4/8/2026 Board of Education Business Meeting

001Welcome everybody to this evening's Augusta Board of Education business meeting. It is April 8th, 2026 and we are here in the CATC cafeteria. At this moment, I'd like you all to stand alsible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd also like to thank the CATD students who made the wood bases for our name tags here. They did a great job. It looks nice. So, we'll make sure that Mr. Canon will thank the students for that. Thank you very much, Nick. Uh, we [clears throat] have an adjustment to the agenda. I'd like to make a motion to add item 22G of the outofstate travel to the New England Association of Math Leagues meet with Josh Pollen and six students. >> I'll second that motion. >> The motion has been made and seconded to add agenda item

002number 22G, which is request for an out ofstate trip for the math league. discussion hearing. None please vote on a vote of six to zero. The adjustment has been added to the agenda. Next is education um educational presentations. And I do believe we have RKO here with us this evening. Mr. Tracy, if you would like to cue that up. >> I'll just ask the businessman looking at here. >> Sure. Um so Mr. Go our CPA from RKO is going to present um a summary of our fiscal year 24 audit um as is stated in um main regulations when we complete audit. >> Welcome Mr. Gil. >> Thank you for having me. Um as said I'm going over the financial overview for 2024 and the audit results. Um I do apologize for the delays that the

003audit wasn't tracked out quite a bit because of some staffing issues on our end. Um but we finally brought it to a conclusion and I'm going to go over some of the results here for you tonight. Um just high level stuff uh talking mostly about the general fund where most of your revenues and expenditures flow through um and then going over some of the um other findings that we have as part of the audit process. So uh the audit process itself is designed to render an opinion on the financial statements as to whether or not they are fairly presented in all material respects in accordance with all accounting standards and principles. I use that uh kind of qualifier there in all material respects. It's basically a fancy way of saying that we don't test 100%

004of transactions. uh we do a risk-based audit approach where we assess risk by looking at internal controls, testing those internal controls and then using that information we are able to assess risk and kind of focus our testing where we think we might find um some errors or misstatements. Um one of the byproducts of that uh risk assessment process is the opportunity to offer some recommendations and um some chances to improve operating efficiency and things of that nature. Um, and so those are some of the items that you see on this uh slide right here. Uh, before I do that, I should back up one second. Um, I mentioned the whole purpose of the audit is to render an opinion on financial statements. You'll see the first bullet point there is an unmodified opinion. If you're

005wondering what that means, it's basically a clean opinion. It means that we do believe that financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects in accordance with the whole county standards and principles. Um so going back to the kind of comments and recommendations uh that I just mentioned um we're required by government auditing standards to put those recommendations into three categories. Uh the most severe being material weakness. Those are items that you really want to pay attention to. You want to correct immediately um because it could lead to a significant material misstatement of your financial statements. Um the next level down would be significant deficiency. not quite as severe, but something that you really also want to pay attention to. You want to create an action plan and correct that as well. Um, and then

006the kind of the lowest level, the third level is just kind of other comments, general recommendations. These are things that are best practices um that we really think we should implement, [laughter] but it's not just necessarily urgent or would have a significant effect on the financial statements themselves. So, I'm glad to report there were no material weaknesses for fiscal year 2024. Um there was one significant deficiency related to the school. Um and this was kind of a school kind of joint thing related to the maintenance of capital asset records. We found a few items that were not recorded in the records. There was some missing assets uh that we detected as a result of our audit procedures. Um we also found that some of the depreciation calculations um were not accurate. Um again, this was

007something that's kind of done in conjunction with the city. They do a lot of the capital asset stuff as well, but it does relate somewhat to the school. So, I figured I'd mention it here tonight. All the other city and city department stuff I tried to crop out as much as I could. Uh, so that was the only significant deficiency that the other items you see there are other kind of general recommendations. Uh, one item there is the the fresh fruit and vegetable program, the documentation. Um, we found a few invoices that were missing. Some of the documentation was a little spotty in areas. nothing significant, no no large invoices or anything like that. Um but it just made it a little bit difficult to verify the accuracy and allowability under that program. Um that

008was specifically at the Fington School. Uh the next item you see there is the high school activity fund documentation. We frequently have recommendations and comments related to the school activity fund. So this is very common in school districts that I go to um where you know sometimes the documentation gets lost because there's a lot of different people teachers secretaries involved in that process. Um so we found that um specifically really like scholarship awards there wasn't a lot of documentation on who was receiving those reports and awards and why. Um the third bullet point under the public comments was the ESSER time allocations. Um the federal grant regulations here say that you have to allocate employee time to grants based on actual time spent on the grant. You can't allocate it based on a budget estimate.

009Um and in in some instances there was a handful of employees that hadn't been corrected to actual. So they were still being allocated based on a budget estimate. Again it wasn't significant wasn't material to the grant. Um but really you should be doing that based on um actual time spent on grant activities. And then the last comment on this page is non-compliance with laws and regulations. As you'll see on the following slides, school expenditures were uh the total budget was exceeded by approximately 108,000. Um anytime you exceed your appropriation, you're exceeding your authority to spend. It is technically a non-compliance with the law. Any questions on those comments before I continue? >> Um member Pel for that non-compliance the school expenditures is that does that mean that does it matter when we move from a

010cost center to another to pay for uh like a certain cost center that has >> like what does that really mean and maybe I need that explained >> so this is referring to the budget in total so yeah you can you can allocate 5% [laughter] and transfer that between budget categories um and if there are certain budget categories that are over spent you'll see that in the following slides It's specifically special education was was overspent, but in total $108,000 over total appropriation. All right, continue on. Another part of the audit process is the reports required by the uniform guidance. This is our testing over the federal grant funds that the school receives. Anytime you receive more than $750,000 in federal awards and you expend them during the year, you're required to what's called we're required

011to have what's called a single audit or a uniform guidance audit. Uh it's a very similar process to a financial statement audit. It's a risk assessment process where we determine uh which programs we're going to test because we can't test all the programs. Um there's a dollar threshold also involved in that in that calculation. Um so in 2024 we narrowed it down to three programs. uh the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds, the ESSER funds and then also the child nutrition the child nutrition cluster. Um under the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds in the child nutrition cluster there were no findings. Um under the esser fund there were some items we had to report. Again we classified those into those three categories that I mentioned earlier. In this instance we had two

012material weaknesses to report under the program. [snorts] Um, specifically, again, kind of going back to the capital asset, um, comment that we had previously, uh, tracking fally funded assets is a requirement of grants. Uh, anytime you spend your grant money on equipment, vehicles, whatever it may be, uh, and it's spent with federal funds, they want you to track that because if you wind up selling that vehicle or that equipment, they want to recoup their money. Um, so there was no documentation in place to track those federally funded assets. Um so we would recommend implementing that um not just on the ESSER grant but on any grant that involves um equipment purchases. And then also under the ESER fund there was the Davis Bacon wage rate requirements that were uh not compliant with. Um this is

013a pretty common grant requirement across different federal grants. um basically says that anytime you spend money using federal funds on construction projects, you have to ensure that the uh laborers involved are paid the prevailing wage rates. And usually you document that by getting certified payroll forms from the contractor, reviewing those, ensuring that they are, you know, meeting thresholds that are set out by the Department of Labor. uh we found that there were some construction projects under uh the ESR funds and those uh payroll certification forms were not necessarily um collected and received related to those projects. And then also certain language that required the the that required the contractor to submit those documentation and those forms to the school was missing in some of the contracts. Uh so just kind of one of those things

014where you need to follow up on Generally any federal program they usually make the Davis Baker requirements something applicable. Um so anytime there's construction you need to be aware that that is a requirement questions on those ch uh now we can kind of dive into some of the uh the financial information. These are just kind of snapshots of some key information. Uh there is a lot more information in the actual financial statements themselves. There's the statements and then all the notes that go with it. So if you're interested in more detail, um I I can answer any questions, but also I would encourage you to read the notes. Um uh so here we have the general fund fund balance. Uh this is basically uh a snapshot in time. Uh looking at kind of your balance

015sheet. If you took all your assets and satisfied all your liabilities, theoretically, what would you have left over to kind of utilize moving forward? Um, so you can see there's a trend kind of upward from 2020 to 2022 and then it starts to decline. Um, and so in 2023 to 2024, there was a decline about $2.9 million uh in your fund balance. Um, and if you look at that assigned line uh that's in the chart there, a lot of that is budgeted use of your fund balance. So in most years you're budgeting more expenditures than revenues that you collect and you're budgeting to utilize some of your reserves of your fund balance that you have from prior years. Um so in a sense you're kind of budgeting to incur a loss and in this case

016uh the loss of 2.9 million was actually lower than the 3.4 that was kind of allocated. So, how do you get to a $2.9 million uh fund balance change? Um, it basically goes down to your revenues and your expenditures. Um, here you can see your general fund revenues came in under budget by about 2.8 million. Again, that's due to the utilization of your priority surplus budgeted revenue number, but it doesn't result in any actual real revenues, additional revenues being received because they've already been collected in the past. Um, so that accounts for that large variance there that we see. Now, on the expenditure side of things, uh, this is where we get into that non-compliance and these things overspent your appropriations by $108,000. Um, you can see the big item there is the special education.

