001uh welcome everybody um I think a few more people might be coming in that's fine um if please stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome everybody good evening and uh just so you know if you're sitting in front you have to stay for the whole meeting just kidding um okay uh hope everybody's uh recovered or recovering from the storm and getting your power back if you lost power um always another uh um great test of community and people coming together um as many of you are here I'm sure because it's the first reading of the budget just to let you know we will be doing
002that shortly and it will be um we'll go over do an overview of it and it is a first plush it is not as you know many of you know it's uh how we start at a starting point things can go up and down uh we know we'll hear from people about different positions about different aspects of the budget and that's why um that's why we do it it's uh already been a couple of months uh at least um you know it starts with the staff with the admin going over everything and coming up with uh things they need things they want and of course then we have to pair things down figure out what we can afford look at how that affects the towns it's it's a big process and I want to just
003thank everybody for being a part of that process and having been a part of that process up to this point and now we get to introduce it to the public and we get to hear from everybody and uh it's a great process and uh we know not an easy one this year because of uh covid funding because of rising prices for so many things uh and so we will just move forward and work together through it so thank you all for being here and I'm sure some of you may want to speak during public session to do that um to start uh we're going to just I need to uh approve minutes if everyone has had a chance to look at minutes and I just either need a motion or if you want to amend
004them let me know move approval no one has any questions can I have a second second by Megan any further discussion all in favor okay that passes um and now here we are at public session if anyone would like to come up to the microphone to speak on um anything that's on the agenda today uh you're welcome to Damian's making sure it's turned on okay anyone and just give us your name please and Liz Holbrook Liz Holbrook good evening I am a taxpayer fburg as well as a business owner bath I'm aware that you have received a number of letters and emails including one from the district's physici and that has supported keeping fsb's nurse full-time five days a week I want to make sure all of those letters and emails are included in this
005meeting's minutes so that all of the public in the media may have access to them thank you thank you very much anyone else like to speak hi I'm Micah Crowley I'm a resident of pipsburgh I'm also a taxpayer of pipsburgh and I'm currently employed at rsu1 um I have two children in the district and I'm also a staff member at phippsburg and I understand that this is a challenging year budget-wise for this District but I feel strongly that all schools should be given the same bare minimum of services prior to additional Services being to given to other schools there should be priority given to FIP Berg in regards to their nurse remaining full-time the boo position and the social work position our students and Community deserve the same access as the other students we may
006be small in numbers but our needs are the same thank you thank you um my name is Matthew D'Angelo I'm a teacher here at Morse High School uh this is my first year at Morse high school and I really love this school I've enjoyed every minute of being here and I'm really disappointed to hear that my position is being eliminated at least that is the proposal and I sincerely hope that that proposal is does not become the actual uh decision uh so I would just like to say that if given the opportunity I would love to teach here for many more years thank you thank you very much hi I'm Mary mccaulay I've taught in the school district many different of schools for over 30 plus years sorry I I have this uh out in
007front of me I had I didn't get a chance to print it out but um I have worked in several different elementary schools and some of the schools had full-time nurses some didn't and I saw the effects of when they when we didn't I never quite understood that concept because based um it was usually based on the size of the school and it was based on the number of students and to me that's kind of it just doesn't sit well because I've taught in schools where there were classes of six there were classes of nine there were classes of 10 did the teacher come and only three days a week four days a week a nurse is still so important to the school that having a nurse there only a couple days a week can
008be dangerous and cannot be that helpful um I'm GNA scroll down here sorry so a nurse's responsibility is endless and I see it all the time I've worked teaching over you know about 40 years only 31 in this District and I've seen differences when the nurse is not in the building and when she is in the or he is in the building they deal with the chronic needs of students they administer medicine they communicate with parents on many different issues they assist in the evaluation of students for special ed they administer vision and hearing tests and all and setup then clinics and I could go on and on and that is only just the basically the day-to-day physical stuff I mean there's emotional things that they deal with do and it's not just ice packs
009and Band-Aids couple things that stood out in my years of teaching is the few times that serious accidents happened in my gym class and there was not a nurse on duty nurse in the school and I had to deal with it I felt like I I should step in because I'm certified Wilderness trainer let me it was really difficult one of the cases where a girl dislocated her elbow and I think I look back there my friends from DN they may remember it there was no nurse in the building it was the end of the day I remember Kim she couldn't really help me she's dealing with buses you know kids being dismissed and I'm trying to comfort this girl with a dislocated elbow no nurse we ended up calling I think I think it
010was you you had to come over from another school she wasn't there and it took a prolonged amount of time to get this girl the right right treatment she needed that just stood out and I've seen other ones broken tib fibs other things when the nurse was not in the building but that was my worst that was my worst one that that happened that I had to deal with I also want to end and I could go on and on and sorry I sound a little nervous but I don't know why but I I will send you a study that I found on School nurses not only make a difference for student health and academic achievement but they also save money so a study was done back in 2014 for every dollar that is spent
011on a school nurse this our society saves $220 the money shouldn't be a factor it's the importance of the school nurse being in that building because of all of the things that have to be taken care of by a school nurse um and it shouldn't be left up to the secretary or you know the gym teacher there's very important stuff that the school we need a school nurse for and I strongly support five days a week for our school nurse thank you thank you hi my name is Melissa Smith I'm a taxpayer in Beth and I'm also a teacher a special ed teacher at um pipsburgh elementary school I should have been as smart to write it down because I'll never be as eloquent as Mary um but I'm deeply Disturbed that we're considering getting
012rid of a full-time nurse I I could go on and on in my short time at pipsburgh of relying on our our nurse currently um whether was with a restraint with a child and having a professional nearby to make sure I was doing everything correctly um but also I feel like it sends the message to our students that they're just not worthy of that kind of treatment um and some of our kids are that's their only access to healthare so that really bothers me um not to mention the the position that's going to leave us with even though it's a one day week position we have a day of the week for this um individual and he provides amazing social work um to my to my kids and they they show me the strategies that
013they've learned and they're practicing them um so the social work position even though it's one day a week and our school nurse are just so valuable thank you thank you my name is Molly Mau I'm an academic interventionist at fiser Mitchell school this is my fourth year teaching and my third year at fiser Mitchell and I absolutely love teaching in rsu1 it has been a Joy teaching and because of covid funds and covid positions being cut my position is being cut and my biggest concern is how we're going to meet the student needs because of covid increasing the academic needs of our students particularly in math and it concerns me because um we have 75 points of service we're providing at Fisher Mitchell school and I currently have a case load of 26 points of
014service and if my position gets cut then two teachers are going to be splitting a case load of 75 points of service and I'm concerned that we're not going to be able to meet the needs of our students thank you thank you very much anybody else where oh go ahead um Abby hi Abby Lis I am a employee of rsu1 I'm also a Woolwich resident and a taxpayer so I guess my question is I don't know if the board can provide this to the taxpayers can we find out what our how our taxes would change if we kept the social workers and we kept the interventionists and the teachers in the high school like if we kept everybody could we find out how much that's going to cost because as a taxpayer I think I
