001good evening everybody thanks for coming if we could uh just stand for the Pledge of Allegiance see 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 right thanks for coming everyone um uh let's see we got a pretty full agenda we're getting into into uh all the final things for the year where we know we're folks um are going away to school Natalie right and we're and getting ready for graduation and all kinds of fun things so just the best to everybody uh to our seniors um can we uh approve uh minutes I moved to approve the minutes of April 24th 2023 and May 1st 2023 is written great can I have a second next thing okay
002any other questions or discussion all right all in favor okay we moved the minutes are approved uh adjustments to an agenda we're going to move um 11.2 the overview of the rsu-1 education plan and put it at 7.2 after the credit Pathways program okay everyone all right with that so we'll do that um all right public session is there anyone from the public who would like to come up to speak yeah come on up to the Mike just tell us your name and go right ahead foreign I'm Patrick Wright I am um a parent of two Morse high school students uh sophomore and a junior and I would um I realized that tonight is not a budget meeting but I know you're in process with budget right now and so um I have a question
003that I'm not sure the answer to and I'm not sure you all do either but I hope that you can consider it as you're considering your budget this year and it has to do with coaches stipends at the high school um I have been blessed to have both my children have wonderful experiences in the Athletics program and um it's an area that um I've I don't know but I've heard that RSU traditionally has under invested relative to Pure uh districts not only in Maine but across the country and I would just hope that or ask you to consider looking specifically at coaches stipends I know that our boosters does an incredible job of covering a lot of the equipment and other costs that our teams face and I appreciate all of the work that goes
004into that the one piece that I understand you all um have to sort of take care of as the coach's stipend and while I know that um none of the coaches are doing this to get rich or for the stipend I do believe strongly that it's really important that um in order to attract and retain great coaches we need to recognize them for uh for their service um and so um in that process of being interested in ensuring that coaches have um uh are recognized for their service I came across schedule B in your in your budget and I recognize that there's a disparity between some of the programs and not only the number of stipends they get but the amount of stipends that they get and um and I'm not sure if anyone has
005the answer tonight I realize this is a public comment so it's not probably appropriate for a lot of back and forth but I just asked you to sort of consider in your budget process how those stipends are decided there may be very good reasons for that based on length of schedule number of kids who are served there may be performance um components to that I'm really not sure the formula that goes into that but one of the things I did uncover is that um both the basketball and football programs um the head coaches alone make 25 percent more than any of the other spring Sports at the high school level if you look at a program as a whole it's about 50 percent more I realize some of those have ninth grade teams I just
006hope that there's some really careful thought about how those stipends are distributed and my goal I want to make clear is not to take anything away from the football coaches and the basketball coaches I think that they do an incredible job wrestling coach is another one who gets more stipend I know that they're really busy I know that they have a huge commitment to the kids my hope is just that we can look at those other stipends that we can consider where we are relative to other districts in the area particularly who are we might be competing for for talent and who our coaches might might leave for other positions and that we can rise we can invest in our coaches to the same level so they're all show being shown the same appreciation for
007the dedication and hard work I know that it's not just the window of their season most of these coaches are coaching in the summer and um and preparing throughout the course of the year so I'd be really into I know that the 30th is your sort of true budget process I I did learn today had a conversation with Mr priest that there may be a committee who's discussing this I'm not sure how the sausage is made but I just wanted to take the opportunity to ask you to please consider that in your upcoming budget process great thank you very much and yeah you're right this is not really a dialogue process it's more we want to hear from people we take it back and yeah uh Nate priest is great to uh talk to him
008about he can tell you how some of that works and and go from there but we definitely you know take all this into consideration and we appreciate you coming in and uh letting us know we appreciate it very much thank you um okay anybody else for a public session comment no all right we can move forward with that um 7.0 staff report I'm going to hand it over to you Patrick to introduce our guests about credit Pathways program thank you so we've talked about this program a lot this year CPP credit Pathways program here at Morse and we have our two teachers here tonight we have Abby Baker Georgie bunker is here and then I'm going to just mention the students that are here tonight some of you may have a speaking part some of
009you may not and that's fine too don't be nervous we're very friendly okay but we have Jetta Kramer here we have Ryan reins Bree Hipp and Mara McIntyre so thank you guys for coming really do appreciate you giving up some time and we look forward to your presentation to be oh sorry okay thank you we're very grateful to be sharing this program with you this is our first year in the program um and over the past year we just have seen incredible growth from our students um they're so much more engaged in school and we have a gorgeous presentation that will really get into it remember [Music] okay so we'll uh so we'll we'll do a few other items a little out of turn here but um one thing we'd like to do tonight which
010sometimes will wait until the June meeting and it's you know it feels late especially since our senior board member graduates before our last meeting so you don't need to come to the June meeting all right so um but would like to thank you for two years of being on the board um you know you've been a great student board member your questions are very insightful you add to the conversation you bring the student perspective I don't think we've ever had and Caroline you know this is kudos to you too but we haven't had the student reports in detail like we've had the last year and a half two you know two years um just a very conscientious board member and really do appreciate it hope you have enjoyed it and we wish you the best
011next year at Bowdoin College all right we have a little something for you so yeah that's it thank you so much Natalie I mean I you know he put it so eloquently but you really have you really you've taken it to the next level snow Caroline you're gonna have to keep up with that and and bring it to the next um just but you're right with the detail really felt engaged always felt like the you know you weren't just kind of sitting there to the side but just you know um Not Afraid just to jump right in with everything Jennifer and Natalie if you go about finding the next person um if they need help understanding the process you know we've spoken about understand the vocabulary or how things are um you know any of
