido talk about that, but we have embodied those three new universal screeners. >> So, this year we implemented the dibbles, which is MClass reading. And so if you look at the scores here, what you want to see is boy or is it beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year scores. What you want to see is that the red and yellow percentages decrease throughout the year. [clears throat] So if you're looking at the composite score, that's the overall score. The next one is recognizing names and
070their letters. And then phmic awareness is hearing the separate sounds of words. letter sounds connecting letters to sounds and reading made up words. So that's using decoding skills. Then we're going to look at word reading that how accurately and quickly uh words are read real words and shows that automatic word recognition reading [laughter] accuracy is the accuracy and quickly and smoothly they can read a passage aloud. So what this has allowed us to do is to really look and then the last one is the basic comprehension and that measures the reading comprehension by students choosing the correct word to complete a passage. What this has allowed us to do is really to focus in on what interventions we are are going to provide students [clears throat] and what areas and skills. So you can see
071that students have made significant [clears throat] growth. Part of this is and I'll talk about it later or in the professional development is that every teacher went through the science of reading. So they learned about those pieces that I just spoke about and how that affects a student's reading and ultimately their comprehension which then falls into every academic area. So we will continue with that piece for professional development next year. We have um adopted the MClass math to do some of the same skills that also works in with our new in the elective math curriculum. We also will be doing the social emotional screener called Adessa the Deborough and that will be able to flag students who um may need extra support for social emotional and mental health services. Uh we I don't want to
072go to CT or >> No, I'll take it. I'll take it. Um one of the other pieces was uh growing our CTE programs. Uh I should side note, I in the process of hiring a new director for our tech center. Uh we're in the process of that and I hope to have someone before the board in the next couple weeks. That being said, one of the new programs we're bringing in to expand our offerings at the tech center is a 9th to 10th grade exploratory program. Um, we continue to be offering professional development. You can see that there. And the last thing we wanted to highlight on this section is uh two outstanding educators of the year for Kenneet County. Um, that's pretty awesome that both uh Miss Bachmann, Deb Bachmann and Gretchen Livingston, two
073years in a row have been named educators of the year for Kenned County. [laughter] That that's really exciting to have that coming out of our high school. Uh I am Am I allowed to say that? I'm going to All right. Uh Mrs. Livingston, Miss Livingston has been uh in the is in the running for state teacher. [clears throat] So she's in the uh they take half of the 16 counties, so eight finalists. She She's one of eight. So I don't know if I was supposed to let that cat out of the bag, but I just did. So that's exciting. All right. Number two. Yeah. THANK YOU. YEAH. >> [laughter] >> BESIDE OUR WONDERFUL families and students, our educators are what make our schools great. Um, okay. Number I'm on goal number two, alignment across the
074schools. So, as you know, part of what we talked about with the multi-tered systems of support and how best to support our students, which then led to us completely uh redesigning our district when I worked on the job descriptions and how we're going to support students. So, that really is looking at a district-wide consistency with established. Um, now we have the framework, we have the staff ready to go. It's going to be actual implementation over the next year. how that plays out. Um really creating greater fidelity and identifying supporting students who require that level of support as again what I talked about using those screeners. Um, I also developed or we developed 15 uh or more I think it was standard operating procedures of what how the district runs and what we do. And we
075created a all staff page that um houses all the information that our staff members could possibly need when it comes to mandatory trainings or professional development or updates that we have >> financial stability. Um so as um part of this goal I was given the task to create a financial stability plan about a year ago um and introduced that um to superintendent Tracy and then to the board. Um there were three major goals as part of that financial stability p plan. Um one was to put in an action plan to reduce over expenditure. One was manage funds efficiently and then the other was timely revenue collection. Um to date we have met those as I'll talk about in June financials when we get to my report you'll see that um as far as over expenditure
076we were over just in transportation but we knew that very very early on and superintendent Tracy and I discussed it on a regular basis and created an action plan for that moving forward. Um we also met weekly. I evaluated financials weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. But, um, Superintendent Trainy and I met on a weekly basis to go over my review of that. Um, and I provided transparency over what I was projecting out for our financials. Um, we were able to manage the funds efficiently. Um, and definitely had timely revenue collection this year. um our accounts payable and um special ed departments did a great job in collecting revenue um and we saw an increase in main care and tuition revenue. Um so that piece went great as well. Um and for the first time in two years,
077our special ed department is ending June in the positive >> the black >> the [laughter] black. >> It's good news. And that was part of that change that we had done with moving um our out of district placement to the general fund and all your speech OT and PT services to the general fund so that we were able to bill for those services to remain here. If they remained in the federal grants, we wouldn't have been we would been double dipping and unable to bill for those. So it was a way to recoup some of the money that we had spent. Lastly in this section number two is uh ensuring we heard constituent and parent feedback. Um a few of the things we did again with related to academic reports we had the fall report
078which we gave and usually we give in September right after this one. Then mid year this year, if you remember, and it was probably our best meeting of the year, was our midyear academic workshop where we had tables and the board get to meet with principles more intimately and talk about data at each individual school. That was wellreceived. I think we'll continue to do that. And then the state of the school's address, which we'll also bring to city council uh next month, I hope. And um we also continued with our climate surveys. We added we created a new parent resource page uh and we created a new feedback form and we'll talk about multimedia efforts in in the third section in a second. But we had we we made new efforts to make sure parents
079had new multiple media ways of of providing feedback to us. And lastly uh in number three our involvement. So, some of one of the thing I set out to do was to call six individual families every month. I picked uh I had the principal help me find sort of like a student of the month, find something positive. Uh everybody loves a little positive. And I picked up the phone and called those families uh every month. And I heard some feedback on that that that was very positive because usually when a principal or superintendent calls a family, uh it's not always usually bearing some kind of bad news. So that was a nice way for me to it was a invigorating part of my day and it was enjoyable to speak with families about great things
080going on with their children in our schools. Um and then the other piece was I worked with IT director Rodriguez to create some multimedia videos this year. This was new this year. I'm not a movie star. I don't look good on camera, but somehow she put it together and made our videos about parent resource pages like, "Hey, did you know like questions about our curriculum? What are they teaching?" Well, we have all of our curriculums exposed in the curriculum atlas mapping software and we showed a video on how [laughter] how parents can access that, see what units they're studying in third grade or in health class at a middle school. um as well as the SIS, the web to school student information system. We did videos on that and that was just really how access
081into their child's report card, their class schedule, etc. Um transitions between grades. >> So, one of the things that we worked on consistently is really that transition from sixth grade to seventh grade and then also from 8th to 9th grade. And so really for that for sixth graders, we had school middle school counselors and administration visit the elementary schools to meet with each of the sixth grade students. Um answer any questions, discuss what to expect in the year ahead. We did this annual step up day that we've always done with tours and presentations and students come to the school to reduce that anxiety. Um and that seemed to help this year. And lastly on the last page, community partnerships. We've continued with working with folks like the Teen Center and United Way with Impact 2032.
082I've held meetings. Uh been able to participate very slightly with Kowanas and Rotary. Uh we are adding the United Way back into uh getting them into schools a little more regularly next year as well as remember our participation with the regional service center. We're building relationships locally and looking for ways to streamline things like athletic collaborative professional development and I keep my foot on the gas with can we do something with special ed to streamline special ed services across our region. I haven't given up hope with that effort but we have been working with them and again we we got a financial revenue from joining the Greece regional service center. And then lastly, Miss Tibido's worked with uh our early childhood groups in in the city and they formed a Capitol area early childhood alliance.
