001All right, welcome everybody. Thanks for uh being here. Um calling the meeting to order and if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh welcome everybody. It's great to see so many folks uh coming in for the meeting today. Thank you. Um after the hope everyone survived the uh mini blizzard that mostly skirted us uh compared to other places but still a little icy. Um and welcome back from break. See that's why I'm even more amazed people here. We had break and we didn't have school and the weather and people still show up. That's amazing. So thank you for
002that. Um if uh we can just get right on to uh approve the uh minutes. >> I move to approve both U minutes for January 26 and February 2nd as written. >> Any questions or second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. All in favor? Okay. That passes. Any adjustments to the agenda today? No. Uh so then uh 6.0 I know public session if there was anyone from the public who was here to uh talk about anything on the agenda that's they're not already here for some other reason. No. Okay. Um then we'll move on to uh right into it. Uh staff reports. Uh I'll hand it over to Patrick to introduce our guests. >> So I'd like to thank our CPP program and A program for being here this evening. This was kind of a lastm
003minute uh we've had CPP before as you know multiple times during especially during a budget process several years ago and they always do a great job for us. So they were filling in uh for we were going to have the special ed four-year-old program and they stepped up and said we'd love to come and kind of give an update on their program. So So we have Abby is here, Georgie is here and Mike is here. So I'll have you guys come up and we have some students here as well but I understand they're not presenting. They're here to support which is very nice of them. Yeah. Okay. So, again, thanks for being here and we look forward to your your presentation. >> All right, I'll kick it off. I'm Abby Baker, one of the CPP
004teachers. >> Georgie Bunker, um other CPP edtech. and I'm Mike Deer and I teach at the middle school in the alternative pathways program which we'll get more to on >> and we're so grateful for this opportunity to present to you the work that we're doing and our ever evolving programs especially with the collaboration of A. I also want to shout out these amazing kids and families who joined us tonight. How do we be off these slides? Okay, perfect. Um, CPP exists for students who are capable of graduating but need a different structure to get there. Our truly incredible students have historically disengaged in traditional settings not because they don't want to learn to be successful, but because the system hasn't worked for them for some reason or another. We are here to keep students connected
005to our Morse High School community and on a clear path towards graduation through purposeful placebased interdisciplinary curriculum that is wicked fun and we just had three more walk in. >> You're amazing. Okay. So, um who we are serving um in CPP, I know this is not news to many of you, but just as a um sort of exciting evolution in our process is we've worked really hard over the last few years to solidify what the process looks like and build a robust um system for ensuring that we are catching as many kids and getting the right students into the program. Um so we work really closely with um administration, uh school counselors, social work, um and um sometimes even other classroom teachers who have put in um referrals. And we um have a process that
006um involves an in-person interview with um a student with a guardian, parent or guardian when um that's possible. um gathering as much feedback as possible and then making a collaborative decision um with the team um because we want any student who joins CPP to want to be there. Um so it's been a it's been an evolution but it's been um it's been a pretty exciting process to be a part of. Here in year four we have worked with 68 students. Um, we have a very valued partnership with JMG and ELO so that our juniors and seniors are able to come to CPP for one half of their day and the other half of the day they're working on specific career skills. Um, and that has really brought so many of our students from earning that
007diploma into an actual career or um, higher education. Uh so we're super excited about this uh 98.6% graduation rate. Um we at the end of this year will have graduated 42 students um from CPP. It is very exciting. Um 20 of those students have received Morse High School diplomas and 15 have um return received alternative pathways diplomas. Um and I we'll talk more about it a little bit later, but we're seeing an uptick in students being able to achieve the Morse High School diploma as we get students earlier and there isn't as much of a scramble to get that credit recovery. So, it's very very exciting. Um, so through increased community connections, through increased connections at school while the students are in CPP, limiting their transitions between classes and having kind of like a home
008base, um, among many other factors, 100% of our students have improved academically and improved their GPA. Um, this is a metric that's a little bit hard to capture. Um, but I think the best uh the best way that we could do that was to look at all of our students um over the last four years and over half of them have improved their attendance since joining CPP. Um, we've we messed around with like CPP attendance versus Morris attendance and it's just a tricky thing to really capture. um all of the data there and we worked with Matt Fry Davis, but I think this is sort of the most accurate. Um and uh I think what we probably all three of us really believe is that looking at the improvement um rather than the comparison um
009and knowing that attendance is one of those strongest predictors of graduation, it is a major focus of our program. Um, and we work really closely with the students and their teams to think with them and talk with them about why are they missing school? What are those long-term barriers that have gotten in the way? Because many of them are pretty wellestablished habits or barriers that are outside of our control. So, identifying what those are and creating a process that is really based in collaborative problem solving and strategy building um and communication, right? building those skills to communicate when things are getting in the way. Um, we've also developed a structure within CPP that mirrors that of batht. So when students know, okay, I have seven days within that quarter and if I miss more than
010seven days, I'm going to fail, right? And so setting that baseline, having the communication, tracking the days has really helped a lot of students to keep better track of it, to set the goals, and to communicate around um what's going on for them. >> Um we also have a little checklist. So if kids text, oh, I'm not feeling great, then we have a checklist we can go through together. Oh, what's your day look like? Are you not feeling well? Is your throat sore? Have you thrown? because a lot of students um are figuring out what constitutes take a whole day off versus just kind of make it happen and rest after school. Um so we have had out of our 68 students four students drop out. Um uh if a student is headed in that
011direction, we as always are collaborating with administration, with social work, with parents, with anybody we can pull in to support that student. Um but unfortunately, despite all of these interventions, we have lost four students um and other students due to other factors. What we're seeing now in terms of our um students and their time in CPP is that as we start with younger students, they're not spending the time to recoup credits. So, they get their credits, they establish positive connections within the school, and then they're able to leave CPP June after junior year and really take on like automotive. We have a kid who's uh will not be in CPP next year because he's doing automotive and then an ELO. So, they're really embracing those other opportunities after they get their core academics done. Um
