001um good evening everybody welcome uh to our September board meeting good to see so many folks um if you please uh rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you um great to see everybody uh just let everyone know um uh our board we have almost everybody here in person uh and Patty thank you for being uh Patricia thank you for being uh on there on remote um you can always chime in uh as you need to um and I just want to you know thank all the staff and everyone I've heard all these great things about you know the first couple weeks
002and um you know so always some challenges but I hear it's been going well and as smooth as it can be and uh you know everyone pitching in and and sometimes doing more than one job uh just because I know there's some shortages with different different things happening but thank you all for for all your hard work truly appreciate it um we're gonna uh look at the minutes and uh approve or amend them anybody have anything to say on the minutes Lorna I just wanted to suggest on page three more than halfway down under the pair under the paragraph that starts with board member Rich Smith um actually right at the top of diagonal so inserting in that last sentence that um board member Ryan asked about precedence on needing um a non-morse diploma approval
003or however you want to word it I asked about precedence on needing approval for the main doe diploma in the past and its applicability to policy or something like that if we could just insert in there and somebody can call me or just email me if you want to know what I'm talking about I just want to clarify that a little bit Yeah okay yep all right um everyone okay with that okay any other notes or details about the uh foreign okay we can have a motion Jennifer and you'll second okay all in favor minutes amended great passes um thank you and uh let's see um any adjustments to the agenda just those policies that were on you on the table tonight just for our first reading okay where do you want to do that
004at the end yeah at the end is fine end of new business yes okay so that would be 10.7 policy first reading okay um moving right along it's a 6.0 public session if anyone's here to speak um specifically uh yeah come on up and you just let us know your name and where you live hi hi I'm Jim Neal and yeah 16 notice Shores in Woolwich and I was here in May talking about the Esser funds um Esser Elementary Secondary School emergency relief funds my understanding is that the finance committee begins meeting December one is that a first date is that correct yeah we can let you know maybe it most likely yeah okay in the superintendent's office is my understanding uh the concern that I've gotten I've heard a lot of people with similar
005concern but I'm speaking for myself is the cliff uh that we may be facing at the end of this coming fiscal year because we've received from the Esser funds six million dollars are thereabouts and some of that's gone the roof and some of this gone to other things Capital items and that's fantastic some of it has gone to things that are um hard to fund ongoing without uh some more funding from other sources and we're gonna have to make some hard decisions on those and I'd like to be listening to what's happening in the finance committee starting then and continue that listening with some inputs that I maybe can give and some others can give and I will be really listening to what some ideas are from from the finance committee at that point so
006those are my those are my thoughts okay thank you very much for coming appreciate it okay [Music] um student board representative report from our senior yes I am now a senior um it's kind of crazy uh in on that note I believe that stlc is going to have their first meeting in two weeks and I believe that the junior representative will be discussed at that time um similarly the SCLC we just had all of our elections for class officers and SCLC and NHS has its officers now um spirit week is this week this today we started with school colors um or Colors by class um and then the other big thing is sports are boys soccer team has won its first couple of games in like four years which is pretty awesome and our girls
007soccer team is also doing very well for the first year under a new coach cross countries had a strong showing in golf has as well and then cheering and football are also doing well all right thanks any any questions nope thank you very much um all right now we'll move on to our superintendent's report veteran just a couple quick items um the district was approved to receive the services for a school-based health center which will provide Mental Health Services dental services and medical services and it will be based here out of Morse and it's a two-year Grant but we also can apply at that time to continue the funding hopefully at that point again the center will be based out of Morse here but any family and Katie you can chime in as well but
008any family students can access the services and we also we're going to be trying to provide transportation as well for families and students to be able to come here so it's very exciting we've been talking about this for quite a while to be able to to offer these services to our families and thank you to Katie and to her group but also to Lincoln Health who is our partner in this project so very excited about that and we're likely to start the opening in January still okay um custodial crew for those of you that don't know they were contracted out for 10 10 plus years I think in this system and now they're employees of RSU one and our schools have looked the best they have no disrespect to the the um the crew that
009we were working with before but um the schools look great there's a lot of Pride um and I'd also like to thank uh Buzz Johnson Eric um for his lead and supervising the custodial crew across the district and also our three maintenance guys Josh Robbie and Kyle uh it's been a tough Summer with the dike Newell situation and and just all of the projects that they have to do around these schools to make sure that they look as good as they do and then last thing I'll just mention is this offered several professional development trainings the first week of school the first month really um Maine Math and Science did a lot of math training for our staff uh computational fluency go-to science for our elementary students and for teachers hegarty remember you had a
010little lesson on that last year we had more training on that um and so that's gone very well and then our open houses have either happened or they're coming up and those that have happened so far have been very well attended and that's it all right um you want to keep going yeah because you got the so twice a year twice a year for the board we just it's an FYI for you it's it's just fundraisers for the district because we try to make sure you're aware of those fundraisers to make sure they're appropriate but also number two is just to um you know be aware that we're not going door to door to our communities too much or too often and being aware of that so you can see I'm sure we may be
011missing a few that will come in over the next month but again we'll give you another list in January from January through June so you have those and then 8.3 Deb is under the weather so we don't have an 8.3 tonight but if you um if you have any questions about the financial report but it's really what you're looking at in your packet is August so it's just the beginning of a fiscal year but if you have any questions tonight I can take them back to Deb if I can't answer them yeah Jen did you have a question thank you um I'm red here my own um I was just uh wondering Patrick if we could get an update on the cost of the flow program um and I was reading in the packet that
012there's some shortage and coverage for that and I thought I thought showanki was providing all the Staffing it was needed for the program but um that may have been the first couple years I know the program has changed a little bit but I would be interested if we could kind of get a description of what chiwanki provides what we have to provide and what's our cost that'd be possible thanks great uh any other questions for patreon finance um Patricia you good okay um all right so let's go let's see we don't have anything in their old business um all right we'll get right into it uh new business 10.1 this is uh the library material challenge appeal so I'm going to hand it over to Patrick I just wanna before I do that thank everyone
013for coming out uh for this discussion it's always very important to uh be open and and aware of what's going on and he's going to explain how the process works and what's brought us you know to this point and then we're gonna hear from everyone go ahead so this process is Guided by policy ijj um and so we we use that the best we can and then we have i j j e which is a form that a Community member a parent can fill out that is a challenge of instructional materials and in this case it is a a library book and um Woolwich Middle School well which K-8 school but it is for design for middle school students this book um and so a challenge of instructional materials form was filled out um back
014at the beginning of the summer I believe and then the part of the policy is for me to appoint a a Review Committee and it's very specific about who should be or the positions that should be on that Review Committee and then the Review Committee reads the book does a report and submits that to me and then I share that with the concerned person um and and then if the parent if the parent or the person that does the challenge of instructional materials form isn't um doesn't still doesn't agree with it part of our policy and ijj is that the parent can appeal to the school board and in this case um what we're planning to do tonight is to have the parent come up um Alicia is here and um you know speak to