083As everybody knows, we'll be working to bring in three and four year olds into the district in the coming years. So, actually by 2028. So, we've got about another year to get this this figured out. >> Um but we have are working with CK SK CDC, which is >> Thank you. Uh, thank you. Um, and a few of them were going to be reaching city of Augusta Childare. >> Thank you. >> And local providers. >> There we go. So, >> and along with the state, it's part of a state grant that we were awarded as well. >> I'll stop. We'll stop right there. Questions? I just like to bring to everybody's attention that quite often we hear what what's lacking in our schools and what's not happening in our schools and that we're not paying
084attention to what's going on our schools. And I would refer you to this document when it gets linked to the minutes of this meeting tonight so that you all can take a a look at what is actually going on where our kids stand in our schools and see that we we recognize that our weak areas and we're addressing those but we have some strong areas as well and those are included in here. So, I we're proud of our schools and we hope that you are as well. Any questions for Superintendent Tracy? Hearing none. Next, I'll entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes of June 10th, 2026. >> So moved. Chair Wam. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the Augusta Board
085of Education business meeting on June 10th, 2026. Discussion hearing none, please vote. And on a vote of 6 to zero, the motion is carried. We next have the superintendent's report. Thank you and good evening again. I will be brief. I have an oral report tonight. I spent the better part of the last couple of weeks uh on the West Coast with my wife's family and um I just want to let you know that all of the typical summer stuff that we do, which is I I can't thank Mr. Stone and his crew enough. The schools are getting clean. We do that every summer. Uh just painting and cleaning, etc. Uh curriculum orders are coming in. Uh new technologies are being refreshed. Uh we're hiring. All of those things are ongoing and I just wanted to
086let you know that we one of the updates I wanted to give you is we're working hard to make sure um the east side of the river has proper administrative staff because we made a cut at that at that side of the river at Huzzi. I am proposing that we'll hire a lead teacher out of Huzzi. It would be a an hourly type position that likely someone from Huzzi would um would take. But I wanted to make sure the board knew that I was intending to do that. I don't intend to stipen them or create a new position. It would be a temporary one-year type position to help both of our new people get established over there. So unless I hear utter dis concern with that, that's a plan I have and it's different than
087what we've talked about. So I want to make sure my board is aware of that. Um we also are proud to tell you that we've got a couple of grants. Um the schoolbased health center grant came back and came in at about $60,000 more than last year. So I'm really pleased that out of the five social workers we cut, we're able to retain one of our social workers. So instead of having one district-wide, we're going to be able to have two and we'll likely station both of them here and then have them provide services out to the elementary schools. So that's exciting. Uh, and I would, you know, I would give kudos to our high school administration for that, accessing that grant. The other grant is the Aspire grant that we've been working with, um,
088Wendy Alt out of Melmac, and I, I don't know, Am I supposed to let this cat out of the bed? Okay, I will. >> Here I go. Um, we This is This is a big one. We got a a million dollar grant. >> Woo! Wow. >> Waiting for people. Can I get some more [laughter] woo with that? Okay, we got a million dollar grant over over five over five years and it's a couple hundred,000 a year and that's likely going to help us um build a couple of positions that have to do with college readiness um and have to do with supporting students that we remember the risk [laughter] position those kinds of positions that we've lost. We're going to try to create positions that will help provide services that where we knew we're going
089to have some deficiencies. So, well done again to the high school administration. That's a big grant. And I think this is a soft launch. They're going going to want to come in and Melmarmac I think because it's a big deal is going to want to do a press release and come in and tell you themselves. But I've had a weekly so hopefully I don't get in trouble with that. And then uh last year I excuse me lastly just want to say again I I should I highlighted Mr. Stoner but his crew is working really hard on making sure that our administrators get transitioned, our teachers get what they need, things get moved. We had some teacher moves, some support staff moves, and again uh that the facilities are being ready ready for the coming school
090year. That concludes my report. Madam Chair, thank Is there another grant that you might want to mention? >> Did I leave off? >> Did we meet on one today? >> Miss Tibido will talk about >> Okay, got it. Okay, >> I don't know Kaitlin if you want to put this up but I just shared what part so you could basically what I wanted to share is that um I have completed the local entitlement special education allocation um plan and grant [clears throat] we um have been submitted and it's been approved that was um I it's doesn't have to be shown. It's it's it's in the link. Um really what I wanted to show is the change that we've had in funding. And so from 25 to 27 since I've been doing this grant. Um and
091basically we we're at 825,000 this year. What we plan to fund with that is the nine MTSS [laughter] interventionists formerly known formerly known as egg folks. um a contracted certified nurse assistant under the CNA, a portion of the board certified behavior analysis which the BCBA u instructional and specialized supplies that um may need to be purchased. the extended school year services program portion of a social work social worker position portion of the student services director portion of the administrative assistant that supports all the grants and then our online management system. So that's what the local grant will house and we have a link to that. Miss Tibido the dispersement of the funds is >> we'll attach it. Thank you. We'll attach >> the minutes. >> Oh, thank you. I need like three seconds. >> Yes.