012so, we try really hard to validate all of the post-graduation pathways. Um we have students working in a number of um different careers, many of them within our local community and the surrounding towns and that they many many of them keep in contact with us, which is really cool to hear about how they're doing. And um we've had 12 of our students go on to um mostly community colleges, but um secondary education pathways. Um and four of our seven current seniors are um have applied and been mostly been accepted to um continuing education programs in Maine, which is really fun. Uh every Friday we go out on fieldwork Fridays because part of our a huge component of our program is uh community engagement and showing students a world that they may not have been familiar
013with in the past. Um so seeing that real world relevance has really increase student engagement and connection. Um, we've been working this year with the Maine Maritime Museum and their educators in our study of migration and learning about black and indigenous migration within Maine. So, along with our studies in the classroom, it really just improves their understanding of the whole topic and and brings it local. Um we thanks to the uh Mid Coast Park View Health, Lincoln Health, Community Health Improvement Fund, a lot of health in there. Uh we got to go to Cal Island with ripple effect, which blew our minds. We did it overnight with our incredible students. Um I had ideas of how it would go, but I think it topped every expectation. It was challenging. It was fun. Um, and it
014was an an incredibly special experience. So, we're really grateful for that grant and we're so grateful for all of the community partnerships that we have within the bath from zopsum and so on. Um so the this is I think one of our biggest talking points that we're most excited about um when reflecting back on our um evolution over the last four years. Um we have um really tried to be grounded in um continuous growth, right? And we know that early intervention leads to stronger long-term outcomes. Um, in our first three years, I'm going to read this because I I was going to get it wrong. Um, we had juniors and seniors who came to us with as few as one credit in their junior and or senior year. Um, and these students with our support
015and the support of the larger community, um, would then have to spend their last year or two of high school trying to make up all of those core credits with additional coursework on top. And many of them they did it, but they missed out on some really valuable opportunities to develop those stronger connections within our community and develop the career skills within the batht um and with the addition of um thanks to our work with administration and guidance um we were able to take on freshmen this year um and our focus has really shifted from sort of a reactive model to a proactive model. So, we're catching kids a lot earlier um and getting them in and setting them up for success. Um I interrupt you. >> Yeah. >> Raise your hand if you're a
016sophomore or a freshman in this crowd. >> Look at that. They're really showing up. >> Yeah. >> Really cool. And juniors >> and senior. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, so I mean I I think this all speaks to it, but just we it's been really exciting to be able to shift our model and getting the freshmen in, but then also partnering um down with BMS to get the intervention started earlier and seeing the effect that it has on students in their ability to create a community here and then take off. Um, and we've seen that firsthand. It's been pretty remarkable with the freshman that we've had this year to see them thrive. >> So, >> okay. So, um this is the most amazing team and I feel so lucky to have joined it. Um so, going
017to give you a really brief update on the newest phase of our alternative programming in RSU1, the alternative pathways program at BMS. I'm one half of the team. Um Leah Haymon couldn't be here tonight, but she's also a former science teacher now in the alternative uh program model. And then we also work with Jeff Bickford who teaches uh a math class for us and our PE team. And we're working on a model now that's going to start integrating our students more throughout the school. But this first year's been a fully inclusive model. So our students are with us for almost the whole day. We currently we're about to have 13 students in two weeks. We've got 12 right now. Um, and it's been so neat to get to extend their model down to the middle
018school. So, largely everything that Georgie and Abby have talked about applies at BMS. We're not credit based. We're standardsbased, but still we use those same types of criteria to identify students who are in need of something different to succeed. And we've got some promising early results a couple trimesters in. For example, um since all of our students are seventh and eighth graders, we had all of them last year and this year, and we can directly compare their attendance those years. We've seen an improvement of 7% for this team, which in real school day numbers means that group of a dozen students has attended 85 more days of school so far this year. Um so that's really cool. Um and 100% of them have also shown improvement in their how grades habits have work since joining
019AP. Um, we've got some pictures. I wanted to share that one on the left there. Um, in the previous slide of them, um, planning, researching the recipes, getting ServeSafe certified, going to the store to shop for all the ingredients and then preparing an entire seven dish Thanksgiving meal by themselves and then eating it as a group, which was just this amazing moment in the fall. Um so you can go to the next slide. Um similarly we've got fieldwork Fridays. We're focusing on themes like outdoor leadership, community connections, going downtown and walking into businesses and shaking hands and asking for job applications. We do we've done a number of weekly service learning um uh times down at the food bank where they're stocking shelves or helping out on farms. And then that's a picture of them
020at Portland's stage um where we took many of our students for the first play they'd ever been to in their lives. And they were, you know, skeptical about it walking in the door and at intermission were just like, "Can you believe what happened?" That was it was amazing. I mean, it was like a magical moment for them. So, um, the ways we've achieved those attendance gains have been, um, BMS is doing a whole positive behavioral interventions and supports push across the school, but we've really focused on honing those PBIS models for improving attendance, work completion, and behavior. And since we're kind of working with younger students, we focused on gamifying those things a little more. Um, and they're really bought into it. If there's a student who's out sick, they get in touch with um
021Leo or myself and say, "Hey, I want to keep my streak. This is why I'm out." You and um so that's pretty cool. Um, and then we do a combination of traditional academics with a lot of individualized support and then more projectbased learning which we've been able to do also with a lot of support from that main health Lincoln Health Park View community improvement grant which has been enormously generous um, and has made all these things possible. Not just taking them on great trips, but having a kitchen in our classroom which is stocked with food. So every morning if a student comes in and they're feeling hungry, we can make up a meal and then get on the right foot for the day. Um yeah, and here just a couple of quick quotes from students.
