001Thank you. Hey, good evening everybody. We're going to get started. Uh if we can stand for the pledge. 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. All right. Well, thanks for being here on this cold, rainy day that one minute you need a jacket and a sweater and the next minute it's you just you're like, "But it's May. What is going on?" Um, okay. So, we'll move through this. Um, just want to say, uh, and Patrick will speak more about this, but just, you know, congratulations to Dawn. Uh, Lee is our teacher teacher of the year for Saga County. We're, you know, very proud of her. She's an awesome teacher and, uh, we're
002just really thrilled to hear about that. and um and Aurora, your last meeting here. So, congratulations and you know, you've been a great asset. You've you've participated, loved all your opinions and coming in and asking the questions and being a part of it. And for the record, where are you going to college? Harvard. Awesome. And what are you studying? Astrophysics. That's awesome. But you're going to have to keep us posted. Um that sounds like it's going to be really exciting. So, congratulations on that. and we just really have loved having you here and you've shown Charlie the way. So, uh, you can take over for next year. So, thanks for for all your help and I hope you're, you know, got a good summer planned before you take off. And Patrick, go ahead. [Applause] All
003right. Um, always nice when we have good news to share. All right. Um, if we can go to approving the minutes, April 28th. I move that we approve the minutes. Okay. I second. And you second. Uh, any other questions, concerns? Uh, all in favor? Thank you. Any adjustments to the agenda today? No, we're all good. And public session, unless No, nobody's here to do that. Um, okay. Uh, so let's go straight to the student board report. Uh, all right. Well, for starters, I want to add on to your congratulations to Miss Lee. Uh, every one of the students is so proud of her. We've all used her resources and talked to her at least once in our time at Morris and we're so proud of her. Um to further what she's been doing, um on
004May 29th, the unified literacy class is going to hold an art and writing gala where the class is going to display art and poetry they've written over the past semester. Uh Miss Lee wants everyone to know there's going to be snacks and beverages if that'll get you to come. May 29th. May 29th. Yes. Um, in the theater department, musical theater night is the May 30th and 31st where the musical theater class is going to perform some fun songs and dances for everyone. Uh, regarding Bath Tech, uh, this Thursday is their senior celebration, which is also their graduation. Um, for some more specific shoutouts, every single CNA student and all the electrical engineering students passed their final exams. So, huge congratulations to every one of them. And then moving on to athletics, it is champion championship
005season and all sports are working to make playoffs for shot at state championships. Um some notable notable performances per usual we have um senior Shayen Brochu on a recent tear, snagging school records in the 800 meter, 1600 meter, and 3200 meter. um also known as the distance trio and she's now set her mind on breaking the state record in the coming weeks by shaving off just three seconds from her time. Uh for unified sports, we recently hosted the Special Olympics last week. Um, and the organizer Charlie Bingham was selected for his work in unified sports here at Morse along with seven other unified sports ambassadors in the US for a trip to Bulgaria sponsored by the DOE to help better establish unified programs for specially aabled children and adults there. Um, this past Saturday we
006had prom and that was a hit. a lot of uh it was secret garden themed and it was a lot of moving plants back and forth from teachers to the from the school to the freight shed back and forth. My car has a lot of dirt in it. Um, and then some scholarship opportunities coming up are uh we have the academic awards ceremony this s uh this Thursday which includes junior book awards which are college specific scholarships for juniors and then we also have scholarship night for seniors um on June 5th funded by the alumni association and local businesses and will provide approximately $330,000 this year for uh more seniors. That's all I got. Great. Thank you very much. Um, any questions? No. Uh, superintendent's report. Yeah. Ju again just another congratulations to Dawn. I
007think that's our seventh or eighth Saged County teacher of the year. Uh, since the inception and I I do want to give credit to Educate Maine. They really do a nice job of county teachers of the year. Before it used to just be one Maine teacher of the year. And so the the the ceremony they do at the Hall of Flags is really um it's really classy. It's well done and it's a nice way for more people to be recognized for their work. So congratulations. I do want to mention too the other nominees this year from the district was they were Shannon Heath who's a elementary teacher at Fischer Mitchell. We had Jeff Bickford who's a middle school math teacher and we had Abby Baker who's one of our CPP teachers here at Morse. So
008congratulations to everyone. Um, just wanted to mention this. Uh, I mean the board has seen it. I'm not going to read the letter. I don't have it with me tonight, but um, the food service letter that I sent you. I just think it's a nice way of really hitting home. It was from a student here at the high school writing to the food service people here at the high school about the difference that they've made in his life and um, overcoming some obstacles in his life. And it just goes to show you that no matter your role here in RSU1, it's important. Ray Bernier, our BAT carpentry instructor, was recognized by Rotary as a Paul Harris fellow and was donated $1,000 to recognize his work. Um, uh, that will go forward towards um, I believe