012us would be happy to sit down with the next person in line before they come to their first meeting or at any part through the process just to help them get oriented a little bit so thanks thank you for your service yeah yeah why don't we we're still figuring out why don't you and speaking of which can we do the student report [Music] I really really enjoyed my time on the board and getting to know all of you so thank you for giving us the opportunity as students to do that um in terms of things that have happened and things that are coming up we had the unified literacy night last week I believe was a huge success and then academic Awards night is this coming Wednesday that's also the Mainsail assembly encourage people to
013come to that and then June 6th is the senior assembly and it's the last day of school for seniors before we start our marching practice and graduation which is on the 11th so um a few other things we've had APS of AP weeks are done all the AP testing that all the students have been in is over um we've also the Juniors completed their standardized science Testing last week and a few things for sports to members of the track team I would like to bring attention to we have Andrew Card who is a senior and he runs the 400 meter dash he broke a 20 year old school record I think and ran a 50.14 so that ranked to the table and then Sarah will let also is our pole vaulter who broke her own
014School record that lasted for about two weeks it was went from 8-6 by Audrey Cruz to Sarah ten seven and now she has 11 feet so yeah that's it for us wow thank you so so that explains why you all see more relaxed the testing's over that's good yeah fantastic thank you both very much any questions for them no all right thank you both and Caroline don't sell yourself short I saw your name in the paper for this last meet you did pretty well yourself so anyway I'll go quick because I see this is hopefully almost ready but just a couple good news items BMS was awarded another 100 000 for the Rev Grant which allows us more instructional coaching who Micah depper is here tonight as well as PD around certain learning Expedition practices
015BMS just a reminder celebration of learning is this Thursday during the day if anybody can stop by and see it we had two bath Tech students we had Connor Robinson and Dana Lord placed first at the annual state Ford competition and this is a Hands-On competition but it's also a written test piece as well so congratulations to both those students Special Olympics was held the McMahon field last week I believe Katie and I went over and watched and just a thank you to all the the staff that give their time Volunteers in the community we had a lot of students from here went over and helped it's just a great great day congratulations to the participants Alice training which is a school intruder training just to let you know Chuck Reese our school resource officer
016is training all of our Elementary staff from now and through June in the summertime and then AP tests were mentioned I just advanced placement for those of you that don't know what it stands for but we had 107 students test and we had 179 exams taken and again students do not take this to get exempt from college courses they take it because it's a challenge correct however if if they all scored a three or above and scored well it could amount to over 200 000 worth of savings for those families because of the amount of classes that they've taken based on the UMaine system credit hours and again I would just say we're very fortunate one of few schools that had the AP diploma program and last two things tomorrow night at five one of
017my favorite events Adult Ed graduation here we rotate it from the three school districts but it'll be here in Montgomery tomorrow night and then lastly on the dike Newell school just a quick update on that we should know by the middle of June hopefully through the State Board of Education what their decision will be about emergency funding and approval process so that when we can start kind of planning and visioning once we know what a response is from them any questions okay are we all ready all right here we go so um Abby Baker Georgie bunker credit pathways our alternative Ed program at Morris High School so uh We've created the mission statement this year um stating that our mission our goal here is to provide students with an alternative education setting that Fosters their
018personal growth their academic growth and career exploration getting them into the community um we are working to create a interdisciplinary project-based curriculum that um that creates a an environment where um we're honoring each of their individual needs so creating this curriculum and meeting each kid where they're at which we have found to be incredibly important in the way that we're connecting with each of the kids um in our presentation we wanted to talk about not only um our gains but also who our students are and we have some kids that are going to present tonight too um so this is a picture of us at Key of the leadership school where we worked on team building and communication and took healthy risks together it was a very impactful trip for us and one of only
019two whole group trips that's the the whole Squad there usually we're just taking field work trips into separate groups so we have 26 students total we have an AM cohort and a PM cohort they're each with us for half of the day the students come into the credit Pathways program after being identified from either a guidance counselor um a an administrator combination of any of these or social work and we'll meet together and typically credit pathway students would have two or more of the following um criteria either credit deficient low attendance High Ace scores or and struggling in the classroom traditional classroom setting so Aces being adverse childhood experiences um the students in our program um some of them struggle with substance abuse and addiction or sometimes come from families that are working through that
020mental health is a really big factor for our students 91 of our students have identified as struggling with anxiety depression ADHD and or PTSD 38 of our students are food or identify as food insecure we're very lucky to be working with the bath area food bank and so we have we're provided with lots of food in our classroom to support them and their families and 30 percent of our students have experienced homelessness over this school year and in this program especially with two adults in the room we are not only able to lead them through academic investigations but we're also able to work with individual students in helping them address these struggles that they're going through and we're really looking at the whole of child versus just where's your homework where is your assignment so
021the structure of uh the CPP classroom is really a blend of some in-class tradition more traditional quote unquote classroom learning um partnered with field work in the community volunteering in the community and teamwork so students will come to us like I said or like we said for half of the day and when they're not with us they're either in a Bath Tech program they are in an Extended Learning opportunity um placement or in traditional classes we have sophomores Juniors and seniors so a lot of it just depends on where they are in their academic path what they're doing with the other half of their day um and I mentioned this in the mission statement but really focusing on making it interdisciplinary so we're working on um connecting the dots no matter what subject we're in