092>> So what this shows is basically a change in the funding in from 26 27 and 25 to 27. What we're taxing is an increase. What basically goes with the increases the number of students that we serve >> and and for any new board member you want to explain what local entitlement >> local entitlement is the federal funding for special education. [laughter] >> What we need to be careful about is that you we are supplementing our services not supplanting our services with any federal funding. So this is to me support some of the things we're doing within the general education fund our general education funding. You cannot cut a position and say oh we're going to put it into grants all that would be so just to clear that up there. Um next the part
093of my report is the MTSS committee. We're going to be meeting July 15th and we're going to review our MTSS framework. You can take that down now. I just want to show more the funding. uh the MTSS framework and the MTSS interventionist placement doors the what's happening now is um what we talked about with our edex that were ESOL or general education or special education or library edex and now alls interventionist and they based on what they're training and their support and where they could be they're placed by building and then the building will assign them according Could could I ask that our next meeting or some subsequent meeting that you have like a MTSS for dummies >> explanation where people can know what MTSS is, what it is, why it is, and how we're
094what our plan is for it in the future. I think some of us who've been in education or been on the board for a while, we just get used to that acronym, but I think that we we're losing some people in that explanation. So, if we could just have a little >> So, basically what it boils down So quickly quickly what it really is is that we needed to strengthen our tier one instruction which every student receives instruction on. Um so that was a part of the adoption or the pilot of the K8 English language arts continue with our math curriculum because that is the top one. Then you move the next level is tier two. That's where you have the supports of special of title one or um a level of intervention. And then
095you have tier three which is a more intensive with student can be pulled out seen specifically for a specific skill and then then back and then of course special education. [laughter] That's a quick in a nutshell and I'll spend more time on it next month but I just want thank you. Um the other pieces that we have I said the MTSS committee that's something that's newly formed this year we're working on that. Um, the late start grant is a study the pl the plausibility of a universal start time and the impact to all of our students both at the elementary level at the high school level and the impact of education, child care, student engagement, athletics and a survey was sent out and currently have over 450 people who have responded. Um, what that means
096is that according to the pediatric association start for the high school before 8:30. So, we want to start at 8:30 or later because of the sleep cycle of adolescence. And then through our process, we're looking at how that affects elementary students. And most elementary students, as we know, could be up around six or seven and they're ready to roll. So, really looking at how we can do that. Again, looking at our transportation costs, how many students are riding a bus? So, we're working closely with the bus. Um, let me just it's important to know this statement. This is not for this coming year. Correct. We are just studying. >> We are studying. >> We're just studying a a new start time middle and high school, maybe elementary. We're looking at it. We're studying it the
097summer. If there were a change to come, it would be the following school year. So, so all the start times, how they are now, will stay uh in play for this fall. And there'll be more opportunities for stuff sent out for parents, chances to do more surveys, chances to attend forums as well. >> Yes, ma'am. >> It's all coming in the coming months, >> right? >> Yes. >> And then planning for next year, administrative team meetings begin next Wednesday as we prepare for the 26 27th school year. And throughout the summer, the leadership team will meet weekly to plan for a successful opening of school and align some of the district priorities. So continue our work to address the use of racial language and strengthen inclusive school communities across the district. Um and what ways
098we're going to be doing that um implementing that multi-tered system of support or MTSS strengthening high leverage instructional practices which means really evidence-based teaching strategies such as science and reading um explicit instruction. So what supports and what interventions we're going to be using. So that's going to be our work this summer and a board workshop on July 27th to set goals. >> 22nd. What did I say? 72. >> Thank you. Questions for assistant superintendent >> hearing none. Oh, I'm sorry. Hello. Assistant Superintendent Tibet, can you give us an update on whether your schoolwide plans were accepted by the DOE for the middle and high school for title one ESCA funding? >> Yes, they were. Yes, they were. I was going back to five. Go ahead. >> I'm sorry. Okay. We were so I had submitted
099a plan for um Coney High School and Coney Middle School to be um approved for schoolwide title one funding and rework. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none. Business manager Ross. Thank you very much. Um as most know the fiscal year 25 audit is still in progress. Um we received a a message both uh city and the school received a message on June 30th of the progress and they said uh the audit team said that um they are making significant progress um and that we were going to be receiving our testing samples today um which did happen right before this meeting. So I did get our testing samples um right before this meeting. So, the business office will be busy pulling all of that together to make sure that uh we are not the
100reason the audit slows down that we keep pace with making sure that this audit gets completed in a timely fashion. Um and we have filed an extension with the department of education um that currently is until August 31st of 2026. Um we are continuing work with um Red Rover implementation for absence time um and hiring recruitment efforts. Um we are have given Red Rover a definitive timeline that the absence system must be completed by August 1st so that we can get people trained and in use when all the staff return. Um the time and attendance platform we also feel that that may be done. However, we've been doing a little bit of testing in central office and have come across a couple just just small roadblocks. They're not big data um roadblocks. Um for example,
101they can clock in on their phones right now, but um we want to give staff multiple opportunities to clock in on phones or a laptop or a notepad if they had it. Um so the laptop program is not working for them to clock in. So we're just trying to resolve things like that. But overall the data is working. Um and the next step is to find out if the import export so the communication between Red Rover and our payroll system if that will work smoothly which is really the big big piece. Um and the hiring system is almost there. It's one of the most exciting things I think for me. Um and I hope that once um we train administration that everybody will will be a little bit excited about that. Um, the business office
102in June's extremely busy. I I will say I was not here last June. I started July 1st. Um, and I am very impressed at how dedicated the business office is to this school department. It is very busy in there and they're all just moving right along. So, um, great job to all of them. Uh, June financials. So our June financials, these financials are before of course any audit entries because we're still in fiscal year 25 audit. So any audit entries and then any approvals. So um for example, summer pay, the first summer pay happens this Friday. Um so those things were not readily available when I completed June financials, but we are in a very good place. Um, so we are currently ending the fiscal year with 34,685,557 in expenditures or 13% remaining. Um, there
103are currently four pay periods left to process towards fiscal year 26. So there'll be four more pays before the the fiscal year is done. We have received 40,113,034 in revenue with $147,858 remaining. That is a very good thing. Um it means that we collected more revenue than we had projected or anticipated based on historical trends. Um so we saw an increase a little bit of an increase in state subsidy um increase in main care and an increase in tuition revenue and we are still anticipating about another $145,000 from tuition revenue. And we also have some revenue coming in from special education billing. Um, so we potentially may not need to use um our fund balance. Um, so that's very good news. Um, and the only expenditure area that is currently in the negative is transportation,
104which we've discussed um quite a bit and we have a a plan for that to bring to the board to transfer some funds into cost centers to cover that. >> Thank you. Questions for business manager Ross hearing? None. Reports from other school officials. >> Good evening. Heather Goff here, principal of Fington and Huzzi. Have to get used to saying that now. Um I just wanted to uh remind uh the community that at the elementary levels, the secretaries do not work during the summer. So if anybody calls our offices, we encourage them to leave names, phone numbers, and administrators are checking the voicemails, but we do have summer hours. So um it's not every day, but we will get back to anybody who calls us in a timely manner. Um any new families coming to the
105community registering, they can also call the superintendent office to get registration paperwork and go through them. And then over the summer we will get that and then determine uh school placement. Again uh you could move into like the Huzzy neighborhood but we have singleton [clears throat] grades and we do monitor enrollment and class sizes. So it's possible that just because a family moves into Huzzy they could potentially end up attending Fington and vice versa on the west side of the river as well. Um, but we do make those decisions closer to the start of the school year and we will communicate that with families once the decision has been made. Thank you. Questions? Hearing none, other school officials. None tonight. Okay. We have no communications and Mr. Tracy, I'll throw the ball to you for
106resignations and retirements. >> Okay. 13A resignations. Britney Smith, special education teacher, Fington Steve Falinero, kindergarten teacher at Hussy. Josh Puland, Joshua Puland, math teacher at Coney High School. Daniel Johnson, teacher at Gilbert Elementary. Aaron Hinckley, fifth grade teacher at Gilbert. And we've added Lauren Dow, grade five teacher at Gilbert. And Christina stayed, attending secretary at CO. >> Thank you. And no retirements. >> There are no recognitions. And we don't have a we don't have a student council report because it's summer, but we thank you for joining us tonight and we're sure you'll be adding to our agendas in the future. Thank you. Noformational items, committee reports. I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the finance committee, personnel committee, policy committee, curriculum and education for June 2020 2026. I'd like to make a