015um you know her point about the book and then have a representative from the um from the Review Committee come up afterwards and the purpose of this meeting tonight is really to just listen to to both um both people that come up and process it if you have any clarifying questions um that would be the time to ask that but as far as a decision by the board that would be done at the October meeting um and you know a discussion and then a decision and then put that in writing uh would be the would be the final step of the process so I just thought it would be important just to kind of explain that for everyone any questions anyone has at this point okay so Alicia I'll have you come on up to
016the mic here and um just have you say your name and where you live just to start and then good evening my name is Alicia I reside in Woolwich and my son is in third grade at WCS a school that educates grades k through eight back in June I challenged the book beyond magenta being on the Shelf at our school library only to hear back a couple of weeks ago that the Review Committee quote supports this book remaining in the Woolwich Central School library for middle level students end quote I come to you this evening to appeal that decision I am asking that Beyond magenta and any other related book be taken off of our library shelf and simply placed in the hands and the office of our mental health professionals within the school or
017someone of similar stature like the nurse the librarian the principal just to make sure everyone is on the same page Beyond magenta is a book that gives various perspectives of transgender teens and their lives much of the committee's decision appeared to be based on the opinion that the author is a reputable one who is competent qualified and accomplished having written over 30 books for children and young adults as impressive as that may sound to some it is completely irrelevant when making a decision about where this book is located and what age group is potentially coming in contact with it the book itself is even rated for the grade levels of 9 through 12. I was informed back in June that because the school is sensitive to the younger crowd the book is located at the
018top shelf excuse me on the top shelf of the library which is where I originally discovered it looking at your general mainstream classroom most chalk and white boards are above eye level and speaking for myself my son is eight he's observant he can read and there is absolutely no guarantee he wouldn't notice the book especially as he gets older I was also informed back in June that the School does its best to support all students including those that are looking to understand the topic at hand if we are supporting all students then where are the books that cover all topics of sexuality where the books on heterosexuality homosexuality and bisexuality and I want to just make it clear that I'm just making a point I wouldn't support those books in the school library um either
019and why are we cherry picking which topics to support out in the open unfortunately I am sure there are some students that could use support regarding domestic violence and or abuse especially since school might be their safe zone are we supporting them with books that are out on our library Shelf last I knew no those topics are personal and children who need support at school receive it from school counselors and school social workers just as those who need support regarding sexuality and gender identity should before I wrap up I'd like to give my own personal example I work with behavioral students in a different school district and last year as I was walking one of my nine-year-old students back to our room he randomly asked me if I was married I casually informed him I
020was not and knowing I had a son he very nonchalantly responded with well how do you have a kid if you're not married I had two choices I could go into my own personal beliefs not only explaining to him how it is possible to have children outside of marriage but how I feel it is acceptable to have children outside of marriage or I could tell him that this was more of a conversation he should be having at home with his parents as it's not really appropriate for school I'll give you one guess which response I went with why because it's not my place in a school setting to put such strong personal beliefs on a student we are not talking about opinions that involve our favorite food or favorite summertime activity we are talking about
021a very personal topic and to be honest one that is very controversial to some and it has no place in the school Community for all of our children to see if I want my son to learn how to play soccer I'll send them to soccer camp if I want my son to learn about God I'll send him to Sunday school we send our children to school to learn about our history our solar system and how to add subtract multiply and divide we send our children to school to learn social skills and how to grow as individuals amongst others we do not send our children to school to learn about sexuality and gender identity it states in the instructional and library media materials selection form as most of you will probably know that quote the board
022recognizes that the final Authority as to what materials an individual student will be exposed to rest with that student's parents or Guardians however at no time will the wishes of one child's parents to restrict his or her reading or viewing of a particular item infringe on other parents rights to permit their children to read or view the same material my eight-year-old is exposed to this book because it's on a library shelf and his father and I are not okay with it so in the statement in the form it states two different things but it seems with the book being on the shelf that is kind of siding and supporting the parents that either are neutral about it or support books being on the library shelf and completely disregards those that do not support it and
023may have a problem with it I'm not here to judge nor am I here to tell other parents how to raise their children but I'd like to have a find a happy medium and so I am asking that Beyond magenta and any other related book simply be taken off of our library shelf like I mentioned before and put in the hands of our school-based mental health professionals this way it's available to those children whose parents give permission but it's out of sight for those that do not thank you thank you very much um any questions for her specifically at this point no okay oh yeah Natalie I just wanted to clarify that um the issue with the book is that it discusses sexuality foreign yes I don't think that the topic at hand whether it's
024like like I said heterosexuality homo any sexuality or gender identity I don't think it's an appropriate for a school setting especially not an elementary or middle school setting personal topic amongst like I mentioned with the example of domestic and violence and abuse that needs to be handled at home and with mental health professionals not publicly per se any other questions yeah go ahead sure did you did you I'll be honest I did not um and I vary when I filled out the form I was very kind of adamant that I think for me what the book says is irrelevant it's just the topic at hand I don't think it belongs in a school I think it's inappropriate for children like I said especially at an elementary and middle um Middle School grade level especially since
025that book specifically is for grades 9 through 12. okay any other questions all right um thank you very much I think we're good all right go ahead now we have a representative it happens to be Mr Libby from the Review Committee the Justice can you hear me okay is that all right okay uh good evening everyone uh thanks for having me in so as Dr Manuel said I'm here to represent the committee that reviewed the texting question over the summer um just to kind of clarify for the purpose of the committee consisted of the school librarian myself one of our Middle School reading teachers and a Community member as well um after reading our school board policies with regards to the educational goals and mission of RSU one and the book in question we believe
026that it should remain in circulation at Woolwich Central School for the purpose of self-selected reading on behalf of our students we looked at four areas as we were kind of gathering evidence for our decision we looked at the school board policies The credibility of the author the reputation and significance of the author and publisher and we specifically addressed kind of the social emotion excuse me social emotional health of our adolescents so with regards to the school board policies uh this we believe this material promotes the mission of rsu-1 and follows policy ijj instructional and library media material selection more specifically there is some specific bullet points here that I like to point out from that policy we believe this this text takes into consideration the varied interest abilities and maturity levels of the students that
027are served we believed this text Fosters respect and appreciation for cultural diversity and varied opinions we believe this text gives comprehensive accurate and balanced representation to minorities and women in History Science Leadership in the Arts and acknowledge the contributions of ethnic religious and cultural groups to our American Heritage all of those are not represented in this specific text but that's the bullet point from the policy that this would support uh another one is it stimulates growth and factual knowledge literary appreciation ascetic values in ethical standards and it also provides a background of information that will enable students to make Intelligent Decisions in their daily lives I'd also like to point out as uh Alicia did as well that at no time will the wishes of one child's parents to restrict his or her reading or