017Um, which is kind of notoriously hard to predict. Sometimes you have students that move into the district with additional needs that you you're required to service. Um, so that really can balloon your costs quite a bit. Um, this is probably the most common area where I see, you know, school budgets are overspent is because it's very hard to predict sometimes. Um, luckily that was offset somewhat by some savings in other categories. Uh, mostly due to unfilled positions at the time. Here's another way. I'm just kind of looking at the revenue distribution for uh the general fund. Um, it should be no surprise that most of your funding comes from local assessments and then intergovernmental revenues. There's a small percentage, roughly 2% or less, that comes from other miscellaneous fees and things like that. Um, but

018the bulk of it is your local assessments and uh intergovernmental revenues. um which for the most part intergovernmental holding steady over the last couple years for the general fund. Now we're looking at the expenditures. Uh this pie chart is just kind of showing you where you're spending most of your money. Uh if you were to take this chart and kind of lay it over the chart that we had for the the 2023 audit, you'd see pretty minimal changes that for the most part your your biggest spending area is regular instruction and special education is using always second. Um the the big change from the prior year is that regular instruction is actually down about 1.8%. uh where special education is up about 3%. Again, because of what we saw on the previous slide where there

019were some additional student needs that were unexpected and that [laughter] kind of shifted the ratios a little bit. Um and the only other real change from the prior year was the student and staff support kind of declined. Everything else kind of holds steady from year to year. And then lastly, there are all the other funds. Um, up until now, we've been kind of talking about the general fund, which again, which is where most of your revenues and expenditures flow through. Um, but you do have other funds, and this is where you account for your grants, um, your student activities, adult ed, school lunch program, and things like that. Those are all kind different funds uh, to track them separately. Uh, and again, we're looking at the fund balance here. So what you have kind of

020left at year end. Um the special revenue funds aka the grants really not a huge change from year to year. Most of the grants are on a reimbursement basis. So as you spend them you get reimbured. So there's really nothing left over for future year spending. Um adult education and adult and enrichment both increased kind of moderately. Uh student activities um those those are there. Um you really don't have much say in how those are spent. those are collected and they're restricted for the specific programs that are that they're donated for. Um, and so those can fluctuate from year to year based on the timing of collections and receipts and when the programs are kind of going on. Uh, so the big change on this slide is actually uh the school lunch fund uh which

021declined about $170,000 from the prior year. Um, and and most of that is related to the decline in intergovernmental revenue. Um and then also costs increased as well whether those were payroll cost or or food cost or supply costs. Uh so that led to that kind of decline in school lunch for 204. And that is the last slide that I have for you. I know that was kind of very quick very short little snapshot. If there's any additional questions I can take those out. Any questions from board members regarding the FY24 audit presentation? >> Board member Hicks, >> I thought we're 1 million over. Where did that how do we get to that? >> He's talking about the cost center for special education that was public >> and that's in that slide. Yeah, I pulled

022it up here. Yeah. >> And I don't know if you want me to answer. >> So the remainder of the funds in regular education, other places in the budget would cover that over but the total amount expenses exceeded the revenue. So that 1078,000 would basically be pulled from your your reserves or your fund balance in the prior years. >> Any other questions from board members? Board member. >> My understanding, this is more for our administration, is that we've talked about the Davis Bacon. So basically because the word findings and things come up here I feel as though you you guys have both expressed that there have been new processes in place now for the scholarship fund correct and then the ESR. >> So I don't know if you want to speak to the fact that

023some of these we've spoken informally in meetings about the corrections that have been made since these findings. >> I appreciate you giving us an opportunity to speak about material weaknesses or findings. Yep. >> And I'll let Janine talk about the details. But if you remember this is FY24. So, we're in the middle of an FY25 audit currently [clears throat] and then we received the FY23 audit a few months back. The FY there were findings or the findings in the FY23 audit that resembled in my opinion the same kinds of things came out [laughter] in reference to the the ESSER funds, the use of the federal funds. the Davis bank piece and the other the other one specifically related to quote [clears throat] corona financial relief funds. >> Um to me it's this it was the

024same uh thing that was identified both years >> and we had we're in the process of correcting that with the city. So, some of those things will carry over things that happened between us and the city that we needed to correct. And and J, I don't know if you want to talk about the specifics of some of those things that we've done to correct. >> Um, I can definitely talk about the school nutrition program and the activity funds specifically. I think a lot of the changes concerning capital assets were done before I arrived. Um, so I'm working with the current updated system. Um so as far as um the fresh fruits and vegetable program that was addressed with our um current nutrition director again we had a change in staffing between um this financial data

025and um the documentation that was submitted and now um so I've met with the current nutrition director um and she has a very thorough plan for how to correct that and make sure it does not happen. Um, and I'm signing a lot of her requisitions and they are uh very detailed and have all the document attached. Um, so I'm fairly confident that that should not occur in the future. Um, and then as far as the activity funds, um, we brought the activity fund policy to the policy committee. Um, there was an addition to scholarship documentation. I've communicated that back to appropriate parties and they've been great about moving forward. Um, again, I have to sign all of those documents every two weeks and I can definitely see the change in the documentation um being very

026thorough. Um, so again, I I feel that that won't be the case moving into the future. >> Any other questions from board? And >> did you have a question? I can board member Parks. >> Um, in the next couple of years, we're going to be spending a lot of money for contractors for the ext expansion of Bington School and this Davis Bacon wage rate. What are we doing to ensure that that will not be a problem? >> Yeah. in that future. >> I'll address the two areas. One was the the asset federal assets were purchased from federal monies. Um we we do a very good job to keep track of those. The issue at the time of auditing was the communication between us and the city. There wasn't a clear mechanism for tracking assets between

027us and the city. We were tracking our own federal assets here. So that process has been corrected between us and the city. And then the second piece was uh the Davis Bacon act as a prevailing wage requirement when we do request for proposals and we have those in our request for proposals but the responses from some of the contractors at the time did not provide that information. So, um, whether it was us not doing, you know, a thorough inspection of the RFPs that came in or, uh, whether we weren't clear with the information we requested at the time, not every RFP came in with those prevailing wage listed, which is why what they picked up in the auditing. That has since been corrected. We're very clear on any henceforth RFPs that go out that we'll

028have that in there. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Any other questions? Hearing none. Thank you, Mr. Gil. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> The next item is an executive session and I will entertain a motion. [laughter] I make a motion to enter an executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA subsection 4056A regarding personnel. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA subsection 4056A regarding personnel discussion hearing none please vote and on a vote of 6 to1 we will now enter executive session. What this means for the audience is we will be going into that room. You're welcome to stay here and once we come out we won't take any action in our executive session. When we come out there may or may not be a vote that

029does take place. Okay. Thank you. [laughter] >> Yeah, they got these >> [laughter] >> right over there. Watch. experience. But I think they do a lot more things. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> This is my prepared. >> [laughter] >> Fashion [laughter] both of them. Both of them. [laughter] What do you think? Good girl. Have a great [laughter] mind. >> [laughter] >> Right. Yeah. [clears throat] Can I hold it? He's in your chair. Right. How long I just need her. That's the only thing. I also like [laughter] Yeah. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> That was good. By the way, yeah. You send me You almost want to But that can also bring up that little area. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Right. >> So you I think that >> [laughter] >> Oh my gosh. Well, yes. [laughter]

030Yeah. >> [laughter] >> She said she would. >> Yeah. Yeah, you're not >> [laughter] >> the whole day. [laughter] >> I don't know. I'll entertain a motion to exit. Are we on, Caitlyn? I'll entertain a motion to exit from executive session. >> I make a motion to exit the executive session. >> I second. It's been moved and seconded. Discussion hearing. None. Please vote. And [clears throat] at a vote of six to zero, we are out of executive session. Number seven, approval of the minutes. I will entertain a motion. I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes from the board of education business [clears throat] meeting for March 11th, 2026. >> And oh, and from the workshops on the February 9th, 2026, March 2nd, March 9th, and March 16th. >> I'll second. It's been

031moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the Augusta Board of Education business meeting on March 11th and the Augusta Board of Education budget workshops on February 9th, March 2nd, March 9th, and March 16th. Discussion hearing none, please vote. And on a vote of six to zero, the motion to accept those minutes has been approved. The next item on the agenda is the superintendence report. >> Mr. Superintendent Tracy. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening and everyone. Um, just a couple of updates. I know my report's written and online, but uh, I wanted to give you a quick update on LD226. I told you that's the uh, E279 funding formula bill. As recent as today, I heard that there's still I thought it made it out of committee. I think I told you that last,

032but I it seems as though it's strangled back to committee and they were working out a few more details. Um, I think, excuse me, there were about 30 districts in the state of Maine that would stand to lose. Uh, they they hate it when superintendents call it winners and losers, but for example, Augusta would be a winner if the um legislation were passed. There are about 30 districts that would be losers. some of those very small like under $10,000 amounts but there is about t 10 to a dozen school departments that would lose sizable amounts of money. So there was some work being done you can imagine the advocacy with some of those school departments at the legis at the committee level the legislature. So they are looking at things like holding hold harmless provisions

