001Good evening. Welcome to the RSU 5. Clay, let me my mic louder. Kate recommended I get out my gavel for tonight. I think I need it for you guys. >> [laughter] >> Okay. All right, so Good evening and welcome to the RSU 5 Board of Directors. I've never been told I was too quiet. Thank you for that, Lois. Uh it is Wednesday, April 8th, 2026. We are here in the Durham Community School. Uh we have a full board with the exception of Malik is not with us tonight. Um and we will get started with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, so do I have
002a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the March 18th, 2026 and March 25th, 2026 meetings as presented barring any errors or omissions? Kelly and Lois, thank you. All those in favor? None opposed. Wonderful. All right. Uh adjustments to the agenda. Yes. Yes, I have an additional resignation to report and an additional support staff hire. And beyond that, item 9B, the Chapter 4 Gifted and Talented and MTSS presentation will be tabled to another meeting. All right. So we will move right on to item six, uh good news and recognition, our report from our student rep, Moon. Hi, everyone. Um so, to start off, on March 26th, um main author Bryce Moore uh visited the Freeport High School to talk about writing and the writing process um to like grade 10 or English 10
003students as they're reading his book. And then also last week, on April 3rd, um the class of juniors and sophomores hosted a babysitting night to raise uh money for prom. So, that I guess that's going to come up soon. And then also, there's um if to any high schoolers who want to, there's a summer internship available at the Center of Arts and Eco- Ecology for the Desert of Maine. And um so, it pays $15 an hour and it's it starts in May and ends in late August. And so, students would usually serve as serve as field trips and guided tours assistance um and like help I guess host music and art events and also be a social media and outreach assistant. Um so, students were also sent an email about this, so if they're interested,
004uh feel free to sign up. And then also, um counselors will be visiting 11th grade advisories in late May. Um like these representatives will help juniors with like summer college and post-grad planning tasks. And also, there's a Canadian College Fair Thursday on April 16th and it'll be at Greely High School from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. And also, Scarborough High School from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. And then also, we have the school counseling office will be taking all juniors to the NEACAC College Fair in Augusta on Thursday, May 4th and permission slips will be handed out um closer to the date. And then we also had three students uh win national medals in the Scholastics Arts competition. Um only eight students from Maine placed nationally um in these in the medal ceremony would be held in
005Carnegie Hall in New York City in June. Uh we had Mars and Shatterly, 11th grade, who got gold medal for his for his I guess comp for his medals or I guess his art. We also had Bailey Bucatti who got who got silver medal for her digital portfolio folio or arts. And we also had Kiana Newcomb who went sil- silver for her for for her art. And then also recently we had the the Freeport High School math team. Um I guess you did pretty Yesterday at states um in Augusta and they placed seventh in the division B, which is a really challenging division. So that's and they also earned a plaque, so that's really cool. And we had ninth grade Kai Reinertsen who came in second for all like ninth graders at the meet with
006a total of 63 points out of the possible 72. Um and he placed in the top 10% of ninth graders statewide for the entire season. So um props to him. And then lastly we had the cabaret show for Freeport Middle School and Freeport High School. That was last night and there were over 20 acts singing like a variety of songs and types of music. And the teacher, Freeport Middle School and Freeport High School teacher Dana Reynolds, like led the show and I heard it was a really awesome event. Thank you. Wow, busy time of year. And I think you have the SATs tomorrow. Yeah. So if Moon scoots out we know why. He's trying to get a good night's sleep. All right. Thank you for that. Um so we will move on to item seven
007on our agenda, public comment. Uh so if we have anyone who would like to speak, we just ask you come up to the podium, which they moved to the side. I immediately look left, but it's on the right this evening. Um we just ask that you give your name and the town you live in and uh keep comments to 3 minutes. No one's rushing the microphone. Give folks a second to think. Okay, we do have another at the end of the agenda if you change your mind. All right, so moving on to item eight, report from the superintendent. Okay, so as I mentioned, we do have a couple of support staff hires that I would like to report. Um, these are of course positions that do not require board approval. These are positions that are
008simply hired by the central office. So we've had a resignation first of all. One is a resignation and one is a new hire. Uh, a resignation of Isabel Holbrook who is in an EdTech here at Yarmouth Community School. And then second, we have a support staff hire, Samuel Ngoma will be a custodian at Freeport Middle School. Um, I would like to before we talk about migration of students which you have in front of you. Um, I'd like to just talk a little bit about some events of the past week. Um, first is that I'm happy to report that the negotiations team for um, support staff has concluded the last meeting that we had scheduled and the good news is we have tentative agreement about all of the elements of the contract. So that contract is
009not still needs to be ratified by both sides, but it sure is nice to have TAs about everything in the contract. So that's great. Um, and the second I wanted to talk to you about the evolution of thinking in my office about the study that we are going to commission that the board has voted to commission that we've titled a facilities study. And I wrote to you a little bit about this in my weekly update this past week, but I wanted to say a bit about it. So we've been trying to do our homework about what exactly that could look like and what it is we need it to encompass. Obviously, this is pursuant to the discussions that we have had about possible reconfiguration. And calling the the further we get into drafting an FRQ,