022Uh I want to be in school now. It's really fun for me to learn. I've learned I can actually do really hard things when I try. I've learned well in AP I can work harder if I choose to calm down and do my work. I can get a lot done. Uh I'm learning well now. I need a lot of help and I think I found it. And then I think a is a good choice for me because I get work done and I feel like I'm supported. So it's really powerful hearing these testimonials from students. It's early days. We still have a lot to develop in this program. Um, we're going to be sending nine eighth graders up to the high school next year and many of them are really excited about CPP and we've
023been working hard with uh Abby and Georgie and admin at both campuses and guidance counselors to create a transition process that's smooth and make sure that kids are getting the best type of programming available to them at the high school to meet their needs because we have students with and without IEPs and all range of learning needs. So, thank you so much for your time and for the support of this uh this program. >> Questions? Questions for them? Anybody? >> Do you have a go? >> No questions. Huge fan. um of the program and of all of you because I just the program is what it is because of the care and dedication and just the heart that you bring. I was thinking about my own high school experience as I'm looking at all of
024this and I'm a Morse High graduate. High school was not easy for me. I was not an athlete. I was not an academic. Um I think my principal came and told me if I missed one more day of school I wouldn't graduate. So, like I I resonate with a lot of um I think the kids that I the ones that I know and love and the ones that I don't know yet, but I love you already. Um but I I think just what CPP and A has enabled kids to um see is that there's no shame in the way that they learn and that there isn't something that's maybe wrong with them. Like like I still carry that even as an adult. Um, but I'm just so proud. >> It's great. Great presentation. Thank you.
025I just had a question with the since I know it's new moving from the A to CP now like are all the kids doing that. Are there some saying, you know, I got what I needed and I I can go. I mean, I'm assuming, you know, because it's not just a this is now where you're going to be the whole time. Every kid's different. I just wondered, I know it's new, but just wondered how you're thinking about that. >> Yeah, I mean, so Morse has an amazing range of programming available to students. And so the great thing is that it's kind of like um >> in a right now, we have a policy that if you are admitted into the program, you have to stay for at least a trimester. You can't just get on
026and off the train where you feel like it. Um, and students can be dismissed and they can be brought on partway through the year. But as far as that transition's concerned, we've been trying to get a lot of exposure between the groups. Our students have done a number of activities together over the year. Um, Georgie and Abby will be coming down and talking to them in the next month more about the program and so that they're kind of aware of what that would look like and how it changes, what other opportunities they have available for them. But we have a mix of students. Most in our program are saying pretty affirmatively they want to be part of Yeah. And others are going, "Yeah, I think I kind of got my feet under me and uh
027I want to try doing >> uh more of the general education setting again." So, >> sure. >> And we're also able to meet as a team once a month and so we've been collaborating on who might be a good fit and um making recommendations and also policies as we develop this part of our program. >> Yeah, because it's evolving. It's still very very new in that respect and getting them younger. Um yeah, go ahead, Jennifer. >> Hi. um you mentioned something about an a student contract for CPP and I was wondering what that is and also is there a student contract for A? >> Yes. So um we have a contract that students sign that basically states that they understand our 7-day policy, attendance policy that they will, you know, attend school, they'll communicate, they'll
028keep the classroom safe, you know, all those kind of general things. And I think one of the most important parts of the contract is they're making a personal goal um that we it's not as if they don't meet the goal they will be out but it's just nice to see kids fully engage in that and be intentional about their participation at school. >> And is that seven days is that seven consecutive days or seven total days? >> Seven total days for the quarter. Um we ask students to communicate with us when they're out. uh if they are sick, they have a doctor's note. And the purpose of that, one of the purposes is because we want to build professional skills for our students. So, for example, I can't be out, you know, sneaking into Florida
029and then, you know, not communicate or those kind of things. So, we want our kids to understand those professional skills and what constitutes as a sick day, um and what doesn't. and A took a contract that's largely modeled off that. And the only thing that's really different about it is because we're within this PBIS system that BMS is doing pretty intently, we have a lot of these um you know response to intervention type systems in place where if we're seeing a student who's not completing work in that setting, we meet up and then we put in like an RTIB plan to support them or you know figure out bring in parents that sort of thing so we can get things sort of back on track. But yeah, similar similar idea. >> Good. >> Um, and
030so students in CPP, did I understand correctly that they're like half a day is CPP and then the other half of the day is JMG or ELO? >> Yeah. What grade they are, the freshman um would be half a day with us and then half a day in traditional classes. >> Sophomores would be the same. And then by the time they're juniors or seniors, they would either continue in regular classes join math tech or do an extended learning opportunity. >> So it depends on the year. >> Okay. >> Right. And we have now this year made it mandatory for seniors who are not in batht. So they're gaining those professional skills outside of CPP. >> So does that mean they have their different graduation? I I have to go back and look at my graduation
031credits because it's kind of confusing. But that's is those the graduation credits that are required for a Morse diploma or is that an alternate diploma? >> So the majority of our students earn a Morris diploma with 23 credits. Okay. >> Um alternative pathways diploma is 17 credits and now that we're accepting more students in the younger grades, we are seeing fewer um alternative pathways diplomas. >> Oh. Oh, excellent. Um, and I noticed in the board packet that there was, I think, something from adult ed that said that there was there are new credit recovery programs going on. Are those programs accessible to these students if that fits their their need? >> Yeah. So, we do um have students that especially English, it's really helpful have failed English sophomore, freshman year, and so they'll take an