028viewing of a particular item infringe on other parents rights to permit their children to read or view the same material for us that means this book is not used as an instructional part of our curriculum or in a classroom at war with Central School it's part of our circulation it's available for students to check out in a self-selected way if a parent does not want that to happen for this particular book they can contact our school librarian that book can be flagged so that it would not be checked out to that student so I just want to clarify that as well second area we looked at is credibility of the author Susan kooklin is both a competent qualified in the field she's an accomplished author of more than 30 books for children young adults her
029photographs have appeared in major news Publications such as time and Newsweek with regards to the reputation and significance of the author and publisher uh this book as I mentioned this book was written by Susan kulklin and published by Candlewood press into what PR is a renowned publishing house for children's literature Susan kooklin is a reputable author and her books are well reviewed and often on best of lists in the library World Beyond magenta specifically received as many as 17 different accolades the year was published most notably it was received the Flora stieglitz Strauss award for non-fiction in 2014 and was a Stonewall honor book in 2015. I think kind of the most important piece that I would like to point out um is kind of the social emotional health of our adolescents um specifically to
030our middle school students everywhere as we all know the last few years have taken a toll on the mental health of our middle school students at an age when they need support from those around them to find their identity they have been forced into isolation without human social interaction they have been left to search for information and books and on the internet it has been said that books serve two purposes some are mirrors While others are windows the mirrors are books in which readers see themselves represented meaningfully the windows are books that can show the reader perspectives and experiences different from their own We Believe students should have access to both types of books in our library this book and others in our library support the development physically socially and emotionally of our students this
031book allows students to read about people and situations that may be very different from their own experiences this book's help this book helps to Foster acceptance and appreciation of others probably our number one goal as educators our committee believes that Beyond magenta gives our students factual information that will support them and we believe they will feel empowered empowered to make informed decisions in closing it is the beliefs of this committee that Beyond magena meets education meets the educational goals and mission of rsu-1 is written and published by a credible author and publisher has received numerous Awards and accolades and supports the emotional well-being of our middle school students we completely support its inclusion and the circulation materials at WCS for students self-selected reading all right thanks thank you very much questions I'm sure you have
032some questions go go ahead I'm just wondering what the process is for deciding what is the appropriate age group for material when it's brought into for circulation once purchased and um how you manage that in a K-8 school differently than you might at the middle school or the high school because that's a unique situation yeah it is it is so uh you know policies again will govern kind of that selection for this book in particular it is listed in both uh you can find it on both lists for Middle School lists or High School lists you know that would be categorized in our library it happened to be on the bookshelf uh visually on display last June so that was in support of um sorry lgbqt is that right thank you sorry I should have
033rehearse that um so that's why it was on display but normally it would be just in circulation um with our other materials in our library does that answer your question I I mean miss Lucas could probably give you a much more specific Miguel Lucas I'm the librarian at Woolwich and so I think it depends on the the book uh some books I so I don't read every book that I purchased but I read reviews for all the books and when I purchased this book in 2015 all the reviews were glowing and I can't quote them right now but kirkus and Horn book and school library Journal all wrote about what and what an important book this was to have some of them said it's a high school age book but half of them said it
034was a middle school age book so I picked it because it got it was so well renowned I mean winning the Stonewall honor is the one it's like the best award you can get for books that deal with lgbtq Plus topics I do when I do have books that come into the library that I know are on the mature end I have stickers that go on them so this book has a y a sticker on its spine and that is like a heads up you have to be on the third floor to check this book out so um although the book was on display for my pride month display in the library it would not have been checked out by anybody in our elementary school I preserve those books of mature content for our Middle
035School readers who want that challenge and have that interest are there any other questions while I'm here any other yeah go ahead Jamie is all for an eight year I would say not so much I mean I had a which I think I had a class in today browse time and a student selected a graphic novel that is labeled y a and we have about 10 minutes and when I'm done with my instruction to find stuff to read so they would not really have the amount of time to find find a book sit in a read and book an entirety especially a book that is above them reading wise um and if I happen to notice I mean this kid I noticed the book was in their hand and I said oh you're just gonna
036wait you'll read that in a couple of years um but it would there it's not like they have a full study hall period to curl up with a book and read um in library we're learning and then they have a 10 to 15 minute browse period Natalie thank you um as a former Woolwich student I can test to that um and I have I there were times that I tried to look at books and chat books out that I was told that was not allowed to read until I reached the third floor they're very good about that foreign any other questions yeah go ahead Lorna hello Miss Lucas how hello Mr Libby um so my questions also will be more revolving around our policy and I appreciate all the material that was provided to the
037board and I appreciate the parent for coming here because this is the process that's supposed to work um I'm really glad that we have this opportunity to have this process because I know that in this day and age there's a lot of headlines to be afraid of and there's a lot of mud slinging and what it really comes down to is reviewing our policy making sure that our policy is being Mindful and giving parents a chance to say what they want to say so thanks for all for being here and again my questions are about policy there's no hidden agenda there's no judgment it's just strictly policy so with regard to ijj um I do know I appreciated the bullet points and I do note that in there is maturity level um and I I
038read the book and I assume the committee read the book in full yes Mr Libby you read the book um compelling stories of six teenagers and I would assume that complete reading included Mariah's Story by both of you in the committee in the book okay so um and then I also appreciate that we got um resources as to age recommendations and I did unless my math is off seventy percent of the age recommendations were 14 and up including the publisher and 30 percent were Middle School um so maturity is in our policy maturity level and the average seventh graders about 12 is that right would you say okay so even after reading the book in full and being respectful and mindful of all students um I just want to make sure that the consensus among
039the committee was that a 12 year old has the maturity level to process all content area of the book that's what I'm understanding and I'm referring to a maturity level in our policy that that's part of the decision process I I guess is uh I would answer that's a tough question to answer because when you're talking about maturity level you're talking about individuals not necessarily just all 12 year olds I mean I believe the content of this book would support them yes so I I would say yes other individuals that may not be ready for that possibly yes but that's also you know why we have some measures in place and try to monitor that as well so the decision-making process of a 12 year old or a seventh grader checking it out is more
040the individual and not just that they're in seventh grade I I think it's a factor I mean they would be eligible to check that out I you know yeah they would be eligible to check that out I'm yeah um and then I and if I also assume that this policy applies to any subject matter um regardless of what the subject mattered is the application of the selection process for library media so it's any subject yes yes yes correct okay um and then the other thing I just wanted to mention in ijj is the consideration of quality of writing um and I understand that this office off Arthur um is award winning and again um I just want to make note in our discussion today that quality of writing which includes I would assume language um