107motion to approve the minutes from the meeting on June meeting in June 26. [laughter] >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes. Discussion hearing none. Please vote. And on a vote of six to zero, the minutes from the finance committee, personnel committee, policy committee, and curriculum committee meetings of June 226 have been approved. Consent items. I make a motion that we approve our consent items. >> I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent items of is this adding these people are joining our staff. Mr. Tracy, >> these are two new teacher positions. So, >> we will be we will be you want to speak to this, Mr. Tracy? >> Yep. Two nominations and we're fortunate to have um two new to special education positions. Angela Ganette, behavior autism
108program here at Gilbert and Susan Faucet, resource room teacher at Lincoln. I think Sue is here. If you want to stand up, I'll put you on the happy to nominate these two to the board. >> Thank you. Do I have did I have a motion and second discussion hearing? None. Please vote. And in a vote of 620, our new members have been approved. And I thank you for joining us tonight and welcome to the Augusta School District. Next member is next number is board member comment and or discussion on non-aggenda items. This is um 30 minute maximum with 10 minutes per person who would like to speak. Would any board members like to speak in this item? Mr. Board member. >> Thank you. Uh, good evening everybody. Over the last several months, there have been
109a great deal of commentary, rumors, and speculation about me on social media. As a public official, I accept that my actions will be scrutinized. That is a part of public service, and I and I welcome the accountability. I also welcome the constructive criticism because those are essential parts of good government. What concerns me is when public discussion moves away from facts and becomes driven by rumors, false claims and disinformation. I have not once been reached out to, contacted, or approached to sit down and discuss these concerns with the people that are concerned about them. My past is not a secret. I did not attempt to hide it at any point during my campaign either. I have made mistakes in my life, accepted responsibility for them, and worked hard to rebuild my life. These are not
110things that I take lightly, and I want to be clear that I have disclosed them all the way through up until being elected and the onset of my term, because honesty and integrity mean a lot to me. I sought this office by following every requirement of the Augusta City Charter and Maine election law. I met every legal qualification to run for office. My candidacy was accepted by the city and the voters of Augusta elected me to serve on this board as an outlaw member. Over the last six years, I have been entrusted with positions that require background reviews in suitability determinations, including positions with sensitive information that require a heightened level of clearance. Those reviews were conducted under those standards required and I have passed them. People are absolutely free to disagree with my opinions,
111my decisions or even my election. That is their right and I respect it. [clears throat] But disagreement should not involve a disingenuine a disingenuous narrative about my character today. Sometimes I wonder how much of the how much of the people that are upset are actually upset or if they're just not understanding how this works. The way it works to run for office is there are very minimal guidelines set forth by the charter created by the city council. They set these charters and that's the parameters you have to follow. So that means if you follow those and you're duly elected, what happens next is that you are the chosen one. The comment earlier about anybody could do that is it's [clears throat] it's the truth, right? Is even if a person could have done crimes, you
112know, such as ones named earlier, they could run. What happens next is their election results get passed over to, you know, wherever they're elected to. Background checks are conducted then and that is when they make the decision whether that you know XYZ. I pass background checks continuously throughout the past six years because the crimes that people may be confused of don't show context in the black and white. The things that are being shared and the rumors of the details are extremely wrong. And the proof in that is that if they were factual, none of the things I have done would have been able to happen. I wouldn't pass background checks. I wouldn't be able to graduate college. I wouldn't be able to get DHS background checks. I'm not saying that the crimes aren't that run
113a background check aren't there. The context behind what people say and the truth are significantly different. When a person is elected, they're elected because it's the city's voice. And then what they do thereafter is then when the code of ethics kick in. The code of ethics kick in when she took that oath right there. Same thing with us. It's not about anything you've done before. It's about from that moment on, these are the things you're going to do. And it's a it's an agreed upon statement. I say that because I understand that that people are upset and you have every right to be. They have every right to criticize, every right to be concerned. But if you're concerned, be genuinely concerned and ask questions. >> Don't spread false information because it suits what you think.
114I have not been contacted to ask about these things because as a person of integrity I would have sat down and talked. I believe that everybody has the right for growth. I believe everybody has the opportunity to change and better their life. And I cannot tell you with my whole heart how sincerely embarrassed, ashamed, and guiltfilled I am I have from the things of my past that I uh I work on every day. And um I'm grateful for the people of Augusta. I'm grateful for the continued support. I'm grateful for the ability the state of Maine allows people with criminal histories to still change their life and run for elected uh parties. And I mean that genuinely, right? Nothing from the moment I entered recovery until now has ever been a deviation of criminal behavior.
115I mean that in the sense that there's potential rumors that there was u you know fraudulent in order for me to get on the how none of that works. I was elected and I passed background check. I did I followed the process. I wanted to get on the board because I I had a childhood that was significantly different than a lot of the people I see today and I faced a lot of barriers and challenges. I got on here to try to see if maybe I could see something that, you know, could be fixed, but since I've been on here, I've been consistently degraded and uh made out to be an entire person that is, it hurts that I haven't been able to share my truth. I'm not asking for anybody to believe me. I'm
116asking for people to look into facts on things and how these things work. I ran a race. I was elected and I passed the background check. The things in my past are way before I got on here. I appreciate you all taking this time and I hope you guys can excuse me. I'm going to go home and put my son to bed. It's far more interesting than doing anything else. >> Thank you, member Reynolds. Do I have any other board members who would like to [clears throat] place my glasses from the way? Thank you. >> Any other members by board members? Any other comments by board members? Member Pelos. Yeah, I just want to um take a moment because we're deep in the summer months to just thank administration for uh the consistent work that
117happens between a transition from a school year to another. Um I sit in a particular office at the DOE and see a lot of the administrative work that happens from all districts across the state. Um and I am impressed with Augusta's specifically veracity towards pursuing grants. um especially when I hear there's million-dollar grants um that we are saving positions that we had to eliminate um that we're leveraging schoolwide flexibilities as per federal statute that has that is afforded to us if we have um statutory compliant plans which sounds like that was facilitated with fidelity. Uh just want to again say thank you for you know the paperwork is not um the fun or uh you know attractive part of probably this work because it's mostly about the interactions and relationships and the child development that
118happens in our schools. But uh it paperwork and federal reporting and strict guidelines of statute have to be adhered to and school structures and governance have to uh be strong and managed well. So, just want to appreciate the groundwork that's being laid for the school year ahead. Thank you. And just to be legit, I'm going to wait for one of our board members to return who had to step out for a minute because we don't have an >> Oh, we didn't count me, right? How do I count? I forget. All right, we're good. I was just counting four and I needed five. Bobby J just had to step over. Okay, next will be public comment. >> Is there no more public comment on agenda item? >> So, do we get to speak twice if we
119want to speak on something that's an agenda? >> There's one opportunity to speak public comment on agenda items or non-aggenda. >> They merge merge them into one section one time in the agenda. Let me review the Let me review our rules before we start public participation tonight. The primary purpose of school board meetings is to conduct conduct to conduct the business of the board related of the business of the board related to school policies, programs, and operations. The board encourages residents to attend board meetings so that they may become acquainted with the operation and programs of the schools and cordially invites any interested member of the public to attend and participate as provided in this policy. The board recognizes the value of public comment on school and educational matters and to permit fair and orderly
120expression of public comments at board meetings while still allowing the boards to conduct its business efficiently. The board has established the procedure below for regular business meetings. At special workshop and emergency meetings, public comment will be limited to the topic of the particular meeting. The following guidelines apply. The board includes a public comment period not to exceed 30 minutes on the agenda of the regular business meeting. Individual speakers will be given equal amounts of time to speak during the public comment period limited to a maximum of three minutes per speaker. And tonight we will do three minutes per speaker. Individuals may not relinquish a portion of their aotted time to another speaker. The time limits in this paragraph may be modified at particular meetings at the discretion of the board. The board will hear public
121comments from residents of city of Augusta first, then Augusta students and staff. If there is time remaining in the public comment period once all residents have had an opportunity to speak, the board will permit comments from non-residents. Individuals who wish to speak are required to fill out the sign-in form available at each board meeting. Each individual will be required to state their name and town of residence before beginning their remarks. Individuals shall stand behind the podium during their allotted time for comments. Speakers will not be permitted to approach the board or walk or stand elsewhere around the room during their comment period. Speakers will be recognized by the board chair and comments should be addressed to the board chair. The board chair is responsible for ensuring the orderly conduct of board meetings and compliance with