032additional English through adulthood. Okay? >> And they've been great. And in the very beginning it said that these students don't um that for it's an alternative to the tradition traditional academic experience. And I'm just I'm kind of wondering what the traditional experience is these days because we offer so many alternate opportunities that I don't know what the word traditional means anymore. I just if you guys could help me understand what what that would mean to you too would be traditional. Well, I think in our sense, um, you know, just the schedule alone is alternative. So, they're with us for half the day. They're reducing the transition. They're reducing the number of teachers that they're having to juggle and stay in communication with and the different expectations and the workload. Um, so that in itself is
033non-traditional, right? To be with two of the same people for the half your day. Um, and then I would say from a curricular standpoint, um, we're non-traditional in that we are truly interdisciplinary. So we have units or themes that we're basing all of our studies off of. So it's not just, okay, we have an hour of math right now and now we have an hour of science and now, you know, it is >> based on different >> expeditionary more expeditionary learning. >> Okay. Yeah. And then we're tying those themes to the um fieldwork experiences that were going on. So our first unit was aquaculture and every Friday we were either on a boat somewhere in the mid coast area um participating in um oyster farming, culling, um you know, you name it. We were at
034Reed State Park doing raw feed studies. So every Friday we were out doing expeditions is essentially how you would think of it. So that's really >> when we say non-traditional that's what we mean. Okay. um so that it helps to ground it for students and it's not just these like sections of sort of non-connected >> um instruction is really sort of like wholly >> while still reading novels, writing essays, >> doing debates, all the normal things. We just >> it's all around one. >> Right now we're doing migration and adaptation and we're reading a long way gone which I think is a sophomore. >> Yeah. Maybe Ashley Smith is teaching it right now at the same time. So, we're tying in um grade level or appropriate curriculum, but it's all themed, so it's it's more
035connected. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> You all set everybody? Thank you so much. That was fantastic. Really appreciate. And thank you to all the students who came out and and don't panic. You don't have to sit through the rest of the meeting. Y'all can leave if you want to or you can stay. But thanks so much >> and thank you guys for giving us. >> Oh, appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, where we at? Um, Charlie, I think you're up. >> Yes. I guess I'm on my own again. I was going to say, where's where's your buddy? >> I think he got stuck because of the snow. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, it's okay. I guess I'll forgive him for that one. It's not his fault. >> Oh, yeah. But it's nice
036to be back after that remote day. I heard mostly positive reviews, though, which was good. It seemed like a lot of teachers um assigned work, but then didn't make them stay for the whole period, which I think everyone liked since it was still from home in a way. And so, that was good. Um, but winter sports, most of them are also over. So, I just wrote down a few statistics to to share. Girls basketball ended with seven wins, 11 losses, and they were less than a point away from qualifying for playoffs. Super close. Same thing for boys basketball. They ended with six wins and 12 losses, and they were one point away from qualification. For indoor track, both teams placed in the KBAC meet. Girls placed second and boys placed third. And then a few
037of the relay teams and individuals went on to compete in the States meet which was Monday over vacation. And then for swim, the boys swim team won their KVAC meet. The girls placed fifth. And so they're both going to be competing on March 7th in the state meet for Maine. And then for Jacqueline Hyde, the new musical, not musical, I think it's just a show this year coming up. Oh, it is. Okay. I have her dancing choreography. So, um, they'll be having three showings, two on the 21st and one on March 20th. So, I think they'll be super good this year. And before break, two different events that happened. The unified class held a Super Bowl party for anyone to attend. Super fun. The Mr. Fisk and the students made a bunch of food. So,
038that was fun. Even if you don't understand football that well, still still nice to be there. And then the annual enterta international night occurred the night before break. And I always worry that they're not going to have a great turnout because of the date, but it seemed like they did. Girl Scouts had a booth and all the different international students presented their country as well. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions for Charlie? Thanks so much. That was great. Um, all right. We Let's see where we at. Uh, superintendence report. Patrick. >> Yeah. So, Charlie mentioned Jackal and Hyde. Uh, we also have a spring play at BMS, usually done during the day, and that's going to be Huck Finn, and so Kitty and I will make sure that we go to that. It's
039always entertaining. Uh, freshman awareness is coming up in March, a two-day program off-campus, and really focused on resiliency, goal setting, um, and just a lot of things again around setting goals for freshmen. Uh, I'll take some of the things across off a few things that Charlie already mentioned, but boys hockey, we're doing a co-op uh with Lewon this year. So, we I think we have three boys that are playing for Lewon and they make that time commitment and that commute over there and they're heading into the class A playoffs uh as the third seed. Uh, winter cheering uh won the sportsmanship award for the third season in a row. Wrestling, we had three athletes qualify for states. Noah Craney, Denver Rowan, and Dante Ingga Haro. I hope I pronounced that right. And sophomore Noah Craney