022um we're teaching science social studies or history math English um and connecting all of those within each subject and then connecting that into experiences that we're doing in the community we do integrate social emotional learning we've got the social workers come in and they lead groups once a week we also make sure we we set aside time if needed for kids to meet individually with social work um and then we are working closely with Scott stinchcomb as well in supporting and helping to facilitate the Extended Learning opportunity placements so really trying to integrate the whole piece of it or the academic and Community pieces of it together and Friday we've set aside um is really the day where we're typically off campus so Friday we're either volunteering or were you'll see some pictures of the
023the field work that we've done so far um but that's sort of the scheduling um our themes our curriculum themes have been risk where we explored um different forms of fishing we really we Dove right into the lobstering industry and all the change and regulations and then looked at aquaculture and seaweed farming and the risk of of changing your fishing practices um we studied migration past and present and learned about what's happening in our local communities and we're currently studying Food Systems now so the first unit when we were we were exploring risk we um started with um Abby mentioned when we took the kids to the Kiev Leadership School the kids were all together as one large group um did team building in the morning and then they were um they were created small
024teams where they were working together to belay and climb and do the the rock wall which was really empowering I think a lot of kids had never done anything like that and it was pretty powerful to see um we took him to cmcc where they were able to take a tour of the campus um and talk about the different programs see what it looks like to live off campus or live on campus um explore the different technology that they have the learning support centers that they have we went to Northeast saltwater which is a an oyster Farm but it's also an organization that's partnering with Bates and the nature conservancy and so the kids participated in Oyster culling and Counting the green crabs and we did a beach cleanup at Topman Cove where they were
025looking for microplastics and then we went to North Atlantic kelp which is a kelp processing plant and they um got to see this facility where they've they've repurposed a paper mill and using all the old machinery and are now harvesting Maine kelp and producing fertilizers and soil I mean um soil treatment so it was pretty cool for them unit two we have started to cook in the classroom and make family meals we push all the tables together and eat together and just practice putting the cell phones down chatting with each other um we were able to welcome a new meter into our classroom and he shared his experience with us we went to the town hall learned about taxes and registering for to vote and registering a car we worked with Celts and did some
026invasive work in team building and then making snacks at the Mid Coast Youth Center this winter um in this last unit we have been spending quite a bit of time we actually were able to have Katie join us at the grow to give Farm in Brunswick um it's been a relationship that we've really been trying to cultivate and going um multiple times typically we'll just go once to a trip and then move on to the next experience but this one we've been going pretty much every other Friday and the kids have been doing everything from harvesting to planting to um uh creating row covers really anything that they need it's a completely volunteer organization that gives back to the community so I think it's a it's been a pretty powerful experience for them we also
027went and did seaweed harvesting as part of their science studies they are creating projects in the classroom where they're creating and designing their own Hydroponics system and doing vermiculture and soil science and so they made their own seaweed fertilizer um they shared their experiments with the life skills program and we've been planning again doing meals where they're planning the meals thinking about processed foods thinking about Local Foods thinking about organic but also thinking about food that's affordable and accessible um overall our year one successes are our engagement our students engagement in school overall has increased so much all of our seniors are graduating with a plan which is very exciting a lot of students who never thought they would make it out of Morse are graduating and 76 percent of our students have improved their
028attendance records students 19 students came in for a student-led conference which means they came in with a parent or somebody that supports them and a lot of these students their parents or family had never been in the school so there's really a deeper connection with family as well as with the students 84 of the students have increased their gpas and academic confidence 14 students have jobs in our community and are very very proud of that um and then we especially Georgie because she has just like magic at getting appointments anywhere has supported 13 students in making and attending dental medical Optometry mental health and or social services appointments um and it's been such a gift to have the health center downstairs in our nurse's office so many more students are able to get the support
029they need in that way and I think Abby and I were talking about this um listing that as a success um probably goes without saying but a number of our students have said to us you know I was able to make that appointment and go and then I was able to actually participate I could get the glasses that I need or I could get my teeth taken care of and then I was actually able to I could be present but before there were barriers that were just getting in the way so it's been really really nice to be able to help with that yeah and then our goal is for year two we have 12 seniors this coming year which is very exciting everyone graduates everyone graduates with a plan whatever that may be they
030know exactly what they're going to do as soon as they walk across that stage and we are starting to work on that now continuing to engage students in school and Community work overall improve our attendance hold student-led Showcase of our work and our community work a lot some of our students feel a little you know maybe ashamed of being in a program needing this sort of support so just boosting their confidence with some sort of showcase and then gotta work on that hallway Behavior thank you so much um I would like our students to step up now um we have Mara free Jenna and Ryan all right I'd say one more thing too our goal is always to do all hiva many students had not done an extracurricular activity like that it was a challenge
031even to practice we didn't make it to more haiba but just to have students that are willing to speak in this light is just so sweet and you guys have made such great improvements I'm very proud of you so before this program um my freshman and sophomore year in high school they're absolutely miserable I dropped out halfway through both years I was completely out of school about a summer break um and I probably went for about half the time that I was still enrolled in high school um and every morning like just waking up and hearing my alarm and knowing that I had to come to school and have this heavy workload and like see all these people and just be in an unfamiliar place that I'm not used to and have so like just