010which we've taken a stab at and have presented to the facilities committee already, the more that the title of a facilities study seems to be somewhat minimal for what we really need. Because we need to look at how to optimize our staffing, how to optimize our workflows and operations. It's it how to look at demographics. It's more than just looking at our facilities. And then in a very timely way, I was at a superintendents mentoring group where this topic came up week before last. And there happened to be an example presented which is from RSU 21, that's Kennebunk, where they recently did what they called an efficiency study. And that study really did not look so much at buildings as it looked at the things I just mentioned. Um I think that those are really
011vital when we consider what our needs will be as we consider decisions that could possibly be very consequential. So um the thing I just want I'm keeping you informed at the moment that the thinking about the study that you commissioned, which at the time few weeks ago, month ago, we called a facilities study, I'm starting to think of more as a sustainability and systems study. And there are models of that to look at. So we're going to bring you some of that thinking when we present the draft RFQ, um which we don't have at the moment. But if you have not yet read my weekly update, um I've linked the sample that I mentioned to you so that you have something concrete to go on, and I would highly encourage you to take a look
012at it. I personally just think that that will serve the public interest better if we really expand what we're looking for. And then last, I know it's slightly out of order from what's on the agenda, I have we've included for you information about migration of students. And this is information that basically tells you what percentage of students in our district actually attend our schools and those who are attending other schools like private schools. And the overall trend is that we have more of our a greater percentage of our kids in this district attending our public schools than we did 10 years ago. 10 years ago we had 21% of our kids going somewhere else. And now we have 17 and 2.25% of our kids going somewhere else. So, I see that as a positive trend
013and the data breaks down in the green pamphlet that's included in your binder. And it tells you it breaks that information down. Where which private schools those kids are going to etc. which maybe other public schools that we are um sending kids to on superintendent's agreements etc. I um thank you. I think the front pages um is really helpful. That was that was um that was good info. I'm not sure if we've always historically got that sort of historic look over time as a total percentage. Um so that's great. Um I think we may want to check the numbers on the second page cuz the totals the totals on the 2024 year for the three towns don't equal the total of the total column. Um So, I I'm sure it's it the it Yeah, so
01466, 192, and 17 equals 275. But, if you add up the totals in the total column, they equal the 357. So, somewhere in there. Um I mean, based on the percentages from 24 to 25, it's it's not a huge difference year to year. It is down, according to this, but um Uh yeah, I think maybe just the Or or you know what it Actually, you know what it is? It's probably the 82 kids that are home-schooled. The previous year, we didn't break it out by town. So, that's I bet you if you added those two numbers together, yep, there it is, 82. Ginny's yelling at her TV right now. She yelled at something else. You're welcome, Ginny. Um so, okay, so that's why. So, we didn't break down the home-schooled kids in in last year.
015So, um Yeah, I think it's uh I think it's interesting to see kind of the historic shift over time and the variety of schools. Um I'm not sure if folks have the agenda or the packets pulled up as they're watching our our meetings, but um I mean, I would say that's probably a good 15 to 20 different schools, right? In addition to home school um students. So, Lois. I think the animal shelter was first. It's the one with the garbage cans. Okay. Um so, can you just tell me I understand that we have students uh going out to Um I understand that we have students going out to um other local districts. Do we have any coming in from other local districts? Can you give me that number? Because we bring that money They The
016kids from RSU 5 that go to Yarmouth for instance, Yarmouth then gets to claim them on their student totals. But if students are coming in from someplace to RSU 5, we get to claim their student state subsidy, yes. I don't know the number right off the top of my head. I can look it up for you and and get it to you. >> I'd love to know. Yeah. Well, we definitely do have a number of kids coming to us from other public schools and we're getting we're receiving that. Yeah, thank you. Sure. And I do think there are some districts where um for instance, teacher contracts will have the ability to bring your kids um to the other school with or without So, we are only able to claim the subsidy of kids who come
017here and other districts are only able to claim the subsidy of our kids that go there when there is an agreement between both superintendents, so under a superintendent's agreement, um which is the majority of them, right? Um but there are a few cases where that might not be the case. I think I think Falmouth is one of them, so. Um And I should know this cuz I read the contract. Does Freeport still Sorry, does RSU 5 still allow RSU 5 teachers to bring their students into the district? It used to be that when Durham was separate, I could take my kids to Freeport because I taught in Freeport and it was in the contract that I could take They they always got the superintendent's agreement, but if someone didn't want to if didn't want to
