001Um, if we can uh we're going to call to order if we can uh rise 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. Okay. I just want to welcome everybody back. I hope everyone had a good uh spring break and uh trying to get back into the swing of things. Um so we're just going to get right to it. We got a lot to cover and just would like to start with uh the minutes from the last meeting. I'll move to approve the minutes as written. Okay. and second. Great. All in favor? I I forgot to say before I go on, uh Jamie is on uh Zoom, so
002we'll be hearing from that. You just heard her say hi. Thanks, Jamie. And uh um and I know we have a couple staff also uh on Zoom, so thanks for being here. I think it's Connor and Sarah, right? All right. Um so that passes. Uh, I think we had an adjustment to the agenda. Yeah, just that we won't have Oops. 7.1. Uh, we're going to postpone that to I think next month. Um, and so we're going to go right to 7.2 when we get to that staff report. Great. Thank you. Uh, let's go straight into uh public session. If uh anyone is here has wants to speak to what's on the agenda uh budget anything like that if anyone wants to come up to the mic question you taking public comments on the budget in
003the public forum. Yeah I would also take Y yeah because that's part of the agenda. So if you have if you have a comment ru come on up. Okay. Of course. Good evening. Rude Dunn, 57 Green Street in Bath, parents of a Morris grad and a uh rising Morris freshman who's incredibly eager to be over here in the big house. At the last meeting, uh several of us pled for the retention of foreign language in middle school. That mandate from parents does not appear to have been answered and middle school foreign language is uh appears to still be cut in the FY26 budget. Despite our kids' belief, Latin for me did not start with the uh uh pesta. But I but French was in the classroom driven by 33 RPM records and a lot of
004giggly conversation. Later at age 20, I boldly mangled my way through a job abroad. The result including included a confident instruction to lower the third black strawberry. But I could do so because foreign language began in middle school. Our eldest achieved the main certificate of biiteracy here at Morris because he had teachers in middle school dedicated to foreign language. Our youngest, already planning all four of her years at Morse, has French down in every year because she started foreign language in middle school. RSU1 is committed to the principle that we teach to the student. Uh because every child uh has different needs at every stage of their education journey. We have CPP to keep in school students who might never otherwise be able. We have pull out programs for advanced learners. We connect students with
005Uain Early College. We have Bath Tech, AP, Honors, and all of the others. And we must have foreign language in middle school. Now, RSU1 is a $44 million business. We can argue, and I will win any debate proving the overwhelming value of public instruction. But you identified in a previous meeting that foreign language in middle school costs little bit less than one half of 1%. That's it. 0.5. And my broken record is that public education is a silver bullet for a strong American workforce. In Bath, in RSU1, we teach to every child's need. Because we're not a community that excludes children because their families are fishermen and not accountants, are doctors and not machinists, or ship builders or not aerospace engineers, artists and not nurses, or because they look different or love different, sound different,
006or are from away. So despite attacks that there may be on Maine from the federal government and there's this guy attempting to hide from the rest of the world which starts right over there. We always will be a members of a global community and while we in Maine may be attacked they can't change and we should not change our dedication to teach every day to every student. Thank you. Thank you, R. Anyone else for public session? Like to make a comment about the agenda or the budget? Okay. Uh hearing none, then uh we'll close public session and we'll move on to 7.0 uh staff report. So tonight we have the Woolwitch Robotics Club which is new um and it's funded through the Lincoln County U grants that we've received this year. And so we have
007uh our adviserss here Steve Sha, Dave Le Point, and we also have Addie Le Point, Gwen Leo Point, and Ben Forester here. So if you guys want to come up to the the mic here, and uh we look forward to hearing about what you guys are doing this year. So, we'll just make sure that just just for the audience that might be watching things is every time you speak you just got to go to this microphone up here and that's all. We're just laughing at each other. Ah, all right. So, yes, uh this was the first year that Woolwitch had a robotics club. It was a interest that came from students uh who did it during the summer uh last summer. Um, we borrowed some inspiration from Bath Middle School, uh, as they have a
008robotics club as well, but we tailored it to the needs of our kids. Um, we were able to run from about January to April. Uh, we did about four or five projects. They took a couple weeks each. They were little mini competitions that we did within the school. And uh the kids have a couple of the demonstrations of those products from our competition. So do you guys can you guys explain yours and what we were doing? So our robot can draw. Um so normally we would have this marker which would be attached up here with rubber bands but since we don't have paper we can't really draw. But um right now it is programmed to draw circles and it is also programmed to move the marker up and down so that it can draw without
009just using one line. Yeah, it was just on repeat so it would have kept going but that's basically what it does. Yeah. So, we had four different groups that made uh robot art out of this competition, and we judged them based on how fancy their art was. Gwen, do you want to explain yours? This is my robot. It has an ultrasonic sensor on it, so when it runs into things, it'll tone. And I guess I'll show you. and it'll just go on forever and ever. So, we had 10 to 12 kids uh join this year and um most sessions we had at least we had 10 show up. Um and it's a combination of of programming in the computers and the building. So, a lot of times it was people usually they were in teams
010and um as it turned out usually one person rather be on the computer and one person rather do the building but um yeah we had all sorts of things where they had to throw things or we had obstacle course or we had drag races in the gym but lots of lots of different um projects. It was it was fun. We appreciate the grant that came from where did the grant come from? I had I didn't bring my sticker note. It comes from the Mid Coast Park two health Lincoln Health Community Fund. Okay. So, thank you to them. Very grateful for that. But I had to write that one down. That's great. Um, sounds wonderful. Questions from the board or comments? Go ahead. So, I have a question about the uh first robot. Um, did you
011say the arm can go up and down? Yes, it can. So, if you put something sharp on it and you put a piece of paper in it, could you do something like braille to have like help somebody read something if they wanted some instructions? You could how that'd be kind of cool if you could make like braille additions to signs around the school just in case we had someone who understood how to read braille or just people were interested in learning. I guess braille is kind of like another language. So, maybe it would be like a choice of another language to learn or something. Thanks. I think it's great. Wonderful job. Go ahead, Kurt. Question for Addie. Have you ever thought about making one of those out of wood? It's a Lego robot. It wouldn't
012be a Lego robot if I made it out of wood. How tricky was the coding part? Um, and in learning that for the first time because that is another language to figure out. So, I did Scratch. Okay. I I did Scratch and what grade was it? It was like third or fourth during COVID. Um and then I also did a robotics um camp during the summer with Ben. And the coding between Scratch and the Lego robots is very similar, but it's blocks instead of using like Python or something. And so the blocks do simple commands and you can attach them together to make it form more complex things. That's great. Any other questions? Is that sounds like you So did you um like did did you intend to come up with something that was to
013make it to make it right? Like is that when you came up with the competitions? Was it we want something that can go fast or we want something that can write or we want I mean how did do you decide that on your own or was that part of the curriculum? I think that was like you decided that on our own and just judged on like how good it looked and like how hard it was to must have been fun to come up with those ideas and then figure out how you could program it. That's great. Would you do this again uh next year if they could do it again? Yeah, definitely. The other problem is that I track and that kind of conflicts with robotics, right? But there's always scheduling conflicts. Yes. I mean,
014for what it's worth, uh, the biggest investment was in the kits for the the products. Um, and just the timeline put us a little later in the year. We we think we can start earlier, get a little bit more involvement and avoid some of the other conflicts, schedule conflicts that the kids have because the kits can be reused, right? Things taken apart, put back together. So, now that you have the kits, yeah, you can it's a long-term asset for the school as well. Oh, that's great. Yep. Excellent. I have a question. How did you decide on your designs? Is there like a book that says you can do this or this or was it just all in your head? And can I look can I look close at it? Yes, I can bring it up.