032so much going on around me that it's just overwhelming um and it was just like it was just dreading and when my guidance counselor told me about this program um I first I was kind of like it's it seemed embarrassing to you know like Miss Baker said be in a program that needed that kind of support but I knew that like the second that I walked in there and I met Miss bunker and Miss Baker I just knew it was sick and I knew that they were going to be come such imp like huge influences on my life um I think that without this program I don't know if I would be in this like school right now I would probably I don't know I was planning on fully planning on dropping out and being
033done with my high school career and now I actually come to school and I love it and I love my community and I've met so many amazing people and friends because of this program and yeah so thank you [Applause] um freshman year was a struggle for me really bad um I had trouble like going to classes and getting my work in on time and I it was like I think it was a struggle for most of the year and I always talked about it we tried to find try to find ways to fix it but it just just didn't happen and my counselor brought up this program and at first I was like I don't know but I gave it like a week thought about it and I met Miss Baker Miss bunker and sounded
034sounded like a good idea and then when I got into the program it was very welcoming they welcomed me and I felt like I fit in and we done or we did a lot of activities like Hands-On which helps like instead of just like standing in a room I don't know it just didn't work for me but what we do now works for me very well I'm getting my work in my grades are way better and a lot has improved since then so happy to have that [Applause] I'm Jenna and so the start of my ninth grade and 10th grade year ninth grade was kind of difficult it was like the start of everything going downhill and then officially in 10th Grade I didn't I was actually kind of house hopping a little bit so
035I kind of lost all hope at that point and I was just like done with it my attendance for school was awful I let my grades slip so badly that I ended up dropping out at that point and I just told everyone I was like I have no plan on going back they all tried to get me to do something and I just like didn't want to um towards the end of the summer coming into 11th grade is when I was talking to my principal about coming back and then they told me about the CPP program and I thought it was going to be really helpful because I'm not the type to just sit in a classroom with people and kind of just have like a packet in front of me most of the time
036so being in CBP was very helpful and it was welcoming and the teachers are amazing absolutely supportive and I can say this year I've gotten my my attendance has gone tremendously up my grades are very well and just being in the class with people like we like bond with makes it go so much smoother too because we're not dealing with like being so socially awkward around people when we're put into groups or split up so it makes it simpler on all of us and it's definitely helped me throughout the year so I thank them for that and the support and help for all that so yeah [Applause] um my name is Ryan reins please excuse my outfit I didn't have anything to change into and for my freshman and sophomore year I really just didn't
037care about school it wasn't my priority I was more of a I didn't really look into my future at all so I didn't go to school I I think my sophomore year had like 90 absences or something like that and uh no matter what my parents would do I wouldn't care I hated school and then around like I think May of last year I had just had like this I had to move out of my house and I have this huge epiphany and I was like I need to get my I need to get my stuff together so we moved I was leaving my grand I was living in my grandfather's house for a little bit and that's when I started working on my superintendent's agreement and I did most of that it's my dad
038he's not really he's not really educated with that type of stuff but I got my superintendents agreement and then I got into CPP which I was super excited about the day I found out about CBP I went and bugged Miss Baker about it for like 30 minutes while she was trying to have a class because I knew that it was going to be probably the only way I could graduate on time my counselor tried bringing up a fifth year to me but I was pretty confident that I wasn't I wasn't going to do that so and then she told me about CBP like 30 minutes later I was like so like ecstatic when I found out about CBP I remember I was so happy because I had like it was like this giant boulder on
039my back that had just been lifted off because I I had to catch up on so many credits and I was so behind and I was just right in coming into school every day knowing that I was going to get yelled at by teachers for not being there and having my grades and credits be so bad and then I was I found out about CBP and I got in and I was so happy I was so happy oh my God I remember me my dad like hugged and started jumping up and down don't really do that often that was a one-time thing but this year so far has definitely been really really good my grades and my GPA is going straight up before it was going straight down but rebounding now um I think I'm
040supposed to graduate with a 3.0 I'm expected to graduate of the 3.0 I think before it was probably something like a 1.6 so um I have only had like 20 absences over the second semester this year and last year I had 40 48 I think and I've definitely and I picked up a few extracurricular activities I did football this year which I've always wanted to do I just never had the energy or motivation to do it but now I do and I'm very thankful for Mr Speaker Miss bunker taking the time and their own personal dedication I can say that I've personally witnessed them dedicate everything to this program I've seen Miss Baker cry at least three times so I'm definitely very thankful for them and I'm thankful for all you guys for letting this
041happen and I'm not entirely sure who gave the grant but very big thank you from Ryan reins to them thank you all that's amazing thank you um obviously thank you dedication to our teachers and to the students um well you're all you're all brilliant you all spoke so well and you know the challenges that you you've all faced to get to this point you're just it's just you know you're just gonna do great you're all going to succeed you can just tell um that was amazing I want to open it up to the board because I'm sure they want to say a few things Jamie go ahead see if I can do it without crying myself um first I want to point out that you all just gave amazing speeches and didn't even look at
042your notes like I can't even do that so that was really amazing um very powerful stories and thank you very much for sharing them with us because I'm sure it's not easy I would say um that this makes me so proud as a school board member that we have figured out what works for people and I know that Mrs Baker and Mrs bunker um have dedicated everything because I've seen it all year long and every time I hear about CPP all year long it has just made me smile and I'm so proud well anyway that's okay that's okay anyone else coming uh Jennifer well first of all I don't think I've heard the word Epiphany in a long time and I love words so thank you because that's I think an example of um somebody's
043uh compassion is theory about something but also like the vocabulary you guys are using is amazing and so it's just absolutely incredible and I hope that if you know of other students that are struggling the way you have if you can encourage them to say there is a path through this and that there is a way even though it doesn't immediately sound like it would be your fit I think that you're all very brave to try something that may have been not what you expected or understood you know about things so I really congratulate you all um and then the one thing is when it comes to some of the future academics and projects I was wondering if something along the lines of like understanding some financial literacy might be possible it really is scary