040qualified for New England qualifiers and almost made it to the New England's wrestling championship. Swimming and diving. Fletcher Mcdana has already set a new team record in one meter diving. And unified basketball is now underway. I think today's game was cancelled, but there's a home one I think tomorrow. But um if you have any interest, it's a it's a great event to watch. So if you want the schedule, I can send it to you. We also had three music students accepted to all state band and chorus, including Grace Kirk in chorus and Anderson Brown and Gracious Emmery in band. And then Woolwitch, you might have seen the Woolwitch third graders that came in early, I think, at 7 a.m. to be uh on WMTW weather um channel. So, they were live out in front of
041the school. And then uh Ted Mcini also comes back and does a lesson with the class. So, it was neat to see them on TV. And then lastly, we do have the building committee set for the new elementary school and we'll have our first meeting on March 3rd, which is next Tuesday. And uh some of that meeting will be focused on site selection. So Technic has it narrowed down to eight sites at this point right now. And by the time they meet with us on the third, they may have it narrowed down to, you know, anywhere from three to five sites. So we have reached out to appraisal companies just to let them know that anywhere between March 15th and April 15th is the window for possibly conducting appraisals because we need to be put
042into the queue so to speak so that they have the time to be able to do this. So, um, and Labbali Breninger did come to both of our elementary schools and spoke to the staff and we also sent out a survey just yesterday to staff just asking them a lot of different questions about space, what they like about their current space now, what they need in the future, just to start that process of of gathering input. And that's it. >> They are. Yep. And that's it. All right. Any questions for Patrick? Hey, Deb. >> Hello, everybody. >> My time, my time's dwindling. >> Oh, no. Now, now, now she's really confident she can go now that >> um tonight we are looking at January for the financial report and we've spent a little over $24
043million. So 53% um and we've received 59% in our revenues of so $26 million. Um basically everything is going as expected. No, not seeing any major issues. You know, once again, always keeping my eyes on the outside tuition and um a couple other things, but if I follow the cost centers of what happened last year versus what's happening this year, we're we're right in line. We're probably going to end up close to where we were last year. Um but that's that's it. We're working on budgets and we'll be seeing lots of lots of each other for a next couple of months. Any questions? >> Um uh for tuition revenue um is that about um is that based on the revenue that we get per quarter or like is like how does that tuition revenue get?
044>> So that basically is showing what we've received through January. So Kim bills um Westbat is usually on a monthly basis once once the um yeah once the figures are in and the students are set with the October 1st. Okay. >> And she'll start and then some of the other ones I think are twice a year like um AOS93 or something is not as often but okay >> West Bath is monthly and Georgetown is true, right? No, two times a year. >> So, >> and I was thinking about that and then also the enrollment numbers that you reported before. Um, does has our enrollment changed a lot? Is that something that I know we don't really look at those numbers as much as we do in the beginning of the year, but >> I would
045say no. >> Okay. Um, and oh, um, I spent a lot more in fuel this winter so far, like double what I spent before. And I started thinking about that must be kind of true. I know we've got great fuel resources here, but I was wondering, is there does that impact anything? Um, a really cold winter. >> Um, so far with the fuel, it's been pretty good. I mean, we basically for what we spend on fuel, it's limited amounts for each school. Like Dyol, obviously at the high school, we're using the um funds from the fire to pay for those. So, that's basically taken care of. But, um our bid was like 60,000 gallons at we were like $3 a gallon. So, we're we're still pretty good right now. Um, but it has been. >>
046And is that heating? Heating and >> heating. Yeah, heating. Okay. >> Heating. And then we have propane up here at the high school. And at Fittsburgh, we have um some propane down there, too. So, >> okay. So, not not exorbitant difference, you don't. >> No, I mean, we're not over or anything. Um, but yeah, we're spending. >> Everybody is. It's just cold this winter. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay, thank you. Um, okay. Uh, old business. So, this is now second reading of board policies is our is an action. Um, it would be uh DKC expense authorization and reimbursement. DKCR expense reimbursement procedure. JICA weapons violence and school safety. JKA use of physical restraint and seclusion. JKA-R procedures on physical restraint and seclusion. So these are all things we had from last time. Uh
047this is now time to vote. Any discussion? No. If not, may I have a motion? >> I move approval of all of the policies. >> Okay. May I have a second? >> Second by Megan. Any other discussion? All in favor? Okay, those pass. Thank you. And now moving on to new business and we're going to start with uh Katie. Curriculum update. Hi everyone. Um so I um have one packet that's coming around. Um my update is just going to be on technology for this evening. Um, and so I just wanted to because I know I've mentioned um more discussion on screen time and AI um upcoming in past board meetings. Um, but I just wanted to show you something um that has been officially put together that's going to be put out to staff. Um,
048happy to have a board member come and join the committee too if this is all of interest, although we don't need to have a board member join. Um, but essentially I'm calling it the digital wellness committee and we already have an AI committee that's meeting um through the tech department that Dean and um Damian are essentially leading with teacher representatives from all of our schools. They're focusing much more on um you know what do people know and not know? What are they worried about? some of the research, some of the professional development we might might want to get um and policies um around that. Um this committee will combine some of what they're finding and what they might might recommend also with our continued use of screens in the classroom with students. So now that
049phones are gone, um, one of the biggest things that's sort of being talked about in the education world is just in general, how much time are students on screens in general in the classroom? Um, and so this committee will combine the AI lens with the screen time lens in the classroom and really think about um, what research is out there, how are we using screens in our classrooms right now, how should we be using it, and also bring in um, you can see over the course of the meetings that I'm proposing um, I really would like to have, um, law enforcement join us for one to come talk about um we have a detective who we work with who's been really helpful um with just how students can get themselves you know talking with people