033where you have a tiered approach or a transition period of say 3 years to you know you get you do a for those that would be harmed would be you know 100% 75% 50% and then by year four they'd be at where they should be for example um and there was were also the bridge funds I mentioned to you folks at the finance committee that are also being part of that discussion. So, I'm not sure where it will land. I know that there seems to be some bipartisan interest to support it. I think um somehow the conversation about um the ED279 [clears throat] not being sufficient, not being an actual um funding formula for the actual cost of education in Maine. I think that is people are hearing that. So, okay. Want to let you

034know that. So, that's good news. Budget season is upon us. I did speak with Mr. Mills uh as recent as today about u the but the city's budget process and um during April vacation um I think it's the 21st the the city will have their wrapup and it'll either be that week or or the week after April break where we could be invited as a school board would be invited to go back to sort of that wrapup process like we were invited last year as they start to wrap things out there want our involvement, which is nice that they want to involve us. So, just be aware that that's on the horizon. Um, I wanted to mention that the disruption diploma, the there's a main state diploma that um allows students that have had a

035significant educational disruption that uh there's a there's a number of criteria that need to be met. um that if students meet those criteria that they would be able to get that main state educational disruption diploma. And it was asked of me I had to make a decision before we were able to um be before a policy change could take place at the board level. And so at this point, if we had a and a couple of students that met that diploma requirement with the state that we would allow them to participate in graduation graduation. So I wanted to let you know that that's um that's been approved at the high school level. And the last thing is a positive thing and always brings me back 30 plus years now to when I was in Chisaw

036Wizzle in high school. I got to go with a number of you board members to Chisel Whizzle. Uh the hundth and help methodund >> 35th Chisel Wizzle and it's just a really neat production. We get to see sides of the students that you don't get to see every day. Um dancing and singing and doing all kinds of amazing things. So it was a really neat part of Cony's culture and I got to be part of that a couple of weeks ago. So thank you and that concludes my report. questions for the superintendent. I have one on the on the budget. The city will be holding a public hearing on the budget, correct? >> Yes. >> Do you have a date for that hearing? >> I will have to look it up. >> Okay. And I

037just want a reminder for anybody who's listening or in the audience, if you want more information when you check the agenda, those items that are highlighted in blue are actually a connection that you can click on for more detail. So, if if you're hearing Mr. Tracy's report. You can also see that written report by clicking on that link on the agenda as you can with any of the blue links on the agenda. Just wanted to let people know that. Next, we have the assistant superend. >> Madam chair, may I ask superintendent a question? >> No, you may not. This is not public comment time. >> Are you you just said anybody had a question? >> Of the board. >> All right. Thank you for clarifying that. >> You're welcome. assistant superintendent's report. >> So is

038highlighting some of the areas that we've been working on at this point in time. So the drop prevention cabinet has been focusing on strengthening attendance and our engagement systems. Um work includes a policy update to better support consistent attendance practices, implementation of the relationship mapping that we have with students to identify students um connections across staff. We talked about how to develop a digital attendance calendar to be able to show students and families the number of aware absences would affect them and really working towards supporting earlier identification of students who are on that cusp of being considered comically absent. gifted and talented program. We have um completed a screening or in the process of completing our our screening process. Then our identification process is based on blind determination process. So it's done by numbers only

039and look at data or multiple measures including district and state assessments to support fair and transparent identification practices. the uh English language arts committee has will be has determined that we were going to implement a full district K8 and U PLA pilot next school year. The math committee has adopted the MClass math universal screener which aligns with our current math curriculum and provides a consistent platform that aligns now with our current ELA screen. the we are looking into a social emotional screener that will look based on um the strengths of students and what they bring and then what areas that we can support our students and families. One important thing I want to share is that our summer program is going to be running. So, our summer title one programming is going to be running

040from July 14th to August 6th, Tuesday through Thursday, 800 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. At the same time, we're going to be running our extended school year services that is determined by IEP placement or your students with special education services. Those will be running at the same time. Professional development staff are currently completing the Ames modules which is based on the science of reading and we are in the middle of safety care which is our physical management piece for reertification and um we are working through the comprehensive needs assessment based on our dasher which is the state's public accountability system for every student succeeds act. So we're looking at how our schools perform not just based on test scores but on multiple measures of student success such as academic achievement growth in reading and math graduation

041rates progress with English language learners progress of students receiving special education services and then school quality indicators such as attendance and and student engagement. What really is especially important is bringing all that data down by the student groups and then ensuring that we're being held accountable for all of that. So, we're looking through that dashboard now and then creating our school. So, the administrative team is working through that word. We're looking to um present that to you all in May. Questions for assistant superintendent Tibido hearing? None. We'll move on to number 10, business manager report. Thank you, business manager Ross, please. >> Thank you. Um, so we heard from RKO about the fiscal year 24 audit today. The fiscal year 25 audit is still in process with Nicholson Mission Meadow. Um, we do have an

042audit extension with the Department of Education until April 30th, 2026. Um, I anticipate based on how the audit is progressing that we'll probably have to submit another extension request. Um the first Red Rover implementation team call was on March 19th, 2026. So Red Rover again is the company that is going to be assisting us with going electronic for absence management um time card management and hiring um so that we can reduce paper usage um at the school district. Um that call went very well. They gave us a large Excel workbook to put some data in and send back. Um the payroll HR team did an amazing job and turned it around in a week. Um and we've already sent it back. Red Rover is doing their part and they're awaiting our next call. Um they

043have been great with us. We had a question um about the process. they called us within an hour whereas the last company we used we had to wait months to get a follow-up meeting. Um so so far it's very early in the process but it's so far a big difference between the two companies. [clears throat] So I'm hoping that that continues. Um the uh we last met for custodial contract negotiations on March 25th, 2026 and um are moving forward in the next steps with that. Negotiations pertaining to support staff contract began April 1st, 2026. Um information concerning the paid family medical leave, which begins May 1st, um was emailed to all staff on April 1st, 2026. Um that information will be followed up with more materials as we learn more. Um myself and the HR

044payroll team have gone through three webinars in the last two weeks. Um we're getting inundated with information as the program gets closer and closer. Um, so I've promised all of our staff that I will send out another update um, as we get more information and can provide more details, especially since we went with a private plan instead of the main plan. There's um, some differences, small differences, but there are some differences between the two. So, we want to make sure that our staff is aware of the process and how they can easily apply for this process so that there's no roadblocks for them. uh April financials. Um so we're actually in March, these are the end of March financials. So we have three months or 25% of the year remaining with 14,169,892 or 35% of

045our expenditures remaining. Um again we should be at 25% mark. So that's um good. We have received $25,492,555 in revenues with um an expected 37% more remaining. Um expenditure areas with less than 25% remaining. Uh this one has been um on my report um from very early on. So special ed other services is at 22%. So um again um the explanation for that is the same. We encumber or project out for the year. Most of our costs for special ed other services because a lot of them are contracted services so we know what they're potentially going to bill us each month. So we project those out and encumber those without the incumbrances. So if we're just looking at what we spent um to date, that area is currently at 43% remaining. Um so doing well

046in that area. Um special ed administration was at 31%. So still above the 25% but that is an area that I continue to watch. Um the reason why it's at 31% is this month I posted quarter 3 of main care seed which is a large portion of the special ed budget. Um and that only comes in quarters. I actually just [cough] posted the next quarter um this month. So you'll see that on next month's financials. Um student assessment is at 6%. That's a onetime fee. Um system administration. So that's the superintendent, the board, and the business office. That is at 22%. I have been having meetings with superintendent Tracy because we do meet weekly and or bi-weekly or as needed. Um and so we are watching that line and coming up with um potential changes

047in that area to make sure that we stay within our expenses. Um transportation is at 14%. Again, transportation has been on my reports for a while now. Um we do have some encumbered amounts or projected amounts for out of district transportation. Um, without those incumbrances, this area is still low at 22%. Um, so I've been looking a bit more into transportation and trying to see where those specific expenses are coming. Um, most of those are in regular transportation. So, a majority of our transportation expenses are to and from home and school. Um so we have paid uh invoices up through March and then we've paid the hourly amount so for bus drivers um through February. Uh I believe that once we pay the second invoice for March because we get two invoices each month and

048then our April [clears throat] bill that we may be at our expense line for regular transportation. So I am um looking at our budget overall to see to make projections to see if there may be funds from another cost center that we might in the future be able to transfer into this lines. Um so when I say we get two invoices, we have a contract with our student. So we have a guaranteed 365,000 miles at 3.53 $353 per mile. that is a little over $1.2 million for the year. So July through June. But then we also get an invoice for the hourly rate which is $3662 per hour um for our home to school transportation. That bill starting in September is anywhere from $98,000 to $127,000 if we have a full month of school. Um,

049so those two invoices together are where we're spending most of our funds. Um, and then it goes to out of district transportation. [cough] [clears throat] Then athletics co-curricular and the technical center and field trips are are lower on the pool. Um, so I'm watching the transportation lines very closely and um, again working with the team and the superintendent to um, try to have a plan of how we're going to um, account for that in the future. Um, and finally, debt services is at 2%. Again, that's just our annual payment, so it's onetime payment. Um, and then adult education guidance. That was a plan. She spent her general fund guidance money and now that employee is in a federally funded position. So that was the plan all along and that's the conclusion of the report. Thank

050you Mrs. Ross. Any questions for the business manager? >> Um board member parks. >> Thank you. Um the other night at the finance committee meeting uh we were told that um the transportation for athletics is becoming very expensive because sometimes there are not first student drivers to drive the buses to athletic competitions. Um and therefore the cost of those goes to private for private conveyor. Um we somebody asked if um there's anything in our contract with first student about those kinds of um problems with getting our kiddos to sporting events uh without paying for private conveyances. Has anything been found out about that? >> Yes. So, Superintendent Chuzy spoke with her student today and we also looked at the contract together. I don't know if you want or you want me to. >> Go ahead.