044when you get to hit an age and all of a sudden the credit card companies come after you and it's just so hard not to say to say no to that or to say to get you know someone's trying to sell you a really expensive car or something like that and I I taught one of these programs at a summer program once and I was really surprised how easily it is to get into so much financial debt and to just kind of explain it and it's not in the it doesn't have to be a really complex thing but just you know really trying to navigate some of those things especially when it's on basically you and there's not a whole lot of other people handing you things when it's just you you have to really
045you know know but um I would also encourage you not to like if you want to do different things in academics After High School don't let the cost of them just immediately make you think you can't do them because there are a lot of opportunities out there so if you are looking at licensing things or anything like that don't think just because of the price tag you have to say no like try to ask enough people and find all the resources that are out there and make those decisions but awesome job thank you very much for sharing and yeah now you've been Caroline yeah I just wanted to say um that it takes a lot of courage to speak in front of people and you guys spoke amazingly well and and there's an incredible amount
046of stigma around trying new things asking for help and breaking the norm and doing what other people haven't done before and I have an incredible amount of respect for the work that you've done um and as a student I'm incredibly proud of this program as well so thank you I also just like to add on I have like huge respect for you guys just I want to just voice that for like coming up and like talking about that because I everything pretty much has been said but I would also love maybe if it could be possible if I could come in contact with one of the students that's in the credit Pathways program maybe I could like communicate so I could get a report and see what's like going on and you're so you guys
047don't have to come down and give us a presentation every time so if one of you guys would be willing to like contact me like give me a monthly report I'd love to be a part of that so thank you guys that's great thanks Caroline and may I just asked because I wasn't clear are you all seniors or are you juniors seniors okay great great so you're right so so you've got more time that's great well that's fantastic like I said so proud of what you've accomplished where you're going we're so proud of you um just you know keep it up and you're you're really it's not easy to meet struggles anyway and then when you have added stuff that you just shouldn't have at your age but you do for whatever reason it's really
048uh so amazing that you're you're standing up to it and you know you're working through it and thank you to our teachers I mean it's just it's it's a phenomenal program thank you um anyone else before we go on yeah go ahead Katie I I wanted to say well a few things first of all um I don't think so I've been more I've been working in education straight since 2001 and have come across many alternative education programs um and none have been successful until this one um and I'm so proud of what your teachers have done and I'm so proud of how you I think it's really hard for everyone to be honest with themselves about what they struggle with but for you to come up here and so eloquently share that with us and
049be okay with that is so brave um and just your progress you're like kicking down every single research statistic that says you're not going to make it and it is it just makes my heart like explode so thank you um and also I hope the onions I planted really grow and Thrive right Mark okay all right fantastic everyone had a chance okay thank you a thousand thank yous and for taking the time being here sticking with it you know just and and just yeah just keep us posted on all your great successes and just that and it also just sounds like a fantastic curriculum period just as a curriculum so thank you again all right yeah you go ahead [Applause] all right um Patrick you want to introduce uh first education plan so it's a
050hard act to follow but we have two two other two other great Educators coming up to the to the podium and uh Micah depper who's at BMS and we have Mary Moran who's a fifth grade teacher at Woolwich to give us an overview of the rsu-1 educational plan we need to have a word with whoever sequence this agenda why we're doing this we throw Patrick under them uh yeah so our presentation will not be as emotionally has to share him like a zapper I'm an instructional coach at BMS Mary Moran I teach fifth grade and we've been part of a committee that was formed just under two years ago that is a district-wide committee to review and update and Steward the educational plan for the RSU uh our goal tonight is not to give a
051comprehensive overview of the plan or believe it's been shared to everybody on the board but more to comment on the objectives of the committee and our process of working together and some of the changes that we've made along the way so in general uh the plan that we received the district has had an educational plan for a long time and we received a copy that uh had been worked on by the administrative team of the district uh with basically identifying areas where the plan was no longer current or some of the objectives needed to be changed and there was a feeling of needing of input from the many stakeholders of the RSU our teaching staff families um and uh to incorporate that into the plan so the plan that we worked on has a set
052of common beliefs and four goals and we kept the goals the same So the plan is largely represents continuity with the educational plan from the previous three years but we Revisited and changed some of the objectives and many of the action steps along the way and so Mary's going to talk about the process yeah so as you can see up there um we basically want you to know that we are really mindful I think when it all started every school was represented and as the process kind of continued we realized we need more than every school we need whether it's special ed and support staff and all the different different people involved so more recently we really have full representation and it was kind of amazing to the extent that it mattered I think a
053little bit more than some of us thought we could speak for everyone and and wasn't the case so we have a really good representation um and the process was very slow to start if I'm honest Katie can attest I'm a bit of a Taskmaster so the first couple meetings I think we all left Judy Sanders was our facilitator who's fantastic not quite exactly sure what we were doing and what the role was because we kind of laughed and things weren't done so we weren't sure if that was supposed to happen so it took a little bit to really figure out exactly where we were going and I really appreciated Patrick in that because he kind of let it happen organically it wasn't like a set plan that we had to meet everything we got to
054figure it out based on what was needed so as we went through the process um the first three the first few meetings are really getting to know each other to kind of see how we worked and how we functioned and then like Micah spoke to was kind of going over the original plan to figure out to what extent changes needed to be made and um it took a while but in all honesty and like I said I'm I'm kind of just want to get stuff done sitting back and having just to let the process happen it was great because I feel like as a district we um are starting to come together more like all the schools are joining and kind of having a similar Focus where I think that was always the intention but