018pay it, they might not have. I don't believe it is part of the contract right now. I think they when they merged the contracts, that may have gone away. >> Thank you. I didn't remember it, but thank you. Anna. Um yeah, thank you for this data. I found it really interesting last year. I find it interesting again, um particularly the number of home-schooled kids in our district. And I just wanted to note that um one of the most significant home-school organizations, which is in Freeport, is actually closing. And so, I'm curious how that will impact kids coming into our district. That's through the through the trees. Yeah. Chris. I'd also [snorts] be curious to see if we have any sort of like intra-district like [clears throat] moving around within the district maybe. >> call that
019an assignment to schools and we have we have a number of those. I don't know the number. Um if I had to estimate cuz I do sign all of them. But, I I would say it's somewhere between 10 and 20. Do we keep track of reasons why they're going to other schools? Is there some data on that? Do you do like exit interviews or something? No. Um this data comes because Jenny calls all these schools and asks them. Um I mean the the um the uh superintendent's agreements, obviously we know cuz we sign them. Um but, for the private schools, we just um solicit the information. So, I don't think this in Oh, do they? Okay. So, we know that our kid is going to our kids in our district go to school somewhere. Yeah,
020so if a private school gets one of if one of student in our district goes to a private school, they have to let us know they have a student who would otherwise be registered in our district. So, we don't go looking for them? And like child find? Jenny, no. No. Jenny may do that follow-up, but we also the information gets reported to us. >> Okay. Um Um sorry, Michelle. Some more questions. I was wondering that same thing for the what's it called? The assignment schools. Like what are the general themes as to why people request other schools? >> a lot of it has to do with convenience for families. You know, I work in Freeport, but I live in Durham. It's easier for me to do child care cuz my child care is in Freeport.
021Sometimes it's for social reasons involving, you know, kids who may have a difficult experience with one social group and need a need a change. A lot of the time it's for family reasons. I would say that's the the dominant thread. And it's something that's year-to-year based on space in in the So, it's not, you know, in kindergarten, if they live in Durham, they ask to go to free and then they can just go to the Freeport schools through till high school. Um it's a year-to-year thing based on space. Um There's also programmatic reasons, right? There are some programs that are in, you know, like special ed programs that are in one school versus another. So, those kids might um might be assigned to a different school. Um I also I think there's also cases where,
022like if someone moves within the district, they may want to finish the year Yes. >> where where they started or, you know, stuff like that. It's worth noting, while we're on this topic, that this seems to be the time I'm getting a lot of requests for next year at this point, and I actually can't decide on those because we have to see what our numbers will be before I make any decisions about superintendent's agreements. So, I need really need to wait in nearly every case until August to see what kind of space we'll have available because I can't put us in a position of taking students from outside the district now and then have between now and August students move into the district who would live here and then we'd be in violation of our
023class size policy. So, I just I have to wait on those. Are there comments questions on this? So, this comes to us generally once a year around this time of year, so. Okay, thank you. All right, so we will move on to administrator reports. Uh we will start with Will's last report. I mean, will we hear from you again before the end of the year? Oh. We may want to move. Are you We're going to do the screen. Yeah. I feel like if I'd been aware of that, Michelle, I would have prepared something different. I'm sure you're I'm sure you're quite great. I just hadn't thought of it. Yeah, probably. Okay. Uh good evening. I'm Will Peden. I'm the principal. Um and um Kate Harrison is also joining me. Kate is the assistant principal currently
024and the um will be principal moving forward after this school year. So, we're going to do this just in two quick parts. One is an update um >> [clears throat] >> a little bit like Moon shared, but this from a DCS perspective, recent um enrichment or family activities as well, just to give you a kind of a sense of some of the things going on. And then Kate is going to give you a bit of an update from the goal work we had presented the when you were last here on cognitive engagement. So, there's a number of activities I would just start by really giving a huge shout-out to our PTA. Um we have a really um committed group of parents who do an amazing job and family members who um um support both with
025activities and then um fundraising and then supporting enrichment um resources through that. So, um over the course of the spring we had family reading night. This is where a number of teachers, I think we had about 17 readers this year or something. Well, it'll be one evening here and um children arrive with families and they uh attend um different reading sessions throughout a 1-hour period of time where they go to different rooms as they rotate through hearing different stories which and it's always a uh a great evening event and I think we had about um 100 students plus their families here. It's predominantly for the younger children but K through 4. Um then uh pre-K students they do a unit each year around sort of the Arctic and they visit the Bowdoin Arctic Museum. Um
026had an outstanding visit there and did um a number of activities with the people at the museum and again parents sort of supported with that. The um one of the pictures we don't have up here that I was trying to fit in is that Drew Logan who's over here on the uh doing all the tech stuff who's our tech guru here. And uh Drew in a previous role actually spent 6 years I think in Antarctica and he always does a um annual presentation with the children when they're doing the study and he brings some of the uh items of clothing they would have to wear to stay warm down there and um um there's some evidence of how many pre-K children could actually fit in one of those giant warm jackets which is quite a