041is considered in the policy as regard to the selection process like what's quality of writing like not just grammar and did you dot your eyes and cross your t's but what would be quality of writing well yes quality of writing would be considered I also know though then as far as in terms of the authenticity of some of those stories that she also points out in the book that she is trying to maintain that with the quality of writing as well to make sure that the stories and the messages are conveyed to conveyed authentically okay and I think I saw somewhere the book is available at the high school too is that right okay yes I think that was my questions um I think that was it unless somebody else has something anyone else have
042any questions um so just to clarify with the the age and the um so when when you get anything that is for more mature it's y a and does that mean it's seventh and eighth grade or is it sixth seventh and eighth grade I basically just say the third floor which do you have to explain it so so six sorry sixth seventh and eighth okay um and I I mean I guess that includes books that kids have been reading for a year like I mean I get it's hard there's books that I think people wouldn't consider like The Hunger Games as a book that is um so Troublesome because it is it has become a right a cultural pop culture phenomenon but that is a book that um also faced this situation um so I
043again so I would say yeah there's some books where I just say you know wait until you're a little bit older and then when certain books check out there will be times when I let like when I say this book is PG-13 be prepared for that um I had a eighth grader come in today and check out a book that is labeled y a and you know just said hey it's going to be a little on the violent side so giving them the heads up if I if it is if I do know the maturity level of a student and I know all my kids I will say something along the lines of if you start reading this and you don't feel like it's a good fit for you or you start reading this and
044it makes you uncomfortable you can always bring it back because that is their choice these are not assigned books when they are picking these books off the shelf it's because that's what they want and that's what libraries do for them so and so just I'm just trying because I think where people keep questioning is that you know is the the not so much is the book itself is fine but is it high school is it middle school and so you must get a lot of books like that where it kind of bridges I'm assuming bridge is that and you say well let's see I'm seeing enough so you must have to weigh it okay I'm seeing enough interest or I'm seeing enough and there are certain ones that even if there is interest I don't
045buy because I read the reviews and they're and they're all it belongs in a middle school right so I don't buy it and they have to bring their Game of Thrones from home yeah you're not gonna pray right which they do so their maturity level is sometimes beyond what I am able to offer them right I understand in order to make sure that my collection is for a Pre-K 8 school um and I guess since I mean I wasn't prepared to speak today but also I will say that you know there are people there are students in our school who are who see themselves in these books and so it is important to have these stories for these kids not just the ones who want to learn about others but want themselves and and so
046obviously these are and you said it was displayed with during pride month but we must also have books on other sexuality other you know you know growing up just whether it's heterosexuality whatever it is I'm assuming we've got there's a whole section that must that we must have it's not just right we have a diverse collection in our library to represent the diverse population that we serve right I just want to make sure that was clarified okay um yeah Natalie I think got her hand up first thank you um I wanted to ask in the seven years that you've had the book on the Shelf has any student ever come up to you and told you that it made you that it made them uncomfortable or that reading reading it um wasn't a good experience
047for them no thank you just for purposes of coming background I want to be clear that any comments that or questions I've had um are not necessarily the topic but it's reading our policy making sure that we are confident that the maturity level of the third floor is able to process the book um and stopping short of reading excerpts from the book which is not what we're going to do here today um that's my questioning is that again I don't want it to be seen that anyone should be marginalized I don't feel anyone should be marginalized and I feel proper language and content and maturity level on this topic are very much needed for sure my comments are the policy and um being making sure that we can feel safe about talking about the policy
048and asking pointed questions about maturity levels that's all this is about and um I just wanted to make sure that for the record that I go on the record of staying stating that thanks okay great um yeah Jennifer go ahead um I also I'm thankful that we have this process I'm thankful that we have the documentation and the process for us to be able to be informed by it um and um the question maturity is something that you know was asked of us kind of in reading this book and thinking about my experience when working with Children of this age after I read the book I've I felt that it was less about um perhaps the topic that's questionable about gender identification or sexuality to me the most striking thing about this book was that
049it was helping children that were very isolated and and could potentially be those children that we lose so I just I think that the maturity that kids need to feel that they're not alone in this world I think that was the question I asked and that's what I felt comfortable saying to myself that that it is a maturity when children worry about do they have a place so okay thank you Governor thank you any other comments questions okay we have time to have a further discussion in October yes so so just so you understand so the point is you know thankfully we've heard heard from the community we've heard from you know our staff and if you haven't read it or you want to read it again now after hearing all this um please do
050and we'll have a discussion in October and and make a decision yeah so there's there's time and so we can still yeah absolutely yeah this is important stuff we're not just gonna Breeze by it okay everyone everyone good for the moment thank you both very much appreciate it thank you all right um 10.2 uh credit Pathways program presentation so that's Eric and Katie yeah okay it's gonna um I'll get us started oh I think somebody's microphones still on here no worries um I'll get us started on just some background information and then Eric is just gonna jump in um to add as needed or answer questions okay um does everyone receive this packet correct Patrick with all the information okay great um so essentially when we were sort of writing this backup information um we
051wanted to walk you through it first and so I'll talk for a little bit but please interrupt if you want to ask questions throughout with what I share and then hopefully we can have a discussion about one of the main questions that came up which is the potential rewriting of ikf and discussion of a differentiated diploma for this program so um I think the timeline is important for the credit Pathways program um because there as you all know having gone through the budgeting process there is um it it brings us very late into the spring and so there were two positions towards the end of last year the RTI coordinator and the dean of students where we weren't sure if they were going to be in the the ARP budget or if they were going
052to be in the local budget um and so we couldn't actually start this conversation until much later than was probably best which is why I included the timeline because we didn't know if those two positions would move to the local budget therefore freeing off enough funds to be able to consider having the credit Pathways program run for two years um and so when Eric and I wanted to kind of share that it wasn't until mid-april really most of this was May and June when we were discussing this which seems very late it's because we didn't actually know if we were going to be able to have the funds to do this so this is a pilot program that as of right now will be run for two years while we see if this version of
053alt Ed is something we might want to continue you can see also historically I listed sort of in the past all the different iterations and Eric can speak to this much more than I can because he's been here for a lot longer but um you know he shared with me that it used to be called The High Street option we also many of you remember my of the alternative Ed um room that was in Bath Tech um most recently we've had the academy team and sort of what we've discussed for those of you who are out on the Dropout prevention committee is we keep going through these iterations of how do we service the students who are most likely and or do drop out and don't see a place for themselves in our school or