009for scholarships. Davenport, I had you sign a thank you letter today, but Davenport Fund does so much for our students and families, and some people don't take uh, maybe advantage of it as they should, but um, very generous, and uh, we're always sending them thank you notes. uh because we feel it's the right thing to do to thank them every time they support us from the Olympia snow um opportunities here to just summer programming to mental health support for our students and families. So they're giving $44,000 worth of scholarships to youth this summer from RSU1 to go to summer camps, overnight camps, day camps anywhere in the area here. Um just some things coming up May 21st, that's Wednesday, we have the main sale award. any of you are welcome. If you've never been, it's
010worth coming. And I know you have full-time jobs, but um it's I think it's at 9 is it usually you guys know 9:00 or 9:30? I can if you if you're interested, just email me and I can meet you at the front door. But it's just a great community event where somebody from our community is recognized for the impact that they've had on our students. Uh Thursday, BAT graduation on the 29th. You can see this in the backup, but is adult ed graduation and that's being held in SAD75 at Mount Arerat High School this year. And then we have the celebrations of learning next year at BMS and at June 8th we have it at Fippsburg. And then um June 8th is at Fitsburg, June, I'm sorry, June 8th is graduation. June 13th is uh
011Fippsburg celebration of learning. And then the last thing is just update on school construction is right now they've said that they hope that they will have a list that would go forward to the state board of education in July and then there's a certain period of time for appeals and then once that appeal process is complete which usually I don't know how long it takes maybe it takes a month or two that by the fall there would be that final priority list of uh school projects going forward. So, that's all I have. All right. Any questions for Patrick? Uh, you want to do the finance? Yeah, I'm not as articulate as Deb on this, but um you can see the report is for April 30th and it's so our 10th month into the year and
012we're at 74% of the budget and last year we were at 75. So, it's very similar and you can see under encumbered that 6 million mark um Deb informed me we have nine pay periods left in in this in this year and then if you're under revenues very similar again we were at we're at 85% right now we were at 86% last year um so Deb is feeling very good about where we are right now and we'll be able to let you know obviously not probably in our August meeting where we were with um carry forward and what we had left from this this year's budget. Yeah. Any questions? All right. Thank you, Patrick. Um, we just have the old business, nothing under it. Was there any old business? No. Okay. Uh, 10.0 new business.
013So, Katie, you want to tell us about the ESA? Yes. So the ESA um funding is our federal funding from title one, two, and four. And um this is what we've been waiting to hear on. Um and we're also required annually um to present this information um as part of receiving the funds. Um, so as you can see, um, there's a list at the very top of what we've received the past several years. Um, the money for FYI 26, so next year, um, has not been released yet, which is very abnormal. Um, usually by now we've known it for at least a month. Um when I reached out on Friday to the DOE one last time just so I could be prepared for today. You can see the quote um that I put there message
014from the DOE. Um you know it's a screenshot of what they're essentially prepared to share so far. And they write while we believe the US DOE is working on these. They have not been able to provide us with a timeline for when we can expect them. Once we get them we are prepared to turn them around to the field as fast as we can. In terms of things like public comment for FY26, which is what we're required to do right now, um we are encouraging folks to use last year's figures and make clear that these are our estimates and changes may need to be made to ESA EA plans if allocations come in lower than in previous years. Um the slide below is what they shared in that same email. Um they said they've been
015passing along for people in my position to share with their boards. Um I think that the second two bullet points are the most important to identify which is the rumor is that they are working on these and that the funding is likely to be level meaning it'll be around the same amount. Um so that's that's what we know so far. So if you can see, you know, last year for FY25, we had about 480,000 for title one, about 93,000 for title 2, and 90, um, let's call it, sorry, 49,000 for title 4. Um, and so the plan under use of funds, um, we're going to use the same plan as we normally do for how we spend our funds. So essentially in years past um we spend the majority of it on our interventionist in
016at Dyke Newell and um Fischer Mitchell because those two school schools qualified uh qualify as targeted assistance schools and that's where you're required to spend that money. Um because of their free and reduced lunch populations. Um and then part of those funds there's a certain percentage that has to go towards homeless students. we spend that on transportation. Um, and there's also a certain percentage of that total that you are required to spend on parent funds and we do the same. Um, just so the board knows the past few summers um what we've done for students and it's supposed to be money we spend um on family. So, we're not we we actually buy book packets for kids that go home in backpacks and it's so they have a library of their own on their reading