055I don't know that it was really there and I feel like this is going to make it really get there I think you're on all right so um we gathered feedback in formal and informal ways um one of the roles that we were asked to do was to be sort of an informal climate and culture pulse taker for our schools so all the representatives there just in conversation with their you know their colleagues asked how are you doing what do you need right now where are we succeeding where are we struggling and we would bring that perspective to our meetings as we reviewed the plan but also we took formal feedback at a number of points there was a staff survey that was administered at the end of uh the 22 and 2022 school year
056where everyone was given access to the revised draft of the plan that we'd made and asked to give comment on that that happened in different ways at different campuses some campuses chose to review it as a full staff during PD and others just sent copies of it and asked for uh review depending on sort of the administrator and what their agenda was for the spring so we took that feedback and when we met in the fall as a team we reviewed line by line and Incorporated that Consolidated what we could uh and then in 2023 a community survey went out to all families in the RSU and they had the opportunity to look at the plan and and do the same thing so March of this year we incorporated that feedback and then considered the
057draft to be as complete as it could be and ready for consideration by the board um and kind of picking up from here it's really rolling it out so that it's now a kind of a live plan and um Revisited ongoing I think quarterly as the plan will keep going back and what I really appreciate this is I feel like it's giving us all a common voice to give feedback to Administration just for as much as hoping we get it back as well um but I think it's a quarterly plan it's a three it's the plan's a three year plan but quarterly plans to get together um and then hopefully giving you guys static checks status checks and some progress updates as we go um but I'll be honest some of the little minute details
058that just seem to be about semantics and things like that that really came to light again as a whole District so I think that's part of why the quarterly pieces I think are going to be so important because I know there's things that we missed that we don't even know so the fact that this is still a living document and it's not set in stone is great and I'd add in that the committee is also meant to be dynamic as well so in the coming meetings our plan is to and and Judy Sanders the facilitator has put this goal out that we're going to come up with a process for rotating people on and off uh so that we get fresh ideas fresh representation um and all of us power hungry people who came there
059to consolidate our role in the district will get shoved off um so uh to review the plan that you have in front of you again I mentioned that the the goals were the same I wanted to shed light on a few areas that we we really tried to update the belief section uh needed simplification and some re-prioritization being a community of lifelong Learners is buried towards the bottom and we thought that should be something that is is the message we start out on we added in an emphasis towards hiring and retaining Quality Personnel under that first goal there was a lot of objectives and action steps around trying to to grow our staff and provide professional development but talking specifically about what we need to to maintain this excellent faculty that we have in the
060RSU was important as Mary mentioned our representation became more comprehensive this year when we realized that there were a few key roles in the district namely special education and Specialists that we needed to to get their perspective in so we reviewed the plan with those people in place and that led to some refining of the special education goals we clarified the RTI plan for people who don't speak as you speak that's response to Innovation response to intervention and that's a series of steps that are meant to support students who are not meeting academic or behavioral goals um and those were separated and kind of confused and so we can solidified Consolidated and clarified the RTA plan and then also Incorporated the district Dei diversity equity and inclusion work and the mental health needs that we've
061really put to the fore since the pandemic and with the Esser funding into the plan as well so those are kind of five key areas that we did some work and then really just we're going to wrap up with quotations um and I shared a little bit a little bit of this already as far as the reflection on the process and what felt slow and I think it was but it turned out to be a really solid thing and again not to keep repeating myself but I feel like the connection it's going to give us as a district instead of individual schools or for that matter K-5 middle school high school I think that's going to be ongoing because of the design team in general so I think that's great to keep it together and
062I think the design team will continue to be connected to some extent to the individual leadership teams at each school which I think it just again brings back everyone has a voice and that's one we have buy-in and that's when kids get to do great things so hopefully that keeps going yeah that's basically what Mary said it's great to have another channel of communication between the people who work in the district and our administrators and our district leadership and to further sort of democratize the way that we do our work um so it was it was a great experience to work on this committee looking forward to the time that we have left before we get rotated away and uh yeah we'd love to answer any questions that you have great thank you sounds amazing
063um I'm sure there are questions and Natalie's right there the first one yeah go ahead sort of answered this but as educators why do you stay in this District like how do we retain you where do I go I love working in RSU one um and I stay here because I respect the leadership that we have at the district level and within my building I feel like they're the values of the district are up front it's very very collaborative very collegial very welcoming very growth oriented those values come to light in the way that the district invests in teachers on growing professional development um the fact that I know that my superintendent and my principal know what's going on in my personal life and and ask questions I feel like very invested in as a
064professional here um and it makes it a pleasure to do work with young people so yeah and I would say honestly Natalie I think I've kind of fell in love with Woolwich when I first came and then it'd be kind of it went out from there because it's such a nice community of people and even though you know you have bumps in the road things can be tricky I feel like there's definitely that support we're in it for the same reason we're focusing on the same things and sadly that is not as prevalent as you would think so I feel like that is here even though not maybe not everyone's you know drinking the Kool-Aid yet but we're getting there but way more than most places of friends that I have so really good question