015would be very comfortable doing that for the kids so I know it's a really big number the SI the budget increase but maybe when it gets trickled down we would see it would it's obviously going to cost us more but we would be willing to do that as a community for the community thank you very much appreciate that Insight um anyone else public well thank you all for uh speaking up and when we go over you know uh we'll go over the budget later for an overview and stuff and then obviously um talk about how this is going to proceed so you'll know how everyone can participate and how we're going to look at um some of what ab's referring to and other things um because we are we've been looking at that now and
016continue to see what uh how things develop and how that changes and and all the different changing numbers so I appreciate hearing from all of you we can go to the because we didn't have any actual adjustments right so we'll go right to it if you want to take it so Dustin you got a big audience and you probably know and you know everybody in the room too so um but I'd like to introduce Dustin Ward to our to our school board and Dustin has been with us for hard to believe two years now um leading our diversity Equity inclusion efforts and he's been working closely with our district committee but he also has provided training to 90 maybe 98% of our employees in the district um and has gotten us off to a really
017good start so tonight I just want to give the board an overview of what we've done and then where we're going as next steps so Dustin I'll turn over to you yeah and we usually you know we might have two people in the audience so show them your stuff you know I've been talking to all of you but I feel most nervous and quite a a packed house so um first let me say I truly appreciate this opportunity been working with you all for over a little over two years now and to take this as the first opportunity to introduce myself um more or less an apology that I haven't come sooner but glad I could actually be here um so I am by title a racial equity and Reconciliation Advocate um there's multiple pieces
018to that but mostly you all have probably heard it as diversity Equity inclusion work um I see it as racial Equity work which is why uh the thing that you have before you is called educational equity which is where I think a lot of this conversation is heading um but it is encompassing diversity Equity inclusion um and racial Equity as well tonight I uh one thing I I absolutely recognize is to give a board something five minutes before a meeting probably is infuriating and annoying um I'm a select board member over in New Gloucester so I recognize that um so I want to apologize for its late entry but also want to go over it with you um in brief and at your leisure please feel free to read more in depth um there's tons
019more information I can give you but um this will be part of an overview um starting on that first page uh the reason I put the mission the why one of the big things that uh I've told all of the Educators you have before you and and throughout the district um you need to ground yourself in a why because every time you come into this work day in and day out you need to know why you're doing it and so part of that in then italic place is really to think about how can we be a more welcoming environment for students staff Administration and all stakeholders the focus being on producing educational outcomes along with better opportunities to improve the day-to-day lives of students including access and Equity this is what has grounded all of
020the work we've done the last two years um and I will say that um I think you're seeing the remnants and the reality of the why as well um your Educators your staff your Administration all of your Stak cers they care they care to the point that they're willing to come out tonight but they care and we're very engaged in the why and I think it grounded so much of the work so I put the why in there so that you know um as we move forward this is what we keep coming back to this is what we're engaged in the foundation principles though are part of what I bring as my framework for educational equity and it all stems from humanity and identity it's a key piece to what educational Equity um will will
021produce which is honoring one's humanity and identity and in that as I did the trainings as we did the conversation and I'll go into more detail about that um you cannot move forward with this work unless those two things are honored and that's why at the very end um it doesn't matter how many programs how many policies how many educational pieces you put together if you do not have your humanness in the work and if that is broken none of those things will be fixed until that is fixed so that is a key foundational principle for the work that I've offered as a framework and for the work that you do moving forward as you turn one of the things um that as I was contracted one of the question was okay what's the goal
022where are we going and I'm all about setting goals um The Big Three was wanting to provide training and education we wanted to begin to bring in an understanding of these terms concept conepts especially at the height when I first came in um we were still in the process of just trying to learn why were we engaged in this racial Reckoning era which we which began in 2020 but as I've educated many folks here it's begun way way longer than that but just in these last few years we needed to have a plan as to educating both Administration Ed Educators and staff on what these key topics are so a big thing was training education the second was to create a space where you could ask questions far too often education training is great but
023there's if there's no place to ask the critical questions and to help um all those uh within the district then there's no point so I want to create a space where you could ask key questions and then finally you got to have a way to implement it and consider how is it going to impact the actual District so everything we did from the first time I was contracted until right now has been around those those three concepts and again it's pillars of my own business which is learn think act we learn we get educated we understand the history We There are spaces to ask questions so we can begin to EMP empathize and learn and that way all of our actions are genuine and so that's what the goals were as I began to sort
024of build and contract with the district so what have we been up to um you'll see first thing back in 2022 which feels like a lifetime ago um some of these great administrators who are here tonight um engaged with me in uh a series of sessions that began to sort of open eyes into the conversations that we were having um and I provided for you sort of that outline of what I had contracted initially but it was five 2hour sessions In This Very Room which has become like home for me actually but it was In This Very Room that uh we took a journey as administrators and we looked at one an initial survey assessment I assessed the administrators just to say where are we at you know I asked some key critical Concepts and
025questions to say where are you at with this conversation um and by doing that I used that survey and assessment to begin an introduction into these topics from there we engaged in a lot of our introductions of ourselves this is where we learned about our identity we looked at historical background of identity we defined terms like race racism White Privilege white supremacy and other terms of identity we shifted there into concepts of colorblind racism then we looked at Black Culture Black Culture then and Black Culture today now again remember the context that we were sort of in we were in a racial Reckoning so the conversations around black members and black and brown bodies and white individuals was very key what we learned though along the way is that can be our starting point but
026it grows because there are other identities in the room that many of the conversations that we had also overla so by the time we were done as you can see on that final piece was trauma and healing work it's conversations and thinking about our own identity what does it mean to heal from when our identity is harmed or our humanity is harmed and so that was that final piece that sort of ushered in um the next phase so after we worked with the administration then came the Dei District committee which I was honored to be asked to sort of lead over the course of the last year and something as you'll see the purpose of that committee we we understood one it was a recommending body and that was uh very important but again that
027Focus was to provide that feedback in addition to also engage in ongoing learning opportunities so I didn't want it just to be workshopping but also learning as we move forward and in order to do that we took two books one was by Eddie gloud which I absolutely love so if you want a book to read um Eddie GLS begin again he takes a journey with um Baldwin and he sort of understands the history of this conversation so it was a little bit of historical work um that the Dei committee did and then the second book which you should add as well is uh Henry Turner's changing the narrative how to Foster an anti-racist culture in your school these two books have become the backdrop of the ongoing learning that we are doing in addition to