017level for the summer and they're supposed to keep those books for forever. So, it's money we essentially contribute to families. So, that's one of the required pieces. So, those backpacks are ready to go home. Um and then the o the title two funds um which is the only the other two things we spend this um these funds on overall would be professional development when there's some money left over. It's usually around 5,000 of the total and then we do fund one teacher through title two and always have so we can reduce um the number of students in our class sizes um in one of those schools depending on where the largest grade level falls. Um, so the student enrollment in each class can be fewer. So instead of three teachers, if you add a fourth
018in, the number of students is going to be lower across that grade level in that school. And that's one of the, um, recommended ways to spend that money. And so, um, as soon as I know the numbers, I'll have Patrick probably, unless it's all the way until our next June meeting, I'll have Patrick email them to you in a Friday email. But um essentially the plan is the same for how we'll spend the money and hopefully the money will be level um or just a tiny bit lower like it's proven to be over the past few years. So any questions on that? Thank you for the report, Katie. Um uh uh so if there's a reduction in SNAP eligibility, does that reduce the number of free and reduced hot lunch eligibility that we have? um
019if some of those programs change or or any of mainten any of those programs like that's what we use for free and reduced we don't really have that many applications any longer do we our applications uh have so there's two numbers that we collect one is direct service numbers um essentially which are students who qualify through the state and other services they get for support. The other is families who identify themselves under the old system essentially as um because of their income free or reduced lunch. We still collect both and actually um because of our new um online system that students use to enroll themselves now and because of the work that Kim has done getting nearly 100% of our families to respond, we have more accurate numbers than ever before. Okay. Oh, go ahead.
020Yeah. um if we lose if we lose that um direct service eligibility, we'll still have the applications as backup to be able to Okay. And I'm not sure we'd have to ask Melissa Cole. I don't know or Dub all that funding works for the nutrition piece, but we would have we would collect all that data no matter what. Okay. Well, that's good. That's wonderful. Um and for the Anything to add, Kim? Right. We collect it and we can use it for state reporting. Right. So would we lose title one qualification if we The only way we would lose title one qualification is if the whole state lost it. Oh, okay. Which they're telling us right now is unlikely and that would be because of what's happening at the federal level. Okay. Yeah. Our our numbers
021are the way things are calculated, our numbers are solid enough and have been over time that we personally wouldn't only be impacted. It would be the whole state system of funding that would be impacted. Okay. And the the school that gets the PD, the additional teacher, has that been one specific school in the in the past? Does that usually It's usually Fisher Mitchell. Okay. Um but the PD goes to everybody across all schools. Okay. The teacher has to be in one of those two schools. Okay. Yeah. Other questions? Um so that so yeah the big concern is because they keep talking about even if they changed it then money might just come to the state directly right versus I mean they were talking about if they got rid of DOE or if they're you know
022on the federal level right and essentially we've been assured that the money is definitely locked in through September likely all year for at least this year. So I I they've told us not to worry about right now. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens next year with everybody's funding. Exactly. Um but that has nothing to do with us personally. It would be however the state deals with whatever happens dealing with whatever is going on. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Um all right. So 10.2 it's the transition of FAPE from CDS to RSU1. And this is a discussion kind of just clarification, right? Yeah, I mean it wouldn't be a bad thing if the board um wanted to, you know, take a vote of of in one way or the other. We put it
023as a discussion, but it doesn't require one. But um you got, you know, that this is an expectation, I think it's by 2027 that all districts in Maine would take over FAPE for three and four year olds. And I we've reported out to you this year that our committee made up of uh teaching staff, administration, YMCA, Head Start. So we had about eight or 10 people on this committee and we did a lot of talking. We brought people in from CDS to talk to us. We met with DOE people and um we didn't feel we just felt like there was a lot of unanswered questions um with both three and four year olds and and the number of students we were dealing with but also just um it felt like a lot to us to
024have both sets three year olds and four-year-olds. And then for some reason the DOE this spring decided that we could just school districts could just assume the responsibility for four-year-olds if you chose to. And so we got the committee back together and we did some looking. I think I shared with you 15 students um with IEPs, five and child fine. And we have looked at students and uh we don't have all the answers right now, but we have quite a bit of information about where they're located, where they're going to prek next year. And so there's a certain percentage, a good percentage that are already within our programming with whether it's the YMCA or at our schools or at Head Start. And what this in simple terms, what this means is that we would take