015The app that we're using to program it um is it does have instructions for different robots. Um but we did specialize that robot for drawing. So, it's based off of it's based off of a robot made from the instructions, but we also added our own components. [Music] I will say for each challenge, every robot was very different. I mean, they have the base, but they just did their thing. And then when they brought them to the to the competition or whatever it was at the end, they all looked very different. Like, they just did their own thing. So, that's great. Any other comments, questions? Well, we really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much for showing us what you've been doing and good luck continuing with us uh you know, into next year. That's
016awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's cool. Here, if you want your Look at that. That's very cool. So, these are actual Lego. Yes. That's very nice. They're They're not like normal Legos. No, I know. But it's the Lego brand. That's very cool. Thank you very much. All right. Um, always good to see great programs like that. And we know they're dedicated because it's over 70 degrees and they came out. So very impressed by that, too. Um, all right. Uh, 8.0, do you have a report there, Charlie? All right. Um, so April is a very stressful time for students. Um, we there's a lot of preparation for SATs, ACTs, AP exams, and state seal of biiteracy exams. um at Morse in particular, I believe we have um eight students who recently um passed their
017seal of biiteracy in Spanish and four I believe in French. Um then Maisy Mains was selected as the SCC student of the quarter uh this quarter. Spring fling recently happened which is a fundraiser run by the freshman class which collects uh money for their eventual project graduation. Um the first spring sports events are underway with games, matches, and meets occurring over break and um actually right now as there's a tennis match and baseball game going on. Um and then EF Tours, which is a uh international touring organization um which kind of works in conjunction with the school a lot, just recently returned from a 10-day Europe trip with um I believe 10 students uh and a couple of staff adviserss. and uh we really appreciate working with EF tours through uh running programs like this.
018So that's what's going on. Great. Thank you. Any questions for Charlie? I can vouch for the stress that's going on in my household, too. Uh regarding this gets wet, uh Saturday morning, right? SATs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um okay. Uh let's see. Uh 9.0 0 superintendent report. Patrick, um, often I focus on on the high school, so I'm trying to spread the wealth here on some of these things, but, uh, Woolwitz students from district 3 music programs in grades six, seven, and eight who were selected did a full day rehearsal at Brunswick Junior High School recently, which included band, chorus, and jazz band. And Helen Rogers, Paige Bowen represented Woolwitch in band, and Nathaniel Do in jazz band. And they worked for over five hours during the day and then played in front of a couple
019hundred people in the evening. So congratulations to them. And then you saw also in Jason's report, some Woolwitch Middle School students had the opportunity to attend the Hardy Girls Conference hosted by Kobe College. And topics for that day were just general leadership, self-esteem, advocacy, resiliency, health, and wellness. Battle of the books. Uh congratulations to all the teams that participated. I think we had close to 110 uh 120 students that were there. was the biggest that we've had in a long time from across the district but also uh we have West Bath and Georgetown join us as well. So a great great evening and the students did a great job. uh Dyke Newell. Uh I think Miss um oh Jen McKay dressed up as a cow and uh you probably you may have seen that video
020but the moo cow video um excited to announce that over a hundred videos were submitted from all over the country and discovery part of the discovery dairy challenge and the Dyke Newell second grade submission was selected as the winner. So if you if you haven't seen the video we'll make sure we share it with you. So, and we do that cow adoption project as part of our second grade class. So, that's how we were involved. Uh, Bath Middle School spring fling dance. I know Paige was a little nervous about that and Connor, but I think we had two 200 students, uh, active students at a dance and it went superbly well. So, uh, we're hosting space day this Friday. There'll be over 20 guest speakers at Bath Middle School, including an astronaut. And then the
021sixth grade readhouse recently hosted uh their us I think it's an annual military appreciation breakfast at the Legion and listened to um did interviews and listen to people and served uh pancakes to over 150 people uh here at the high school. Bafttech and Morris had a financial fitness fair and also a career fair and celebrations of learning. I think that's at the end of your board packet but uh ones to pay attention to is May 30th at BMS the celebration of learning. you can stop by at any point during the day. And June 13th at Fippsburg. And then last thing is this parent teacher conferences. We always say they are well attended, which they are for the most part. Um, but I think it was Mr. Burkowitz that actually put it in his report. I
022just kind of wanted to repeat this because I thought it was a good quote. It was great to see so many parents and guardians in the building both listening and sharing. Educating students is a team sport and it takes a team effort on the part of the school and the home to help students learn and grow and that's, you know, that's why we do them twice a year and try to get as many people in as we can. And that's all I have. Great. That's awesome. Yeah. Chen, is it okay just to make a few more mentions of uh some board reports that we have kind of along the same lines of what Patrick just spoke? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Um, so appreciation to our community. Um, I just want to thank that um I
023noticed in the Witch board report that there were um community support for donations and um purchasing bake sales to help um fund the talent show. Thank you to the Witch community for that. I also read that um the Saget Sheriff's Department continues to help um you know do a law enforcement programming at Witch Central and I I want to thank the the sheriff's department for that um as well. And then the um uh it looked like a really long list of a wonderful people that have come from our community um to talk to students about their professions um and it was uh in the BRTC report and it just shows how the community really supports what we're doing here and and takes time out of their own busy schedules and busy businesses to do that.
024So I think that's that's really great and I just wanted um to thank all community members. And then I just had one question um on the Morse report. Um it's wonderful that we go to other different pro different schools and have our kids experience that. I was wondering if we've ever invited Hyde to Morris. I know that our kids go to Hyde and I was wondering if there's any opportunity that lends itself easy for that. Um so that program that I talked about in there with Hyde, they're actually on break. So we're not going to experience them or their faculty at all. We're just using their facility. So, and um we haven't we haven't overlapped a lot with uh with Hyde, although there has been some some talk with be bae very recently about considering
025that. Um but on the Moore side, not so much. There used to be really great pickup basketball games back in 1976. Oh yeah. When they had a conflict between the two places and they were trying to encourage a better community. Um, and I don't think that that is existing any longer these days. But I do find because I went there myself, I find that there's there's a disconnect, you know, it's because it's a different organization, everything. And that and I love that kids get to go at least to be on campus. And I was just thinking how wonderful it would be to have those random pickup basketball games again. And it's just another way of another exposure for the kids. So if it ever happens. Yeah. Sure. One uh Yeah, sure. Sorry to interject. One
026quick um thing to mention is there's actually a shocking amount of attendance of Hyde students at Morse games at um McMahon Field and a little bit vice versa. I mean it's Yeah, it's just local but um there's definitely a couple of groups of students who like to go back and forth. Oh, wonderful. Great. Um okay, let's go with the uh financial report. Deb. Hello everyone. So tonight we're looking at the end of March. Um so moving right along. Um everything is going well um and as projected and uh we should have a small balance between expenses and revenues at the end of the year which will help sustain our beginning balance for future budgets. So that's good. So we've spent 28 million. Um we have 5 million in incumb uh we have 10 million in
027incumbrances and that will take us through the rest of the year for all the all the payrolls. Um and we have 32 million in revenues coming in. So we have about 10 million more to um to receive. And that's but that's in line with what we've done every year and just working to continue on spending down these all these grants that we have. Um and we're moving along with that. So great questions for Deb on the financials. No, everything's good because you always do a great job. Thank you, Deb. It's always clear. Um okay. Uh, with that, we're going to go to old business. We have the second reading of board policies. And before we do that, we know that um, school choice was one of them. We've been talking a little bit about that.