054a pathway to be able to get what they need to move on to the next sort of um purpose they see as their step after high school and so we've been really trying to look outside the box so in doing a little bit of research and some brainstorming this credit and also with the congruence of the um ELO position starting knowing we were having that at Morse and at Bath Tech and jmg we thought okay maybe something that's much more similar to how Bath Tech runs where it's when I was doing the research on alternative ad programs throughout the country that are working really well they all have a much more familial model similar similar to how the bath tech programs run where you go for the whole morning or you go for the whole
055afternoon and you're kind of more um you spend more time together um with the same smaller group of teachers and so that's sort of what this was based on um so you could see and I won't go through every detail of the program because I know that you could read um the attached documents that were the overview and the family litter and whatnot but essentially um these students of which there are currently 27 um spend either all their morning or all of their afternoon in this program and they are taking the core academics there they are creating or have created a plan for how they're going to meet all of their credit requirements um what their goals might be both during high school and then beyond high school so we can make sure that they're
056hooked up with opportunities such as internship job aspirations some of them will be in the morning or afternoon in CPP and then go to the other half of their day in Bath Tech so they're in the vocational program there are lots of different options for what this type of program can look like um I think the one sort of sticking point here because all of that is within our our current alternative education policy the one sticking point here if you look into the part where sort of we talk about in hindsight um because this all happened so late it was at the May board meeting that Eric asked for an extension um for the covid diploma that you all had granted for two years um at that point we weren't sure this program was definitely
057going to be up and running we didn't have the staff hired yet we didn't have we didn't know if enough students were going to be interested or would fit sort of the background and so it didn't seem like we were ready to ask also the state diploma is only 11 credits we were hoping that um and sort of where we've set the bar is that students and CPP are required to earn 15 to 18 credits um and currently you can see I sort of did a comparison chart for you of all the different diplomas that exist you know we stand at 23 credits right now at Morrison Bath Tech and so 18 isn't actually that far off if you consider that seven and a half of those are elective credits um and so given all
058those things and knowing that we had 10th 11th and 12th graders who would be asked to the program sort of what we were thinking is our ideal is that we would spend this fall updating graduation policy ikf and hopefully put in place a differentiated diploma that would allow for students to graduate with a slightly different diploma with 15 to 18 credits as they're doing in other some other places around the state I know when I spoke to the gentleman who's in charge of these diplomas at the doe he mentioned Bonnie eagle and I've gave you a link to the sample of theirs because he said they're sort of the model that they're turning people to because it's going very well there um you know so that's a little bit of background I think we also
059knew um we don't know in the end we can't guess the future of what will be approved and what it wouldn't in terms of a policy change there are so what does that mean for this year's seniors there are three students in the program who if we aren't able to change the policy for a differentiated diploma and pass it which is again our first hope um they would be eligible for the disruption diploma and you can see some of the details I put here um you know the that diploma is applicable for any student in the state of Maine through August um I think August 31st of 2023. um as you can kind of look back through um the four years of their High School career are very disruptive um and so you know I
060I think that is sort of our plan if our ideal of reviewing this policy and having this discussion and moving this to the policy committee doesn't work out we would obviously want to make sure that those three students are well taken care of um that they're able to get the diploma that they've worked for it would still be more than the 11 credits because they are set to earn the 15 to 18 credits but they can still get the disruption um diploma with extra credits obviously that doesn't make that make it them not eligible um and so in terms of our plan and where we want to move from here um Eric and I would love to sort of take questions but also walk you through what the different draft that the draft might look
061like um if you look on the chart that looks like this that's the lengthwise you can see the standard Morse credits versus what students are able to earn in Bath Tech the reason why I put the Bath Tech wording in there is because you'll notice that there are classes that we actually changed a few years ago we were doing all this pbl work where even when a student takes let's say an automotive class which isn't a one for one for math they do earn a vocational integrated math course credit for their work and their diligence toward standards that aren't necessarily true math standards and so I just wanted to show the board that there has been precedence in the past when you've changed the policy for having things not be a one for one for
062all students so what 23 credits might look like for one student that actually does mean a slightly different standard for other students um okay let's take questions before we go into the details of this I've been talking for a while questions yet not yet yeah Lorna Lorna's got questions okay so just trying to catch up Katie thank you sure and sorry I was talking so fast oh gosh no thank you is a lot um so if I'm getting ahead tell me So based on this metric that you just gave us or this um comparison if the policy were changed the CPP differentiated diploma would be a Morse diploma so it's a third path you have current Morse at 23 credits BT at 23 and the CPP at 15 to 18 so that's Morse they it's
063almost therefore yes the origin school is Morse just like the the state diploma you've awarded students in the past has also been coming from Morse yeah I know that and we had you know at the time we knew that was kind of a are you asking it looks exactly the same no I'm asking if the policy were changed we're not talking now about the um School disruption right the the actual if the policies changed we're not talking about this is a doe diploma correct okay this is a Morse diploma it would be a Morse diploma it would have different wording and a different notation on a transcript it would be called let's say that obviously a lot of the details and wording need to get worked out but it would be called the differentiated Morse
064diploma and it would be clear that it was for a different number of credits than the traditional Morse diploma if I could just jump in I think oftentimes they're they're referred to as alternative Ed diplomas but it would be a Morse diploma okay um but that's if the policy gets changed based on your goals and then again if I'm getting ahead of your presentation Mr Varney I'm sorry um so that you spoke of the seniors but what about the 22 other kids that have signed up for and committed to this program are you saying that that's contingent on because they they can't they don't have the doe diploma in their sites right now so it's this it has to be this it has to be this or we've just onboarded them to this program so
065if we if if it seemed like that's why we want to have this conversation with the policy committee now that was our plan all along because one semester worth of slightly different classes wouldn't set any of those kids back far enough if we had to change our course of action for second semester you say that again so a sophomore or a junior who's currently in their first semester with CPP if very quickly we would know that a differentiated diploma and policy committee looked like it was not going to go very far we would be able to buy semester to make sure they would be on track to go back to their traditional learning if we had to have them earn the right amount of credits we'd have to change their programming which obviously wouldn't be
066ideal because we feel like this is meeting their needs but it's not too late to fix that it we would have to have a lot of really hard conversations with kids who are attending school more often and looking for you know and making connections in different ways because we would have to put them back on a more traditional path to make sure they get the 23 credits and I'd just like to jump in again on that um in in some cases it would I mean we anticipated that we would know this semester so that it actually wouldn't be a full year and in some case just looking over the month behind us um credit wise it would probably still benefit most of those students because they are coming to school um and they're and and
067they're a little bit more on track with this program so if even if we have a shortened school day with with some of the students but they still may come out of the semester of the year with more credits than they did last year for instance and it's that's a very that's not true across the board but um it's true in some in some cases and then the only other thing is you know as we all know and as the gentleman spoke to earlier we've got a two-year Grant so we're making this commitment to this program which it sounds from you and from Katie that is well received and now in two years we're as the gentleman said we're looking at do we continue it because of I mean the funding is no longer going