025over providing their services to them and it would not be CDS any longer. We can still collaborate with them and if we need some help from them, we can certainly ask them for help. Um, and so I tried to give you as much information as I could. I had an what I felt was a very productive meeting last week with one of the head finance people's uh people from the state who um reassured me on some questions. And so we would receive around $350,000 to be able to do this. And it's quarterly payments from the Department of Education. They start June 1st and they come I'm I'm sorry July 1st, October 1st, January 1st, and April 1st. And so that 350,000 would be split into I don't know 80 and change payments that we would
026receive. Deb would have to do quarterly reports to show how we're spending the money, make sure it's appropriate. But this is in statute and it's the legislature is the only body that could um like overrule this at some point in the future. And I think right now there might be 18 to 20 school districts that are already doing three and four year olds. We've talked to them. York and Kery is one example that's well they can I would say York is similar size to us and so that's what we were looking out for and Booth Bay has done it but they're much smaller. Next year Wisconsin is doing both three and four year old and so is SD75. Um so we have some area partners as well. So, um there are state funds, not federal.
027And again, this is not part of EPS or our 279 state funding. This is totally separate from that. And all costs are covered by the states. And I didn't want to bore you with this, but this is the statute here and is very specific in here that talk about how the funding formula for this works and also that must be provided at 100% state share. And with the conversation we had last year is that if we have an extenduating circumstance that's legitimate um it could be it could be any like we have this influx of or more speech that we need or more OTP um you know something comes up that they will make us whole as far as um covering those costs within that fiscal year as long as we provide our quarterly reports
028and we communicate with them and everything is is organized. So the bottom line is we feel like it's good for students because right now we have students that are three and four year olds. Nobody's fault really. CDS is not tied to a school. It's just hard to find those service providers. So we have students that are going without services right now or they might be receiving remote services which isn't really what we'd like to see for certain for certain things. We have some of those service providers in our school. I'm not suggesting that we can make it work with just them that we would have to look to see if we can employ for example a speech person or increase the contracted services that we have with a company right now. For example, one idea
029we have which again this isn't carbon stone but one idea is to hire a director part-time 50% director and a 50% uh teacher that would have to have a certain certification. And so therefore that person is responsible for making sure that these 15 to 20 students that they know exactly what these students need for services. They're the person that oversees those as well as their teaching as you know part-time as well. And then again OTPT speech speech tends to be the biggest one um that we need to find for for services. So I'll I'll stop there. Katie, do you want to add anything? I know you haven't been as involved with this one, but um you know, our principles and the whole committee just um again feel like it's the right thing to do. Right
030now, we're doing transition CDS meetings for students coming into kindergarten. Those wouldn't need to happen because we we would so to speak oversee all of this education and services throughout the year. Just sets our students up for more success, we believe. And again, I'm not I'm not trying to be um negative at all towards CDS. is just so spread out and it can't it can't do the job that a school system can. And this year, for the first time, we've had CDS reach out to us when we've needed a service and said to us, "Hey, if you can find somebody, we'll do a contract with you and we'll reimburse you." And that's been that's been a nice suggestion. Um, and this just takes it one step further. That's all. So, I'll stop there and just
031see what questions you have. Oh, I don't want to. Um, so, uh, I didn't quite under I I couldn't find, um, in rulem in the legislative process that usually I'm familiar with where the funding formula came from, except for in statute. And so I I was unclear a little bit about how they went about the funding formula and how it could change potentially. So, I had a good conversation with DOE today and some of the things that they said that I asked like what goes into that funding formula. For example, if we have to provide um if if the students are served in a building that has debt financing, is debt financing part of what they would consider part of this um funding formula. And they the people person I was talking to wasn't the
032financial person, but they said they could get back to me because they didn't think that was included. Um I asked them in the funding formula, you know, did it did it take consideration for stu for school systems that had, you know, higher than average um contracted labor fees, you know, or benefits or other things. And they said they didn't that didn't they that wasn't in the funding formula. And I was just asking the funding formula questions just to try to kind of get really clear to when they say they're going to cover 100% of the costs. What's all the intrinsic costs? This is not a fee for service contract that we could could have had. This is in statute. So there's really they didn't get granular. What I understood is they'd make granular to how