051>> Okay. So, basically the contract in general is for school to home. So, making sure that we have enough drivers to make sure the students get to their education which is very important. um they try their best to supply us with drivers for athletic events. However, there is not anything in the contract that states that they have to provide us drivers for those events. Is that >> sounds very accurate. The only thing I would add is there's a maximum amount of miles. There's this Raj just said of 365,000. In the last couple of years, we've exceeded that. So, what that means is our home to school budget for miles plus what we budget for sporting miles um have been used. Therefore, so we're not leaving un uh we're not leaving paid for miles on the

052table where we should get a refund. So that was that was my concern was was are we paying for a contract a and then we're also paying twice we're paying for a secondary solution and and the answer is no. We're paying one fee for the home to school with a bucket of miles that includes some athletic miles. And so we've been using all of those miles. the the the question for us would be if we get to the end of the school year and we don't use all of those miles, right, and then we're paying more for athletic transportation, then we might want to have a conversation about that contract with that. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Sorry, I just I found the answer to the city's budget meeting

053where they will have a hearing. Yes. Would you like me to? >> I would. >> Okay. It's going to be April 23rd in the city chambers at 6:30. [clears throat] Thursday, April 23rd, city chambers 6:30. >> That's Thursday. So, okay. Thank you. >> Next is other school officials. Hello, I'm Aaron Heriel, the principal at Gilbert School, and I just wanted to share about a very exciting time for registration. Our prek and kindergarten registrations are open right now. We have information on our website, on Facebook. Um, you have packets that you can access right online or you can pick them up from any of the school offices. We're asking that you call your neighborhood school if you have questions regarding any screenings or any registration questions and um the ages. If your child will be four

054by October 15th, they can enroll in preK. And if they will be five by October 15th, they would be eligible for kindergarten. So those [clears throat and laughter] are just kind of the the age limits. And we have prek screenings happening in June. And then we have four different sets of dates, sorry, three sets of dates for kindergarten screenings in May at each of the different schools. [cough] >> That is all >> questions. I have a I have a question. So, how do I know what my neighborhood school is? Is there a way to find out? Is it on the website? Like maybe I live close to two schools. How would I know? Can I call that school? >> You can. You can just call the secretaries know which school [clears throat] is the home

055school. And we are screening the [laughter] home schools. Okay, thank you. Because sometimes that question arises is what's my which one is my host? Thank you. Any other questions, >> Principal Heartel? >> Board member Parks. >> Thanks. Um, we our prek is half day. Is that correct? >> It is. We have two sessions each day, four days a week, and students are in three different classrooms. So you could have three different teachers options for three different teachers, but your child would be in one teacher's classroom to be clear. Um, so we have two two and a half hours for morning and afternoon and there's transportation to and from for both of those sessions. >> And oh, what kind of um what kind of [clears throat and cough] promotion are you doing besides just notifying people

056of the registration? Is there uh some sort of a a video of prek or something like that that you have on your website? >> Not just yet. We actually have a couple of ideas for how to promote working with some of our current preK students that are in the works in the building. So, that is kind of exciting to see. The kids are incredibly adorable and they have grown so much this year. So, they want to be involved in things like that. So, we have flyers that we put out at community um locations [clears throat] and the library and we post on Facebook on our website. We um advertise through 92 moose last year um and summer. So, we hope to have a robust screening process here in June so that we can have a

057nice full program for the fall. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Thank you. Hi, Teresa Bowden, principal at Fington. And I just wanted to mention a couple things we have going at Ferington. We've actually added a couple of afterchool things through the generosity of some volunteers, both parent volunteers and staff volunteers. So, uh, we've always had a K club that's associated with Kuanas, which is a service project based thing. The kids meet with grade five and six. Uh Tim Jordan and Rosemary Baker who are teachers at our school um have done that this year that it's been going on for a little while but they come up with different projects to do whether it's collecting food for the um the animal shelter or you know canned goods or you know whatever but they've been

058doing that um for many as long as I've been there and before and so that's one that happens after school. And then also we have Girls on the Run and I know Gilbert has Girls on the Run and I believe Brenda Weiss at the at Coney Middle School has done some of that before. And so girls on the run is for grades three through six. And it's what with trained volunteer coaches. I just wrote the description of it. Facilitate lessons that blend physical activity with life skills including managing emotions, fostering friendships, and expressing expressing empathy. Uh we have 16 girls and I have uh Ashley Wily, Rebecca Mchugh, uh Jen Beu and Haley Casey along with three volunt parent volunteers that are doing that. So the girls on Monday and Tuesday do that for an

059hour and a half and the end goal is a 5K that they will do as a big celebratory thing with all these other schools across the state. So excited that just got started last week. And then the other thing is that Mrs. Walling. Jess Walling um has started a Lego club on Mondays because we're really trying to do some STEM things at our school and uh with Caitlyn Rodriguez and another parent volunteer. And so they're meeting they very much like a challenge base. They're trying to design something with the Lego kits that will um then go through kind of a course of being able to lift this and knock over that and anything. So they're doing that. So it's just some fun stuff that we've thrown out there. But it's very much I'm thankful to

060the staff that is doing this. It's interest based for them as well. So any questions? >> Hi >> board member parks. >> Um for the Lego club, are you getting donations of these Lego kits or >> the the state uh during COVID we got these Lego kits? There some things offered to all the schools and so Lego kits were part of it. Um, and then we were able to get some new batteries. You know, we had to do a few things as uh I've mentioned before here. We've done some donors choose.org things. So, that that's a a donation thing. >> Um, so we've just slowly ticked away along with some 3D printing um doing that. >> Other questions? Thank you, Principal. [laughter] [cough] Any [clears throat] other [cough] brave souls that wish to speak? >>

061Thank you. We have no communications. Number 13, Superintendent Tracy, would you like to speak to the resignations and retirements? >> Yes, thank you. U resignations. We have Timothy Jordan, second grade teacher at Fington. Um Timothy, excuse me, Griffin Graves, chemistry teacher at Point High School. Chris Nolan had check three at Gilbert and Chloe Pile who's in check three at Huzzi and um Chloe will be done here on 410. Um Mr. Mr. Nolan has already given his he's resigned already and the other two I believe are the end of the school year and we do wish them the best on their next endeavor and I have no retirements at this time. >> Thank you. Number 14 is recognitions. And while it's not listed on your agenda, we do have someone that we'd like to recognize. He

062didn't know we were going to do this tonight, but we're going to. Is Josh Parllin in the audience? >> Puland. I'm sorry. >> My my O looked like an R. >> He's over here. Madam Chair, >> where is Mr. Penman? Would you mind >> proudly stepping to the podium and sharing with the audience what your wonderful math has done? >> Absolutely. [clears throat] >> See if I can find my document all the way over. So, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about Coney Math Team's proposal proposed trip to the New England [clears throat] Association of Math Leagues regional meet at Canton, Massachusetts High School on May 1st. The Coney Math team earned this prestigious invitation through their strong regular season performance where the team placed first in its division for the

063year in Central main athlete. This performance was followed up by outstanding performance at yesterday's main state athlete where they placed fifth in their division and 10th overall in the state. Coney last qualified for New England's in 2019. And my students are very excited for the opportunity to attend. [clears throat] Excuse me. Again, thank you for your consideration of this opportunity for the con. >> Any questions from board members? >> Yes, sir. >> Uh when you plan to attend, do you how many students will be? >> There will be six students going with >> and those those motions for approval will be coming up later in the agenda, but we just wanted to make sure we shared with the wonderful job that those those students have done this year and your work with them as well.