068to be Grant driven one position is Grant funded and so we would need to look for funding for that right and we've we're kind of in that situation with a lot of positions I mean that's the hard discussion so um I think that's it for now I don't want to monopolize the question yeah and I don't and I don't want to over complicate this and Eric it's probably he can disagree but I think every time at the high school because the schedule's so complicated you provide new offerings it means that there are holes in other teachers schedules which sometimes means when you have an a teacher leave and an opening you don't always have to fill it um and so while this might mean adding a new position every year it might not like it
069could work out where um am I explaining this right I know you wish I could bring this up there's just a lot of variables now we don't I mean we don't have a grand plan in in that regard you know honestly uh but if ever there was a time to try a more robust program um you know and again people who are on the Dropout prevention committee we've been we've been beating around this for a while having a more robust alternative education program like we did Once Upon a Time with and and which some districts do we've tried to do that within our own schedule and um know that we're missing some some students so um I think we debated using these limited funds these two-year funds for other positions and um this was an
070opportunity honestly that we saw to see how we could what what um effects we could have with with the students during those two years and and um so I guess that is a reality but um I would say there's a lot of variables in that in that process too so well why don't you go ahead and tell us what I think we're going to walk through I was just gonna say this draft um CPP credits piece in the middle yeah this is language that I slightly tweaked from Bonnie Eagles policy um and what's nice about this is as if if it is decided that the policy committee would like to move forward and think about this concept of a differentiated diploma um the first portions that say what would be required of a person to
071gain acceptance to the CP proof program um and also on what track they'd be to to have to obtain certain amounts of credits we're currently already doing for all the kids in the program so it's sort of been pre-planned that um this high standard that's very much different than a state diploma we're sort of already meeting these things so it wouldn't be a high bar to say that this is what we wanted to do um Okay so I apologize being the slow one in the room I'm I'm getting confused now or because we keep mentioning the policy are we I thought we were looking at this and possibly voting to approve that tonight or when you say you keep saying the policy committee so what yeah tell me the process what do we have confusing
072um so the the action um that Eric and I are hoping the board would take would be to approve this idea of looking further into the differentiated diploma to update on policy committee because it would need to go I would need to actually okay Mark up the policy including this potential language and it would need to go through all the various readings and edits okay so you're saying that tonight you're looking for the hey we think this is a good direction can you vote on the direction right we have we say yes then the policy committee takes it after you've marked it up and we go through the usual process yeah reading it tweaking it doing what we have to so we're we have time to do that over the next month or two is
073what you're saying yeah there would be a lot more in this policy than we'd want to talk about right now well right that's what I'm saying you know for instance there will be the devil's in the details so you want to make sure that um students aren't you know for instance um that that they enroll in this program in order to get the diploma that they wouldn't be trying to advance a accelerated graduation plan based on that you know we wanted to make sure that it fits the intention of what we're here so that's why it makes more sense that would be in the policy committee okay that that's that makes sense to me go ahead Jamie I have some um questions so in my work we always um think about how can we solve
074the problem that's right in front of us but then how do we go Upstream to help avoid some of those problems and I was just thinking about um you know the students that are enrolled in the CPP program um I'm guessing before the pandemic we're probably below grade level in Reading um writing math so when I think about equity and what the pandemic did to all of us sitting here in this room there were a lot of disparities for the young people that were already experiencing challenges so I guess my question is um would the investment that we made in the RTI coordinator over time helped to prevent some of the students that are getting to 10th grade and already at a very high risk of dropping out of school yes yeah I I I
075I think so I think when you know this is much more robust of a of a alternative education program that we've had in some time but I would say that it's not the Holy Grail of alternative education and for instance you know when I first got into education um I worked in Dropout prevention and we worked with Rhode Island Children's Crusade and we worked with fourth graders so um you know that's a little just a little bit more of an example of where where it would go and I think that the um the RTI coordinator is a step in in that direction definitely so just sorry go ahead sure just a few follow-up questions um I have served on the Dropout committee as a community organization um and one of the things that has always
076struck me is I think we need um representation from all the schools there um not just Morse or BMS but sort of talking starting from kindergarten on up so I wanted to make that comment um really appreciative of all the work that you guys have been doing because I I know these young people um I guess a couple questions how many of the students that are enrolled in this program have IEPs and how many are enrolled in social work I don't know if we um put that in in here but I could get that that for you there are students with IEPs definitely um and um so we adjusted how they receive their services essentially but not all of them have IEPs and just kind of going back to an earlier comment um you know
077I would say yes some students would show that they were below grade level back and fourth grade or what have you some not at all um and so students would end up in CPP program and need this level of service for a whole host of reasons many of which are outlined in that in that policy but a lot of those are not it's not causation it's It's associated with um where they're where they are and and it's just a matter of trying to give the students what they need at the time A lot of times that need is more social emotional having those strong connections with talented Educators uh we're fortunate to have to found two very talented Educators um to be getting this off the ground for us so okay um and Anita did
078you have a comment oh okay I thought you did anyone else okay did you have anything else Eric before we nope I just wanted to answer questions at this point I'm sorry did you have another question oh yeah well we have actually I just want to make sure I just want no I just want to make sure that Katie and Eric I mean you're looking for you know consideration tonight for a number of credits for the the current seniors and then the second part of the motion is for the policy to go back for the underclassmen correct this is the policy moves forward quickly it could be for everybody because we essentially are aiming towards and our seniors are fine with 15 to 18. so it's only if the policy doesn't appear to be going
079through or it's taking a lot longer where we would apply just for those three students for the disruption diploma um for them we're hoping not to do that but but we do have a way to make it work for everybody okay so then back to you Jamie you said you have a do you have a motion or do you want help with language for emotion yes because I think didn't you have something Pat Pat has something written it's it's more to if I leave that part out it's really just um to move forward the process of revising policy ikf to include a differentiated diploma section based on the presentation this evening if that's your motion as as stated and then I need a second Jennifer's second okay uh any further discussion yes go ahead um
080can we um Mr Varney I just went right out of my head well one thing I was going to ask is going forward can we have um can the board get updates from the Dropout committee I don't think I've ever seen any data from the Dropout committee I think it was rare and a long time ago yeah that's something as this goes along if we could get a copy of and quite honestly the thing I was going to ask is completely gone okay that's all right it's too much yeah sorry what else dream I'm assuming this people with this diploma will still be part of the Morse High School alumni association yeah correct that's important yeah and and we'll walk at graduation and yeah there'll be more graduates yep okay uh so if there's no