050online um in not appropriate ways um you know the use of AI as a friend um and just some of the things that are going on in our community um that I think the committee should be aware of. I'd also like to speak with Dr. Haggler and a couple other um folks and have them join um from the medical lens um as well as possibly um Dr. Crowe who's our um psychologist um to learn more about um what the medical profession is seeing um the trends are and then finally h hearing from students and our families about sort of what they what they think about this. Um, you can see that after the first page, which is just a general overview, there are some survey questions. This is a survey um that's going to be
051going out. It's still in the draft phases, but it'll be going out in the next couple weeks um from Dean and myself to staff to collect more information on their understanding of AI, um their use of AI right now, students understanding and use of AI. Um and then the second half of it is all about their screen time, their one-on-one laptop use with students. How often is that happening? Um and obviously it will be very different by grade level, but we still want to collect all that um data so we can use that as part of this um digital wellness committee. So um I just wanted to make you aware of this. The timeline that I've proposed for this would be um starting this spring because we need to get the survey results back and
052I need to collect people who would be interested in this and going through next fall with hopefully the outcome being recommendations um and some guidance for our district moving forward like a year from right now essentially. So questions, thoughts? >> Yeah, I actually have a question. is um when you obviously it'll be different for each grade. You probably don't know yet like how you'll divide that. I mean is it is it going to be based on like the feedback how it comes back? I don't know how how define you know is it going to be K to two as a certain >> Yeah, two parts. That's a great question Lou and two parts. I was thinking in terms of K to 5, 6 through 8, 9 through 12. one having committee representatives um at least
053two from each of those grade levels when we have families come and join us for that component um of the meetings also representing multiple age ranges and then finally I sort of foresee the guidance we give back to people after this or our recommendations falling into age ranges as well because it is so different um and the research around you know what a six-year-old y old needs for a screen is very different than an 11th grader who is doing a lot of their learning potentially on a screen, >> all their research and everything. Yeah. >> Right. Um, and so yeah, I think and and one of the things I put on here is, you know, the meeting topics are subject to change because as I was planning this out, I was also thinking there could
054be a world in which we have to actually have to do a lot of these things in subcommittees by age range because it might be difficult and then come back together when each subcommittee has a recommendation because it might be hard to talk about them all together. So, we'll see how it goes. >> Yeah. Great question. Thank you. Um, any other questions, Jennifer? >> So, Katie, I was looking at the survey. Is the survey questions seem to be asking the teachers perspective? >> So, it is this digital wellness for students and digital wellness for teachers. >> It the it'll be both that in terms of the guidance that comes out. I think the AI component is in terms of both is how should students be interacting with AI in productive ways and also how should
055they be taught it's not going away. So, how should they be taught to use it in a um with fidelity in a value added way that's not going to um have it doing all the thinking for them or getting them in any sort of trouble with copyright for instance and things like that. That's one. But it will save them time in some ways. So, teaching them how to use that, teaching them how to, you know, not use it in inappropriate ways. um and also teaching them still to think without it. Um so closing the laptops more than we ever have potentially and making sure that they're not using it. From the teacher lens, it's both teaching teachers um how to use AI um to help them save time um or to help them differentiate. Um
056it's also teaching them the pitfalls that um students or they might fall into so they can teach around that and you know really manage the use of what's yet to come. And I I think kind of a third thing that this committee is taking on that I've been talking to the high school a lot about in different professional development sessions so far is it's really interesting slash terrifying to think about um the jobs that we used to think we were preparing students four or five years ago are not necessarily the jobs that are going to exist. Um, and so really having our teachers through these guidelines think about what is it important students leave high school knowing how to do? Cuz I think that that has changed over the past even five years um in
057terms of what technology will now be able to do for us. Um, and so what they'll have to do differently that a computer can't do in the workforce potentially. And so it's all of that. I don't know if that answers your question. >> It it does. It does. I mean, you have to it's all one piece, you know, the teacher and the student. Um, I just was looking at the just briefly looking at it and it seemed like there were some questions about how does AI make you emotionally feel and how are you concerned with that and is that both for the >> teacher? This is just a staff survey as the initial data point. We will create more surveys for families, for students depending on what um the committee wants to do in terms
058of data collection. >> And is it um I mean the even the whole technique of teaching I mean does it and this silly question but does the whole what are those the giant prometheian the boards you know the electronic boards I mean is that just the the way it teaches how much does that come into this kind of thing or is it just >> am I going too far? I was just curious how >> No, it's a great question and on the AI committee, we actually talked about it because when I and that's why you'll keep seeing here over and over one-on-one laptop use, right? >> Rather than screen time. >> Got it. >> Um because when teachers are using, we talked about how when you're using your Prometheian board, it's essentially a chalkboard, right?