028the workshopping that we are doing as well so as you'll see the goals of this committee one we wanted to assess the policies public statements or any other written documents that we could create we wanted to think about programs and extracurricular as well which looked at the limitations and barriers you might see and then we wanted to consider the daily School environment what does it look like for a student to attend day in and day out how can we assess with the backgrounds and the goals that we had just talked about one of the things I felt was important is first the framework um as you'll see at the bottom we did this as a large group and for the most part that had worked well um but for any reason I also put if
029there was a need that we needed to divide into smaller groups we would sew on an needed bases but most of our work we could uh we were able to do as a larger larger group so that was excellent and then we started to um offset uh weeks with book group meetings and actual Workshop meetings so uh we actually divided up the work in between those meetings and then finally I put a little addendum there about curriculum when I first originally did the contract I recognized that curriculum takes more than just one individual one facilitator um I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to all of the curriculum or all the concepts of how to engage in uh equity for the curriculum however it isn't like it didn't come up so although conversations
030around curriculum have been there I would both advise and I would say that it was important for me to recognize I couldn't do all of that and fix that in two years so that will be an ongoing conversation that you will have so what has the committee been able to produce first you have and I will say first and for for foremost this is a draft because one of the things that always comes out of committee is wanting to get Buy in so right now what you're seeing before you is the draft it is the Dei commitment you could call it a Dei statement but we felt like this is more of a commitment what is it that we want the rc1 district to uphold as a commitment so again in draft form as of
031now you have that before you and for those here I'll read it aloud but again it is a draft folks you need Buy in and before you can get buyin you have to take the extra journey of bringing before people and hearing from folks but let me read it for you we intentionally welcome build and Foster relationships across multiple diverse lived experiences and perspectives with the intention that people feel seen heard and respected recognizing this as a dynamic and complex process we we practice self-awareness we support and maintain an ongoing commitment which drives us towards an inclusive community that is accessible to everyone that statement which I hope soon you will draft as a embodiment of everything you do Dei related how you read your budget how you look at your education how you look
032at hiring all of the pieces of what makes up the rc1 district I hope this will be that commitment for now though this is what the Dei committee has worked tirelessly on and I'm really proud of them for for this as you can see this was authored right now by the representatives of the rc1 district in their committee as of January 2024 so this is fresh off the press one of the things though is also written for your community our feeling is that anybody who interacts with the rsu1 district should also uphold this as well so as you begin to get Buy in one of the things that you should also recognize is we want the community to also engage with this as they interact with the schools which is a huge piece after the
033commitment we also added a meth method of processing that Dei commitment how would you bring a Dei lens into a conversation we say you got to see and notice you have to acknowledge and you have to act and you can sort of see the steps there as well but that is an overarching how do you make this Dei commitment a reality moving to page five not only did we do a Dei commitment but as of right now we are engaging in an equity toolkit we call the Equitable questions for Equitable spaces this Equity toolkit as we are finalizing it in this last part of the year um before the the summer is designed to help Educators and staff and administration ask the critical questions so that you can engage in equity within the schools our
034hope is that as we finalize that again it will need buyin it will need beta testing to see how well it works but for right now I wanted you to know that that toolkit looks to provide an equity lens for education and then finally the Dei committee has also been building a changing the narrative list which is basically a list and what will soon become the recommendations for how do you move this work forward what else could you possibly do and so there's a list of everything from creating buying Dei leadership outside of the classroom and Dei leadership inside the classroom and help helping your community see the work and again there's a lot there I know you have a full agenda so I don't want to belabor it too much um but you have
035sort of a list of what they'll look like there's a much larger 10-page document that I can certainly share if you want last but not least after all of this one of the conversations that the assistant superintendent and I had is how do we get this in the schools and one of the concepts that we came up with um and that the superintendent thought uh as well was was a really valuable concept was a cultural awareness cohort it is something I have never done so it was I I asked the group to sort of take a chance on it but it was a design to go into each of the schools and actually bring a lot of this education and so I'm actually really delighted to see some of those Educators who were here who
036were part of that training uh first and foremost it was a way to continue the education further um a space to ask questions a space to think critically h a place to now practice leading these conversations but also organize uh around learning thinking and acting and so the program was set up to be part of professional development we had anywhere from three to four sessions that we set up throughout the last part of the year and each and every school has either is is represented in those but I have attended and been part of each and every school including non-instructional staff it has been an absolute pleasure to engage in each of those schools to see them to get a sense of how they feel and to also um work with and talk with each
037of the Educators answer questions um and just enjoy sort of hearing from them as well so what I put there is what that uh program looked like and what it entailed terms and language we talked about our personal narrative we talked about active listening hearing about another culture we talked about facilitation and what that looks like we brainstormed and considered how this would impact the school and through it all we actually talked about identity norms and guidelines um what is Dei and how does it look and then I asked some tough questions such as what may hold you back from engaging in Dei work which brought about some great um answers and then I asked think about Dei one three or five years from now what would it look like all of that information is
038now collected and I'm sharing it with the assist assistant superintendent as part of where does this work go um the other key thing is to um always um celebrate your victories and I know bath Middle School um in particular has done some really great work too about um the humanity language that sound in their code of conduct um Dei uh groups that have formed U behavioral consequences and restorative justice and also just how home rooms now have Humanity as part of their conversation that came out of the learning that happened over this past year so um well done to to all of those in in bath middle school and I'm sure there's other victories in other schools and so please celebrate those here are my final thoughts um one of the big things too is
039next steps um as you sort of a reading is one we want to take the change the narrative document and I want to submit that to you as part of where can this work go where are the places you'll want to cover and think about a Dei lens um through that the other key piece is now you'll need to refocus on your policies practices procedures your budgets everything will have a new lens to it and so it may mean some shifting and changing of how you operate and finally a key step will be the equity toolkit getting it into schools and seeing how does it work with with teachers and Educators and staff um and does it do the job that it needs to do um and then finally just some parting thoughts um not
040leaving anytime soon but just um after tonight I want you to know it has been an absolute pleasure and a delight to do this work um we've had tough conversations we've had good conversations I don't take this work lightly this was not easy um but every day it is a an absolute treat um to engage with all of your Educators and with the district um I work in other school systems and I will go on camera and saying that this is one of my favorites and one of the best um because of what you see before you how engaged how excited how thoughtful uh and how provocative all of your educators are how much your staff is and um to superintendent the assistant superintendent I want to thank you this cannot be done unless there's
041buying from from the top um without your buying and your support in me and your confidence in me um this couldn't happen so um I thank you both from the very get-go uh for being there for me and so with that I'm happy to answer questions or leave in peace and let you all get to the rest of your meeting um the board have some questions uh Jennifer um so one of the things I and I didn't get to read the what was just giv to me but with the Dei commitment statement um I've been working on the policy committee now for like maybe eight years or so and so what we've really been trying to do is Define terms and I didn't see Dei defined anywhere and I saw a lot of the language