033much more will it cost our system for more headcounts from everything from insurance, wear and tear, transportation, and all those things that go within that. Um, again, I'm not saying I don't support it. I think it's a great program. I'm just trying to get that sense of how can we do the right research and the homework to find out how expensive this is going to be and where are all those folding costs that keep kind of ballooning on us when we don't know about, you know, for the additional um staff person, the additional this, the additional that that don't really ever come in as a line item. They just kind of keep blowing up the expenses that we have. Um the other thing they said is that there's a flat fee for the child fine
034services. Um and if that goes over, they did tell me that they are willing to um consider overage overages in any cost area. One of the things that was pointed out to me was which I asked which they they volunteered before even asking, but I asked about what happens if a student comes in and needs um out of district placement, which could be a huge cost that that's not our exposure right now, you know, or and they said they would cover that 100%. Again, this is just conversation which I always like relieved at least, you know, there are some of those considerations. Um, they did point out that there early in this process and for figuring out does this funding meet expectations, they've only got a couple of quarters of data that they haven't DO
035told me today they haven't really researched to find out how is this funding working in terms of what the costs are. um they didn't have a lot of overage overages in the programs that they've been doing, but you know, as you start a program, it's pilot and it's small and all of a sudden it starts to barrel and get ahead of you. So, um you know, it it sounds like they're in the process of finding out what they do need. Um they mentioned to me that there might be some additional funding outside the funding that's available for early adopters. um they were weren't really clear about that to say how much that was a consideration or not. I didn't know if that came into your decision to kind of move forward on this earlier. Um
036but it it it does worry me that we're not heading into um another situation especially after doing this after we've passed the budget where we're um continuing to to fund programs that start with free money. I'm going to call it and then end up coming back to the local contribution and and you can either that can either happen when that money goes away at a statute or it cannot the budget cannot get passed so there's no funding there. I mean they don't have to change the statute they simply just don't have to pass a budget from the state perspective you know and and we end up that end up coming back to the local funding the local budget. So, I'm a little worried about this being yet another one of those situations that we we'll
037love it, we'll want it, it starts out with free money, people get so dependent on it, and then all of a sudden it becomes a transfer from what should really be a state service to the local cost. Um, and I did ask and they kind of laughed at me, but you know, long ago the pension cost to teachers used to be funded by the state. And so now the state has taken all that funded ex that pensionf funded expectations that it paid their staff members and now it's transferring it over to to public education. They're paying for it now, but doesn't mean they're always going to pay for that complete cost. Um so to me it it didn't sound like they had enough of information and enough experience with the data they were getting to
038really know how this is going to play out for the ultimate cost at the school level. Um, so I'm a little hesitant in branching into this now, especially since we just passed the budget. Even though it's not a budget cost, it's like something that maybe should have been rolled into our whole budget process in terms of we're taking on this another obligation for the next school year. Um, it's it's just kind of like an aftereffect thing. And I um I think it should have had that rich discussion and been part of what we were doing. So, I don't know if it's something that we have to do for next year or something that we're wanting to do for other reasons. I guess more would be my questions. And Jen, I asked every question that you
039asked because I because I knew you would ask these questions tonight. So, um I appreciate you reaching out even though, you know, I think we've done our due diligence on this one. Um, you know, I understand your point about maybe we're late to the game, but and I I think we had reservations about three and four year olds, but now that it's four year olds, and we're going to be forced to do this. We're one of I think we're one of two or three states in the country that don't have Yeah. And so we're going to be forced to do this. And I think our committee felt with that change and flexibility that we would give us a year to to work out the kinks, learn before we get this a bigger um pot of
040of students and more complex budget and learn from this. Um you know, I have talked to one school system that confirmed with me that they they did have an extenduating circumstance and they did um they did their homework. they they communicated with the DOE and they were they were awarded more money than what they received originally. Um you know when I have the head of the or one of the top people in the finance department that says Pat we don't have an obligation. This is in statute and if they if the legislature were to change their mind I mean this isn't just just RS issue one this is across the whole state of Maine. Um and so I again it's 100% it goes through per pupil. It talks about the high cost placements in here.