028Um, and I think, you know, as was explained last time, you know, for the school choice, we made some uh, clarification in the policy to explain it a little better. I know we've tried with anyone who's inquired to explain that how we accommodate how it's not a competition between superintendent agreements and and choice. The choice is uh something we do here at the at one of the few if not I don't know if we're the only one but one of very few in the state that offer choice um at all and it's optional. Superintendent agreements um are mandated by state law so we have to consider that on a different level. So, it's it's kind of apples and oranges with that, but we what the principles and you're all the ones who deal with it
029and Patrick talks to you about it and with the requests I'll have to manage, you know, can can it be managed? Can people make the choice because it works better for them and andor if a superintendent agreement is coming in. And so, I think it's this policy clarifies it. And just to reiterate, if there are any parents who still have questions about it and how it works and how it operates and why this and not that or whatever it is, um can always contact the superintendent's office and uh he along with any of the board members um be happy to meet with parents, guardians who you know have questions about it. So, with that in mind, we have uh to vote on these um uh what is it? Four policies. I'm just going to read
030it uh so people know what we're talking about. It's the job descriptions, GAB job descriptions, the GBEC, uh drug-free workplace, JFBB, school choice, and JLCD administration of medication in schools. These are all updated policies. And if you have anything to add, you can worry. Okay. And if uh unless there's any questions, can I Yeah, go ahead. Uh just a clarification question. Y number six, parents should make a school choice placement will be given every consideration for siblings. Um what does that mean? every consideration. Meaning that if if at all if at all possible if at all possible if a sibling's coming into that school to keep them together that that you know unless something there's just absolutely no room in the classroom or something like that that you know they would be allowed in. So
031you get the one in the siblings would be allowed to come in unless there's some real problem that we just can't add one more student kind of deal. So you wouldn't have to like you wouldn't have to like apply again for the sibling. So no more consideration. No no is more considerate because as the as the sibling they're pretty much we're just saying we can't automatically do it in case that year you know all the kids coming in we want them in there for kindergarten and suddenly there's 15 more kids than we thought were coming to that school. That could be a problem. Most likely though, there wouldn't be an issue in bringing a sibling in. So, it's saying that they're considered um before others would be considered. So, yeah, you'd kind of go to
032the front of the line as the sibling. Yeah. And if there was, you know, Yeah. Unless there's some issue. Yep. Yeah. Go ahead, Joe. Can I move to approve if there's no more? Yes. And I just want to make sure we all okay doing all four together? Yes. I just had a couple Sorry. on um the drug the G GB and the JLCD. It was just the gender. There's still his her if we could just change that. Oh, okay. To there on both those and both those. Yeah. Everybody okay with that? Okay. So, yes. So, so with those changes, [Music] um any and Jamie, you okay with voting on all four? Are you clear? Yes. And I can second if you're still looking for that. Uh well, now that we are with the change, Jen,
033do you want to do the motion with the change? And then I I move that we approve all four of the second reading board policies along with the suggested changes. Okay. Jamie, you want to second it? I'll second. Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor? I. All right. That passes. Thank you. Okay, moving forward. Um, so, um, now we're at the, uh, budget public forum section here. Um, how do you want to approach? You want to start and then I think because it was brought up. Yeah. Um, so the one that all of you board members have and it was in the back uh for the members of the public as well was um reduction of 50,000 from the last time that we had a draft of the budget. And so it brings it
034down to 5.80% 80% local contribution and then total expense is 3.75 and then for the towns percentage increase is negative 3.53 for Rouseik 5.79 for Bath Pittsburgh 5.05 05 and Witch 7.79. And then there was also a handout in the back that Deb did based on a $300,000 home what the amount would be uh just to give people an idea um of what it would be when it comes to dollars. So that's the finance committee met and that was a one one possibility suggestion. Uh we have with the the staff that are being nominated tonight. Uh Deb made those adjustments based on uh retirements, resignations, and and then hiring new people or nominating new people this evening. So she's made those adjustments um which allowed us to do that, but also we had budgeted around
03510% for health insurance and health insurance came in at 12.8. Um so it was a little that was a little higher too, but we were able with those modifications that we made around salary and benefits, we were able to not increase the budget as a result of that. And then for the board, we and you know at your table tonight, the finance committee also talked about foreign language. And so you also have another copy with you that has an additional 200,000 over to the right in yellow. You can see that. And so obviously that makes the percentages higher. Um, and I But that's on the 50,000 reduction, right? It is on the $50,000 reduction initial. Right. Right. No, no, no. It's still 200 I think it's still 200 over. Well, it's a it's 150 over
036the original be. Yeah. Last time you saw it, it's 150 over. But, um, that's why I'm saying it. Can I see which one you want? Yeah, I didn't grab that. See that here? So, so this because this first the version that's in the back is actually 50,000 less than the last time we had it. So then the one in yellow that's 200,000 is 200,000 over that. But you're right, Jen, it's 150 over the last one. So it pretends they're similar, but um it shows how there's an increase. So because there was conversation about foreign language and I um I think we believe that in order to do middle level foreign language and give it its credit so to speak and do it well for students that $200,000 roughly represents what we have now a teacher
037at Woolwitch and a teacher at BMS. But again, that just gives you a flavor for what that would do to the budget. That would be two positions. Right. Right. Um and and then, you know, I'm not trying to be confusing here. I just thought I would say it all and then we can answer questions. But then Deb um also at you know today just ran something that might that would be an additional say 90,000 which would again that would force that would be approximate one foreign language teacher which right now is not in that not in that budget but it would be an additional 90,000 and that would mean that the person in that position that position would need to be shared which isn't you know which isn't ideal. Um the principles can talk to
038that uh tonight if you have questions, but it's some right now it's a it's it's exposure. It's v some vocabulary, some culture. I I don't want to I'm not trying to minimize it. I'm just trying to say that we we only have so much time with foreign language now the way it's set up. And if we go with one person, yeah, you could argue that that's better than nothing. But at the same time, that's why we wanted to give you a couple different scenarios if the board was interested in seeing um we just thought you might be interested in seeing what foreign language I'm going to pass it out. We just got it. Yeah. Yeah. I know you're looking for it. Um and Jamie, I'm texting it to you right now. Um thank you. I
039just took a picture of it. I think you can read it. Um so this is the 90, I think. So I think there's nine. So, so this would mean you want to pass that down. So, the 90 would mean um did you can you see it? Okay. I didn't know how many copies I just th um that the 90. So, the way Jen was looking at too. So, the the 90 is over the 50. So, forget it's like just forget the 200 for a second. If we kept one position, it's 90, which then if you went back to that original stuff you saw, it's actually what? um would be 40 and more additional, right? So, it's it's uh keeping the one position. So, there's a couple ways to look at it. As Patrick had said,