042around it but because it's used so often and it and if it's used for if these documents or these materials could be used for outside our bubble of education and everything I was thinking it would be one good to explain it and then if there was any SE that could just be like this is how we've come to this and in the educational world because I think we assume vocabulary a lot because we're just all used to using the same vocabulary and I think that's one of particularly in this subject that I really try to check my assumptions and also make sure that I'm not excluding anyone that doesn't have the same background knowledge that I do so I think that would be that my only question or comment would be is to try to
043to find that right up front somewhere to help people po all this it's we can make sure that excellent thank you and I bet any of your Educators here could tell you the definition because they've all had the same exact training but but you're right I think one of the conversations we had within creating this um is definitions again do you put that in there do you do you not um something that absolutely can be considered because you're right having universal language is absolutely critical so that everybody knows coming in what's the expectation and what is the framework for those words great other questions I think my question is for Katie but will the board be able to access some of the training that Dustin offers only you know we think about the policy committee
044and looking at the budget through that lens but we haven't had the same opportunity that others have had maybe what I will say is sheets of paper and really the train bring him back yeah we we can yeah that's a good idea because well a couple of us have been on as Representatives but that doesn't but that doesn't cover the whole you're right all of our committees and what the whole board does so we'll have to sit down reevaluate and see what's what but it's um that's really important thank you and then I I think my only other question is um and again this might be for Katie or Dustin or Patrick will we evaluate as a District um you know in my day job we talk a lot about the school to prison Pipeline
045and do our um disciplinary the things that we do for discipline are they effective and are they um you know out weighing young people of color especially young men of color and I guess that would just be my question for our district if we can be looking at those things through that lens um yeah I think it's an excellent question um probably something that we'll once you start to dig a Little Deeper you'll find the answer to um but I think you're already using that that Dei lens to say okay who are who are the individuals that are being harmed through our current policies and practices that key question can lead you to good answers so um but I think it's it's absolutely worth digging into um because you could be finding out something that
046you're doing you didn't even realize and that harm is um cataclysmic absolutely and when we do start [Music] great any any other questions fantastic to see you thank you for being so succinct and and really you know which was such a big big project and and expressing it to the board and it's been fantastic working with you appreciate it thank you take care all right um we are at the now 8.1 finance committee we're not going to speak too much on that the finance committee really was preparing the budget and all of that kind of thing which we'll get to when we get to the budget so why don't we move on to 8. to facilities committee Patrick yeah just just a brief update um Dyke new Fisher Mitchell uh committee visioning committee has started
047to meet and we have another meeting this Thursday and doing the visioning process for a new pre- to 5 Elementary School even though we're still waiting um we we're still going to be doing an application process that we have to go through um the other thing is we will be doing four applications for new schools to be on the list so it will be Dy no Fisher Mitchell it will be bath middle school and it will be f pburg so we will do applications for all four of those and then I think probably next fall that's when the visiting teams will come down and they will tour our schools and look at our applications and then my guess would be maybe around the holidays next year is when the list would be released from the
048state department of um education and we would um hope expect to be um you know near the top of the list for dyn fish and Mitchell and I don't know where we would land with the other schools but because of their age it makes sense for us to go through that process of of applying um and then we talked about our solar farm that we have for those of you that don't know we invested in a solar farm in Pittston and hopefully this as early as this spring if anybody's interested revision energy has agreed to do some U educational field trips if anybody has an interest um but we're also meeting with Consultants this spring to talk about the financial savings that are supposed to be about $330,000 a year that are supposed to help
049the district and over a 20-year period it's supposed to be around I think 7 to 800,000 so we're in a solar farm I think with Brunswick school department Town Department as well as York hospital and I think there's a couple other school districts there so if you happen to be driving through pitton and you see a solar farm that's that's us and I think that's that's it uh Dennis went over some facility projects that we're doing now and some of the facility projects that we have in the budget and that was about the extend of it Patty anything else no okay any questions on yeah go ahead um Patrick do we have a time just a rough time frame you know for um not just the Dy new Fisher Mitchell new school but also for
050BMS so so I didn't know BMS was going to be an application I'm just hearing so yeah and just I mean we just feel like because of the age of our buildings it doesn't hurt to apply um but again we might be I mean that I mean there could be 150 schools in the state that apply and we may end up being 85 on that list um but it'll give us an idea of where we would where we would be so the time frame could it be as soon as like would we be doing all those three schools together within the same five years the same no I think I mean our goal is to get dig and fish and Mitchell prek to 5 done and I'm sure we'll have to do multiple other applications
051not to be you know negative but multiple otherc applications for Pitsburg and and BMS down the road just like we have with um you know D and Fisher mitell before I think this is our third application that we've done for those schools okay thank you any other questions the most difficult question will be what to name the new school right we already have four names huh all right um let's see student board uh repor or or do you have anything to report for us um yeah so for starters Caroline couldn't be here but she did some stuff she wanted to share so a lot of college decisions are being made because regular decisions were just released um the credit Pathways program made made a trip to Augusta to see the state house and Morse hosted
052a unified Champion schools conference aimed at implementing unified programs into new schools to expand UniFi Horizons um just some other stuff spring Sports started today so that's tennis track things like that um the spring musical opens April 5th at 7 pm and they're performing Freaky Friday um and then on March 14th and 15th 24 bass student or Bath Tech students ventured up to Bangor for the annual skills USA main competition um we had a great year we had a lot of people place um Harry coffler and Rory Garnett are in first place in the MRE challenge Mercedes white Elise Bravo and Izzy Simmons won Gold in the CSI competition Bella or won Gold in architectural Drafting and Gwen Weaver won Gold in culinary arts fantastic thank you any questions for Aurora all right uh superintendent
053report Aurora maybe we should touch Bay next time because I don't have much of a report now that you've done that which is good because we have a long longer agenda so thank you for all that but I don't have anything else to report so thank you scoop the superintendent well done well done you get extra points for that all right um the uh financial report this de oh is she out there she's out there yeah you want to let her know she she's up she scared me for note [Laughter] out no Passover is not till the end of April sorry I had to you know had to it's hiding out there all right so am I on here yeah all right February so we're looking at the end of February um we've spent 60%
054of our budget so almost 25 million out of the $41 million budget um we have encumbered 12 million which is the remaining salaries and um so we are at 89.3% which is close to where we were last year so this is a good way just to measure how we are spending um once again I just need to point out that we will be short in substitutes I anticipate that we'll be short possibly up to $210,000 um various reasons just basically more absences we increased the sub rate a little bit and um also that the electricity right now the full impact isn't known quite yet I mean it's just starting but we haven't seen um you know the actual bills coming through with those those new rates as far as the revenue side we're good with