027few. Um Third grade do a study uh in late winter or early spring. It's part of their social studies work around local history and we have um the great support of the Durham Historical Society and the volunteers down there. The children get to visit the Historical Society, um, and then as well as they get a sort of guided tour, um, around town on one of the, uh, buses given explanations, um, so the you'll see out there the oldest grave site, where the oldest racetrack was, and yes, there was a racetrack, um, horses, not cars, um, here in in Durham. There's a whole history here. If you don't know Durham, then right, there's there's a there's a lot to learn about it. Um, so where the racetrack was, where the one-room schoolhouses were, which came into
028existence, uh, which which ended existence when the previous school was built at Durham Elementary. Um, they also visit, um, uh, the Historical Museum and do a scavenger hunt around different things of Durham, um, they they really get engaged in it and uh, it gives them a much better sort of sense of the history of their own community. Uh, our counseling team, uh, organized a career fair, uh, which was a couple of weeks ago. Uh, that was for students in grades five through eight. Uh, they'd worked with the counseling team on different career exploration, exploration, um, different communication skills that they had to then, uh, utilize when they were meeting with the different, um, people sharing about the careers. And, um, one of the things too that was really exciting about this, we had over 20
029different sort of presenters around the space, and a large majority of those were parents who had taken up ti- taken off time from their work and whose work had supported them to bring in and share about their, um, the jobs that they do and the kind of background you would need to get into those jobs, which also was really, um, aspirational for the kids to sort of see this wide variety of jobs that their community, um actually are employed in. So, it was it was both interesting from a broader career exploration perspective, but also from the sense of like, you know, you you live here in town and yet there's all these amazing careers that you can do right from this from this community. Um from an enrichment perspective, every 2 years we have Michael
030Wingfield come join us. Um this has been we've been doing this now for um about 18 years, I would say. And he comes in and does a 1-week residency with some of the eighth graders. It's um drumming and um all the classes then present on the Friday to the whole school uh in uh an assembly where they explain kind of what's the theme of this work is, but it's it's about how um sort of drumming and chanting and music carried African culture into the new world um really as a as an outcome of sort of triangular trade uh and slavery. But he does an amazing job and the kids do an amazing job that after really four and a half lessons um working as a group each class performs at an incredibly high level. So,
031um it was great to have him back sponsored by the PTA. And then uh the Portland Symphony Orchestra were here a couple of weeks ago to um pre-K through four students. Um we had um panel students come join us because uh Ally Edwards, who does music here um half time is also the music teacher at Panel. Um and so the Panel children who come up and join us and the PSO um did a great job. If you're wondering, is that gentleman at the front wearing um like oilskins uh and carrying some sort of lobster buoy? Yes, that was sort of the theme and they had sort of they were explaining how the different string instruments could make different sounds, but they did it through the theme of sort of being at sea and uh being
032in the fog or now the weather's getting rough um etc. etc. And then um I keep saying everything was a couple of weeks ago. Everything feels like it was a couple of weeks ago I but it wasn't like everything happened exactly 2 weeks ago cuz at this point I think that's the 12th thing that happened 2 weeks ago. >> [laughter] >> So So this what I do think happened a couple of weeks ago but literally I have no idea clearly. Um so STEM coding night uh Mrs. De Filippo our STEM teacher uh this is an annual offering. Again um children come in with family members and um what was really sort of impressive was the range. So on the left-hand picture there you see like the Sphero balls. Those are programmable um spheres that then
033sort of you can steer and guide around um different challenges on the floor. Um the student in the middle is working with uh you can't see it cuz it's under his hand it's called a Bee-Bot which is a very simple programmable sort of um uh bug and then again they get challenges to do within the grid network. But then equally uh Mr. Filippo offers a range of things that aren't necessarily tech related but kind of feed in. So she had a whole she has a whole thing on beading where in essence it's like binary they're potentially using two colors as they're making different things and again they have um pieces there that make a connection between this familiar kind of craft activity but how that then also relates to kind of uh some of the
034facets of coding. And um because all that happened a couple of weeks ago I I think in a couple of weeks time these things must be happening but we have um >> [laughter] >> We have uh main authors coming to visit um grade one two have one particular author coming and grade three four have a different author coming. Concert season pre-K and K have their concert tomorrow night and then it's ongoing round of concerts which are which are great. There's a lot of field work still to be done. And of course there are enrichment clubs and co-curricular sports. So quite a lot of things happening both within the school day and beyond the school day that involve the children and families and again we're very grateful to the number of parents and community members who