122this policy, including the following rules of order. Speakers are expected to follow rules of common etiquette and decorum and are required to refrain from engaging in disruptive conduct, including but not limited to yelling, threatening others using words or by actions, making defamatory comments, exceeding the allotted time limits, talking over or interrupting others, and offering comment on matters unrelated to school or educational matters. Discussion of personnel matters is not permitted during the public comment period due to the privacy and confidentiality and due process rights of school department employees. For purposes of this policy, discussion of personnel matters means any discussion whether positive or negative of the job performance or conduct of a named school department employee. Discussion of matters involving individual students are also not permitted during the public comment period due to the privacy, confidentiality,
123and due process rights of district students. Any concerns about personnel matters and or student matters should be directed to the student, the superintendent, and other appropriate administrators outside of board meetings so they can be addressed through an alternative channel and in a manner consistent with confidentiality, privacy, and due process rights. The board chair will stop any public comments that are contrary to these rules. Individuals who disrupt a board meeting may be asked to leave in order to allow the board to conduct board business in an orderly manner. So with that, I will start with Jane Whiteside. Do you have the clock up? >> Yes. >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Hi. Um I'm Jane Whiteside. I'm from board for Augusta and I've been here for the last two meetings in May and June
124and um hope that uh the new members are team member and the uh new other regular member are uh are aware of what I've been presenting about. Just wanted to talk about um ed uh um policy educational philosophy. Um this policy um states that students should develop positive attitudes towards themselves and have genuine respect for others. I wanted to remind you about a resource Steve Harrian uh harden. You can look it on the internet. Uh September 26, 2019 the game of school or um the other words you put it the other way around the school game. Um and the levels of learning. I think this is a great article to look at to relation to all students. Um it states that a lot of graduates might say I wasn't one of the smart ones and
125just to get the details from him. It's a good idea to look at that to get a perspective from uh lots of students. Um some students know how to play the game and are high achievers and others have resentment from their high school experience. Now, today I've been listening today about the superintendent's uh efforts. That's great that you go out to talk uh to the parents. That's something that was never done in the past. Um and people are affected by their high school experience with students and superintendent, principles. And the biggest thing is sometimes people do, we've talked about today about speaking over people. Sometimes that can also be done in a quiet way excluding others from conversation in schools. This is the students to the teachers and the students amongst themselves. One of the
126main things that really needs to be reinforced is that so socioeconomic status and ability to be in after school activities often puts a student at a disadvantage. So I'm hoping you'll be able to look at that and think about your own experience. you have a a wide range of ages of in interacting with students who have these concerns. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jen. Next is Shannon Flannry. [clears throat] If >> I got that right. Did I get that right? >> Close. Clarity. >> Clarity. Okay. I couldn't tell if it was an N or a T. >> That's okay. I got handwriting. And I have Amanda with me as well. >> Pardon? Amanda Segan is with me as well. >> We do one speaker at a time. >> So I don't know. We're here
127for the mock trial. So we weren't sure. We signed that. Okay. >> So we can talk now or later. >> We know. We know why you're here. Yeah. Okay. I got it. Yeah. >> Do you want to sit down or back? >> You're fine. >> Okay. You have your thing. I'm happy to answer any questions. We're here in support of the mock trial program that's proposed to come to Coney High School. Um we were here to support as assistant coaches with um the faculty advisor Darren. Um we're attorneys with the DDA's office who presented our age to the majority of you, but we're happy to answer any specific questions anyone. >> We will we will call you up on that agenda item. >> That's how that's what we thank you. Got it. >> I got
128it. William Clarity Clarity. [clears throat] I'm sorry, William. >> I get too many. >> The majority of people trying to stick an eye in there. >> So, my name is William Party. I'm a resident here in Augusta. And um I'm still trying to digest the uh process that you all cobbled together at the start of this meeting, but it really troubles me the intent to stifle free speech on one hand while overindulging free speech on another hand. Speaking [clears throat] as a taxpayer voting voter and resident of Augusta, a lot of what Mr. Orur had to say as Mr. Our makes sense to me. He was critical of students leaving class, taking time out from the school day to protest with a very apparent belief amongst many people that it was done with the tacid
129approval of the school administration over a matter that was very personal to said administration. He had a right to express his feeling at a public protest and you cited Houston as a recent Supreme Court decision. Madam Chair, that was an opinion where the court said a schoolboard member in his interactions with the other or with the school board was subject to censure as long as it's a non-punitive censure. There is no first amendment right involved there. However, you also overlooked and Superintendent Tracy, you also seem to clearly overlook that the Supreme Court this last spring declined to hear cases where students were protesting that their free speech was violated in terms of school disciplinary action or disapproving uh club. So the history of the first amendment for high school students is one with significant constraints
130and and as students in your custody then you have an obligation to a reign in their behavior so that it does not disrupt the school, does not disrupt their education which is your constitutional duty in under the state constitution. You're supposed to be educating the students first. First foremost, that is what's in the constitution. Um, great that they want to be civically active. Great that they went to the council meetings and testified or made public comment on their own time. But as Mr. pointed out. I don't know what the average per day cost is to have a student here in Coney High School, but it's probably pretty significant. And so they were wasting the teachers time, taxpayers money, and it was a legitimate concern. And one last item, and I would recommend you kind of
131annotate this in the minutes, superintendent, I do or I am making an oral public records request for all communications between the school employees, school board members who were in office at the time and any amongst themselves or any outside parties. written communications [clears throat] regarding the student protest both before and after to include any auditory or critical comments but not to include any individual disciplinary actions. [clears throat] >> Thank you. And your time has expired. Thank you, >> Abigail. [clears throat] Leger, >> can I can you say that for me, please? >> Pleased. >> Ledger, are you with the >> I'm also with them. >> We'll have We'll give you a chance then. Okay. Thank you. >> Nick Blanchard, >> I'm going go last. >> Well, your turn is now. Okay. Whatever. Don't worry, I'm
132not going to play a crazy song. I'm actually going to play you guys' own boys. Nick Blanchard, A Gusto, who remembers October 8th, huh? It's the day this school board went worldwide famous when a couple of people stripped to show you guys how uncomfortable it is for young girls when a boy walks into the locker room. Right? You guys remember what you voted on that day if and when the law changes. Thank you Fox. I concur with what member Fortunado said until this is settled law >> and I do think we should revisit the first first thing up here that we should definitely revisit when the law changes when if and when the law changes. >> And so I will be voting yes that if and when these laws change and the courts determine what
133takes precedence and what is law then we will come back here and abide lawfully. >> 6 to2 I keep missing one. 6 to2. The motion passes as read. We will not we will revisit policies ACAA and ACAB if and when the law changes. >> Uh guess what the Supreme Court ruled what last week? >> Yeah. So um what I find funny too is the same people that were crying about budget cuts what a month and a half ago are the same people that want to still allow boys in the girls locker rooms. Keep looking. It's still my time. >> [clears throat] >> which is pretty funny because you know we're going to lose the same amount of money federally that we just lost in the last budget cut 3.2 million, right? So the last budget
134cuts, we just lost 20 uh 20 to 24 positions, teachers, four social workers, edte. We had a city council member come in on the ETH and ask you what your plan B was going to be. And that was before we lost 3 point something million in the last budget cuts. So when we lose another 3 point something million because you don't want to comply with Title 9 because you're still going to Humans Right Act whatever you want to hang your hat on that what are you going to do then? Augusta [clears throat] receives 7 million a year from federal funding. We lost the Latin program last time. What are we going to do? Are you going to allow students to protest that budget cut? Are you going to allow a bunch of students to protest
135them losing federal funds? Is the principal going to help them organize it? It was on my live video that day of her telling what students can and what students can't go. You guys were all there walkie-talkies, but yet you guys had [clears throat] no control over it. I mean, one kids, one uh parents kid didn't even come back and you guys didn't even know. >> My time is up. Okay, that's fine. >> You're a damn hypocrite. And Mike Tracy, here's your balls back. He's telling this monkey to give him back and get off the tit. Next, Stephanie Sangit. >> Hello, Lord. I am Stephanie Singwitz, resident of Augusta, city council member, but here in my capacity as a parent of two kids in the Augusta school district. Um, I wanted to thank the staff for
136a really strong end to the school year last June. Last June, a month ago, it feels like longer. Um, we had a great last week at the elementary schools. Had field days and lots of like special events, special um, goodbyes for a lot of the administrators. They're shifting this year and that was really really wonderful to see the kids have a strong end to the year and start to the summer. Um, I also wanted to thank the administrative team and the staff for pursuing so many grants this year. Uh, particularly the Later start grant. I'm very enthused to hear about the ways that staff are incorporating current research and best practices about particularly teen mental health and how we can support that as a community. And I think we're seeing that. We're hearing that nationally.