065great um anyone else have do you have anybody else have a question Jennifer um it's more it was partly a question to the board but um I was just looking at the education plan and then I was looking back at our board goals and I think the question is how can we support this plan from the board level because that's what we're here you know apart is to support the Educators in our system and how can we do that um and I just noticed just kind of briefly that our board goals of communication um safe and supportive schools and uh Pre-K to five programming those three goals are reflected a lot in this so it's really nice that there is you know a bridge between these two objectives I know that they're very done for
066very different purposes but I'm going to hope trying that we can find a lot of examples on how we're supporting these goals um and if there are any that we're not we would love to hear that in any way that we can be a better support or you know tools for them I wasn't really a question but I would say what came to light and again from the K-12 or pre-k12 there are things that not everyone knew about so we kind of knew those were some spots that either one are still developing or two needs to be you know at least more understood um and at the same time it also there are a lot of things in here that are still just getting started so that could be something that we do with the
067status checks are what you know what supporter what could you guys know that were actually really intentionally working on as a whole District instead of individuals because you said what is it you're going to be meeting quarterly to to see you know what are we meeting what where are we at and all that so yeah so is there going to be like a report I'm just saying if we can be kept uh you know aware of what our best our plan is for the design team leadership team to me quarterly right and then I think for next year I think if we can at least maybe start slow but twice a year once in the maybe late fall and then in the spring um either be myself or someone from the leadership team kind of
068give you a progress report of what's been accomplished by who what we've done that type of thing so it's that level of accountability well and that also just keeps it makes it real for us that it's you know well we heard about this and three years later where are we at but yeah no that's great appreciate that anybody else all right thank you so much it's great to Great to get that uh all that information thanks for all your hard work have a good one okay um so let's see we moved stuff around we had done the student board we did the good news I think it's Deb you're up what a great board meeting all kinds of lovely things happening huh good day to be an RSU one Boardman yeah um all right so
069financial report we're looking at the end of April 10th month only two remaining so we're moving along and all is going well nothing um unexpected has come up since uh last time we have two payrolls in May six payrolls in June and that's because we accrue a summer pay so I just thought I'd throw that out there for curtain Patty you know if they haven't heard um how we handle things at the end so that's why when we're looking at June it's a lot higher that's why when we look at this this financial report and it shows seven million dollars it's because those payrolls are accrued in June so um 31 million that we've paid seven million still encumbered and that's the payroll piece of it um so usually about the beginning of June we'll
070reach out to the schools and just have them finalize their spending and as far as Revenue goes we're 85 percent so everything is coming in well there arp we will be at a little less than 50 percent to take into next year and that's pretty much where we had planned to be um they're finishing up with our audit right now from last year so um that should be wrapped up by hope in a week or so and then we'll be ready for 22 23. and that's about it okay any questions for Deb yeah go ahead and it's been a while but Deb when you say your crew um in June that means that the teachers who have chosen to split their paychecks out of the entire year is that what you mean is that is
071that the summer that means all the expenses for the summer whether they've chosen to take a lump sum or not so all year July and August payrolls okay are recorded in June before fiscal year ends and are all staff allowed to just choose to separate their pay over the whole year versus just the school year yes okay okay averaging cool all right any other questions all right um thank you Deb appreciate it um so moving ahead uh so now we're at the second reading of board policies these are action um the dkcr expense reimbursement ihba referral and general education interventions ihbaar referral and general education interventions procedures uh JK student discipline JKD suspension of students jke expulsion of students and jker expulsion guidelines we understand that some things uh some vocabulary right was adjusted I
072think everyone's had a chance to look at it are there any specific questions about these going forward go ahead Jennifer I apologize if this is I should have asked this earlier so it's just a clarification point but um if a student if we're taking in a student that's been expelled by another main school is that is that processor guidelines is that covered in here I I I went through them but I didn't see it specifically as words that's covered someplace I don't think it is but it's something that we have a process for you know with our you know our attorneys in the other school district okay thank you great thank you um any other questions about the any of these uh action item no okay uh can I have a motion to take them
073all together Jennifer and because I get my Jamie okay um any other questions okay all in favor and these policies pass as we named them thank you all right what's next now we're on to new business um it looks like Katie Europe to explain the uh yes fun funds review and all that good yes actually um sort of a work it's a yearly requirement in terms of our Sr sorry our esea application for Title One title two and title four funds where we announced to the public what we plan to spend those funds on um and we've actually as a board had this conversation already because we already moved one of the salaries knowing what the numbers were into the local budget um and so there might not be much conversation or comment but I
074do need to just share it publicly so um for next year for title one we are getting roughly 480 000 which is as I shared before Thirty one thousand dollars less with the new formula um for a title two we are getting 113 000 roughly and that's 500 less and then for title four we're getting about 55 000 which is actually three thousand dollars more um so overall it's a loss of about twenty eight thousand dollars um and one of the ways we have already um chosen to make sure we're not in the red is to move that one salary over for phippsburg um and so just to make sure that we're following all the requirements as the board already knows um title IV one of the options is to always move it into title
075one which we do every time to just increase that number so all of the title for that 55 000 will get moved into Title One um which brings us to about 530 that money is spent on our interventionists at Dyke Newell and Fisher Mitchell um and there's also a required reserve of that that's spent on our homeless student transportation as well as parent nights shared books that go home that sort of thing um and so that's truly it's it's almost entirely staff costs um so that's all of that money the title II budget will stay as it always has as well which is um funding of one teacher for class size reduction um so every year we choose one person's salary that's separate than an interventionist to keep under title two it's been that way