035contribute to make these things possible. And then Kate's going to share a little bit about an update from the goal work. All right. So last time we were here we shared that one of our school goals this year was to increase the cognitive engagement of our students pre-K through eight. And I'm happy to report that we've made a lot of forward progress with this goal. We weren't quite sure what this was going to look like when we started with it. But I have some both anecdotal evidence and some just examples of what teachers have been doing in their classrooms of how this is like rolled out and come to fruition. So what we defined as cognitive engagement is cognitively engaged students are drivers in their own learning. They invest mental effort name and work towards
036their learning goals reflect on their learning and apply self-regulation skills. And as we've been doing this work we found that there some components that make a student more apt to be cognitively engaged. So having clarity of expectations having students self-assess and set goals and participating in a feedback cycle. Um throughout the year we've used staff meeting time, PD time, and PLC time to develop and utilize tools to gauge and monitor, as well as to grow our students' levels of cognitive engagement. And student staff have also reflected upon that that feedback that we've gathered, we've developed our practices, and we've monitored our impact on students' cognitive engagement. So here are a few examples of what that's looked like. Um as a whole staff, we've used this tool that we've called the cognitive engagement continuum, um which
037we put together as some indicators ranging from emerging, as in prior to pre-K, all the way through 8th grade, like what does it look like for active listening? What does it look like for someone to be prepared? What does it look like for a student to be responsible? So we kind of merge some of our habits of work language with um some of the look fors when we're asking for a student to drive their learning. Um because we really wanted a tool to see if our practices were moving the needle for students. We don't expect that this movement is going to be fast. Um it takes a lot to grow these particular skills in students, but we wanted something to try to measure if what we're doing is making a difference. So we developed this
038um early on in our work this fall, and we'll be coming back to it in the spring. And then individual grade levels have created lots and lots of tools um to kind of attack various goals. Here's a couple examples. This is first grade on the left. Um they have a prepared and determined reader um checklist. So they use student photos and then put quick descriptors of like, what does it look like to be a prepared reader? What does it mean if you are a determined reader? And teachers will refer to these tools. They'll have them like up under the doc cam or in a big poster format so that during reading workshop they can go give a little nudge to a kid and say like, "Hey, are you being determined right now?" Or like, as
039we're going into reading workshop, we're going to be prepared. What does that look like? Um just to help build those skills. On the right, those are some fourth-grade math goals. Uh this was a progression created by our one of our interventionists and it's really getting at helping students know where they are in their learning and what's next for them. We have a second-grade self-reflection on writer's workshop. Um very similar to that first-grade example, but this is about your job during writing workshop. Are you staying in your space? Are you writing the whole time? Um are you adding more to your writing? So, those are some things that feel kind of basic, but really important in your job as a writer, as a second-grader. And then third grade, um they've been really working on cognitive engagement
040in math and this was a tool that they developed to use particularly for when students are doing a math assessment to pause and think if they really are complete with their work. Um so, if you go over to the column that says a three, um I write number models, words, or drawings that clearly show how I solve the question. I clearly communicate my strategy so that others can understand it. And teachers were really trying to get students to show their thinking. Um and they wanted to to spell it out for kids so they could see like if you just write the answer, that's not enough. You need to show us how you got there. So having this progression really helped third graders see there's a difference between just the answer and showing us how you
041got there. So in wrapping up, we've had some really positive like anecdotal evidence of how focusing on cognitive engagement has transferred to students. In eighth grade, uh this is these are words from our middle school science teacher. In eighth grade during our energy unit, students have been designing and constructing mouse trap cars for three-pronged competition. Just the other day I overheard a student leading his lab team stating, I think if we have a mid-length arm lever, we will be able to transform the most elastic potential energy into kinetic energy. This is a great informal evidence of the student meeting our primary NGSS standard. It was also a celebration of increased collaboration skills, empathy, and engagement. In fourth grade, um here are a few examples from a fourth grade teacher. Students are checking their own work
042in math with inverse operations and other strategies instead of first coming to me and asking for help. Um a quote from a student was, "I'm going to check my division with multiplication to see if it's right before I come to your desk." Uh students are asking for the unit self-assessment in math to show what they know. Um and another quote from a student, they know the content so well, they want to teach it from to others. And students are advocating to rewrite their writing instead of revising their drafts to make their final copy look even better. So, it's pretty strong for a fourth grader. And uh reflection from our first grade teacher, I've seen I have seen clear growth in the way my students take ownership during reading workshop. Many students now independently name and