064So, we thank you for that. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Next is our student council report and we have board member Rea Luna. [laughter] Yes. Hello. Um so the fourth and final quarter for Cody High School has started this week as well as spring sports practices for many teams. Um Coney teachers had an underground spirit week last week and they dressed up into secret themes and students had the opportunity to guess the theme um in the guidance office for a chance to win a candy basket. The teen health board presented at the safer schools conference hosted at Kobe College. Um they attended workshops by other groups on mental health and various other issues regarding how to create a safer school environment and they also presented their own workshop on mental health. Um

065the Cody concert band competed in the MBDA competition this Monday and they earned a silver rating. and the middle school district 3 festival or bandana chorus will be held this Friday and Saturday at Comey and I think we have a number of middle schoolers who are participating in that. Aspirations day is tomorrow. Um Coney students will be touring colleges, attending workshops and hearing from speakers to help plan for their futures. The Coney Jazz Band will be visiting most of our elementary schools next week to play some tunes for the um younger kids. And the band concert for Coney High School and Middle School is May 13th. The jazz band concert is May 19th and the chorus concert is May 21st. So all coming up. Um April break starts in approximately two weeks on April 18th.

066Um which is also when some students will be departing for the France and Italy trip. Um this is a joint French and Latin program trip. Um but regardless of where we'll be I think most students can say they are excited for April vacation. [laughter] So [snorts] >> thank you. questions. Board member Pell, >> do you know where you're off to next year? [laughter] >> Um, I'm likely gonna commit to Princeton. So, >> congratulations. >> I was wondering >> and Reiko was also one of the great performers at Chisum Whistle this year that we had the pleasure of enjoying you. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I think it was last. Uh, yes. By the way, you did wonderful in the uh chisel wizzle. I was wondering how the process was

067going finding somebody to unfortunately replace. >> Yes. So, we have four candidates who are we're down to now. Um, and then I meet with them this Friday actually. And I believe at their next recognition assembly, they're going to give a speech to the student body and then the students will vote and we will have that result back within like the next month. So late May, you'll know and and we'll have our new student representative for next year. >> Rea, do you know if those are that would be juniors or seniors? >> Um I think we have I think almost everyone who's running it are I think there's like one sophomore and then a bunch of they're all Yeah, they're all upcoming juniors or seniors. Most of them are upcoming seniors. So >> Okay. >> Yes.

068Just curious. Thank you. >> Next we haveformational items and I'm not going to go through them. They're a list of the professional development opportunities that our staff took part in. since our last meeting. And we also have on this same list the spring coach the spring coaching nominations that will be coaching our students in our spring sports. Number 17, we have committee reports approval of minutes. Do I have a motion? Uh yes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the curriculum and education meeting and building committee for March 2026. >> I'll second that motion. I have a motion that has been made and seconded to approve the minutes of the curriculum education meeting and the building committee meeting for March 26th. Discussion hearing none. Please vote. [clears throat] And on a vote of

0696 to zero, the motion to approve the minutes of curriculum education and building committee [snorts] have been approved. Item 18. I make a motion that we [clears throat] approve the hiring of Caitlyn Perry, school nurse for Coney Middle and High School. I'll second. A motion has been made and seconded to approve Caitlyn Perry as the school nurse for Coney Middle and High School. Mr. Superintendent Tracy, would you like to speak to that for a moment? >> Caitlyn is here tonight and had the pleasure of meeting with her. She's been of course vetted through the process that we do with hiring and principal Liscom as well as our nurse coordinator Abby Folsam were involved with helping to hire this amazing individual who we believe has all the credentials as an RN and will do a great

070job for us as a co nurse. So she has my nomination to you folks to hire her as the new con middle and high school nurse >> discussion hearing none please vote >> and on a vote of six to zero you have been approved to be our new school year and we'd [clears throat] like to welcome YOU [applause] next item is board member comments and or discussion on non-aggenda items and This will be a m this item will be a maximum of 30 minutes with each board member who wishes to speak a maximum of 10 minutes according to Robert's rule. With that said, do I have any board members who would like to speak? >> Board member or >> or Oh my gosh, it left my I just had your first name in my head

071and I should [laughter] >> board member or [clears throat] >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Do I have to have a time limit or a time thing stick up there? Again, I don't necessarily need to, so >> don't worry about it. Um, >> I got my eye on the [clears throat] clock for you. >> Okay. >> So, first of all, I guess I would like to say that I'm I'm saddened that after the last school board meeting, I brought up the fact that uh we had had a a cultural class about a Muslim religious holiday known as Ramadan. Uh and yet that school uh after 30 days uh wasn't able to go and uh have a studentled cultural class about uh Easter and the meaning of actual meaning of Easter and the resurrection of our Lord

072and Savior since u Augusta schools are predominantly 99% Catholic. Um I find that uh saddening that we're taking uh and and and promoting one religion over another. Uh when I brought up the fact of if we we're going to have talk about the Muslim religion that is fine. We just need to ensure that we talk about all religions and apparently we are not. Um, so I want to caution everybody that the first amendment also includes religious freedom. And so if uh we're going down this path of we're allowing prayer in school for a certain group, if we're allowing special meals in school for a certain group, if we're allowing religious classes uh to be taught, even studentled, it still has to be teacher approved for this to happen. um that shows patterns and I'm sure

073that at some point we're going to get on to that point of where we will have one more first amendment lawsuit on our hands if we aren't careful. So cautionary tail. [clears throat and cough] Now I'm going to take the rest of my time whatever that might be and address which I was not able to this letter of admonishment. I don't really have much. I got I got one little piece here. I guess I'll start off with this because the only thing I actually have written down and what I did was I looked up the word. I knew what it was. I just want to make sure that everybody else actually does. Ethics. It is the moral principles, rules, and standards that guide behavior. helping individuals and groups distinguish between right and wrong and acceptable

074and unacceptable conduct. So, while I guess uh you can make all these accusations of somehow of [clears throat] me violating uh our code of ethics because the majority of this board uh with in fact our chair making the tiebreaking vote to not follow federal law, specifically to not follow Title N has decided to not protect girls has decided to not protect girls in girls spaces has decided to not protect girls in girls sports or in their locker rooms changing because of the policies that the majority of this board and I will give some exception to uh the two newest members that have been elected on here because you weren't on the boarduring during this travesty. Take copious notes because if you guys want to go and do something, I'm giving you all the ambul condition

075that you want. You're also allowing for sexual discrimination to continue to happen by not following Title 9, which is also a Civil Rights Act violation of 1964. I realized that the s the um title nine which was passed in 72 so your aunt that you had brought up when you voted no against it madam chair she's probably rolling in her grave right now >> just for the record [clears throat] >> facts >> the so while you go and want to threaten me with this piece of paper and giving me this little admonishment, this little slap on the wrist and tell me that I need to behave myself and that I have to somehow have to be loyal to this board when everything that you guys are doing is unlawful. Facts. >> It is immoral. It

076is unethical and it is corrupt. >> It's disgusting. [clears throat] I cannot be loyal to any board that follows these procedures and does the things that have been done. My loyalty is to the people who elected me in war three to re represent them and to do according to that workshop from the main school uh board associate guy that came in and spoke. He said that we as a school board we have we have two two priorities. best interest of the kids and being fiscally responsible. And right now, Madam Chair, you are violating both. You're not doing what is in the best interest of the children. You're placing them all in harm. [clears throat] You are allowing for the mental and emotional abuse to happen to these children by telling them and allowing them to

077be told that they are not born in the right body. That a boy can be a girl, a girl can be a boy, and it is a Sorry, my military almost slipped out on me. It is a travesty. That's right. >> Amen. that you, Madam Chair, and several other members of this board have allowed to happen. [clears throat] >> So, you're violating federal law. You're not doing the things uh as you were elected to do. We're being sued on a First Amendment violation, which regardless of outcome of that lawsuit, this goes to the fiscal responsibility, is going to cost the Augusta taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees, regardless of what the outcome is. And if there's going to be an additional cost if that lawsuit goes through and they win, that is

078all on your dime. Augusta, nobody else's. And so I have cautioned you privately several months ago. I have talked to the superintendent privately about not doing the things that you were doing. I said it not in this seat, but in the seat at the city council that we got kicked out of because of your actions, Madam Chair, and how you were running our business meetings. [laughter] >> Whoops. You have two minutes. Your actions have caused all of this, Madam Chair. Your actions and the actions of of I I'll say two names because at this age of the game, who gives a crap? Member Parks and Member Hicks because they've rallied the wagon around you in defense of your indefensible acts that you have done and caused on this board. I have told you for 12

079months at least that you were being biased and subjective in your application of the rules. You ignored me. You ignored what I was telling you. I cautioned you. Where are we at? We're being sued. We as a school board are being sued. And I cautioned you not to do these things and to change. And you've refused to. Why did you refuse to? Because your prideful arrogance will not allow you to be humble enough in your heart to just apologize, which I have asked you to do. >> Amen. So >> I looked at the rest of what we have for a school board meeting. >> You can do whatever you want to. To me, Madam Chair, I don't care. >> Messenger over message. The one thing that nobody on this board has done, they've gone after