137We're seeing it in the city of Augusta. Parents are talking about it. So seeing our school district look into this in the ways that we can support our students is really important and I would advocate for uh pursuing every aspect of this grant and then when the community has time to weigh in uh moving forward with whatever changes that ends up looking like once the community has been able to say what they're um looking for because I think this is an opportunity for us to help set our kids up for a bright future as they're getting this leap that they so desperately need as teenagers. So, thank you for these things that kind of go above and beyond and I look forward to seeing how that plays out. Um, the last thing is I was
138very excited to see the data for the state of the schools. I do love digging into that. And one of the things I'm wondering about as either a member of the public or when you come to city council is um rates of change over time. I know that our COVID years uh were very difficult across the state nationally and in the city of Augusta. And I'm wondering um as someone who really likes to dive into research, how our schools are measuring up in terms of coming back from that deficit that was experienced pretty much nationally. Um and seeing the rate at which those scores are changing over time so that we can see are our kids catching up quickly even if they started at a deficit. Are they moving more quickly? Um which is really
139the variable that I'm looking for. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you for helping organize. >> Next is Janessa Giant James. >> I'm gonna pass today. Thank you. >> And next is Amanda [clears throat] >> Ber. Is that your last name? >> Bowen. Thank you. [clears throat] >> So, I wasn't prepared. I didn't know I was coming here today and I didn't know what I was going to say. I didn't even know I could talk. But I am disappointed on how you guys always treat them. I do see you guys on the TV and you're always shutting them down. Right. I think you're terrified for anybody who goes against you. >> Okay. I had a special needs child in coding. I had to pull them out. Do you know why? Cuz the teachers
140lie. You guys have so much bullying going on, right? And I called. You know what the principal said? She had no control. She said smoking, right? pancing. I didn't even know what pancing was. It's when everybody's pulling each other's pants down, right? Super inappropriate. I pulled my school, my kid from school. I sent you guys a letter, right? A long letter. You're so You say you're so worried about the kids. You didn't even respond to me. >> You didn't even respond. >> Shame. >> Why? Why? Not only is that your job, oh, and get this. I called you guys for weeks. Four weeks. You guys didn't answer the phones. And do you know what? When I got a hold of somebody and I confronted her, she said, "We haven't been answering the phones because of
141what's going on." And I knew what's going on, but I played dumb. I said, "What do you mean what's going on?" So, she purposely weren't answering the phones. I told her, "You guys can't do that. It's your job. It's your responsibility." Even in the whole walk out with the school, guess what? I talked to a state of calm. They said that the school called ahead of time and told them. I said, "No way." I said, "Who?" >> They said, "I don't know." >> The other thing, your students, you know, the students don't like you guys. So, I don't even know how you guys got them to go down there because you know what all the students say? >> You guys sent them down there. You did. and they're either afraid to say so or they
142said that you guys said that they'll get detention if they say something about it. So either way, when you say the children, the children, the children, you bring in these numbers, right? My kid was failing. I tried to talk to you guys about it. You didn't even respond. So you sit there proud as a peacock and I am sticking my stomach. No, really. I am I'm just disappointed in all of you guys. Really? And that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> Good job. Darren, >> you >> Darren Joyce. >> Darren. Oh, you're with those guys. Okay, got it. >> I have a person. I don't know if she's a resident or not. The name is Lisa. Do I have a last name? Do I have a last name? >> Gagy. >> Are
143you an Augusta resident? >> Nope. Belgree. Sorry. [sighs] Can I start? >> So, first thing I want to address is I was a witness with James during the walk out. He did not call any student, any names. What he did say was, "This is stupid. This should not be happening. These children should be in school. They should not be walking out and none of the administration should have allowed it. The problem that I have is that man sitting right there with his sob story. Poor me. I'm in recovery. [clears throat] Guess what? I'm in recovery, too. Do not use that excuse to be for you being a woman reader. Okay? It is not hearsay. It is not rumors. Everything that I passed out is public knowledge. He was convicted. And the fact that you guys
144are demonizing a veteran. And then you let this guy sit here that has been convicted of harming. This has nothing to do with his recovery. Let me just make that clear. His abuse has nothing to do with his recovery. I acknowledge his recovery. I commend him. It is a hard journey. I'm doing it myself. Please conduct your comments to the board. Thank you. >> I'm doing it myself. But the one thing he's not going to get is sympathy from me or anybody else here for putting his hands on a woman multiple times. And he's not going to say that they're rumors and that they're falsehoods because that that means he it's I got a minute left. That means he's calling me a liar. And all of this is not lies. So I have a big
145problem. We have good versus evil. Everything is inverted. How do you people sleep at night demonizing a veteran who is actually trying to help these children? >> Amen. You've got city council members handing out ponchos during the walk out. Does that make any sense to you? >> To the board, please. >> Does that make any sense to you, Muffy? >> She's handing out ponchos, handing out donuts. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? And you're allowing this guy to sit here that has abused women to make policy decisions for our children >> when he decides to show up. >> Mike, I know that you're a conservative Christian and I know Shelby, you're a Christian, too. How do you guys do it? [clears throat] How are you allowing all of this to happen?