043apply strategies, set personal goals, sometimes with help, and reflect on their engagement using shared language we've developed throughout the year. It's been especially meaningful to hear students say things like, "I reread to make sure it made sense." or "I got stuck, so I tried sliding through the word without prompting." So, these are just a few examples of how this goal has played out so far, and we're not done the year yet, so I feel like we still have some time to keep going. Um and we'll likely keep working on this goal again next year because we've seen some really good impact from it. Uh so, Will, how many of the kids ask if you taught at the one-room schoolhouse? >> [laughter] >> Asking for a friend. Yeah. Thank you. Um They ran away before I
044could get here to see if you guys had any questions for them, but I'm sure they'll come back up if we do. Any questions for Kate or Will? Valerie. So sorry. Um I just had a question about the cognitive engagement continuum. Is that tool for the students for self-reflection, or is that tool for the teachers for evaluation? Um I'm going to say neither. It's we're not really evaluating anything. It's It's for teacher self-reflection. It's not really written in language to give to students. It's written in language for teachers to be able to look at their own practices. So, like a guidepost? Yes. Yep. Other questions for Kate? >> Thank you. Or Will? He's still here. Are you sure? >> [laughter] >> I noticed he got the fun stuff like concerts and field trips and Kate
045got up and talked about the rail work. Well done. >> [laughter] >> Lois. So, I remembered. So, this isn't a question, it's a comment. I just need to tell you that the people from the the people involved in the Durham Historical Society love it when the kids come and visit. And every year it's a day I can't participate because of an appointment. Next year I'm going to check with the teacher first >> [laughter] >> and then make my appointment. But they the people that are involved in that just love having the kids come to the museum, but also go around on the bus and be able to talk about the different places in town. It's a really nice connection. It is, yeah. Do you guys do those for adults, too? You did one, didn't you?
046We have done it and we've actually talked about doing it again, but we need a school bus in order to do that. So, we have to talk to the transportation people. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, okay, that's a problem. Um, we'll worry about that later. All right, any other questions for Kate or Will? Thank you. All right, so we are moving to item 10, uh, board comments and committee reports, strategic communications. Steph. Okay. Um, so we had a strategic communications committee meeting on March 31st uh at 8:15 in the morning. And um I was volunteered as tribute and uh to be the chair of the >> [laughter] >> strategic communications committee. I finally call that volunteer. >> [laughter] >> No, I'm happy to do it and nervous. Um so, I'll just go over some of the
047key points that we covered in the meeting. Um So, first Cara gave us uh uh just a brief overview of what the committee had been doing in the past, which was mostly uh staff surveys one year and parent surveys the next. Uh but once the strategic planning committee convened, that procedure essentially stopped um and we paused the strategic communications committee meeting. Um because that was sort of a redundant um effort. But when we met um essentially just everything that's going on with the budget and talks about efficiency studies and sustainability studies, we decided that there was a more pressing need for the board to um reconvene and talk about communication strategies. Um the the focus essentially that we decided on was to talk about the budget process um and there was some additional information that
048was added to the brochure explaining to voters how the budget process works. Um and we talked about ways that we could continue to reach out as a board to communicate about the board's perspectives and um yeah, positions on the budget. And sorry, the notes are a little lengthy and I don't want to read them all to you verbatim. Um and I'm here reporting out to you about the meeting. Um and then we talked about two different uh interventions perhaps that we could do to make the board meeting recordings more accessible. One was Cara mentioned having a timestamp added to reflect the agenda. And Tom is going to talk to the technology department about this. And then I also noted um considering sort of some way of summarizing the meetings so that it doesn't require someone
049watching 4 hours to get the gist of what happens in the meetings. Um and so we're going to be looking into that. Um In addition to talking about the budget, um there was some just essentially thoughts that more clear communication from the board about the budget would be helpful, but that we shouldn't appropriate district resources to campaign in any way um for the budget and that that was sort of outside of our scope. Um And then at our next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14th at 7:45 in the morning for the early risers who want to join, um Kelly is going to give us a presentation about a new software system called clear.gov, which is widely used for municipal governments and school districts to help develop develop budget workbooks to present information in
050a streamlined way. So that could be a tool that we might be able to use to communicate more effectively as well. And then there were members of the public that attended from Pownal, so we appreciate them doing that. Um and we did have some dialogue with them and it was reiterated again that some of the uncertainty and urgency um that the Pownal community is experiencing has to do particularly with the timeline of what reef reconfiguration could look like. Um and so Superintendent Gray recognized that this would be a board decision, that that timing or commenting on that timing, but noted from his perspective, he didn't feel it would be realistic to make a major change before uh the fall 2027-2028 year. So, meaning that from his perspective, we wouldn't be able to make a change