080me with this crap. But everything that I have said since December of 2023, every time I have spoke, everything that I have said is true. >> And they have never taken up issue with that. So this, Madam Chair, is what I think ABOUT >> if you want to censor me, you will have you do that. >> You have zero dominion over me, Madam Chair. >> YES, MA'AM. LET'S GO. >> AND I WILL SEE YOU on the 29th. I'm no longer need. >> We've had it with you too, Rita. >> With your smuggling face. >> I'm sorry, but [laughter] >> point of order. >> I'm going to ask the audience to quiet down. If the audience [clears throat] doesn't quiet down, we'll take a recess until you do. If you can't quiet down, we'll ask you

081to leave the meeting. >> No one cares. >> You call Are you going to quiet down in the audience? >> You going to apologize? I mean we can take a recess. I mean the board has to do with business. >> We have we have a motion good. >> All right. That's fine. [clears throat] Okay. Perfect. Okay. Um I am very excited to sort of update folks on the school budget process. It's obviously going to city now and we had a a really good two hour two and a half hour session with the city because they asked a lot of questions. Um, it's hard to explain with the EPS formula, with state funding, how that works, plus what the local share works, plus the fact that we dipped into I think the 24 audit showed how

082much we dipped into our fund balance that one year. And so during our finance committee meeting, we were talking about how basically we sort of subsidi subsidized uh much of our budget, a large portion of our budget from the fund balance to lower the taxpayer burden for a couple years. And now our savings account has um become a lot or savings or fund balance um has uh decreased substantially. And so we're trying to work out creative ideas to cut costs in places. We've still cut certain positions which are going to be painful. Um we cut a career at tech at the high school. um we were still we very much understood that that would impact the actual uh efficacy um of the school buildings and so we fought for some of the positions to stay

083based on kind of our board goals. One major one being about dropout prevention and helping early middle school 7th eighth grade um uh so that they're not credit deficient by 11th and 12th grade. So, we have students who are moving into post-secary uh opportunities, whether it be community college um or any of the trades or the four-year universities and that they're able to graduate. And so, I know that was a huge that's a huge uh reason why we're not willing we weren't willing to cut that particular position. And then three, general ed techs because uh classrooms, if you think about where ch children are in the young ages developmentally, they vary so much in where they are. Um, and to have extra supports in the classroom for a teacher to be able to address different

084student needs, um, is really important in those early grades because if we get them earlier and get their skills to be on grade level or above, then we're going to see gains multiply exponentially as they move into middle school and high school. Um, and so we know that it's a difficult budget season for the city. We know that there are city councilors, uh, and even, you know, and us that are worried about what higher costs mean. And yet, as a school board, we have sat through hours of presentations. We've asked dozens, if not hundreds of questions to determine whether this budget is what we need in order to sustain and invest in a community of young people that are going to be a future for us beyond what we can now imagine. So, um it's

085hugely important for us to support the schools and to invest properly. So, we are still in the throws of that budget season. Um but the reason why Monday perhaps there was a question if folks watched the finance committee and there was sort of silence about whether we want to go back and change our budget. The reason is is because we [clears throat] feel like it's too early to start taking out cuts based on the conversation we had with city because uh their only suggestion was something like that seemed sort of like an impossible suggestion. So we're waiting to see once other departments present what are we actually looking at? um do they have fund balance savings that could help offset some of the taxpayers that we don't have anymore? And so I just wanted to

086let folks know that the reason we're coming to this budget season with that increase is because we can't afford to lose more. At least this is the board's perspective at this time. And the second thing I wanted to say today was that I was at a conference and I met a parent and an employee of the school department and I spoke to both of them and uh they weren't in the conversations together but they both had positive things to say about how hard this staff and administration work especially with the redistricting and how difficult that's been on teachers and staff but it's been embraced as better for our schools and better for our kids and our community. And they suggest they also talked about innovation that's happening at the school at a quick levels always

087working towards challenges never saying no trying their hardest to figure out the solution. I heard that from two different perspectives today at the conference and I think it's worth saying that today because of how difficult the work can be to or to run an organization as complicated as a school system with all disparate priorities and yet you have a parent and a teacher that both see the work that's happening. Um and I think that's something that to be shared. So, just wanted to to bring that um up to everybody. Thank you. Any other board members with comments? Hearing none, we'll move on to the next item, which is public comment. And as usual, I will read the public participation at board members comment policy behings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official

088business of the school system. All meetings of the Augusta board are open to the public. The public is cordially invited to attend and participate in board meetings as provided in this policy. Although board members are not public forums, the board will provide appropriate opportunities at its meetings for members of the public to express opinions and concerns related to the matters concerning education and the Augusta Board of Education schools. The intent is to allow a fair and adequate opportunity for the public to be heard while ensuring that the time provided for public discussion does not interfere with the fulfillment of the scheduled agenda. Citizens and employees of the unit are welcome to participate as provided in this policy. Members of the public may address the board within the guidelines provided in this policy and the chair

089shall be responsible for maintaining proper order and compliances with these guidelines. During the time allotted for public participation, members of the p public may speak on any subject directly related to the operation of the schools except for personal matters or complaints concerning specific employees or students which will be addressed through established policies and procedures. Citizens and employees are welcome. You may speak at the chair's discretion. Individual employees or employee groups will not be permitted to discuss matters for which complaint or grievance procedures are provided. Those addressing the board need to state name and address for the record. The chair may limit the time allowed for comments and we've agreed on a threeminut time allowance. During the time set aside, the chair will be responsible for recognizing all speakers who again must identify themselves as they

090begin talking. Speakers are not permitted to share gossip, make defamatory comments, or use abusive or vulgar language. No complaints or allegations will be allowed at board meetings concerning any person employed by the school system or particular students. Personal matters or complaints concerning students or staff issues will not be considered in a public meeting, but will be referred to established procedures. Neither neither positive nor negative comments are to be made regarding personnel specific personnel members. In order to make efficient use of meeting time, the board discourages duplication of repetition of comments. The chair has the authority to stop any presentation that violates these guidelines or the privacy of others. Persons who disrupt the meeting may be asked to leave and the chair may request law enforcement assistant as necessary to restore order. With that said, [clears

091throat] I'll ask Nicholas Blanchard to if he'd like to speak at this time. >> Nicholas Blanchard, Augusta. Um, it's kind of ironic we were talking about a Lego club tonight. I got a donation for it. But what I was just going to say, I'm going to keep it short, seeing I can't really speak, but [clears throat] um there's a lot of parents that have been contacting me about a lot of the things that's going on in this school. But if I talk about it, we know you're going to slam your gabble down. So um in the words of Auntie Janet, see you in court. >> Thank you. >> Next is Tom Keefe. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. Uh my name is Tom Keith. I live in Augusta and I wanted to speak about the

092budget. Um, I was at the meeting last week and I was really impressed with the presentation, the quality um, and the thoughtfulness and obviously the hard work that uh, was put into this and and the conversation with the the city council was really uh, the back and forth was really uh, I was proud I was proud of uh, of our community. Um, one of the things that I I shared privately with few people is uh my overall thoughts um listening to the the conversation was it it felt that to a degree there was a like a little bit of a situation of uh robbing uh Peter to pay Paul. Uh and I just wanted to speak briefly about like the interconnectedness. I'm sure we all know this but I just wanted to name it. um

093you know the you know the SRO's for example like the the school board doesn't set the the budget the the the contracts for police officers right that that comes from the police department in the city. Um, you know, when we talk about potentially uh eliminating more positions, um, think about the the convenience stores that uh employees stop at on their way to work and their way home from work. And the city gets revenue from municipal um, uh, fund sharing through sales taxes, right? And that would be gone potentially, too. We know how uh up and down the economy has been particularly last month and and and and so well since co right and and we don't know uh what all those effects are going to be. We have legislation that's been mentioned that uh might

094be coming in as a revenue source. Uh but we also if the economy were to to to go poorly more we have Augusta residents who don't go to Augusta schools right they go to say to St. Michaels and then maybe um they would have to or choose to enroll in Augusta which drives up cost and and so just I want to just name that and of course we have the the property tax um uh reassessment. We don't know how that's going to shake down. Um but the good news is uh we have u the uh homestead exemption reform which going to put more money in taxpayers pockets as well. So, I just kind of wanted to to briefly mention that interconnectedness and uh thank you again for all of your hard work. Thank you. >>

095Thank you. Next is Jason Kums. I think he might have just stepped up, but if he does come back, >> um next is Stephanie Sinowitz. Hello board. Superintendent Tracy, assistant Superintendent Tibido, business manager Ross. I will try to speak louder this month. Um, I just wanted to update you on some of the great things happening in our schools. Uh, our favorite event of the year, I think, happened this past month. Bingo night at Lincoln is just like the best night of the year, the best community event. Uh, that gym is packed with people with families. And, um, there are so many staff that stay late that night to help out. Kids win all sorts of prizes, including book fair gift certificates. So, they get to go right around to the stage, turn in those gift

096certificates, get books and posters and all sorts of fun stuff. Um, we had a bake sale, a plant sale. We just so many things, so much community building right at the school that night. And I can't recommend it enough. If you haven't had the opportunity to come to a Lincoln bingo night, you should definitely put it on your calendar. I hear so much from the students and the families afterwards about how much they enjoy that. So, thank you for providing the opportunity and the staff for providing the opportunity for those families to come together and get to know each other a little bit better, too. Um, we also had spring picture day, which is one of my favorite days to volunteer at school. Um, getting to do the fall and spring pictures. I really get

097to see how the kids have changed over the course of the year and how they have developed relationships with the staff members and with each other in their classroom. Um, I know I said it in the fall, but I wanted to say it again that I really appreciate moving to this company this year. Seeing how they work with the kids who have a hard time with picture day has been huge, and I hope that that will be something you take into account when you're choosing the companies going forward. That they have a really strong uh model where they are able to get the kids comfortable and able to get the best picture while the kids are not, you know, having a really hard time. So, it was a great day. It was over so fast.