146And all the federal funding that I hear, all these numbers that I hear, you're not going to get it. You're not abiding by the title N. So abide by the title N because it it was voted six to three. So if you want the federal money, start choosing the children. >> Amen. >> Thank you, >> Rhonda Snder. Uh, some of you may know me as the elected register of probate for Kennet County, but I am here in my capacity as a private citizen tonight. So, here we are again with what I think is the absolute clown show known as the Augusta Board of Education, where there is absolutely no selfawareness. You're all here tonight with a censure with James Lord's name on it. Again, we all know this means nothing more and it's just a
147public shaming. So, what's next? You're going to build a pillery in the middle of this and start throwing rotten fruit at James while he's locked in a scarlet letter. A shame mask from the olden days. Every complaint or violation against James Oes that you you found him guilty on tonight is patently false and can be proven false. There is video where a student says he did not call you stupid. He said this is stupid. But you all convicted a man based on hearsay and lies. I hope you feel great about that. So, I have, you know, in fact, I I think tonight was nothing more than a form of defamation by all of you against James. I think he should hire an attorney and look into that because I have thoroughly reviewed the code of
148ethics, duties, and responsibilities of board members. And based on my review of video and other evidence, you're lying that he said those things. Lies. >> So, how can you bring a censure based on lies and hearsay? you can't. And I watched the vote and I'm very observant and I'll tell you what I saw. A couple of you wanted to vote no until you got a hostile glare from Miss Wam and then your [clears throat] hands went up. That looks like a hostile and bullying work environment to me. So if anybody on this board needs censure, it should start with Miss Wam herself. Miss Wii who knowingly and willingly violated speak violated speaker's constitutional rights by gleefully enforcing an unconstitutional policy an unconstitutional policy about which she was warned multiple times including by the county's preeminent
149first amend amendment rights law firm fire and she was made aware that it was unconstitutional by everyone except the people who should have known it was unconstitutional yet they didn't the law firm of from and Woodsome. [clears throat] The next century should be for all of the cowards who refuse to stand up to Miss Wam and her violation of people's first amendment rights and let her run wild, racking up constitutional violation after constitutional violation. As a result, all of you who did not stand up to her are responsible for the board of education being sued in federal court for federal federal civil rights violations, which will likely end in a payment of thousands and thousands of dollars for said violations. Good job. >> Good job. >> That was that was item 28. Next is we
150have no unfinished business. Item 22, new business. >> Oh, I'll entertain a motion to approve the second reading. Um, I I want to make a motion to approve items I think it was a items 22 A through E as one item as all second readings of policy is second. It's been moved and seconded to approve items A through E as one. >> Do I have to make it a motion? Do I have to approve the motion as a first? We got a first and second >> to take to take it as a slate. >> Yeah. Do I have to approve taking as a slate before I approve the vote? >> Okay. I'm um I have a motion and a second to approve policies in items A through E that include GDB plan for non-represented personnel,
151GCOA supervision and evaluation of professional staff, GCO evaluation of administrative staff, JICJ cell phones and other personal electronic devices and BEA schoolboard use of electronic mail. Discussion hearing none. I'll vote and the aforementioned policies have been approved with a vote of five to zero. I will now entertain a motion to approve the second reading of be of um I'll >> I want to make a can I >> go right ahead. I want to make a motion to approve an overnight professional welding trip for Tom Rankkins to attend the teaching adult multilingual learners summer institute at Sugarloaf July 13th through the 14th >> with the addition >> uh oh my >> chin >> with the addition of Chin Lynn. >> Thank you. Do we have a second? It's been moved and seconded discussion hearing none. Please
152vote. And in our vote of five to zero, the motion has been approved for an overnight professional develop trip for Tom Rankkins and Chinglin to attend the teaching adult multi-learners summer institute in Sugarlo July 13th through the 14th. I will now entertain a motion to approve the support staff contract. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Discussion. Liapello, >> I'm just looking at the agreement now. Looks like it's a three-year contract. Any highlights from the negotiation process worth noting >> for the support staff contracts? >> No, I'm just thinking out loud. The the I mean overall the support staff ratified it. Um there were very limited uh language changes. >> Okay. And the uh increases were three point [laughter] three. [clears throat] >> Sorry, it's late. >> Yeah, I'm I'm not
153I don't want to say it. I don't want to say it because I don't want to say the wrong numbers, but it was between three and under 4%. Ended at 375. And >> and we're still continuing to work to make the contracts consistent. So there were some language changes to make the contracts consistent not with the amount of money but with the language. >> There were no major changes. >> Can I when you say consistent do you mean across the different um bargaining units? >> Yes. Okay. Correct. >> So that if we offer paternal leave we offer it to all bargaining units. >> Please vote. And on a vote of five up to zero the motion to approve the support staff has passed. I want to make a motion to approve the Ram debates and
154mock my trial club as a probationary club at Coney. Second, >> it's been moved and seconded. Discussion, we would like to invite you up now. >> I will preface this by saying the curriculum education committee was um had a preview of this, but it's very exciting. So, if you will share what your plan is with the rest of the board, it would be wonderful. >> Yes, absolutely. My name is Amanda Seekens. I'm an assistant district attorney here at the kinetic da's office. I'm here with Shannon. She's likewise an attorney with my office. Um Darren Joyce who is going to be the faculty coach. I don't know the tech and one of the student members Abby. Um I don't even know your last name. >> Ledger. Abby Ledger. Um this started as a group that Darren
155and Abby started meeting about last fall and it was essentially a debate current event club. Um, through mine and Shannon's involvement in the DA's office, we came to learn that Coney does not offer a mock trial team. For those of you who are unfamiliar, a mock trial is essentially if you were to combine theater and um public speaking and court simulation allin one um you get actual case files and you analyze them under rules of evidence and you compete on a state level that's judged the final round at least is judged by usually supreme court justice I'm sorry law court justice chief justice >> Valerie Stanville um and it would give your students a real opportunity to meet members of the legal community, practice real life skills, analyze evidence, practice public speaking, different theater skills,
156have experience to put on their resumes and college applications. Um, and really see what potential they have to move forward in community roles and legal involvement, whether that's as attorneys or parillegals or other roles in the legal profession. Um, we are hopeful that we can pull a team together if approved as a club or probationary club for this fall to compete. Um, I don't know if it will happen, but we're going to try to do it. Ask with your support. I think Abby is going to help us bring the students in and the attorneys in my office are excited to mentor some of the next generations of attorneys that we're going to see. So, we're happy to answer any questions you might have. Um, and if anybody else wants to talk about it, >> I
157was just gonna ask if either um, Miss Litkum or Mr. Tracy, can you explain to board members who might be new on how this whole probationary to a club thing works? >> Sure. Um, I guess I'll start. We we made a tweak, the board made a tweak a few couple of years ago in reference to a two-year probation and then a once the probationary period's over and it's determined that um they want to continue as a real real club, if you will, then the board comes back to the board to approve that. And then after that the um board has to negotiate whether there's a supply money and stipen money for coaches etc in the next round of negotiation. So it's there's a new we've added the third step was it's there wasn't an automatic
158stipen once it's approved by the board which has historically been been the way it was. But did I miss something? Yeah, I just add that um basically what starts to happen is there's interest either with a faculty advisor um or students come forward um and they become an interest group because potentially there may not be interest, right? So they're going to generate that interest to see if students are wanting to be a part of something like that. They can either go in a month to you guys or six months to you guys or even they could be an interest group for two years. Um and then once they decide that there's interest um it's sustained interest then we come to you for probationary approval and then two years later as um superintendent Tracy said um