051by that time. Uh and that we said we would bring that to the board for further discussion and acknowledge that that would be a board decision. Um that would have to be discussed. And then again, we're meeting at our next meeting Tuesday, April 14th at 7:45 in the morning. Uh we wanted to have a more um a more expedient next meeting just given the budget uh referendum upon us. That is it. Thank you for listening. Thank you. And Kelly and Cara, if I missed anything or Tom, please please add. The only thing is I'll make a correction, which is an error that I gave you. It's it's not actually not clear.gov, it's clear.gov. So, my my mistake that you inherited. Thank you. Um I I noted the the um about some kind of message around
052the budget. Um and Tom and I did talk a little bit about that after your strategic communications meeting. And it feels pretty um it feels similar to what we have historically prepared as sort of opening remarks for the annual budget meeting where we talk kind of high-level and then why we feel like this meets the needs of the district. So, um so I think Tom and I were going to work on that together and maybe it's something we can put out in advance of that meeting. So, it's not just the folks that are are attending that that hear that. So, um I think it's I think it's a good idea. Um you know, the the more the more we can get clear information out there, the better. Um I will use this opportunity to one,
053thank the folks who came to our first Q&A this evening uh at 6:00 here at Durham. We will have a Q&A um at our next two meetings, which are the 20 the pound panel is the 29th, right? Is that right? >> Mhm. Um, uh April 29th and then uh Freeport will be the following week and at the high school. So, um so we will have a Q&A at both of those uh those meetings as well starting at 6:00. Um, very informal. Um, if folks uh just have questions about the budgets or concerns or or clarifications they'd like, um we just have a conversation as a group um to try and answer any of those questions. So, highly recommend folks that um have any questions or concerns to try and make one of those. Um And
054uh we will continue to beat the drum of getting information out there. Other comments or questions for staff? All right, so we will uh move on to the curriculum and program development committee. Are you doing that one, Lois? I don't I'm looking at Anna's um yes, I am. Okay. I was like, I thought you asked me to add it. I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> Um, so we met on um Wednesday, March 18th and we were going to meet again tomorrow, but I will tell you right now that we that has been um canceled. So, um anyone from the public who was planning on coming we won't be there. Um but we had a meeting on um the 18th to talk about the science of reading um and how that works um differently than the units
055of study that the school district presently uses. So, um, we had a really thorough discussion. We had some people from the community come, and we wanted to thank them both for coming. They had good questions, and um, although we couldn't answer them right in the middle of the meeting, um, it was nice to have them there. Um, and I think you know, it was a it was a good discussion to have because there are definitely different perspectives on reading, um, curriculum. And so, um, yeah. And either Karen or or Anna or Thank you, Lois. Um, I think the only other [clears throat] thing is we were talking about we had looked back at what the board as a whole wanted to hear about any, um, big curriculum changes, and particularly about, um, how they're related
056to career readiness. And so, we were speaking about how we felt the board would, um, be interested in hearing about updates to our math curriculum as that's been a focus of our curriculum this year, um, as well as perhaps a look at, um, reading and what we're currently doing there. All right. Any questions for the curriculum committee? Valerie. Um, did the science of reading was the problem with dyslexia and this method versus what we currently use and their efficacies, was that topic broached at all or We talked a lit- uh, a little bit. It was We were mostly talking in that meeting about what the science of reading is and then we actually had scheduled for a future meeting about what we are currently doing, but we did talk a lot about >> [clears throat]
057>> looking back at my notes like the focus of the science of reading is focused on decoding which is phonological awareness and phonics as well as language comprehension. Whereas um other reading instruction isn't as focused on phonics. I think I have low teacher you may have more. I think yeah. All right, any Good. Thank you. All right. So we don't have policy on the agenda this evening. Did that answer? You're good? Okay. Um all right, so we will move on to item 12. Uh so this is a motion um to call and approve the warrants and this motion prompts the stage. Um so we all have to sign all of these. These are the warrants to call the meeting um and they they get posted all over and I don't know Kelly makes us sign
058them all and um it is important that you sign on the same line every time. So if you start on the third line, you have to do the third line all the way through. Um so generally what we do is we just line up and you know, we're in a school cafeteria it should be a come back to us. Uh line up follow the sign all the way down until your hand cramps and you can't sign anymore and hopefully you're at the end um and then Kelly will take it from there and post them all over. Okay, so do I have a motion? Um I move that the vote title entitled vote to call and approve the warrants for the budget meeting and the budget validation referendum and to authorize the notices of amounts adopted
059be approved in the form presented to this meeting and that a copy of said vote be included with the minutes of this meeting. Anna, thank you. Valerie, second. Any questions about what we're we're voting on here? This is essentially to call the meeting and the vote. Yes. Uh I have a related question. Uh my pen is red, does that matter? To like pen color? Oh, official pens, great. Thanks. >> We can't be trusted to bring our own pens. Same line, Valerie. Same line in black, thank you. Any other questions? It's a good question, thank you. Uh all right, all those in favor. You voting on there? All right, good. None opposed. Uh we have no new business this evening, so we will move on to item 14, personnel. Uh so I will get a motion