040is it worth having when we have to split between two schools? You could make it work. Is it, you know, you could say no, it's not because we want to do it a certain way, or you could say this is the way you hold on to the program until you can reinstitute a second position coming back in later. And you know, it's worth it for for that and other reasons. So, it's just it's always good to have [Music] um all the numbers, all the what you know what what it means, what the factors are um when we're making this kind of decision. Does that make sense? Yeah. Go ahead. Just if I'm reading this correctly, yeah, look at the page that has the highlight of $200,000, right? And I and I understand that that's actually
041with other reduction in it. But that number on that sheet, that $200,000 increase, if I'm looking at numbers correctly, it's a 1% increase for wool witch over which number? 25 26 like that 8.79. Yep. That's a 1%. Yes, correct. Okay. So, a $200,000 expense increases a percent for wool witch. whole percent for wool witch. Okay. Right. I just wanted to make sure and understand No, you're reading that. You're reading that correctly. That's that's right. Yes. And the proposed $90,000 one would be a 0.45%. So that's not a whole, that's 50 half a half. Yeah. Almost half a percent. Right. Which makes sense because it's half the expense, like, you know, half. Exactly. Right. Just about. Just about. Right. Okay. And that's pretty much how it um affects everybody else too, right? Pretty close. Yeah. That's
042almost about a percent and about that in his the same percentage increase um if he did the 90,000. So yeah. And this also Deb this includes the cost for the new percentage for benefit for health insurance, right? That's factored in. Okay. That's factored in because that's what was she factored in when she was able to finalize salaries plus then and factor all that in. Right. That's what that's where that 50,000 savings came in. oil. Oh, okay. That's right. You were getting better rates, right? Yeah. Yeah. Does that make sense? Or And it's a it's a labor increase. So, I went back and I looked at the 32425 um back sheet to our budget and um I added up the percentage increase from 2425 to 2526 and it looks like that last page, it looks like
043that between salary and benefits, the increase to the budget is $1.8 million. just from between last year and this year just the salaries and benefits if you add them together. Does that sound right about right then? $1.8 million increase. That's just comparing the two years, right? Okay. Yeah. Because that's when the the contracts it's the new contract and then the and the and the medical increase. Yeah. So all that together what so people aren't conf further confused. The reason she was able that was able to come back with then a 50,000 decrease was when we finally got the actual medical increase because we were like, "Oh, it's 10%. Oh, it's going to be up to 18%. Oh, now it's 12 what? 5%." And then when she got the finals with new teachers coming in, um
044some teachers retiring, how all that shifts and adjusts with the contract, then she was able to have a more accurate, you know, this is what it's looking like now. And that's where that reduction came in. But yes, but in in big numbers, it's about that 1.8 million for um an increase in from one year to the next. Yeah, it's a big it's a big it's a shift. There's a lot lot going on. So, yes, Megan. Um, I just have a question about uh so if we did add in the 200,000 for foreign language, how many middle school students are at at Witch? Okay. So, next year roughly, roughly we'll have middle school students. Okay. And every everybody gets the foreign language, right? Middle school, right? I'm saying middle school age, right? They all get Yes.
045So, you need a full-time for 110 students and then we need also a full-time for over 300 students at BMS. 290. Okay. But it's all the students or it's certain points, right? They don't take it. Do they not take it all year? How how's it designed again? Uh it would be by like trimester. Trimesters. Okay. So, you get it for one trimester. Okay. So what does fewer day it's all year long but only twice a week. Oh. Instead of a regular thing for a trimester. It's it's just spread out. And depending if we only have one then I'd have to limit the number of students we get it because we wouldn't have it wouldn't be six, seven, and eight. We'd have to start to adjust that just one. So if there was one being split
046or could there be a halftime person at Woolwitch that's foreign language and a full-time person at BMS since it Witch has about half the students so they're getting the same experience. I think I think that might be possible. Um it depends on the schedule at Woolwitch as well. And then also um sometimes it's hard to find out one point. I also like is there a plan like u I think currently the current world language teacher is moving to ELA. Is that correct at Witch? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So would that person want to stay in world language or are they wanting to go to ELA? I guess those are the thoughts I have. Yeah. I think I don't think that would impact your decision whe [Music] could Paige or Jason could one of you speak to
047what having one person would look like in terms of schedule and grades served because right now it's every it's sixth, seventh, and eighth grade for everybody. And I know that that was one thing that you were asked to look into. Want me to come down? Yeah, if you could both come up and just talk about that just so um as the board considers the $90,000 option, they understand the difference in the level of um service kids would get. Yep. So, for us at Witch, if we only had one person, we would at best be able to do seventh and eighth grade probably once po maybe twice a week. Um but it really would limit our ability and how much we could provide. So we would have to reduce it wouldn't be to the original question
048with two it would be sixth seventh and eighth grade all the students we'd have to cut back on the grades and frequency would just then depend on how it would fit into the schedule be able to do that but probably it would not be every day. Um so at BMS it would look at we would just have it for seventh and eighth grade. Um and that would again likely be in a trimester format. Um so students would receive it for approximately like 55 days. Um but that also um currently we would have to explore that structure and that would also be sharing making sure that the schedules are aligning both BMS and Witch um and so trying to navigate that and collaborate with Witch. So right now students are getting one trimester. So currently all
049sixth, seventh and eighth receive one trimester. all BMS students and next year it would if we were to share someone it would just be seventh and eighth grade for a trimester. And I would just speak to having had having shared one originally that's why we eventually grew to two because that's I can't say impossible because nothing's impossible but it's incredibly complicated. Um, and it really that's when it really becomes how much I'll be able to offer because it will be when they have to be at BMS when their kids are there and when they're with us and then when are we doing math and science and everything else and when they are so and you reminder that BMS right one hour for the whole day. Again, not not a good or a bad thing. Just
050these are all the details. Well, the person would have to work on one schedule and the other. So if they start at 75, they have to be done. Um I guess I had another question too where it sounds like it's more just like an exploratory of foreign language. Um do you necessarily need to have a certified world language teacher to teach that? And if we're worried about I guess because I keep hearing comparing what Woolwitch gets, making sure Woolwitch gets everything that Bath gets. So my thoughts have been on this like maybe there's some things at Woolwitch if they want to keep foreign language that could be cut that Bath students don't get. Um, not to be a Debbie Downer, but on a boat building program maybe that Bath students never get to experience. I'm
051not sure how much Woolwitch pays for that or how much I'm paying for Woolwitch students to experience it. For what? The boat building program. Oh, the boat building. Right. These are just thoughts I've had when I hear Jen's concerns about how Witch is constantly getting an increase and nobody else is. And um I don't feel that same way I guess looking at the history of the at the bottom of our sheet. But if we really are concerned about the people who live in Woolwitch. But on the same I'm not saying I want these things to happen. I also haven't heard from any Woolwitch residents um in a negative way about this budget um or who are for cutting foreign language or I've been told it should be world language and not foreign language. World language.