055interest on investments we're still positive about $300,000 so and this is the time of year where I just have to remind folks to only purchase what they need because things can go fast in the last three months so that's it okay so no fire sales got it thank you very much any questions for Deb on uh finances well thank you very much okay but now we're on okay um let me so uh now we're on 11.0 old business um we're now at second reading of board policies this is an action and just to reiterate it's uh use of private vehicles for school business use of private vehicles for school business staff permission form the student computer and internet use and Internet safety student computer and internet use rules agreement to publish student information on School
056District websites School District website web pages administrative uh procedure I think that's it right yeah so of those six are there any questions specifically yeah go ahead could I move that we accept them or reject them all together in one vote not yeah that's what I was going to Hope yeah yeah move that yeah and if you need it no you don't need to I think we can agree that that's what we'll do um unless there was a problem with any of them did I just want to see if there's any questions on any specific policy after reading through it again we got it you all got it last time okay so yes so moving with that procedure um now a motion move to approve move to approve second by Jamie any further discussion or
057questions on that no um all in favor and those policies are approved and we move on to new business um you see 12.1 uh Katie is not going to be discussing instruction updates we have so much going on right Dustin was your update right exactly it's a good update to have so that works um so that that is falls into that so here we go 12.2 first reading of the proposed school budget we're g to pass along these copies for you I'm going to hand it over to Patrick to go over the broad view and again just as a reminder you know this is first blush this is based on a lot of different factors and uh just getting back to some of the comments people uh people were speaking of in the public session
058we are looking at all the numbers we are looking at the big picture and this is you know the first look at that so uh again thank you all for for being here and speaking up so Patrick I'm going hand it over to you so I'm just going to give a brief overview and then open it up for board questions and Deb um might add a few things as well and we don't if we don't have enough handouts tonight we can certainly provide you with more we'll put it on our our district website as well but um you know in 13 years this is this is by far the toughest budget that we've had we've been fortunate I think over the last 10 to 13 years to add a position to every sing budget um
059and we are adding a couple to this budget out of necessity um so we'll go through this but it is a difficult budget year and you know I I guess I would preface it by saying the drivers of this is increased cost for utilities for contracted Services transportation in general that means our transportation contract it means gas it means out of District placements and as you guys know 65% of our budget is is is people and that's I mean that's the way it should be that's what every school district has is you know a fairly decent percentage that's on salary and benefits the first draft that we go through which this is the first reading but the very first draft of the budget we allow our administrators to work with you as staff and Leadership
060teams to submit what you feel you need at a budget and that budget came in at a 10.51% local contribution which is a 7% over 7% increase on the total expenses so I know Abby you were asking about more if and and again I preface this by saying there is no covid positions in this budget so that's you so what you were asking for I think is for us to run some numbers where all of the co positions are in um but even without the co positions in there was 10.51 local contribution 7.08 um for increase to the total expenses so the finance committee and board members that are at those meetings requested that the administrative team attempt to reduce this budget by uh Deb had some different scenarios she had 1 million she had
0611.2 and she had 1.5 million and what it would do to the tax basis in our towns so the request was to to try to reduce this by 1.2 million so we went back and I'll share with you just roughly how we attempted to get there and as Lou pointed out at the beginning of this meeting the budget I mean this is a it's a fluid process I mean we want people's input but please understand we have to start we have to start someplace and our goal was to try to start someplace where at least impacted staff and students and I know you may not always agree with that as we go through this but I would non- labor was 622,000 is what we cut and that's not just supplies and equipment that you ask
062for it's also things that came out of you know could be technology maintenance uh operations and maintenance uh special education we usually put 50 $50,000 in our Capital Improvement line which helps for things that we need to do with our boilers catastrophic things we did not add that 50,000 in this budget this year because that fund is around 700,000 so it's healthy right now um Staffing was 559 th000 is where and that comes out to well 559 th000 and I'll go through this fairly quickly is retirement positions not being filled one special ed special education teacher at fiser Mitchell one special education teacher at BMS those are retirements or resignations high school math teacher High School edtech 3 study hall monitor technology integrator which serves Middle School and High School Outdoor Classroom which is two
063days a week one day at pipsburgh and one day at Woolwich filling the bath Middle School library and position which is a retirement with an edtech that is the Staffing of of roughly 550,000 and then student programs 39,000 which is um no longer doing the chanki flow program for eighth graders and not doing the chanki sixth grade experient experience so that comes out to be about 1.27 million doar for the board to consider um again no covid funded positions in this budget it doesn't mean that the board I I can't speak for the board I I work for the board um but I I know we'll have disc discussion about the positions that um are covid and we'll have discussions about what's on this list and see where we can get the things that were
064added to this budget out of necessity are two Special Ed Ed techs and one elll edtech and that's what's been added to this budget for student needs that we have to do from a case management standpoint and from a um student need perspective on this list on the front sheet if you have one you can see that that by reducing it by 1.2 million it brings down the local contribution to 4.18% and brings down over total expenses at 4.05% so what does that mean for towns um aousc uh is a 21% increase on the tax because of mostly house arosc our smallest community and they're also up five students um five and a half students from last year so that drives that piece for bath it's a 3.3% increase for pipsburgh it's 3.78% increase and
065for wo is 4.46% and if you look at the very bottom of the sheet on the front page you'll just see that we we try to run a now it's a seven-year average probably can cut cut that back but you can see over to the far right even with the rix's kind of Spike of you know 133% and the 21% over a seven-year period the average has been 4.92 but it is the highest out of all of our towns um so that's kind of a basic overview of where we are right now um as a first reading so I I guess I would stop there and open it up to is Deb in the room or she still hiding outside I don't know she I think she left us again yeah or if the board
066board has any questions um uh yeah so does the board have some after seeing this first overview invite the board to ask some questions you know you've been a part of this process now but um seeing how this has worked out did you yeah Jennifer thanks um so I guess my question would start with the non-labor applies and I think I don't know if after 10 years if I know this changes every year I remember back when I was in this budget process myself and so is there a further breakdown supplies are not my understanding is we're not talking about consumables for our curriculum correct out of that number Patrick correct I mean we're getting what we need for students in their curriculum so it's those the supplies that the teachers use to you to
067fulfill the the curriculum in terms of of what their units are and different things like that right it's there and if that's been reduced like is there a certain percentage that they get at each year for their classroom like how does that how does that number work out I mean a total for each school they usually they ask for what they feel they need or want and then we bring it down to a 3% increase from one year to the next by by school based okay um and I think there was a question about you know earlier about how does this how does this work for towns and um I would just probably say that um you know if you were to compare wowit and bath the impact to taxpayers and bath is different than
068Woolwich because ba bath has a huge um resource for taxes because they have a lot more Commercial Business and they pay a lot more in commercial taxes so that impacts the overall taxes in their Town's budget versus a town like Woolwich that doesn't have that same level of Revenue either from the revenue that's created with sales tax or the revenue that's also returned to the state from the state in terms of Revenue sharing so that both goes into how the actual balance is for the individual taxpayer um so I think that there is a a difference in how that works out for um individuals and I guess the last thing is when I look at this I was thinking about the diversity and Equity inclusion training and that documentation and I try to look at