098Um, which again just like surprised everybody because they bring two photographers and it's just really really wonderful. Um, very quickly I wanted to note I've heard a lot of concerns about uh cultural education at the school and I'd like to note that my experience has been really positive. uh my [clears throat] kids, my family's not very religious and throughout the month of December, my kids came home with a lot of different information about different holidays throughout and that's happened again throughout the spring. So, I think the staff are doing a great job of teaching culturally appropriate holiday and uh like customs without infusing religiosity into it. And I think that that's really important. Our kids are learning so much about each other in that way and I really value it. So, thank you very much.

099Uh, I forgot to introduce myself. Stephanie Sinowitz, resident of Augusta, city counselor here in my capacity as a parent. Thank you. Thank you, >> David Jones. >> Oh, he's not here. >> Andrew Lever. Good evening. I'm back again. I'm Andrew Lbertier. I am from Bangor, Maine. I'm a candidate for the state house. So, if I'm up there, uh you guys are in trouble. [laughter] So, um I'm here because we are in in the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States as a constitutional republic. >> Amen. with this explicit uh notion that mankind is all created in the image of a creator. That's right. >> With [clears throat] uh powers of reason and that's the purpose of education the way Ben Franklin set it up. So there was universal education and of course uh

100let's not uh let's acknowledge that fact that mankind right now is out circling the moon right now which is because we have some sort of education system that uh does reflect this principle our founding fathers fought and died for. But uh I get to talk about the opposite which is uh provided by Mr. Bonder and his uh literature there. Hold that up. >> Yes, hold that up. Uh that's some of the things you're pushing on the kids, which is this uh kind of semi porn. Now, I've been looking into the origins of this as far as sex education goes. And I found out it was provided courtesy of Hugh Hefner of the Playboy Foundation. And uh let's see. Basically, he funded something called the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States. Have you

101heard of this? Uh this was started in 1964. Um had some pretty impressive things. Steven Rockefeller, Robert McNamera, who was destroying our kids in Vietnam. Uh let's see, Wall Street banker James Warberg and people like that. And according to one of the past presidents Dr. Mary Calderon, she said uh to the Planned Parenthood physicians that the primary goal of CESUS was to provide society very broadly and deeply with awareness of the vital importance of infant and childhood sexuality. So again, this is way back in the 60s that what he's holding up, which is in the library right now, is >> Yeah. saying explicitly right there, we're here to impile basically uh push sexuality on infants. >> Yes. And also uh she says uh in 1983 that child's sexuality or sexual capability should be developed in

102the same way as the child's inborn human capacity to talk or walk and that the parents role should be to relate only to teaching the child the appropriateness of privacy place and person. Yeah. Let's teach all the kids sexuality. And according to where uh Hefner got his inspiration to start Playboy, which is the Kinsey report, >> your time is up, sir. >> Which is all about uh pushing >> basically child porn, sexualizing infants. So there you go, Tim. So, I hope what you you're taking note of the fact that these people are >> sir child born. >> Sir, your time is up. >> Yep. >> Your three minutes is up. >> And you're all child molesters. >> So, you'll need to step away from the podium. Thank you. And take >> You're all child molesters.

103>> Can you take your sign with you too, please? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> I know you hate it. >> See you in court. >> [clears throat] >> Friday 17th Bodner. >> It's [clears throat] in Bangor too. >> Good on 17th 10:00. >> Madam Chair, it would now be an appropriate time for you to ask Mr. Tracy whether he has gotten an answer that he said he would get to us whether our school-based health clinics of Augusta refer out people for transgender services. Did you ever get that answer for us, sir? Would that be a good time? >> I don't know if Mr. Tracy is prepared to answer that or not, Mr. Tracy. >> It's been four months now, sir. So, [snorts] >> if you if you have the answer and you're willing, that's

104be fine. >> All right. So, can we pause this? >> We can we can pause this time. >> Um, we have in our in our middle middle and high school, we have three services that are offered at the in the house suite. We have basic school nursing um kind of hoping Abby was still here. We have basic um school nursing uh services that we have across the school department. We have a uh clinician that's there a a doctor or PA services that we offer. And then there's elected services into family planning or psychological services like with KBH etc. We have a contract with these entities. No child in our schools can participate in any of that without a parent opting them in. It used to be clear on this. It used to be an opt

105out which meant prior to me getting here we had a model where students could participate all students participate in the health center and we didn't have the the PA services until a few years ago services unless a parent opted them out. Okay. the difference now it's more more stringent for uh there's more protection for parents to be able to opt in their children for whatever services they choose. So you can't you can't be a high school kid and access family planning um without parents consent. So I don't know if that answered Mr. Bodner's quiry um but that that's the answer. Okay. I think that's very helpful. Thank you very much. [clears throat] >> I'll start your time. >> My name is Timothy Bodner and I'm from St. Alvin's and uh we seem to celebrate Ramadan.

106We celebrate worshiping the fall and the genitals as our God. We learn about all sorts of things, but apparently we don't need to learn about Christianity. So, I'm going to teach you some tonight. This is uh Romans chapter 1 and I'm going to start at uh verse 15. So for my part I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written. But the righteous man shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who

107suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, his divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. In exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and for-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore, God gave them over the lust of their heart to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For

108they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. And who is that? What is that lie? That God is created in man. Man is created in God's image, male and female. But we lie about that, right? So for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions. For the women exchanged the natural function that which is unnatural. In the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things

109which are not proper, [laughter] being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And all they know, although they know that the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. >> The time is up. spend too much time on this and you need to do this. And the ASPS in February said that you shouldn't do transgender surgeries on children until they are over the age of 19. You know why? Because they cannot decide. I will take 30 more seconds and I will sit down. They cannot decide yet.

110Their brains are not fully formed. Yet you take impressionable children and you march them through this machine as quickly as possible. Well, I hope tonight that you heard something and that you change your mind because change of mind is called repent. >> Amen. >> And y'all need to repent. >> Thank you. >> I have nobody else left to sign off. We will move on to item number 21, unfinished business, which we have none. Number 22, new business. Do I have a motion to approve policy? >> No. 22A. >> I have to make a motion to approve the second reading of JC School volunteers. Do I have a second? >> I second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the second reading JOC school volunteers. Discussion hearing none, please vote. And on a vote of 5

111to zero, the motion has been approved to approve the second reading of policy JC putting that policy into effect. >> I'll make a motion to approve the Fington principal candidate. I second. Oh, who who is Heather Gothier? >> Do I have a second? >> I second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve Heather Gothier is the Fington principal. Discussion. >> Thank you. As a board member that sat on the interview committee, it was clear that Miss Gothier's commitment to Augusta being the Lincoln principal for 15 years, as well as her eagerness to uh support the Fington School as it's in a construction project and the desire to blend two communities that are normally used to being apart um was really um key um to the fact that we're we have full confidence in our

112incredible principal moving to a school to take on a new challenge. Um and so the interview committee made up of teachers, administration, and board members um were delighted with this candidate. So I'm personally, as someone in the interview committee, very excited um for for this shift. Obviously a loss for Lincoln. Um but that's uh something that we will then find a new person to gain uh for that for that building. So any other comments hearing? None. Please vote. And on a vote of five to zero, Heather Gothier has been approved as the new Fairington. [applause] I'll accept I'll accept a motion to approve SCATC trip. >> I make a motion to approve CAT Skills USA to an overnight trip to the National Leadership and Skills Conference. Skills USA to compete at national level. Eight students

113to Atlanta, Georgia, June 1st, 2026 to June 5th, 2026. chaperoned by Heidi Parent, Nicholas Ganon, Chip Eastman, Romeo Roy, and Nicholas Smith. I'll second. >> I have a motion to approve attendance at the Cat Skills USA in Atlantic, Georgia from June 1st to June 5th, chaperoned by members of the staff. Discussion. >> Madam Chair, may I? >> Superintendent Tracy, >> I'd like to embarrass director Ganon. [snorts] Jimmy, come up to the [laughter] [clears throat] This is pretty Nick Nick does not do a very good job to uh build to to uh speak for himself as far as himself >> promote himself. Uh he's a humble dude. So would you please share the amount of students and staff? This is a big year for us. >> Yeah, we uh we far exceeded our expectations. Heidi Par