052Yes. Oh, is that okay? Mhm. to answer the one question. I mean, we Sorry, I went on a tangent there. That's fine. That's fine. Um, we would like to have a certified teacher. Always. It's always best. I'm always a proponent for a certified educator, especially in school libraries. You should have a certified librarian running those. Um, I'm just trying to pay play devil's advocate for some of the things that are have been brought up. Uh, Jennifer, go ahead. It's a good question, Megan. And so, would a certified edtech 3 be less expensive? I mean, along the lines you're asking about like um not having a teacher, but having an edtech, as we've done in some other places, would that What do you think about that approach or if it would be available? I don't know.
053I mean, I'm for keeping foreign language as with certified teachers, but yeah. Um, I don't know. EdTES get asked to do a lot for very little pay. I just think if we're gonna do it well, we need a certified teacher. I mean, I don't if you if some of you may not remember this, but and this may even been before my time at Pittsburgh or when I was at Pittsburgh a long a long time ago that I think this district tried some uh online um with some supervision by edte and again nothing nothing against the edte that were doing that but it's just it was self-directed and it was just uh it didn't I don't know that it worked was the best situation. I mean, our top choice would be a certified teacher. And I
054guess I wasn't really thinking more edex. I was just thinking I didn't know if maybe there's a halftime employee already at Witch that would like to become like a certified teacher that would like to, you know, you start having to do multiple um responsibilities. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think all good questions. I just think this one's a little unique. Um, so we've been able to have teachers um do a little bit of intervention or teach something different when it when it's fit well for us. I just it's just hard on this one. Yeah, it's you it's kind of I What's that? A needle in the hay stack to find a situation that works well. Lou, can I just pop in real quick here? Um I you know I just think it's
055really important to um state publicly that we've received emails from parents who are in support of keeping the world language not only due to the exposure of world language but also because of this particular teacher and the way that they invest in students through um you know going to sporting events. And I think that's really important for the middle school level especially. Um I think my concern is that there are so many unknowns right now um with things that are happening at the state level, federal level um that I would just I I I don't know that I I have a strong feeling which way to go just yet. Um, but I just wanted to mention that this teacher is like many teachers at RSU, very beloved. Um, above and beyond what they offer for
056education. Um, and I guess that's all I have to share for right now. Thank you, Jamie. Um, let me just ask a process question. What are we ending here tonight? Because we're next Monday, right? is our Yeah, we have to have we have to we have to have something tonight. Correct. I mean, next Monday we would next Monday would be the drop dead deadline. Well, I know, but usually Deb's got the warrant ready to go by next week. Next Monday, right? So, in order to sign the warrants, basically tonight, we need to say we're going to go with X number tonight and you prepare the warrants and we go with that. It could still be swayed. We still know how things work with our final meetings where enough community people show up, things can shift
057and change. But, um, let me ask the board because I'm curious. I know people have been back and forth seeing these numbers. the one where it's 50,000 down and now the one that's 200,000 or 150 over what that original budget we all saw last meeting. Um, how are you all feeling about the percentages? Are you feeling like we're in a decent range? Are you feeling like, you know, we should just include world language and be done with it? um because that seems to be the one controversial thing that's that we're all talking about right now. I mean, there could be other things, but right now that seems to be where we're at. So, um you know, it's a difference of a percentage point for most of the towns. Is that enough to say no to
058foreign language or are you looking at this and saying, "Yeah, you know, it's it's not that bad. Um let's add the 200,000 in," which is really 150 over that original number. uh because Deb and her genius is always finding um and sharpening her her uh tools and numbers. So, I just like to hear from if you don't mind, you know, where where are you at, Lou? I think adding adding the 200,000 back in makes me very nervous. Okay. And it makes you nervous because what it's in it's because you're now approaching like 7% for bath and 9% for wool witch and yes it just it feels yeah it feels um too high with everything else that's happening. Feels too high. Okay. Are you comfortable with the other percentage the uh what are we the 90,000?
059No. Not uh the 90 I mean yeah the 90 is the kind of a half percentage. I mean is that a consideration in in your eyes at all or no? Yes. I think the 90,000 is because then it it then you're going with the philosophy of it's not going to be great but you're keeping the world language in middle school alive and at least the seventh and eighth graders are getting it. Correct. Okay. [Music] Um, anybody else want to weigh in? Trish, go ahead. Yeah, I I kind of like what kind of what Patrick said, but and the the two principles where if you're going to do it, you just do it like we've been doing it because we tried the one before and it wasn't so good and it's a kind of a logistical
060headache for the the two schools. Mhm. So I I'm I say if we're going to do it, we do the 200,000. And would you want to do it? I when you're looking at the numbers, would you want to put that back in? That's where you're leaning. Okay. Go ahead, Jen. What are you thinking? Oh, surprise, surprise. Um well I'm just looking at the percentage increases you know as Megan said like between Bath and Woolwitch and you know how does that who experienced the biggest percentage increase percent is part of a total so you really have to look at the cash amount you're going up because it's easy to talk about one or five% right but what does that mean for money right well yeah and it's you know with the $1.8 8 million more in
061our labor and benefits. That's the starting point. And then everything else we add with all the other costs that we don't have a choice about, you know, like um the programs that are mandated that are coming, you know, to serve our students that we have to do. Um this isn't one of those mandated things like we have control over this the way we don't have control over so many other costs. And so I um I would look at, you know, the $50,000 reduction is very grateful. Thank you, Deb, for finding that. Um uh I, you know, I would like to keep it down to a 3% increase for my town, you know, for overall. Um I'd like to have a lower percentage increase that we're passing on to our taxpayers to pay for, but um
062there's not really an option there. So I out of all the options that I think aren't great, I think the $50,000 reduction would be my right. Which is the So the one that's leaves it at what? 7.79. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I could add Yeah. Go ahead, John. Yeah, I know um everyone's definitely been preaching the uh the value of um middle school education for world language, but um I guess providing the student perspective, which is kind of what I'm here for, without my um education and and just taking Spanish in seventh and eighth grade, um I wouldn't have been able to take Spanish at an accelerated course um passing my seal of biiteracy exam this year, junior here allowing me to take uh AP next year and get 6 to 12 credits that translate
063to college level saving so much money for my family if I were to attend. You won't have to. Yeah, I won't have to take those classes and it also then gives the opportunity to like do study abroad programs. And um additionally there are an increasing amount of students who come to Morse from other areas of the world. And in particular there are these three uh three guys um names are John, Manny, and Milton. And they speak Spanish and Portuguese a lot better than their English. and my Spanish that started at the middle school level really allowed me to connect to these students a lot more and like tell them about a volleyball team that we have and now they're running with me on the track team and I like take them home every day and
064I think that without that little bit of uh instruction even if it's just a trimester two times in your middle school career it really like sets you up for a lot of very important opportunity down the road. Well said. Thank you. Thank you for that input. Yeah, yeah, sure. You mentioned at the beginning, Charles, um there is um how many students did you say? I think there's four French students that have that certification and how many in Spanish? Um there were I believe there were eight who passed the seal of by literacy in Spanish and four in French. But okay, those are um kind of numbers that I gathered from speaking to friends who had taken the exam more more than from the teachers themselves. Okay, that was just a general consensus I'd gotten. And