069this budget and think about am I looking through it through my own kind of privileged view of my socio socioeconomic status I also try to look at it through the view of people who are making 80% of Ami and lower and with kids and how that impacts individuals it often impacts renters more than it does homeowners and so renters being usually low-income families or lower income families and homeowners is that I feel that every increase that we do to our tax base makes our affordable housing less and Le makes our housing less affordable and we're such in such a crisis for that now so um instead of thinking about what it would matter to an upper class person in my community I often think of this budget and thinking what would it how would it
070impact um the people with less resources to pay their taxes um what would they be having to give up um and what kind of Life did they live and for the luxury of what we try to provide our kids and I want to provide all these resources possible um and I've heard from a lot of people that the social work resources are really really important and I guess my question is is if it's really important to add more social work in I would look at it as saying what do we take out not like what do we do and you know if we have a program that's going to replace the need for social worker Social Work resources and I'm like let's do that but each program that we add um if it doesn't help
071meet that social work need that so many people say I ask well what can we can we do either one not both and that's just my personal lens how I look at my own finances and um how I look at the financial impact to everybody in my town and also to all of our teachers and our school communities thank you all right thanks a lot Jamie go so this the budget that we have here has the Pittsburgh nurse at4 two and so for that one position what would the local contribution increase to I mean we'd have to Deb would have to run those numbers and get them to you for any position we had and could you just recap the process of adding um positions to this or how that all works do you want
072to go yeah and first I'll say this I mean I see some see some of you in the audience that um you know I feel like I didn't do a great job when I first opened this up I'm all about numbers and and uh probably come across as being a little cold but you know there's people in this room that you know it's it's not easy for um there's people that this could impact and you know just want you to know that you know the services that you've provided over the last two years have been incredible for our students um and um and and again I know it's not easy and I don't want you to feel like you're it it hasn't mattered to us I mean I know from the get-go we said have
073Co funding for this amount of time um but we really um appreciate your efforts and um everybody that's that's here this evening that has that is either is impacted by this potential list that could go through or for those Co people that are hoping that something could be put into this budget so having said that um you know we have a process that's on our website and so we um next week is a you know is a public forum for that for people to come and offer their opinion on things and advocate for things and if the board I I can't remember the date but it's the second reading of the budget in probably end of April 1 of May where it becomes the board's budget uh it goes from you know kind of the
074recommended budget by the administration then the board has to formally vote on it and in that time that's where you know the process would be where you would the board would have to kind of come to a consensus about adding something to the budget and it and like you said you would we would ask Deb to do those numbers so that you would know what it does to the tax taxes in our towns um or you know the board could also you know you could direct us to cut in other areas but um you know we've this first um this first attempt I would say wasn't easy so so right so you know you're asking the right questions and that's what we'll do so as it goes forward you know and we'll see what everyone
075says I think next it's next Monday right so next Monday um when when folks come and we talk about it again I think we'll get even more expanded list and then that's what we do we sit down and we brainstorm so okay you want to add these three positions in or you want to take something else out and you can see how much everything's going to cost come up with some different numbers to say well and then you know as Abby said earlier okay well then if you added this in it's going to cost this much what how do that affect the percentages if you take this out can you counter it if you so you can look at all you know all these different scenarios and we will and so that we can you
076you know we can be educated when it's time to vote on that budget and then you know we all know that after that there's what the town meeting when people can still Advocate even after it's been done people can still show up and Advocate if there's still something that was was not um put that something was not put in or something like that but you know it's up to us to say if this is what we're hearing from the public and if someone's get added in and as Jennifer said maybe something else is taken out maybe it's all added in I don't know but then you'll see what the range of numbers are and how it affects the towns and the taxpayers and then we as a board will have to make that decision uh
077going forward as to what that budget ultimately will look like but that's so there's there's plenty you know still time to do that obviously that's why we're that's why we're beginning the process now sorry other questions from the board for Patrick on this overview does it make not asking if you agree or disagree it's not about that it's just um you know do you understand Kurt yeah I guess there was a request uh to see what the budget looked like if the 9.5 covid positions were put in is that correct yeah Ian compare the num yeah yeah and then I guess I was just wondering so Patrick mentioned 1.2 million in cuts from what was originally submitted by the administrators would it be helpful for that to be put to see what that looks like
078if that was also put back in if possible just clarifying that or asking I mean we can well yeah what we can do is we can ask we can ask for a few different scenarios just so people people really want to see numbers yeah I mean that's that's how kind of how we got to this was we looked at all these numbers and we said wow well that increases by this amount that increases tried to pair it down to a place where where we said Okay a good starting point might be these percentages to the towns while still keeping all of this intact within the budget and so yeah you know we can always look back and say if you added five positions if you cut this position whatever it was and and come up
079with it so we'll and we'll still be working on it that's why today's important that's why next week will be important because we may hear from from other people about other aspects of uh of our of our budget Jennifer go ahead you have a question um and this budget um we're still in negotiations obviously there's so many people here today so that is another unnown before we start adding back things is that we haven't that's not been resolved no so so everything at this point um labor put in here is a placeholder with saying okay we maybe it'll be this we don't know it could be more we don't know could be less more whatever we we don't know what that looks like completely because there's three was it three different contracts yeah three three
080different contracts that are currently being negotiated so it makes for even a more difficult year you know it happens to be a really difficult year and then it also happens to be a contract year so there's a lot of moving factors so but that doesn't mean we can't also look at other positions just for cost you know people want to know we're being transparent about it yeah it would be this you x amount it would raise taxes x amount and it's it's good to have the information out there but yes we are in negotiations so hopefully those can be you know a at a good place and and settled before we vote on an actual budget otherwise things get can get messy yes and to be clear the bud the school budget doesn't control what
081you pay for taxes it's one component it's a big component but a big component also can be the increased cost for County service so as we've seen those blow up recently those go into the budget and then increased costs for everything else that happens in your town goes in there so it's not a direct correlation between the budget going up this percentage and your taxes going up this percentage it's one part of that so that's why it makes it very hard to say the dollar amount your taxes will go up no it's it's it's I'm saying what the percentage will be to the towns we don't know everything is Right individual it's a factor right and and it makes it difficult because coming through covid and everything right now with pricing as Patrick said before