059>> You're able to show things digitally and write on it. But that's very different than a students students not having conversation and interacting laptop with text that's all digital with writing that's all digital with um you know everything being a relationship between yourself and a computer. It's rare that a Prometheian exists without conversation. It's more of like a focal point like you could you could almost replace it always with an overhead projector. >> Right. I was just thinking when you talk about AI, I kind of thought about how that >> So to me that's that's why in all of this you'll see the one-on-one laptop because that's not this is not what we're talking about in terms of what's great. You thought it all through. Any other questions? >> That's awesome. Thank you. >> Yep.
060And I think I'm on for the next >> Yeah, you are because it's always the that time of year. It's school calendar time. >> Okay. So, um, moving on to the calendar. Um, I really just wanted to mention two quick things. Um, first of all, the school the sending schools with BAFT that we have to have five or less dissimilar days from um all appear to be on board that um for this to work out. So, they've seen this calendar and um I think at this point we've gotten into a good rhythm where they mostly use ours to build off of because it just is easier that way. Um the one thing of note is I know we've been starting after like into September. This Labor Day is a little late and so you will
061see the first day of school does have an August date although I think it's the 30th or the 31st. It's late in um August. And then um we do have a two week >> uh winter vacation again which I know um that some people were very excited about that. Um and then the final thing is the November professional development day often alternates between um when election day happens if it's um or it's after the holiday um which can which changes. Sometimes the holiday is a Monday, sometimes it's a Tuesday, sometimes it's a Wednesday. And what we decided and the sending schools in the union as well is that we're always just going to from here on out make it on election day. Um just because we do have schools that are voting sites and also
062it was getting complicated for the sending schools when um it's always changing for them for us. Um and it'll just be more consistent and easy to plan if we keep it on that day. Yeah, that's great. >> That's it. >> Um, any questions on the calendar? Is this um We need an action item. >> It is an action item. >> We do have to vote on this, but yeah, the two I don't know what it was about the two weeks of winter break, but it like made a difference. It feels different. >> It does. >> Um, okay. Any So, can I have a motion? >> I move to approve the 2026 27 calendar as presented. And may I have a second? Thank you. All in favor? All right. Thanks for all your hard work on
063that. I know it's not, you know, it sounds like you are getting into a rhythm, but I know it's not the easiest thing to do, but that's great. All right. Now, we are on to first reading of board policies. Um, not action item. Um, we have a what is this? EB safety program, EI insurance program risk management, EI-R return to work and reasonable accommodation administrative procedure, uh, GBN, family and medical leave, and HA negotiations, goals, priority objectives. Um, this is everyone hopefully had a chance to read through them. Are there any questions or concerns or anything the policy committee wants to talk to us about about them? Anything unusual? No. Okay. So, if no questions, um, you know, read them through again. If you got any questions, let us know and we'll vote on that
064next time. And then we'll go I'm going to hand it over to Patrick for the overnight field trip requests. And this will be an action item. >> Yeah. I mean, the first three are the outed club, which is no surprise probably to you. I mean, Leslie Trendy's group, and then the last one is from our safe club. And so, they're all in Maine. It's just that they're one night overnight, maybe two actually for the outing club, but one night for the Jefferson one. >> I think all trips that we've >> I think we've done them before, >> maybe not to every single location for the outing club, but we've done the safe club trip before in a prior year. Any questions on Yeah, >> Patrick, can you remind me? Um, if there's a school day
065missed, do we have to get a sub for Leslie? And and is the sub cost included in the funding source? >> I don't believe that there's a >> Yeah, she doesn't have sub. Plus, it was just a I think it's only one half day that she would have been away from kids because there's a professional development day there as well >> for all three trips. >> Yeah. Some of them are just Friday to Sunday anyway. >> Right. So, Okay. Yeah. And I couldn't the last one I couldn't figure out what the dates. It says 58 20 26 but it says it's an overnight. >> I was just >> the LA um uh >> May 8th >> but it says it's an overnight trip. So is there it's 8th to 9th or 8th to 9th 10th?