041I can give you a copy of this. Um, so I can Yeah, I think you've you've been clear about your concern around us taking on things during COVID and grant things and then they go away like the Lincoln County Health was we have it for another year. Um, I see this one is a little different because it's a it's a state mandate that we're going to have to do at some point. Now, we have flexibility and it's in here that it's 100% state funded and um as that person said to me this week who I trust and have worked with for a while that they'll they'll they'll stand by that and and if we have an extenduating circumstance, they'll make that right as well. So, we feel like it's in the best interest of kids.
042No, we don't have to do it. We can put it off another year. Um and I don't know if that option would still be there. we can just do four next year and then three the year after or that we'd have to jump on with um three and four year olds. I we just see students that are not getting services and feel like we could uh improve and provide those services to students. I don't have all the answers of right sitting here today about how many students needs I we have it back at the office but how many are set up to get speech versus OTPT and then we have to look at our students next year and again if we have a speech person that has a little room in their schedule then um
043that's what we might do versus contracting out. So I think that amount of money based on what we need to do looking at those students um seems seems fair. Um so I obviously we would come back to you with reports of how we're spending that money, where we're at with it, and we'd have to do the same with this with the DOE. So other questions that people have? I just had a comment, I guess. So, like with everything, if you catch it early and address it early, it saves you money down the line. So, I think it's a really good thing that we try to help these kiddos now and saves a lot of extra work and teachers down the line, I think. And and the position that you were talking about, teacher, program, whatever
044coordinator falls within that budget. I mean it we wouldn't be paying for I mean it's going to be paid for by the budget and and I I think we're trying to be aware of our current staffing not to not to overt tax people. So for example new special ed director coming in our principles I mean their their plates are full and so having someone that oversees this and again we're not ruling out that again we have two neighbors that are doing this along with us. I think again I believe they're both doing three and four year olds. we could end up sharing a coordinator with them. Um, that's not out of the out of the question. I don't think we feel like we need a full-time coordinator, but um, that's that's what our committee our
045committee's this year has done a lot of research on all of the private daycarees in addition to the ones we know here in in our our local area. We've we've made a list of all the service providers that we could reach out to if we move in this direction. But again, we we kind of didn't feel we were ready to take on three and four and this is a new development. Um so the the interesting thing is 100% well that's in the statue. Um um usually rulemaking comes up with notwithstanding and they'll say and appropriations say notwithstanding 100% notwithstanding something or 100% they'll fund 100% of their decided formula which doesn't mean it's 100% of the school cost because you know the conversation I had today was what's not in here? Um, and there are
046things that aren't aren't considered in there that could impact school cost. One thing, um, Patrick, does the statute talk about transportation? Like, is transportation addressed and and how does that impact our transportation contracts and such with that young little children? Like I would, yeah, I think I mean, we have to look at where the students are located and if they're in a private daycare, then we can service them there. Um, ideally we might want to have them come to our facility and again there's no obligation that we would provide the transportation. So those are, you know, those are quirks that we'd have to work out, but a majority of the students would be already in our programs for four-year-olds. So we would send staff to them instead of them being in our building at at
047times possibly depending on the service. And then there'd be times when they would come to us um because again we want to have them interacting with with our with with as many students as possible. Okay. So I guess the question is do we do we vote on? Is this something we should vote on? Uh you know I think it would be a statement I think it would be a positive thing to vote whatever way you would like to vote this evening. Again, I I think it's something that um we're going to every school system in in Maine is going to end up doing. And I think they have I want to say they told me last week they have 36 new districts that are coming on board. I don't know if they're all three and
048four. I think the majority are three and four. Um but ours would be four, just four year olds. Um for the year. So if the board is interested then I think there would be a a motion to what how would we phrase it to accept just simple that accept the vote's not on the agenda it's a discussion so it was a discussion right so I just want to know if we because we paused before with voting on things if the vote wasn't record it wasn't described on the agenda and I'm I'm not opposing a vote right now but I just want to make sure things are clear for going into this. So, does that matter at all in terms of the kind of vote we're taking? I think it's more of a confirmation. I mean,
049we're because it's because they've already accepted when we're doing this. No, I mean, we have June 1st, they Oh, we have till June 1st. Okay. Well, no, we don't have to. I mean, that's why it was a discussion. It was just we're doing this unless people felt we needed to have a vote, we could. But, you know, if people were so or if so many of the board were opposed and said this this, you know, I want more information, I can't do this and we don't want to do this, then I guess we would have to have a vote. I know what you're saying because it's when you tell the public, it's not a vote on the agenda. Do you still have a vote? You change your mind and have a vote during the meeting.