114is our uh skills adviser and uh she did a fabulous job this year uh instituting a lot of new uh opportunities for leadership for kids and really uh helping getting kids excited about the program. Uh so we took a ton of kids to states and uh we're going to take eight students uh to nationals. So we have eight gold medalists uh from the state competition which is twice as many as I was expecting. It's a good problem good problem to have. James for helping me figure out that. [laughter] >> So, when they go to compete, what skill will they be competing in, Nick? >> Uh, so we have a student I'm gonna I'm probably gonna miss somebody. Uh, there's an auto uh collision finishing student, plumbing, heating, restaurant service, two students from cyber security, two

115students from another computer tech competition, and I'm missing one. Pretty wide pretty wide variety of of of kids. on >> eight gold medalist eight gold medalist >> member Hicks. >> Madam Chair, I'd like to say that over the next month or so, we're going to hear a lot about the tax base of Augusta. And I can't imagine how great this would look on a resume for a future candidate for a job filling out an application and saying, "I went to this." >> Yep. and I presented this and I I I applaud you and I thank you and I think it's going to help us because we need more people to have better jobs and when they have better jobs they buy a house. When they buy a house they [laughter] then when they pay taxes

116the kids could go to school [laughter] >> government 101 actually is thank you for your participation. >> Yeah, they're really exceptional kids and we're really proud of them. >> Thank you. any um it's taking me a minute on last names tonight. Board member Reynolds. >> Thank you very much. Uh yeah, I am I had attended parent night or I'm not exactly sure the name of the night it was but uh I had said I was going to be home at a certain time and that didn't happen. I got lost. >> Is that the life skills day or >> was it life skills? >> It was here. Yeah. I getting lost in each department. Every student was so uh enthusiastic. They were well educated. I couldn't tell who the educators were or the students. They were

117that guest. I was so proud to go into each one and have them share with me what they've learned, what they do with that. And uh I mean, as a person that values secondary learning, uh transferable skills, I think this is like one of the the coolest things. Grateful to have you guys [clears throat] and all the hard work you do. Have fun. Good luck. And do >> [laughter] >> We'll >> continue. >> Thank you. >> Dis Did we make this motion? We made this motion. >> Discussion now. >> Discussion. Thank you for keeping that discussion on this motion. >> Nope. We're about to vote. >> Okay. No more discussion. Please vote. [laughter] And on a vote of 5 to zero, it has been approved for the Skills USA to go to Atlanta June 1st

118to the 5th to compete in the National Championship. Good luck. >> Thank you. >> Item D. Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve Joshua Puland to an overnight trip to attend the American Region's Math League meet at St. Hansome College in New Hampshire from May 28th, 2026 to May 29th, 2026. >> I second that motion. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve Josh Pull into an overnight trip to attend the American Regions Math League at St. Anselam's College May 28th through the 29th. Discussion hearing none, please vote. And on a vote of five to zero, the trip to St. Ansel for the math league has been approved. Uh, [clears throat] I'll make a motion to approve the Coney High School students to an overnight trip to University of Maine Orno to the Bandoned

119Forest All State Festival May 14, 2026 through May 16th, 2026. Chapon by Aaron Card, Ryan Murray, and Russell Cly. >> I second. >> It's been moved and seconded for the Coney High School to students to attend an overnight trip to the University of Maine to the band and course all state festival May 14th to May 16th. discussion hearing none please vote and on a vote to five to zero the trip for the Coney High School students abandoned course to Oregono has been approved next one's a big one it's >> I make a motion to approve the concept appro to the concept approval for the Fington Elementary School and I'll second it's been moved and seconded to approve moving to the concept approval of the Fington ington Elementary School discussion. Member Po um member Parks and

120I were both part of the building committee and I think it's been two years now. Um, excitingly, and I think it is on the website and it should be available publicly, but there's been, you know, there were kind of multiple concepts drawn once we determined that we were going to be doing a project at the Fington School and it would be additions to Ferington to um be able to uh subsume or bring in the community from HUD, but also build out uh the new requirements for uh early childhood special education services that were going to be required. ired to uh provide as part of the partnership and the new laws that are taking place with CDS. Um so it's it's both a concept of how do we bring in together two communities and how do

121we build out expansions for prek potentially universal prek uh for all day programs as well as those early childhood um those early you know three to four year old kids um or earlier for special ed services. And that could mean that we'd have a building that would be able to identify students, work with students earlier and do some of those intervention services. It'll be a larger community, but it would be a school building that would be able to take in students soon earlier and and really um sort of improve and um see students or see kids sooner um to be able to support them. So, it's a it's a a concept you can find online. There's a front edition, there's a back edition, there's the I think an upstairs new classrooms. Um, so member parks

122could seek more on it, but it is uh a concept that took a while for us to determine based on need. Um, and I think a model might be at the city council at some point. >> A model will be right by the clerk's office so you can actually take a look at what the mockup is going to be of Fington. >> Board member Parks. And we're hoping that there will be a model at Fington School and at Huzzy School and maybe more places in the city so that people can see this exciting concept and how this school is going to be a school for the future. Thank you. And if you are interested in seeing some of the progress and where we are and when the next meetings are, we will be having a

123straw vote on this as well. It's all on the website and I encourage you to go and take a look because it is truly exciting. Any more discussion? With that said, please vote. Oh, >> I'm sorry. Who did I miss? >> Would it be helpful if I showed really quickly where on the website? >> Yes. Everything. >> That'd be wonderful. Thank you. >> That would be great. >> Um because people should go and see it. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Caitlyn. So, when you're on our website, um there's three different places that we put it. We tried to overkill it a little bit. Um on the side here, you'll see a button that says new school project. You're welcome to click that button. Um the easiest if you scroll down so you can't go any

124further. There's also a little write up here with our architects for the new school construction project. Um and then you can also find it under the board of education. Um I believe it's under the building committee link here. Our new schools construction project there. So plenty of areas for it. Here it outlines kind of our process, the fall update that Superintendent Tracy did. Um some schedule. All of this gets updated as soon as we get information. And then all of our updates um go here along with I I just recently posted um up to two days ago any presentation and meeting notes. You're welcome to look at all of that. And these have the really great pictures that we're all excited about um with those concepts. The April 6 does. Uh I took a quick

125peek and I did see some stuff in there. Yeah. So that's all there. >> Thank you, Kaitlyn. >> For everybody. >> Thank you. And just so anybody listening or anybody in the audience, there will be opportunities as the pro as the as the project progresses, we're going to be establishing some subcommittees. And if anybody would like to be on a subcommittee, subcommittees like interiors, picking out paints and colors and that stuff. Uh playgrounds. So if anybody um I I know that Mr. Stonier is going to be recruiting for building systems. So if anybody has a special expertise or special interest and they're interested in applying to be on any of those committees for the new school construction, we actually have applications available. they they can just reach out to us. You know, we we had

126an application process for the initial building committee, but we haven't set up. >> So, who should they call with that? [clears throat] >> Contact me or our superintendent's office, Michelle Warner, and we'll direct them to the appropriate >> That'd be great. So, anybody who's interested in serving on a subcommittee and and as as the building progresses, like right now, we're at the stage where we need to look at building systems. We're not ready for interiors yet. We obviously aren't ready for playgrounds yet, but as as we approach a need, we'll form a committee. So, we'll keep you posted on opportunities for committees as well. So, with that said, we already voted, right? >> No. No. I think we're in the middle of a vote. >> In the middle of a vote, did we vote? I'm

127getting all confused. >> We're not yet. >> Since there's no further discussion, all those in favor of approving the concept approval for the Fington School, please vote. and a five to vote zero. It's been approved. >> I make a motion to for Josh Puland and six of his students from the math team to attend the New England Association of Math Leagues meet at Canton High School in Canton, Massachusetts on the 1st of May, 2026. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded discussion. Hearing none, please vote. And on a vote of five to zero, the trip to Canton by the math team has been approved. The next is to move into executive session. So coming, we're going to go into another executive session. When we come out of this executive session, uh I don't think we

128have a vote to take. So you're welcome to leave. You can stay and see us come out of executive session and adjourn if you [clears throat] really if you really like to. But other than that, we thank you for attending our meeting tonight. And once again, thank you for supporting our school. >> Oh, I need a motion to go in. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I'm happy to motion to enter into the executive session pursuant to one FRSA 4056D regarding the custodial. >> You have a second. >> I second. Move the second to enter into executive session discussion. Hearing none, please vote. And on a boat of five to zero, we are in. [clears throat] [laughter] That was okay. Oh, >> okay. Go ahead, Susan. You can make a make a motion to adjourn

129from executive session. >> Motion to be made in seconded discussion. Hearing none, please vote. And on a b vote from 5 to zero, we are out of executive session. We have a motion. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. I hear a motion to adjurnn. Discussion hearing none. Vote 5-0. We see an adjourn in your things. I'm not going to go through them. Upcoming meetings are listed. Um we the building committee meeting on April 29th. I already talked to you about that. Didn't I a minute ago? >> You're going to invite the whole board. >> You're good. Yep. >> Okay. Sounds good. But it's looking like it might be budget. >> Okay. >> So, just know that that may not be what happens. It may be building community.