065that's the seal that allows you to exempt from college requirements, right? Yes, it it um I believe it's six college credits in um world language at University of Maine schools um that are automatically awarded if you pass the uh seal by literacy exams. Okay. Yeah, makes sense. Okay. Thank you. Um have a question for Charles as well. Um so you took Spanish in middle school. Was it and I guess Paige too. Was it the same kind of model you're doing right now that he experienced when he was in middle school or is it shifted because you only had it in seventh and eighth grade? Um I um Yeah. So I had French my sixth grade year and then my seventh and eighth grade years it was a transition to Spanish and then since then it's
066transitioned back to French I believe which I understand because it's based on what the teacher knows and is experienced in. Okay. So it was the same kind of program. Yeah. Similar. Yeah. It used to be opposite their PE class and then we transitioned to a new schedule in 2022 and that's when all six through eight students received it for one trimester. So that shift happened in 2022. I guess too I was just trying to get out there. You had a full-time world language teacher at the time. Go ahead. Someone said mentioned that you might not be able to take it's a at Morse anyway, there's a it's a four-year program for both um French and Spanish. It's honors one through four. And the only way um to be like allowed sort of to take um
067an AP course in that and have the um foreign language teacher be your adviser for it because it's a it's an online class run through um I believe. Um, and you ha have to either excel at um your language to be considered for it or pass all four levels of um the class like honors 1, two, three, and four. Um, and personally, I I skipped one. I I did honors one and two and I skipped three and I went up to four and then so I have another year to do um AP. Right. And that's where you're saying that's where you'll get by doing the AP you get those courses. So depending on where you go for college you could save significantly that unless you want to major in language language I think you can
068put those prerequisites aside. Yeah. The the seal by literacy passing that exam already guarantees that. But then the AP is like on top of that. Right. So that's why you're saying it's even more credit. Yes. Got it. Got it. I think Charles did a great job on all that. Um, we don't have a necessarily an AP course for Spanish or French. Um, but students do like Charles do choose to self-study along with it and have an advisor or to do the AP for me which is through the university main system for our world language APS. Um, we do have clarification that we have nine this year that pass the AP the seal of bi literacy. Um, which is a little bit smaller of a number than we've had in the past. it fluctuates a bit.
069Um, keeping in mind that some people who are students already have gained it in the past. Um, seal by literacy. So, hey, Eric, can you answer one question for me? How many students come up here their freshman year taking a French 2 or or Spanish 2 because of their middle school experience? Do you know that? Um, I wouldn't be able to come up with that number. It's it would be a small number though. I think that would that would yeah that would choose it'd be single digits. Yeah. So that was actually my question and why I wanted you to come up here is if you could just because I don't know the answer to this either specifically explain what how it would change the path for a student if their first world language class was
070as a ninth grader versus because we don't no longer have world language versus if we still have it. just so everybody can understand if it's an access issue for as you age. It's already happening because they don't have I mean before it used to be French now it's Spanish. So if they're coming in ninth grade Spanish one they didn't have it in middle school because yeah so it wouldn't it wouldn't change like the actual structure and trajectory of what they have access to take. Um it's just as Charles kind of articulated that exposure um and you know maybe being a little bit better at it but you're not going to we have very few students who then would come in on a Spanish or a French 2 level. Um and usually that I mean would
071come with some other experience as well besides their middle school language experience. Yeah. Thanks. Did you have some? No. No. I don't know. I'm not forcing you to do anything. Is anyone else want to speak to where they're at or where where are you at? That's a good question. Um before the meeting I was pretty much thinking [Music] um to stick with the uh as much as I want the foreign the world language stick with the 50,000 but now I'm kind of leaning more toward possibly adding money back in um when I look at actual numbers and the fact that we have this is something we actually have had parents calling about writing to us about. So, it's not an it's not like with some things where you're like, "Oh, do we do this?" And
072you don't hear from anybody. Um, we're hearing from people. And so, I have to take that into consideration. And so, I I mean, literally this afternoon, I was like, "Yeah, I think we'll just It's a tough call. I don't want to do it, but we'll have to, you know, we'll go with this 50,000." But now I'm thinking keeping it alive, keeping, you know, hearing from Charles hearing from parents and other folks. It's it's not just a matter of the kids coming in and um and knowing the language, but it's just the exposure exposure to culture. It's the exposure to all that. I mean, my my oldest had Spanish and it was Spanish when he was in middle school and um then he pursued it and he did go abroad and was in Spain. I mean
073it like it made a you know that and he he first got that exposure in early in in middle school and uh um and uh you know my youngest also got the exposure and you know ended up taking French in and for you know his freshman year but yeah so I I get that and it does I think there is there's something to to be said for any kind of exposure is good exposure to to language and we all know that science tells us right? Uh the earlier the better when it comes to language and we really should be starting it in uh you know in elementary school. But um we don't have the money for that. So uh do we do we dare to get rid of it now? I understand you know everything's
074a cost and every little thing we put back in is is is raising it and if it's too much the community votes it down and we go back and we we change it. I mean, that's, you know, that's really what we're up against. We're going to put something out there. The community can tell us great job and vote for it or they can say you guys are out of your minds and you need to go back and there is a lot of unknowns and I agree with Jamie on that uh because I was talking to her about it before too and was of that same mindset that I'm not comfortable doing this. But, you know, I don't know. It's a it's a very difficult decision. That's why I was curious if other people were definite
075where they wanted to be because I keep going back and forth myself. But yeah, go ahead, Kurt. Thanks for that. Um, I'm just thinking about last year about how we heard from so many people and so many students about adding stuff back in and I don't remember the exact number, Deb, if it's even possible to know, you know, what version, how much was added in when. So maybe that's not, you know, important. I don't know. I think it was four four or five position. Sorry. Well, yes. And not to sorry, not to try to go back there and figure out the exact number, but um I kind of saw it I think we talked about this sort of as like the tax you're paying from COVID. And I don't think we should look at this
076year in a vacuum and just say, "Well, now we got to add this in. Now we got to or not cut this. We added significant amount in last year. And are we just going to do that every single year forever? You know, my taxes probably won't go up very much based on this draft that that someone that Deb estimated, but there's a lot of I mean, it's just going to is it going to keep moving every year and then next year? What's it going to be? I you know, I I I would be more comfortable kind of with, you know, with what Jamie said, not knowing the future. We added a lot in this last year. We're take a break this year. Next year there's going to be stuff. It just seems like it's just
077going to keep creeping and creeping. Yep. And I is creeping and creeping and it always does and there's always something. At what point do we check ourselves? Well, we do check I mean we we let's let's be clear. We cut a lot this year already though. I mean, you know, there were a lot of things we wanted to Oh, yeah. I mean, don't look don't look at me like what did we cut? We I mean they wanted to add a lot of non- labor stuff and we had to cut it way back down to almost flat. You know there's a budget from No, not last year's budget. I'm not saying cutting, but I'm saying from the proposed budget. So I mean there's always there's always stuff last year I think was unusual um in the