050I mean, it's up to the board. Um, I mean, we can call a special board meeting if if you want to do it that way and have a vote on it. Um, again, it's not a budget implication. It's helping our families, right? Um, but how does how do folks feel? I mean, I'm fine either. I'm fine letting I mean, I think we should do this. Um, it's not a you know, it doesn't affect the budget. It's for one year. If things shifted again and it involved costs from the local level, obviously that would be a different story and we'd have to have that discussion. But um it's for four yards. Kurt Jer, I was just wondering if we don't make a decision tonight what happens and we don't call a special meeting. Yeah, I mean
051all I know is Jennifer Hopkins from the DOE. She just said she would like to know by um June 1st. I think quite frankly if we um tell her that we need one more month um then I I' I'd like to think that she would she would understand that if people need more information. I mean if or if people are more comfortable because it should be on the agenda. Um if we're we haven't gotten to it yet, but if we're having our meeting June 16th, you could just say we're voting on June 16th and if it's a problem, we do it earlier. If it's not, we just do it then. Would people be okay with that? Yeah. Go ahead, Anita. I I don't think it's necessary to take a vote. I I think we should
052just let it rest and we we trust Patrick and Katie to do the job we've hired them to do and they're presenting this to us and we just let it go. Let it go. I'm confident that they've presented it well and um I think we should be all set with it. Um I think if we choose to move forward with the vote, it's almost like not having confidence into them. No, I know. Yeah, he was suggesting they're not here. Yeah, it could be perceived that way. Yeah. Okay. I'm kind of uncomfortable with that. Okay, that's fine. I'm seeing a lot of heads nodding. Okay. I mean, it's not it's not a vote that's required by the DOE to before to do this. That's okay. But then I think um then we're just then let's go
053with let's just go forward with it then. That's what we'll do. Um can I just get clarification? I Patrick, is this something that we're doing then? Are you saying you're making that this is a statement that this is going to this is going to go forward? We think this is in the messages of students. So we're do so we're doing this for next year for this coming year. Okay. Yeah. Um it's four year olds. Four year old just four year olds. This year it's just four year olds. They've already established where the majority of the kids are. They're in our programs most of them. And they can work out details for the few others. And this is a good opportunity with it being 100% to see how everything goes and see, you know, if there's
054any hurdles, anything that we come up against, this is the best way to find out now. So then if you know, the following year we're like, okay, three and four year olds, what's the budget? Can we do it? Then if we need to be more extensive discussion for the following year, we'll do that. And I and I mean I don't know if it September might be soon but September October to give you guys a kind of a a brief presentation to to tell you what we what we're doing keep you in the loop how we're spending the money and how how we're doing with those services to those students. All right then we just move forward. So can there be a statement or something kind of public notice put out because if this what if
055this is a it's a big it's a big thing we're doing here. We're doing something that you know it's not like we're legally required to do it. you know, like the state says we've got to hire and you know, we have to serve ex this, you know, it's it's a in the future we're adopting it now, which is fine. I'm not saying that I don't have respect and trust in our administration at all. I'm just looking at it like we're making a big difference. We're adopting something. We're taking something on. Is there like a press release or announcement that could go out to all of our families, to our districts, to our municipalities that say we've decided to take on this project for at this point in time because in the future it will be
056a legal requirement and this is how we're doing it and like I don't know just a a way to invite we would put it you know we like normal we would put on our website put in a newsletter and then we have a draft correspondence you know ready ready to go not that we would send it you know next week but to to those families of four-year-olds to let them know that not not a lot is going to change for them as far as where they end up going for their services, but who services them and under what guidance, that's what's going to change. I I think if I could just add on here, um I think the thing that will change for them is that their kids will actually get serviced. Um I mean,