159to full group but I just want to know that the process is kind of organic and grassroots um from interest from students >> and would you explain the advantage of being probationary over interest? Yeah. So, the interest group cannot um leave campus or expend funds um because they're just determining interest groups. And we've had like um photography club or guitar club um that just never kind of continued. Um it had student interest, but maybe it was just that subset of students. Um and so for these guys to be able to participate in the mock trial process, they need to be able to leave campus. Um and so also wanting to fund raise. So they really um to be able to move forward, they need to be able to to move to that probationary group. That's
160why they move quickly from the interest group to the probationary. >> And I also found exciting when you did your probation, you said when they have the mock trials, the public can attend. >> Absolutely. >> It's actually the last championship, which again we were always hopeful, but the last championship was actually done in the formal uh main Supreme Court uh courtroom in at the district court here in Augusta. So they're very very much involved and Chief Justice Stanton who is the chief justice of the main Supreme Court was there. She's actually been involved in the mock trial for years when she was just an attorney when she was working in Lewon. It's also fun to have some competitiveness that's not just sports. I know Cony's very big on sports. I'm very supportive of that, but
161it might be good to have an alternative for people who might not be as athletically inclined or in interested in that type of stuff. >> The other thing that struck me in your presentation was how surprised you were that in the capital city we did not have one. I was very surprised. I was a judge on the national competition or the state competition uh the final competition with Chief Justice Stanville. And when I had asked about Con because I was going to try to figure out if I could maybe volunteer or volunteer us, there was no team. And for Coney, which is right down the street from the state capital and right down the street from one of the biggest courouses and is the capital of the state. I was very surprised by that. So
162that's kind of how this started. >> Questions? Member Barry Pierce. Thank you. Uh, how can members of the community, including attorneys, get involved with the [laughter] uh, trial and debate? You can always take emails and suggestions. Um, Amanda Dhy, who actually works with the administrative section of the court, who you might be familiar with. She's the one who runs the program. So, she can't necessarily give a lot of information one-on-one. She has to not be she can give information, but she has to be independent because she is the one who runs it. But you can always email us and we can always talk about it. Especially for Con. I know that our office, specifically DA Maloney, is very invested in this as well as our other attorneys in our office. And we're excited to have
163as many mentors, including non not just prosecutors. It's good to have other attorneys from other um perspectives that would give students a good insight about how to be a lawyer and not just a prosecutor. It's >> exciting when you bring this up to other attorneys and their responses. Oh yeah, I did that in high school. I became an attorney. That's why I went to law school. That's why I found it in college and that's why I ended up going to law school. And that's universally the response we've gotten when we talk about this. >> And to not have that here means there might be some kids who won't have that opportunity until later. And that's something that I don't think is maybe the best option for coming students. >> Yeah. No, I'm just incredibly excited
164about the club as someone who chairs the curriculum education. That was a really exciting presentation that she gave and to have student and faculty voice at the forefront. I was one of those not athletically inclined people and I competed in speech which is slightly but I had my world opened up um for public speaking for friends I made for other schools I saw for the coaches that I created very deep relationships with that I didn't have as classroom teachers that opened up my my whole entire uh future career then as an educator um so I'm and and as a capital city for Augusta yes you have the justices here you have the lawyers here, you have the courouses here. Our students should be exposed, our students should be mentored and coached so that opportunities in
165law uh or any other public service uh is something that they have experience here in high school. So, thank you so much to all of you for uh for starting this this I think this is huge for our kids. >> Other questions or comments from board members? Hearing none, please vote. And on a mo on a vote of five to zero, the motion passes for the approval of the Rams debate and mock trial [clears throat] club as a probationary platform. The next is I'll entertain a motion to adopt the resolution entitled resolution to authorize lease purchase of security cameras in the principal amount of $194,855.96 be adopted and form presented to this meeting. >> So move would you make a motion to commence with the reading? >> Yes. I would I would move that we
166dispense with the reading and continue to the vote. >> Any objections? No. >> Hearing none discussion. Does anybody want to have a comment on what this is about over there? Mr. Stony or somebody? >> Yeah, I Mr. Stony, would you come up to the podium? >> You're still here. >> So, um, in short, this is the camera system that Mr. Stonier has presented. It's a multipleyear commitment, which is why you're we've got some legal language and a resolution that business manager Ross put before you this evening. And if you've got questions again on what the system is or why we're prepared this resolution tonight, either Miss Ross or Mr. Stone can answer those questions. >> I know we covered it really well, but this was just legal language that we needed to shore up to
167protect us. >> Okay, discussion. Do we have a copy of the contract? Uh I I'm just wondering do we have a copy here? Is that that is okay? >> No, we we run all of our contracts that have these kinds of commitments through legal. >> So they have been run through legal. >> The reason I ask is just because I understand I was at the June meeting and I heard language around the relying on the company not to turn on particular facial recognition. Um recognition. >> Yeah. And I understand um I appreciate that commitment. I am just wondering what the collateral consequences of violating that would be under the contract. So that's that's the only question I had about that because I do I I do have concerns especially given that there is a main
168law on the books that >> if they violated that main law as far as I'm concerned we would swiftly move to remove them from any entity that we >> understood. But I'm just asking what the actual >> the company was adamant that no, we will not be doing that because of what you just said. It's in our law that we're not to do that. So, we will not be doing that. But I I can ask if you've got the question of what are the legal ramifications if said contract was breached >> in that particular manner. [laughter] >> Yeah, I can we can look at that for you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Further disc further discussion or questions? Hearing none, please vote. And on a vote of 5 to zero, the resolution entitled
169resolution to authorize lease purchase of security cameras in the amount of $194,855.96 is adopted in form presented at this meeting. Did you need Where is Michelle? Did you need this copy back that resolution? [clears throat] That is our last item other than an executive session that we will go into. However, before we do, I'd like to just review for the public who are watching or are still here a reminder that there will not be a building committee meeting on July 22nd. However, there will be a special meeting. And is that special meeting going to be before 6:30? Mike, what's the thoughts on that? >> I'm hoping we could start that a little earlier that night, like like the 5:30 number. Um, let me just confirm that we are going to be able to do that.
170Unless we've got unless there's >> what's the word? >> Push back. Thank you. Can we do 5:30? >> What members thoughts >> for the most most of you? Okay, let's go with let's just go with 5:30. >> 5:30 for the special meeting and that will probably take like 10 15 minutes, >> right? Because we'll have some hiring to do. Yep. and then the board will move right into their work. >> And then in August, August 3rd, we will be having our finance, personnel, and policy committee meetings here in the CATC cafeteria. They'll start at 5:30, then 6:30, then 7:30. On August 12th, there will be a curriculum education committee meeting at 5:30 here in the conference room, followed by the board business meeting at 7 o'clock. There is a building committee scheduled for August 26
171at 5:30 here and again followed by an August 26th board's workshop. And with that said, I will entertain a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA subsection 405 section 6A regarding a personnel to evaluate the superintendent. >> Do I have a second? >> Discussion hearing none. Please vote. And on a vote of five to zero, we are now entering into executive session. Um, there won't be a vote taking. You're welcome to wait for us to come out if you need to finish that whatever you're knitting there. Or you can >> just need to finish one row. >> Or you can STAY AND FINISH THE WHOLE THING.