066And it's >> I think it's just I'll have to double check. >> Okay. >> But I believe it's just that Friday night. Kim, do you do you know? >> I'm not sure. >> I think it's just the eight that night though. >> Oh, okay. >> But I'll double check that. >> Oh, and I don't Okay. >> Y >> and and so it's a and I guess the question would be is there a sub required for that teacher? >> No, they're leaving at departure from school is 3 p.m. >> Oh, so Oh, thank you. Yeah. >> Thank you. Thanks. All right. Uh, may I have a motion for the trips? >> Move to approve the overnight field trip requests >> and a second. Thank you, Patricia. All right. Um, all in favor and those pass. And
06712.0 personnel items. Uh, 12.1 resignation. Yeah, I would like to thank Sue Fleck who's been an edtech for us in our prek program at Dagno. Thank her for three years of service. And then on the next item, um nominations, as you know, we have, you know, two uh critical positions, um that are becoming vacant because of retirements. And so, but we're very excited at the same time. Well, well, causes us concern and pain, but um also excited to nominate these two people to you tonight um to fill these positions. And so, first one is uh Joe Rainville uh for facilities director. And I think I gave you the hard copy, but we had six applications interviewed everybody that applied. You can see the interview committee that that comprised. Uh Joe has a bachelor's of uh
068business administration and which really is we asked him this question why economics and finance um with what you're doing now but uh it was a challenge for him back in college that he wanted to to do and complete and you can see his experience there he's works for Amazon right now and he's a senior program manager but also has been an operations manager for Amazon and also served in the Navy for eight years um as a senior manager. So, uh, we're very pleased to nominate him tonight. And then for the business manager position, Jessica Scranton. Um, Jessica has been in the Falmouth School District for the last 19 years in their business department and she has a bachelor of science um in business management and um, we're excited to have her uh, come on board
069as well. And both of them I think will be able to start a little bit before the July one if we can make that work so that there's overlap with Dennis and with with uh Deb's institutional knowledge. Um and then Deb and Deb and Dennis have both have been kind enough to say that they would come back in the summertime too to to um you know to work with these people when necessary. So excited to nominate both of these and I don't know if you have any questions. >> Any questions on these? cuz you know some of us think working over 40 years in the system is time enough and have to leave. So we have to hire people. I don't know how many total years 45 >> that's what I'm saying. Some people think
07045 years is enough. I don't know. >> Um but no that's so uh unless there's questions. May I have a motion? >> Come on. It's for Deb's freedom. You got to hear >> I move to approve Deb's freedom. I move to approve the uh two nominations. >> Great. And a second by Okay. Um all in favor. All right. And thank you for, you know, for considering how difficult it is to find people and find good people. I think this is, you know, really uh quite an accomplishment. We're excited to have them both uh join us. And uh sorry to see folks go, but happy to have the new folks uh coming in. So, appreciate it and appreciate all your hard work in making that happen. All right. Um, board goal here. We get to reflect,
071Jennifer, on everything that's gone on. >> Sure. I think we did a good job tonight. Um, goal on communications and community um, engagement. I think that that we definitely talked about the um, uh, ability, the outreach ability and the CPP program. Um uh for goal number two, facilities and operations, not directly listed, but having a new facilities management person is a really important and glad to have that person come on board. Um uh goal three, I think, uh definitely um Katie touched on that in her curriculum update about um establishing instruction technology across the grades and understanding screen times. Um goal four, student achievement and growth. I think that you know we look we definitely touched on that not directly but also through the CBP program and their growth and their academic achievement. So I
072think we did a good job on hitting the goals tonight. Um, I have one other question. It's not particularly to this, but it's just about reading the board reports. And I was wondering for if we could, it was really interesting learning about um, the Wabanaki studies in Pittsburgh. And I was wondering, Katie, could we ever get anyone to come and tell us a little bit more about that and um, you know, it's something that we have decided as a state is a important part of our education and we've had hard times kind of hitting that goal and I was really excited to see that that was involved here. Do you think maybe there's any of the students who would like to come talk to us anytime that >> there we go? Yes, students. And I
073also have a group of teachers on the social studies committee that are putting together um sort of a whole new um overview of how we're going to tackle those standards. And so I'm happy to put together some probably more in the spring. Okay. Um but yeah, absolutely. Great. Thank you. Um, so we have the next meeting dates um, Monday, March 23rd. Um, and what is a special one on the 30th? But what don't we have something? Is it the 12th? I didn't see it written on here. What's the next budget? >> And we have one next Monday, the 2nd. >> Wait a second. >> We have our budget meetings here >> from 3:00. >> Oh, right. That's on the second. >> And then we have one the following week. 12th 12th. >> That's what I
074have. I was just making sure. So, there's one on the 2nd at 3:00 and one on the 12th at 3:00, right? >> Okay. Just so everybody's aware of that, um, if you aren't already and these other meetings, um, may I have a motion to adjourn? This is you, mate. >> I make a motion to adjourn. >> It's tradition. Yes. Okay. All in favor? >> Thank you all for being here. Have a great evening. >> Thanks.