076for a very long time and then if there's ever any funds left over which there will be a little bit of this year as well hopefully at least five thousand that goes into professional development funds for um you know know the math PD we're doing or anybody else that we want to have come and so that's where all of the money goes so I can take any questions or comments on that yeah I just I sorry I'm confused because I always think of title one and I get with it so what why is there a title to a title for are these just different Avenues yeah getting Federal money exactly some different specifics and depending on your um free and reduced lunch numbers and a whole slew of different um formulas are they all dependent
077on that because I always hear title one so I just did they're all dependent on that now on that new formula that I shared right um so um but every District that qualifies usually do does get Title One and title two title four we we didn't used to get and that's sort of a newer one but I honestly can't remember how's that defined if I mean if you're able to move it all to Title One it must be right interesting I mean when they give us more money we don't usually it's okay I yeah I'm not against it I was just I had never heard of title for me I honestly damn do you remember that's okay I know okay no that's fine at least four years okay and no that's great and I'm just
078glad you're able to move happy to share it no but it's well defined as to what we're using it for and that's what and it probably Deb and I can't remember because we've always been worried about our Title One funds right so we've never looked very hard at the other yeah yeah like oh we have all this extra money let's use it because we always think oh great we're sort of you know possibly gonna go over on title one so we just moved about 50 000 over okay yeah thanks for the clarification does anyone else have uh sorry I don't know the details no no that's all right yeah Jennifer I've got a meeting coming up with an exec an executive director of an organization that is involved with this and I just was looking
079for some data on and I know it doesn't really apply to Maine because we don't no longer can have free and reduced hot launch but if you happen to know if other states that still have free and reduced hot lunch programs are they allowed to use that metric still or does the at the federal level has that completely gone away no at at the federal level they let you choose either the new formula or keeping the free and reduced depending on where you are right right so depending on if your state has um the free lunch for all law passed or not that's how you one of the determinants for how you decide how you'll calculate These funds great any questions others no all right thank you okay um 11.3 we have an overnight field
080trip request it's an action item that's yeah it's the Outing club again we could have brought it to your last meeting because they had another one on there so I apologize for that and it's funded by teens to Trail so it's not a cost to the district we'll use a van from here and it's just another and they leave Friday after school and come back on a Sunday all right yes motion and seconded by Megan any other questions all in favor and it's approved thank you uh let's see what we got here uh Personnel items Patrick yeah uh for us it's just FYI resignation Skyler Watson who's an edtech at bath Middle School I'd like to thank her for two years of service to the district and then on nominations I'll just quickly go through
081these for you and if you'd like to consider them as a group that that's great but it's up to you uh so for grade two uh teacher at Dyke Newell School we'd like to nominate Taylor Robeson she uh this this year she's in a one-year teaching position in Yarmouth it's a coveted position the year before that she was in a one year with us we're happy that she wants to return to RSU one uh we had 12 12 applications we interviewed two people uh for grade three kind of similar um we'd like to nominate Nicole Levesque who taught at Fisher Mitchell for five years um and she'd like to come back and we had 11 applications and we interviewed four people at the high school we'd like to nominate Matthew D'Angelo who has taught the
082last two years at math at Old Town high school and we had five applications we interviewed all five and grade one we had two positions opening opened at Woolwich and um the first one we had 14 applicants we interviewed six and the first person would like to nominate is Katie Smith who's been with us for I think 11 years as an edtech and then secondly we'd like to nominate Rachel Schoenberg who is currently a Grade Three teacher at Williams cone school and sad 75. and then the last one that we sent to you electronically a little bit late is special ed teacher at Dyke Newell I would like to nominate Samantha Lapointe we had five applications interviewed one and she is also coming from Williams cone School in sad 75. great uh any questions can
083I have a motion we'll take them all together Megan second Jennifer all right great um any other questions no discussion all right all in favor great we are they are in we are good all right our next um meeting date is uh show up Tuesday I think Patrick you gave everybody uh a script and uh you can go over with if anyone has any questions that will be uh over here in the theater right uh six o'clock Tuesday uh following that um it'll be late June uh and usually we what we usually take July off right yeah yeah so we'll do june which will kind of end it for the school year on the 26th um yeah I just had a question about the admin reports and I never really know when to ask them
084but um I just just an observation is it of all the admin reports I've been reading they haven't said they've had a problem finding Subs any longer and that was such a big and I'd just like to say thank you and that's kind of why yeah no I think it's a combination effort it's you know Kim Deb uh Katie I mean they the other one's getting they wore it out interviewing people um we just talked about this at last ad team what was the number you had 68 that that we're going to be renewed over the summer last year and Kim just said it's 114. oh wow so we've hired that many more people um so that has nothing to do with me because I just interview the people but it's our posting our increased
085pay um you know the work that these two do behind the scenes to get people to the interview process it's awesome introduce to them great I think that's huge that was a struggle in every single admin report for a long time and I just want to say many many thanks for all that for helping to do and the other thing was Patrick I didn't know like I was really interested in reading about the AP testing um is there any way to see it's not a whole lot of problem to see how that historical numbers of AP classes or AP testing numbers just to kind of see how that's gone on and if there is anything that we as a board can do towards helping that yeah I mean Leslie trundy um in the past I'm
086not sure she can give me some data on that so I'll work with her and now Amber McGowan is heading that up so we certainly can give you that uh historical data and uh but I think um the answer to your second part is I'm assuming that they feel very supported because um it just you know having the AP diploma program and just the amount of AP classes we offer for the size of school is pretty healthy and then you also have the online options too but I'll certainly um you know by next board meeting at the latest be able to get that to you great any other questions before we adjourn may have a motion to adjourn Megan yep and Jamie II all in favor all right thank you and thank you again Natalie
087take care everybody