082so you got your energy costs your maintenance costs everything's gone up well it's also gone up in the county end right it's also gone up if if uh uh you know Town wants to buy an ambulance if you want to do all that stuff so everything's got and then of of course you have uh the contracts for labor which obviously everything's gone up so people are looking for raises and looking for things they want so we have to take all of these factors into account as we're coming up with uh the different the different numbers the different percentages and and what we think you know the community will will be willing to to pass and and pay for so that's why these public meetings are so important that's why I'm really happy everybody's here other
083questions for Patrick on the process yeah um I just this this doesn't include the CPP program either right just eliminates no it doesn't have any any of the covid positions okay and I can resend that list of all the covid positions to you guys to just remind you but no it does not include CB I'd like to um hear a little bit more about the direct impact it might have to retain that program on this budget and what the impact of that program has been on our graduation rate since it's been in place um I and I would like to just put it out there for food for thought that um to the rest of the board that that program it I feel like it's something we probably would have considered even without covid money
084that had it been proposed to us um if if the pandemic had never happened it would have been something we would have seriously considered adding um as an opportunity for our students so I really think we need to think long and hard about losing that program y thank you we can get that for you for the next meeting Jamie I just wanted to share conversation I had with a young student who's in that program today who said she dropped out in sixth grade and she said her life changed when she met the teachers in CPP and now she's excited to graduate so really was very powerful to um speak with her today yeah go Patricia since I'm new to this budget process um we're proposing a percent over for the towns but how do we
085know or how do I guess from experience how do we know what percent the town will want to pick up or like there's a lot of factors as Jen Jen's pointing out but it seems people here today would think that adding a school nurse or some of the other positions the town would readily pay for but that's just a small sampling of our town here so how how would the board know if it's a good idea I mean what would what would sway them to say I think fburg really needs this this or this or you know the CPP or how do how do you guys know just from experience what because obviously we don't want to put out a budget that and doesn't get voted in right so they like and then we have
086to go back to the school board so you guys have all the experience I'm just not really clear Wonder answer what is a swaying Factor here uh sway factor I think well it's just you know like this is this is a difficult year and as Patrick said it hasn't been I think occasionally over the last several years there maybe been uh what a coaching position there's been a a program here or there there's been one thing that by including it in the end or something it didn't break the budget this is the first time in my experience and you know you've been here longer but uh that that we've never faced so mean I don't want to eliminate any positions and then there's the co positions so what can we keep you know but we
087don't want to eliminate current ones if we could help it but we don't want to and we're cutting all these you know certain extracurriculars out and all these things and we're trying to figure out the best way to balance all of that and this is not easy because this is a the multiactor and made more difficult because it's a negotiation year it's nobody's fault it just is it just all falls falls on that so so you're you've got that variable that every year is not a variable but it is this year so that that's uh so we can't just build it into the budget saying this is the number we know what it is so there's a lot of it and Jennifer and too Patty I mean you know we are individual towns but we
088are also this one District so um if any one town wants to do more it becomes the respons financial responsibility of the entire District um I have just seen in the board report today that believe that fipb Burg donated some books to every child in their classrooms and they have I lived in West Point Village for a while in my youth and went to fipb school I know the impact that school has on that community and how will willing they are to help and there's never I I've never heard of a school turning back money to help out with certain things um you know a position is so much more in depth of course because it's not just the position it's all of that huge impact behind the position in the school's responsibility and once
089you get somebody in then you're tied to that person pretty much until they choose to leave or retire in most instances so it's a long-term commitment for a school to take on a position um but certainly there is fundraising there's you know the town can help as they want to and they that town certainly has in some remarkable ways um and I think it's true also if we look at this budget it's not just 3% this year it's that budget now grows 3% and so next year as as a math person we both are that 3% gets bigger and bigger compounds just like interest does so we're not just voting in from one year just x amount of money we're voting in that amount of money and that percentage for all years following that especially
090when it comes to staff and I and I too I would say um I know what it's like to have my position cut from this District that's how that's why I stopped working here and it was really hard and really sad and I thought I did a great job but I also realized that was consol validation and that's what happened and sometimes we can't do everything we want to do and I had to go off and find more work and I you know didn't have anyone supporting me so it was I know it's a sad and hard thing to do um but it sometimes we that happens not often with this District I think we've done really incredible things and we'll keep trying to do as much as we can with the balance of our
091resources Jamie so could could I ask that for next week we're provided with this packet but with um the pipsburgh nurse and CPP and those positions built in I mean am I allowed to do that yeah of course you're allowed to do that and we want to yeah I mean of course you are and we I think just um maybe want to be very specific what you're asking for there's a lot of positions I mean one thing I need you to be specific about is um you know where do you want to see that nurse position and a increased amount of time percentage or do you want to see it at fulltime or both fulltime you want to see it at full time I mean you might as well i' put it in for both
092i' do do like A6 and a fulltime just so you could see what the numbers are yeah uh that doesn't hurt and then you're asking and you're also asking for the CPP positions CPP what about the social worker yes yes to well there's a couple social workers so I think that um there was one at one BMS yeah um yeah BMS the shared then there's a shared one with the El elementary schools um in high school okay am I missing any others um I mean there's yeah I mean that's fine there's 10 I know but and and that's fine and some of some uh and I think I think Kurt has asked to see those 10 so I'm just asking for maybe a middle middle ground so maybe what we can do is based on
093this maybe I can talk to you tomorrow and we'll come up with that and some other things and we can email folks to see if are these scenarios you want to see and if you think of anything else because it's not like this is it we just want to have some expansions so we can have a more detailed discussion next week but yeah Jennifer so I guess I would ask anybody on the board who wants to add something back in could you also add are there things in here that you would like to cut is there a way to make that budget neutral so right if we're going back and asking for all these positions and these programs um you I'm not I'm just saying so could you also come prepared as a you know
094either ask Patrick ahead of time when he's doing this to see where you can make equal equal Cuts or ask him to make the total amount be you know where right how do you make it how do you either make it equal or not as much of an increase how many programs could we cut I mean are there position other positions that we'd like to decrease um if there are co-curricular sports um other programs that we're willing to cut to make it be more we look at all of that uh and yeah I think people yeah and and I think that's what what it can come that would be a part of it I think some of what people were asking was they did want to see and there's nothing wrong with showing folks this
095is the impact if you put this position or added all these positions or kept whatever positions we were talking about cutting this is how it would affect it these are the percentages and you know then have you can have a conversation about you know is it some people might say hey it's not that bad or people might go oh wow that's a big increase and you know how I get it so I guess I would like to ask that that that part of that process that Patrick also comes up with the equal Cuts if we add those back in if we're looking at the budget sure whatever that number is where where else would we cut to make those positions budget neutral right that that total amount of money would be good to look at