060on the floor and then Tom will um Tom will take it from there. So do I have a motion for consideration and approval to employ an early childhood special education assistant director for the 2026-2027 school year. Lois and Steph, thank you. Okay, well, I am very pleased to nominate for you Donna Cassavant who is seated right here. Donna brings to us a wealth of experience in both early childhood and special education and in the world of education for the deaf and hard of hearing. Donna has been employed for a long time through the Maine Educational Center for the deaf and hard of hearing and is has a very distinguished credentials and experience and has really impressed our committee. And Donna, I don't know if you'd like to offer a few words, maybe after the the
061vote. Is that how you I haven't done this yet in a while. >> Really? Yes. [laughter] Um yeah, so in your in your folders is your uh salmon colored sheet which we will put back in our folders cuz that's confidential information for for HR stuff, but you can see the information uh for Donna um uh any questions, comments? No. All right. All those in favor? None opposed. Welcome, Donna. Donna, you are under no obligation, but if you would like to just greet the board in any way, you you have the floor. We prefer in song if that's possible. >> [laughter] >> I would be happy to do that. I would just take a few minutes to figure out which song to sing for you. Um I will not take a lot of your time. I'm
062just thrilled to be here. I'm thrilled um to see what this district is doing about bringing on early childhood special ed into your communities. Um I was a parent of a 4-year-old way back in 20 uh 2001 when I approached my first special ed director saying, "Well, you know, I'm in early childhood. How soon do you see our 3-to-5-year-olds being served in the school district?" And she said, "I'm assuming it will be about 3 to 5 years." Um so, I'm thrilled that uh 25 or 26 years later, it's really happening. Um I think there's going to be a lot of wonderful things happening for our schools, not just the 3-and-4-year-olds, but K-12 as well. So, thank you all for having me, and I'm excited to be here. Thank you, Donna. All right. Um all right,
063so the next personnel motion we have is do I have a motion for consideration and approval to convert a bus driver custodian full-time year-round position to a full-time year-round custodian position. Uh Cara and Kelly. This is simply going to help us meet our needs better giving our current staffing configurations and the fact that we actually really need van drivers and it uh it's sort of a row of dominoes in many of our support staff positions where we have people who drive drive either bus and or drive van and pick up some custodial work and this will help us achieve the balance that we need right now. All right. Any other questions? All those in favor? Great, none oppose. And our last personnel uh motion is do I have a motion for consideration and approval to
064create a full-time year-round van driver custodian position using money from the um using money from budgeted van substitute funds. That's a fun one to read. Anna. Valerie, thank you. Similar comment. So, we're just reallocating from substitutes to like so this is one where we actually have someone to fill the position and we'd like to keep them and not keep them as a sub. This is great. We should vote on this one fast. >> Yes. Cara. Does this mean we would no longer have funds available for a substitute? You even with the conversion of these two, um um Okay. So, I put four substitute van driving positions in the budget annually. Um And and that largely has to do with people come and go. Um there's new assignment to school based on special education needs, those
065types of things. So, we keep a school year position uh substitute positions kind of that roll through the budget. They're not official positions within the district. They're just basically what I use. I budget for like four people to be here on student days to transport students within district. And so, what we're doing is we're taking two of those kind of substitute positions within that I use for the budgeted number to create this position because it will have benefits whereas a normal substitute does not. But, we do have somebody that's currently doing it that is looking for full-time employment and this is a way for us to actually secure that person um and not lose that person as a sub as well. So, um so, we will still have funds for substitute van driving um for
066the remainder of this year and for next year. Great. Any other questions? All those in favor? None opposed. Great. >> [clears throat] >> All right. We are back to public comment in case anyone has felt inspired since we started. All right. Now, you have to wait till the 29th. All right. So, uh do I have a motion to enter into for consideration and approval to enter into executive session as outlined in 1 MRSA section 4056A for the purposes of discussing the superintendent's evaluation. Kelly and Karen, thank you. So, um before we vote, I will just say before you go anywhere, you're going to get a pen from Kelly, you're going to sign all of the papers. You're signing what? On the same line with the same color pen. Yep. And uh then you're going to
067take all of your stuff with you and we're going to go to the library for our executive session. >> purple folders. Well, they have to take out Yes, you'll collect that part. >> Yeah. But I'll get them. >> No, they'll keep that. Yeah. Yes. So, yeah, so what you're going to do for uh you're going to put back the salmon sheet into your folder. You're going to take out your manila folder that's in your purple folder and take that with you and leave your purple folders and your name tags here and um they will collect those. >> Okay. What questions do you have about what I've asked? You still need to vote on them. I know. Just making sure everyone knew what we were voting on. All right. So, we have a motion and we
068have a second. All those in favor. Great. None opposed. Uh and so uh Yeah. So, we will go into executive session and then we will adjourn from there. So.