081further discussion uh we have a motion and seconded uh all in favor and Patricia's got her hand up everybody else are needing you good okay all right it passes so that's gonna go to You're Now gonna Mark things up take it to the policy I will mark it up this week and have it ready for next week to move on to whenever your first meeting is and I can come to that to make sure to answer questions okay great thank you very much thank you thank you both all right um moving right along uh let's see we are now at 10.3 the Bath Tech lease and I'm going to hand that over to you Patrick [Music] so as you know we've been in the bath Tech the old Bath Tech I guess I would call
082it brctc since um probably the end of June you know just once we made a decision to go in there for Dyke Newell um and Mark Myers the city manager and I felt like it was appropriate to have a formalized lease um you know because we're occupying that building and we do not own it anymore so this did go through our attorneys it went through their attorneys um you know we talked to our insurance carrier they were comfortable with it I guess the biggest things on this uh lease is on four um you know we're not being charged rent um you know by the by the landlord which is the city of bath to be operating school there which we certainly appreciate um you know 4A is you know is highlighting the major costs uh
083that's no different than you know our other costs of you know our other schools that we have in the district um so and then on utilities 4B that's a little combination that's why we wrote it this way because you know Deb Clark and Julie Millett and Julie's the finance person for the city of bath you know there's some utilities that you know they may continue to pay but um we will they'll send us the bill and we'll do it collaboratively um trying to think of any other I mean we've talked with our insurance carrier they're they're fine and make sense to them about number 10 basically is just common language that our insurance would go kick in first um you know like for example if there was a slip and fall um and so it's
084a blanket policy that we have for all of our buildings and I think um you know page three talks about reasonable wear and tear um you know number 19 you know it talks about um not making holes in the wall and things like that but again it's you know we have a good relationship this is a very unique situation where we had to put up walls um and we did have to make some alterations but we have a collaborative kind of conversation about those before we do that with the city so again this is a lease for a year and um you know we've got some decisions to make as we go through this year as a board about what the future is uh of you know how long we'll be in that facility for
085but this is just a lease for a year all right thank you uh questions for Patrick Jennifer to make a consider consideration to this lease it says that the landlord only has to give 24 hours notice and I'm just don't really I don't know what that would be if that notice happened on Saturday morning and then they were in the building Sunday or that happened that notice happened Sunday morning and they were all of sort and there were people not belonging to the RSU in the building for any purposes and I asked that just because as I understand we did the walk through there are two classrooms that are not really contained within the votech space that we're using and they're right around the corner but I I'm just worried about other people being in
086the building that wouldn't create maybe wouldn't always pass our level of security and cautiousness when it comes to having the public around students yeah I mean we lock um you know we lock that door so they wouldn't be able to come through if they were on the more side anyway um so we we locked the upstairs door and that one by the auditorium um so they could not get through there um if it was a weekend for example or even during the day our staff have keys to that um but I I mean I think that's something I know it says 24 hours I mean I think it's something where I could just simply have the conversation with the city and ask them with their maintenance their head of Maintenance or you know with Mark
087and find out the right people to call our um you know person that's kind of in charge of Maintenance right now um to make you know to just kind of as a courtesy that's all yeah and again if they were that may happen I would think if that were to happen at all it would be when students are not in session you know we're not you know they would be courtesy of um you know of that piece um there is a section here that talks about the landlord can use the common areas which is the cafeteria that there's and I can't remember what item it is but yeah so I was just wondering does that mean that there will be other people that could up I mean can bath rent the other parts of the
088building to other tenants and those tenants would use common areas with the RSU foreign it's talking about the right to use and right the cafeteria and two other rooms of the former Mars High School um to me that's explaining the area that we're using in addition to the Bath Tech space we're using two rooms and we're using the cafeteria okay yes language in a malware but it's in common with others so I just didn't know if that was no that I mean to me that refers to just um you know again we're we're infringing a little bit on that Morse side and then the cafeteria there but it's not for them to be able to come it's more to describe the space that we're using which is which is accurate right now um and uh
089I was just trying to understand what was the purpose of not recording this document I don't I mean that's an attorney thing I don't okay no you're talking about on the last page yeah I mean you know we the it was back and forth with the other document that we had the memory and understanding about recording it or not recording it so it was just a a question of what that would do in order to hold um either party um and then I guess lastly I'm just just in case something happens okay it talks about the landlord's shell a reasonable time to cure which has a specific legal recommendations but I didn't see like if that you know a wheel out is there Provisions in here that if someone comes along and wants to buy
090the building that we are allowed a guaranteed a you know more time to vacate than just both parties not understand you know like it comes the end of the year and one party says no this isn't working for them or something like we would need a whole other year to find another space so yeah and yeah and I I I hear you I think you know we've had those conversations um and you know I think you know we're going to be allowed to use that building um you know as long as we need to for for the kids um and so it's just you know some things we have to put some parameters on there but um so I think there's a lot of flexibility okay thank you so that the plan is for the
091I mean the city uh I think they meet next week maybe um their plan is to consider it and approve it uh next week right uh any other questions regarding the lease um so if not then Florida has a motion to read that was recommended right the attorney's right so it's worded appropriately and if you want to read the motion sure to the motion is I move that the superintendent be authorized to execute and deliver a lease of the bath Regional Career and Technical Center building at 826 High Street in bath from the city of bath substantially on the terms of the lease of Bath Tech quotations presented to this meeting with such changes not inconsistent with the general tenor thereof as in the superintendent's judgment will effectuate said lease from the city and to
092execute and deliver such other documents and take such other actions as in the superintendent's judgment will effectuate the lease transaction all right um do we have a second Megan all right second by Megan uh any other discussion um I don't really just to be clear I don't really understand the word and emotion I understand the intent of it yes but if that's for legal purposes okay it's just a legal purpose yeah you're the only one ability of it needs to be but I'm sure it's what has to be and the main thing is we're giving permission for Patrick to sign in sign on our behalf and that this this will work um okay so without uh any further discussion than um all in favor the pictures raise their hand okay thank you very much that
093passes unanimously thank you all for that and thank you Patrick for putting that together with the city so uh things are just a little bit clearer uh we are now um do you have an update on diagonal school yeah just a couple things I I wish I could give you actual figures tonight but I can't give you those I can give you some parameters I guess I would say but just to give you again an update is um you know our policy does have a one million dollar limit for um and I'll read this to you for extra expenses limit of liability and what that really means is you know the expenses it means the reasonable and necessary extra cost incurred for us to temporarily continue as normal as practicable the conduct of our business
094or temporary using the facilities of yours or others so in other words it just means what it costs us what did it cost us and still costing us right now to move and and have be ready day one at the old back tech center So currently right now we have spent approximately three hundred and fifty thousand dollars but that number will that number will increase just because we have some invoices like for example the playground we're going to expand that a little bit further and the two invoices for the for the initial work on the playground it has not been you know is not it's not been included yet so there'll be some other things so I'll keep you updated on that then we have um so that includes I guess I would say I