057that's what's not been happening. There's a a gross problem of stu uh students of this age even in our own buildings who have an IEP and are supposed to be getting services multiple times a week and CDS has no one and can't find anyone and it isn't coordinated not for any not because they don't care they just don't have the capacity and so we have students sitting in our buildings who have unfulfilled build legal needs and this allows us to actually and we can't control that because those students are not supposed to be serviced by our service providers. They're supposed to be serviced by CDS service providers. And so I I think the upside is exactly what Patty was saying, which is hopefully we'll be able to find people who we can secure and we'll
058have all IEP needs being met so we met so we can start to close some of the gaps before students even get into kindergarten. I mean, um, it's really upsetting when you see some of our prek students and you know their backgrounds and you know what their IEP says and they're supposed to be getting 3 hours of service a day and they're getting zero. I mean, that's that's not helping them. It's not helping our current teachers and it's a huge problem. No, that's a very good point and I I think um however you would phrase that in a newsletter as to the I think that's a very No, it's good. It's good news. It's a good communication and that's the kind of thing that should be stated as because it also gives reason as to
059why they're doing this. They they know if they give the money to the individual school systems that that's the intent. The intent is that the needs will be met because they don't haven't had the capacity. So I think you that certainly could be put into a communication. All right. Anything else on this before we move on? All right. Thanks for all your thoughts and comments on it. I think this is a great um option and I'm glad we're going forward with it. Um so first reading of board policies, no action. And just for the record, I'll just read this is for staff conduct with students. It's uh uh I guess GCF recruit and hire professional staff. GCFB recruiting and hiring of administrative staff. GCI professional staff development opportunities. GCOA supervision and evaluation of professional staff.
060GCQC designation of school unit employees. And I'm assuming this was just um because these are things coming up to revision. There was no specific impetus that said, "Oh, we got to look at these, right?" Okay. Um because I could sense a theme there, but um but those are all good. Did anyone have any questions on the revision on the edits of those policies? No. Okay. Then thank you to the committee because you did a good job because people don't have questions. Um, so we'll take that on for a vote in uh June. Uh 10.4 overnight out of state field trip requests. We have Witch Central School to Boston. And uh any questions on that? It's a annual event. If not, may I have a motion? I'll move to approve the field trip request from school.
061Uh second. Okay. Thank you. Um any further discussion? No. All in favor? Okay. [Music] Um you guys are funny. All right. Um we have the 11.0 board goals. Jennifer, any comment on board goals? It's not tonight. Okay. And the next meeting dates. So, we know that the the big district meeting is going to be a week from tomorrow, right? Right. After so, after you all come off your big holiday weekend, um don't forget to show up on Tuesday. And I'm saying that mostly for myself. Don't forget to but uh also then the next board meeting now are we shifting it to we had sent out a notice. Was everyone okay with June 16th? She can't make that one. She said move without Yeah. Okay. She's cool with it. All right. And if she's the only
062one then Yeah. And then I'll send out we'll send you out a what we we call a management summary. remember the kind of like your your talking points to make sure we just keep organized for the meeting next Tuesday in the auditorium. So like motion second and then how to explain each article. So and if you have any questions on that but Deb and I will try to get that to you by Wednesday Thursday at the latest. John Morse again. Yeah, I think it's his last Well, he always says that but he always says it's his last year. Okay, that's fine. All right, so we have a moderator that'll be here in the theater. We need to elect a moderator, but yeah, that's funny. Okay, if nothing else, Megan, make a motion to adjourn. And
063may I have a second? Second. Second by Anita. All in favor? Thank you all. Thank you again, Aurora. We'll see you at graduation. Whatever.