078number of positions and and yeah and it does mean okay you do this and now you're carrying it forward. to stuff Jen has brought up, you know, it's like, "Oh, that was a great grant and we all loved it. Now we depend on it. Now the grant's gone." And so then we take it up. And yes, we have done that. And I think uh you're right, Kurt, and Jamie's right, too, in that um we are now at a place where uh we don't know what's happening on the federal level. There's a lot of iffy things happening on the state level. Um and you know, what are we what are we willing to gamble? we add this back in and then suddenly we find out what else the USDA is not going to give us on
079that end. I mean that that is that is uh something to consider. So yeah, go ahead. I think um last year we added a lot we added positions for social workers and mental health. Those were positions that were actually added. In this case, we have eliminated positions and we're right now thinking about maybe not eliminating them and keeping them in the budget. So, and so we've That's true. It's not an addition. It's it's a maintaining. We're not adding maintaining cut. I mean, cost went up for all the um educators, which is a great thing, but of course, it throws our budget way up. So, we chose to cut in other areas where we could and just so you know that this is a cut. We're just trying to do we need to cut this position
080or leave it in. So, it's not like we're adding anything new. That's true. That's that's well said. Uh Deb, did you want to say something? I just wanted to point out on the um the diagram that shows the amount for $300,000 home is the education portion only. people are also facing what the towns do and what the county does, right? So that's just that's just Yeah, that's just the percentage of um and it's just an estimate based upon what we have here. Right. Okay. I just have a couple more. Yeah, go right ahead. Um this is the one the one that is with the staple packet. I guess the 50,000 less is the one the finance committee is recommending that we move forward with. Um yes, well the one we came up with yeah was
08150,000 less but we at that point also said let's show them what 200,000. Okay. But that was the one that eliminated position or that position. And then if you did have to do one position shared with the schools, are are they able to do like one day at one school and have that school's hours and then work at one day at another school and have that school's hours or do they strictly have to be either 7:15 to 2:15 or That makes it even harder. Yeah. Okay. Um, usually when we split, we do a morning and an afternoon. Yeah. Because it that's actually a lot easier than doing full days basically schedule-wise only, right? Yeah. Um, and then I was just wondering if we had any are there any high school world language teachers here that
082had any thoughts? Go ahead, Jen. So, um I guess my question Patty, there was a Thank you for that comment because it makes me think differently in different ways and I like that. Um like positions that we are not that are not in this budget. There are positions that we're really not eliminating alto together. I was my understanding unless I've understood this correctly. There are some positions that we're not choosing to fill that because they weren't fillable from when we budgeted for them last year and didn't end up using that money to pay for a person because we never got filled. And they're also shifting um positions from putting somebody in one school even though they're eliminating that they're putting that same person someplace else. So, we're really, my understanding was we're not eliminating any
083we're there is a reduction in some areas because we're moving people around, but there was really very little actual people being eliminated from our total cost of labor and benefits was my understanding. But maybe forget forget people, we're talking about positions. So next Monday when you vote for this budget or adopt a budget, right, we also are going to ask you to vote on elimination of positions which is going to include you got to look at it from position standpoint. So we're we're doing a I don't have the list with me. I apologize but like English at Morse I mean we're that position is no longer you know in this budget um because it's not needed right because of number of students to serve didn't require it right but it's a it's a it's a
084reduction of a position just like the four ed techs three or four edte that we have in there is a reduction of positions the two world language teaching positions is a you know those are all reductions eliminations of positions but doesn't impact the budget because not all those people have stayed in the budget, right? Except for No, because we could have like for example with with um with special ed, we would have had to fill that. I mean, I I sent you guys a backup. I mean, it's a domino effect, but if we hadn't reduced or we hadn't eliminated those positions, his budget would be that much higher, right? Because we have to do right special ed with ELLL, right? But nobody but no one lost their job. Everyone stayed within the system, right? one
085person one person. So the total impact of the budget no that's impact on people we're talking about right if you want positions I'm talking about the effect of the budget so like how did the budget with all those changes and one less only one less person in our salaries and benefits [Music] group we just did So, so a lot of are so should. Is that 2.2 million removed from the wish list budget from last year's budget? Look at page eight, Jen. On the bottom, y the detail shows you what is not being filled. Yeah. So even with those positions not being filled with budget labor, so we did fill all those positions and still the salary and benefits for budget still went up $1.8 million. Correct. Yes. Okay. So we're still up at $1.8 million
086with less positions. Yes. What kept the people lost some Right. But you still if you're talking people there still one person who's not going to so the um Well yeah then it would be an additional Yeah. So I see what you're I see what you're saying. It's still it's still an increase significant increase in labor and I I get that. But at the same time, if we hadn't reduced I don't know how many we're going to bring to you next week, if seven or eight, those positions that we're doing away with to have you vote on next week to eliminate those. I mean, without those, it would have been that much higher. It would have been $1 million from last of people who had last year. got this year kept every would have been 2.2
087would have been$1 billion would have been 20%. Can you guys turn on your microphones please so I can hear? Yes, I guess I was just still trying to think of like, you know, this this thing of, you know, our budget and benefits cost, even with all those wonderful cuts, still put up $1.8 million, right? And we don't think about making $1.8 million of cuts anywhere. like we don't like you know one part of our budget went way up and we don't we're not trying to you know we're trying to mitigate those impacts to students you know and we're not asking for trying to save that 1.8 8 million, you know, or get or split it, you know, so it's a less of a percentage increase or anything like that. Can't really get close to that,
088I don't think. Um and and the other thing is just I I guess I take this position and I think about my fiduciary responsibility, my financial responsibility to everyone. Not and I and I we don't hear from people who are working who aren't parents or kids because it's not part they're not as part of this process as kids and parents are and I get that and staff, you know, so that's who who we hear a lot from and as should be. Um, but there's a there's a lot more people out there in our communities that aren't parents and teachers and and staff and kids and and this is something that we all that everybody pays for, you know, and that's I try to think of it as a whole communities um and how that impacts
089those people that don't have a voice and that are they have a voice though if they vote if if they're under if that really is a voice for them if they do Patty because I'll tell you um well they have to choose to vote. Yeah. Well, and also it's really confusing to this process when we were I'll say I'll tell you when when we had this vote of of town cost in the in the gym of the school and when a taxpayer had to say Jenny why are you costing me more money and Jenny had to stand up and say this is why there was a lot of participation and a lot of voting and a lot of impact. Um as you get further and further away from the process you understand less and less
090of it. So, um, yes, they can vote. You're right. It's not much. So, let me So, let me ask because you I know we could be here all night. What we need to make a decision as a board what we are willing to go with next week knowing as we put it out there, if we don't vote back in the world language, certainly the community can come out for it. [Music] um you know so I guess is there any I see three things sitting here so you got a uh you got the budget as proposed what came out of the finance committee you have an additional 90 or you have an additional 200,000 uh does anyone want to make a motion um for any of those three and see where the voting goes Lou because