095mean that includes putting up the temporary walls it includes reactivating the sprinkler system the elevator the phone system the internet includes all of those things like right now we are looking into having a some work done on the kitchen to see if at some point this year we can um you know be ready to serve meals over there because right now we're transporting them which isn't very efficient for us uh it's it's it's working you know and the kids are students are being fed um but that would be another one that would come underneath that that piece so then the next kind of um piece I'd share with you is damaged business personal property and that is not a set like limit on it that is something that the insurance company comes in takes an
096inventory of all of the items that were ruined or damaged and and then takes depreciation into into consideration and gives us a a number that number is not finalized yet because of some of the technology items that were lost uh and also um damage personal property of others would be the staff belongings and those have been sent to the insurance company as well and they need to look through those to make sure that they are legitimate and then put depreciation so those two numbers together I will share that with you as soon as we get those the next thing is just one story structure restoration and all that means is what it would cost to bring the K to one single story side of the school back into code but back into a situation where
097kids could could go there so that's one piece the two-story structure demolition where meeting I'm meeting somebody on Wednesday that cost is covered by the insurance company to demo the building and that would again demo the piece that's a total loss so it would be you know that right side of the building the grade two but the gym the library you know special ed some specials the office so that will probably um happen within the next probably be complete within the next 45 days because we want to get it done before the winter hits and then the two-story structure reconstruction is going to be the biggest number that I'll share with you as soon as we get it um and that is their estimate of what it would cost to rebuild that side of the
098building then code upgrades so code for that second part of the building we're going to recreate it's a five hundred thousand dollar um you know limit for code upgrades for that side of the building so those are kind of the pockets of money that I just wanted to share with you tonight and once I get finalized numbers obviously there's an option um with any of these is to um not not all of them but most of them is to to accept the cash value instead of um you know doing the work and that's something that you know I would bring to the board and um you know we'd have to have that discussion so last I'll just say that I think it would be important possibly at our next board meeting is to um come
099up with a structure who wouldn't be hard I mean we have a policy on ad hoc committees but I do think it would be important to have a committee made up of a board member or two community members staff and to talk about the different options um you know as we move forward with diagnul and the possibility of in bath of possibility of having one Pre-K to five building um and I want to say why we have this opportunity because it's a very unfortunate situation that we're in but we need to have those discussions and find out what makes the best sense for students but also financially in the long term what makes the most sense and so this is a lot of details to that and I think a committee much like the one
100we had for the new Morse high school and Bath Tech that worked really well so I think we should establish that at our next next month's meeting so that's kind of an overview on that I I don't know if you have other questions that I can try to answer um but that's that's kind of where we're at right now questions Jennifer um so Patrick the 350 000 already spent does that include cleaning up cleaning out and removing all the things that were in the votech school to get it ready to the disposal cost and the staff time cost to clean that up and yeah it probably doesn't include all of the staff costs because you know our guys were in there um you know helping do that in their you know and they were but
101then they would go and do other things come back and help um but yeah anything that's contracted services and then any big equipment or the on the major two lines at Deb hits um so we can give you more detailed information but probably not our I mean maybe possibly like over time when the guys may have come in on the weekend to just clean out the building or to clean but not like the typical day-to-day okay um and one thing to ask Deb would be um too in terms of our costs moving forward here that that would be either the deductible or the non-insured costs that we're incurring you know is how far apart are we on those two numbers like you know we have the items that will be value papers and all that
102other items the following insurance policies but there is both a deductible and an uninsured cost and and it'll be interesting to see how that hit where that would hit our budget for this year I just don't we've never had this big loss I know that we put a lot of money aside to always make sure that we can meet these needs which is wonderful to have that but I you know I think this kind of falls under that now we finally have a you know if we can if insurance is not paying for everything immediately or in the long run it'd be nice in how it's going to hit our budget is that something that we could look at eventually yeah I think I think we're fortunate we feel fortunate right now that the preliminary
103meetings we've had with the insurance company that the insurance is going to cover the bulk of these items um but yeah there will certainly let you know if there's certain things let it be um labor or non-labor that's um that isn't isn't being covered or that right now that we might be in some negotiations with the insurance company because we don't agree with certain things okay thank you all right any other questions diagonal yeah one more go how Patrick are you getting a sense I'm just a question is how they're doing is was not so much about the financial diseases but just how the kids are doing how the staff is doing again I think the I mean my take on it from being over there a couple times a week is um students are
104doing pretty well um you know they're resilient they're um you know having lunch going to recess and learning in the classrooms teachers have done a great job setting up their classrooms um just um you know kudos to them I think you know I think it's um you know there's still some Kinks that we're working out in the facility that we still need in some you know kind of um different Logistics that we got to work through but I think people have really appreciated from if it's from the technology that they that we're able to get in there that quickly to the supplies that we've been able to order and and the majority of those came in in time so I think you know overall I think it's gone pretty well but again we're still um
105you know I guess I would say um cognizant of the fact that this is hard and you know we have a um you know a social worker kind of on call so to speak to help any um you know any staff or or family mem families that need something more than what we have in a day and we can offer um let's go into 10.5 approved MidCoast pediatrician and this doesn't contract this doesn't seem as important this year but it is it still is it is and so it's just our annual contract Patty for you that this is new to is uh we work with Dr Hannah through Mid Coast Pediatrics and we have a she's our Consulting physician and so she meets with our nurses frequently and then she's also kind of on call
106for anything that we need from our nurses to Katie and I and sometimes the principals will reach out to her as well so it's just that annual agreement foreign er um any further discussion all in favor thank you and it passes so that's done always good to have her on board with us um schedule B yeah schedule B is much like fundraising it's just a FYI for you just so you can see what we offer for schedule B but also um what positions are still open in case you know somebody um but just uh it's just there for your information that's all and it's coin extracurricular that's it all right then we have well we got the policy first readings so what do we have we've got some um how many three so looks like
107um non-discrimination equal opportunity and affirmative action that's uh AC and another acab harassment and sexual harassment of School Employees and ACAA harassment and sexual harassment of students looks like some updated um policies for us to review no action tonight um just so you know uh Patty for your information that just well you know we go through all this and then uh do you have any questions you can ask some now and then read through it and then we take action the next meeting on these policies so does anyone have any initial questions or concerns yeah Lorna no question I just wanted to confirm these kind of come down from Maine School Board Association is that right and I just wanted to make a note that I'm happy to see the um I can't remember what
108it's called but the one about hairstyles I'm happy to see that we're updating that my two cents thank you anybody else okay uh then we'll review those next time um looks like uh next meeting date um October 24th and uh we're well into the year now um um any nothing else uh move to it in motion to adjourn second okay all in favor all right thank you all for your time and efforts and being here thank you thank you [Music]