096both sides right I understand that makes sense any any other Kurt you okay with that as you were asking about you know all these different scenarios too does that make sense to you uh yeah I mean respectfully I don't think we should be expected to have it be neutral if we're looking to save positions I don't think we should be I don't think it should be compulsory for us to come up with cuts so it's not it's not compulsory she's asking she's just asking that if you see anything in the budget that you think could help so maybe the Inc is not even about neutral but that maybe okay it wouldn't be as much of an increase she's just asking you to look at it you don't have you could that's just how she would
097look at it happy to happy to look at it you know you don't have it's nothing's compulsory this is really about brainstorming which we had done before like like I said as Patrick said we had to start somewhere this was a good attempt to pull back a lot to say look this is this is where we are this is what the percentages look like some people might think it's a lot some people might think oh we can go better than that that's fine that's what this is for it's why it's called a draft it's why it's called the first reading and now you're all coming up and we've heard folks and they say Hey what if you throw this position back in or what if we added this and let's look at it that's fine
098we have some of those numbers already we just haven't folded into this particular one yet but we know the costs of these positions we could fold that back in look at a few different scenarios I think we'll want to pair it down to three or four so it doesn't overwhelm everyone just to give and that's what we can talk about this week just so that that when people are looking at it they have an idea of more of a range so it's like all right if you put this many in you just add this you just add the nurse it's this you add this three positions it's this add everything back in it's this then if you do more Cuts obviously you could you could pair some of that back I think that's a good
099way to approach it so that when we come back together this uh this time right six o'clock next week we'll be able to go over that and that'll be the only thing on the agenda and we can talk through some of this stuff and people can you know uh be shocked not shocked happy whatever it is uh and and go through that and have a good discussion about it so that's so no nothing's compulsory you just if there's you know anything else specific you think of let us know and and we'll work on it over the course of the week is that meeting in this room or the auditorium well considering I know folks going folks are coming back yeah if I I wish we had known you were coming we would have been in
100the auditorium if you think you're may come back then we'll we'll put it in a larger room plan on it okay that's fair we can do that yep then everyone will have a place to sit and I'll have to make sure Ross doesn't fall asleep all right because they'll be in the comfy chairs in the auditorium I got I always pick on Ross he knows that um okay so uh any other before we move forward we're almost done folks anything else um regarding the budget tonight everybody go ahead Megan I know it's bugging yes what is well I just want to make a point and I understand you know rising cost of everything and the stress or what have you put on taxpayers too but we're also talking about the children of our community and
101schools are different and working in a school now is different and the needs of school of kids are different and I just don't think the our children should suffer because everything in the our country is rising and um I just want to make that point too I understand taxpayers I'm a taxpayer that's why I'm here um but I'm also a parent and I'm also an educator and so I see it all and just um and I don't speak that well so I'm sorry but my point is that we also have to remember that we're from four years old to maybe 19 years old we are educating these these kids and the cppp I'm glad you brought that up and on all that stuff so no you're doing fine that's that's great uh very nervous now
102[Applause] you're you always speak well and from the heart I I yeah and so if you so think about it if you don't have the details tonight feel free to email me or if you if you if there's something you come up with that you're looking for okay all yeah okay all right and you know any of you if you have any more specifics just just let us know we can you know make sure we want to make sure we're giving folks uh some good things to look at and have a more detailed discussion all right anything else on yeah Aurora um it's also kind of on the a position cuts things just because that's I think what students are most aware of um but I know obviously we can't keep everyone but just from
103the student perspective I've heard a little bit from rumors just going around on which positions are being cut um and I guess just for the positions that are being cut I guess I want them to know that the students do care and a lot of them are scared to lose some of their favorite teachers So yeah thank you for saying that okay I think on that um we're going to end the budget discussion for now I want to thank everybody else for for coming again and for all of uh the board's input and Aurora thank you for that that last note uh we just have a couple more things tonight a uh first reading of the board policy uh uh ecaf oh wait oh I skipped calendar the most important part sorry Katie went right
104over it uh school calendar Katie um so you all have a copy of the proposed draft calendar um we went through the usual process with our sending schools and believe that we'll be fine having five or fewer dissimilar days um which is the law um and so that looks good and honestly um I I don't have many details because this is almost exactly the same as this year um the only difference truly in terms of where days fall is the November PD day because it's a presidential election will be on a Tuesday so our schools won't have students in them oh right yeah okay because that's that usually Falls yeah that usually Falls later in the week yep okay and that's really it and it's still after Labor Day yes it is that's that's what
105everybody's been asking me when's the calendar and is it after Labor Day or not okay so this is an action item does anyone have any questions for Katie on the calendar love the new format and the holidays Inus yeah thank you for doing I'm happy you noticed that was part of our work with Dustin yeah that's awesome that's really great thank you for people like me who still cannot remember when school starts and ends especially on half days can you add that to the calendar please yes thank you that's true even now I'm like when are you home kid what's going on uh okay we need to vote yeah I move approval and I need a second second from Megan any other questions details no okay all in favor all right that's unanimous thank you
106all thank you Katie I know that's not always the easiest thing to put together all right now we're going on to the uh reading a board policies no action tonight but uh if you have questions on the EC ecaf video surveillance on school property you had it in your packet are there any questions this is again is this all just regular update there wasn't anything prompting okay so if there are no questions any no okay so if you come up with any after reading through it let us know I'm going to hand it over to Patrick for personnel items yeah uh two resignations just a report on Lawrence Kovac who was on a year leave of absence this year decided um that he's enjoyed his Le year leave of absence and wants to make it
107permanent we certainly will miss him so we'd like to thank Lawrence for 13 years of service to the district uh Caitlyn Gary seagar she's a elll edtech 3 districtwide and thank her for three years of service to the district uh next retirement uh Sandra Gorsuch plumber who's here in the third row um like to thank her for 11 years of service uh as fipb Elementary principal and [Applause] then and then I have a uh action item uh for the board to consider is we have a nomination for Bath Tech new director and we're excited to nominate Timothy gagnan Tim gagnan who is currently the assistant principal has been for the last 12 years at Brunswick High School and prior to that he was a technology education teacher at Brunswick as well as lewison High School
108uh we had seven applications we interviewed five people we had five administrators four teachers One support staff and one board member the committee and Tim uh Rose to the top very impressed with him and he would start on August 1 here so I need a um we need a motion need a motion move to approve Jamie need a second Megan any questions or discussion no okay all in favor all right that is approved thank you uh 14.0 board goals Jennifer did you have any reference to our board goals budget budget budget budget hit all four got it it does hit everything well well said and the shortest goal thing yet okay 15.0 set next meeting dates so our next as we've said several times and it is not April fools it will be April 1
109and it won't be April fools we won't be in a smaller room we'll actually be in the auditorium and that'll be at six o'clock I think we get the auditorium right is there any hopefully if not they might be rehearsing so it might be the gym okay got it that's right they're going to be rehearsing all right so it'll be in the gym uh six o'clock next week and then regular meeting being after spring break uh the Monday after which will be or actually week after that uh April 29th I need a motion to adjourn motion to and Megan who I know wants to stay but she's going to say no okay in favor thank you all have a great [Laughter] evening got a question to ask