091that's where yeah Jamie I'd like to make a motion to um go with the recommendation of the finance committee. Okay, that's a I second that. You'll second that. Okay. Any further discussion before we vote on that? That's the Yeah, it's the one that's stapled with all the pages. Okay. Was everyone clear on what we're voting on? Oh, sorry. That's me. Yeah. Yeah, I guess the only comment I would make that if I vote to recommend that it's uh then I would I would feel comfort I would feel comfortable recommending that and then next week if there's public interest in changing that then obviously I would support that as well. Okay, that's fair. Um any other questions before we vote? Okay. So, just so everyone's clear, this is we're voting on uh the 50 thou what
092is 50,000 reduction over the last time this came out of the finance committee and it does eliminate the world language. Um right now um all those in favor of this particular budget I so Jamie one two three four so that's five and then all opposed and two opposed. So, it does pass and that's where we are then going into next week uh when we come back in for um for what our final for the warrant where we have to make a final decision. So, um Deb, what happens if uh next week we come back and people change their minds? I would probably have to have a special meeting because we would have to change you'd have to change the warrant. I mean, we can do it, but you it would be logistically you'd have to
093deal with some stuff, right? Okay. Just want everyone to be clear that that's, you know, that's when we need to make a decision and just be, right? And just because we have the warrant doesn't mean it has to be that if everyone changes their mind or something else comes up. But that's when we'd make that decision. And then after that, depending on what it is, that's when the public has an opportunity. What date is that one? Do you remember? I don't know where that's end of May or something, right? What? May 27th. May 27th when then folks can come back and um rally if that that's something they'd want to do to make any changes uh in each of the things. This is I appreciate everyone's uh cander, honesty. This is very difficult. It's always
094difficult when we have to cut something. It's these are difficult times because of a lot of unknowns and I don't like it, but it's kind of where we are. Um, you know, and it there is there's you could be cutting a lot more if that's you know, that could easily be something and we'll see how people feel about these percentages and see who comes out next week. [Music] Um, all right, that's where we are with that. Thank you all for for the discussion and I appreciate everyone speaking out. Um, 11.2, two. Let's get to our other field trip requests. Is an action item. Um I move to approve the all three. Yes. Okay. A second. Second by Anita. Thank you. All in favor? Oh, wait. You have a question? I just want to say a
095big shout out to say thank you for adding in the main learning results um objectives on these. It's really nice to see those and adding in um where the funding comes for them. I just want to say I know there's a lot going on. I just want to thank everyone for putting that in. It's nice to see that. Thank you. Thank you. Um 11 uh point we have vote on it. All in favor? Okay, Jamie, you good? Thank you. Uh 11.3 personnel items. Uh go ahead. Yeah, just a few resignations. Uh Jamaica White, SSP teacher at Bath Middle School. Like to thank her for three years of service as a edtech and teacher in the district. Uh Miranda Clark, social studies teacher at Bath Middle School. Thank her for two years of service to RSU1.
096And Caitlyn O'Donnell, who is an interventionist at Fippsburg for uh being with us this year. And then retirements, Eileen Ruard, EdTech Fisher Mitchell, and would like to thank her for 37 years of service to the district. Yeah. Okay. and then I can I can move on to uh nominations. So it's in your backup if I can find it. Um so first nomination I'll just go through these quickly and see if you have any questions or anything. Um I can't find it. You get it? What for? For what? The backup. Yeah. I think you have I have it here someplace. Thank you. Um thanks. Is that all? Yep. So, first one, uh, pleased to nominate Karen Brackett for our special education director for the district. We had four applications, interviewed two, had quite a committee. 12
097people I think were on the committee, and you can see her education and experience. She's been in RSU 40 for 20 more than that, 25 years, but she's been the director for the last 19 years in RSU 40, which is Waldboroough. So, we're pleased to have someone with her experience and professionalism joining us. Uh so that's the first nomination. I'll just go through each one if that's okay with you. Y next one is uh Audra Xarin who is a speech pathologist and uh you can see there I mean this is a tough a tough position to fill. Um you know we had one application interviewed one person and luckily we were happy with the one person that we received. You can see the the education very um very qualified and experienced for this position. And
098next one is kindergarten teacher uh Chelsea Ryver at Fittsburg Elementary School. Seven applications, interviewed three people, and you can see she's been at Georgetown before and also at Westbass School. Then math teacher at Morris High School. You probably recognize the name, Kelsey Ortiz, is returning to us, which is wonderful. You can see the number of applications and um people we've uh interviewed, and you can see her background and history. and second grade teacher at Dyke Newell, Ashley Bluen. She we had eight applications, interviewed four people, and she's coming from the central main area. Well, actually Margaret Murphy last position before that Freeport. Um yeah, and then grade three from for Fippsburg, we had seven applications, interviewed three, and we're pleased to nominate Clinton Pike, who's currently in Wisconsin. before that. You can see he's been
099in Argentina, Montana, um Oregon, uh I think Idaho. So, he's been around a lot of different places and um has taught at the elementary level, mostly in fifth grade. So, those are the nominations for this evening and that will be the that will be the bulk of them. We'll have a few more coming to you probably in in May and June, but Great. Any questions? May I have a motion? Yes. I'll move uh the nominations. Okay. Move to approve approve the nominations. Right. Yeah. Got it. To approve. There you go. I move the nomination. It's getting late. I'm I'm sorry. Go ahead. I second the move to approve. Okay. There you go. Um any discussion? Okay. All those in favor? Jamie? Yes. Yes. Thank you. All right, that passes. And then uh 11.5 approval of
100probationary teachers. Yeah, this is something the board is required to do every year. And it's probationary one teachers to two and probationary two to continuing contract because Maine, you know, they used to be two-year period, then it went to three, now it's back to two. So, uh, we have the list here for you that says the names of the people and their positions. And I also gave you backup about our expectations for observations, evaluations and also goal setting and all that goes through this process that we take very seriously. So um this is the list again. The top one is probationary one to two and then the bottom one which is a little bit less is probationary two to continue contract. Okay. Any questions? Patrick, did you say that we had got additional information with
101this about um observations? I mean, in the past you have, but something in the backup I just last Friday, I just put in there on 11.5 just again that we what we do for the process and it's also on our website, too. Yeah. Okay. I have a motion. Uh I just question just so we just heard about a teacher being here for 37 years, which is such a wonderful commitment and thank you so much for all those years of commitment. When we think about promoting a teacher to a continuing contract, just think about this that that's potentially that teacher might be with us for another 37 years if we're lucky, if it's great, and that works out really well. But it's a a long commitment that we make. And I'm glad that the the observation
102process and that it's a really multi-tered kind of discussion or or um participation when it goes to making such a long-term commitment to somebody for our community. So just that background with him. Great. May I have a motion? We still have to vote on it, folks. All right. I make a motion to approve uh the probationary 2 and continuing contract stuff. Great. Thank you. Have a second. Kurt Seconds it. Um any further discussion? All right. All in favor? Yes. Thank you, Jamie. All right, that passes. Um, so then we are at 12.0 board goals. Jennifer, do you want to address that? Unless Katie can help out with any extra backout, but I think that the preK5 programming presentation that we saw today for the robotics helped us meet that goal. Great. Thank you. Um, so
103now, uh, 13.0. So now we have to move into executive session pursuing to employment of officials, appointees, uh, employees uh, which I need a Motion to move into executive session. I make a motion to uh move into executive session. Thank you, Megan. May I have a second? Second by Anita. All in favor? We can stay. Yeah. See, because of folks because there's nothing else after this. So, and Lou, I can't stay for this part, right? Because I'm virtual. I'm going to guess that's a yes.