2026-03-25 RSU 5 Board Meeting

001Good evening. Welcome to the RSU 5 Board of Directors meeting. It is Wednesday, March 25th, 2026. We are here at the Freeport High School library. We have a full board here this evening. Steph will be joining us shortly 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. >> Okay, so do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from March 11th, 2026 as presented barring any errors or omissions? Thank you, Valerie. Kelly? All those in favor? None opposed. Thank you. Adjustments? No? Nope. Moving on. So we will move on to item six, good news and recognition and we will

002hear from Maria for our student report. >> So we had the career fair today and we had over 30 businesses attend the fair. We had people from LL Bean, Central Maine Medical, Bath Savings. All four grades had the chance to visit the career fair and meet the guests. The student leadership committee had their annual trip to MIT for workshop with Court Co and the Center for Collaborative Communication at the Media Lab of MIT. Our FHS students presented the team's work this year and also had a chance to meet the MIT graduate students and hear about their research projects. Our team works with MIT to code the data for our student-led conversations, which helps the team action steps for our school. The team is coming to a board meeting in May to share their work and

003action steps moving forward. The student officers of the class of 2027 and 2028 are hosting a parents night out April 3rd from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at FHS. It is open to children through kindergarten and fifth grade and will include a movie, and I can crafts crafts and art, face painting, and more. There will be many Freeport High School student volunteers there to supervise and run activities. It is $20 per child and it's a great opportunity for parents to enjoy a night out in supporting our students that are fundraising for prom. >> Thank you. I heard it was quite the race to the GPL this morning cuz all the seniors couldn't park in their lot because of the career fair. Yeah, that's what I hear. Yes. Maria, could you repeat the date of the parents

004night out? Could you repeat the date of the parents night out? >> It's April 3rd. >> I think it's next Friday, next Friday night. Do people have to sign up ahead of time? >> Yes. So, for the student volunteers, there would be a QR code on the posters that are hung around the school and I think that they were also sent out. And I don't know if you have to sign up parents-wise, but I think you could check with the QR code that's on the poster. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So, we will move on to item seven, which is public comment. Um I will do a quick update like we did last time because we have two, well, technically three opportunities for uh public um participation this evening. We have our public comment

005as we always do at the beginning and the end of our agendas. That is where uh we ask you to come up to if you like. We won't make anyone, but if you'd like, come up. We ask for your name, the town where you live, and to you have 3 minutes to talk about any educational item that you would like to share with the board. We also have on our agenda this evening public input as it relates to the budget. So, as we've gone through the budget process the last meeting and this meeting, we wanted to provide an opportunity for folks to if they had comments specific to the budget that they would like the board to to consider before the adoption of the budget this evening, this is an opportunity for that. If you

006had a clarifying question as it relates to the budget, feel free to ask those as well. We will we will answer all questions to the best of our abilities. But just um just a reminder that it's not necessarily a conversation, but more more if if you have a question, we're happy to respond. Um and we only have one sign-up sheet, so I think what we did last week worked pretty well, which was I will go down the list that I have here for public comment. If you would prefer to hold off your comment until the public input portion, which is just a few minutes down the road, just let me know that and we will just keep you on the list for public input um for the budget. So, with that said, we will start.

007Daniel Freund. >> Good evening. My name is Daniel Freund and I live in Freeport. Do you need my street address? >> No. >> Okay, I live in Freeport. Uh spoken before the board before and I'm back about uh the the the same issue, which ultimately does affect the budget and therefore uh everything else that can happen. Um my my goal is simple. It's to ensure that RSU 5 board and all the members thereof is exercising the level of fiduciary responsibility required by Maine law when reviewing the expenses and operations of the health insurance trust. At present, the board's review process relies almost entirely on information provided by the trust itself without any independent verification of expenditures, pricing structures, plan performance, or cost-savings alternatives. This is not a criticism of the trust. It is a statement

008of fiduciary fact. Uh incidentally, I'm not an attorney. I'm a certified financial planner. I've been in the insurance business for 44 years, but this is not a legal opinion. When tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds flow through a system, review cannot mean we ask the trust what they spent, and they told us. That does not satisfy the standards established in Maine law. Fiduciary law under the Maine Probate Code, which is what prevails in this situation, lays out the governing fiduciary responsibility for trustees of the trust. Okay? These fiduciary responsibilities are not suggestions. They are law. They reflect legal requirements for impartiality, verification, accurate allocation of expenses, and a duty to act in the best financial interest of all the beneficiaries. A fiduciary cannot simply accept representations without review. They must verify the expenditures

009and allocations are fair, accurate, and compliant. I've inquired multiple times over the past several years about these matters. Every attempt is met with an excuse for not addressing the most important budget item after wages, and that is the cost of health insurance. Multiple towns have told us the trust is too big to question or that it's someone else's job to request an audit, and as a result taxpayers and teachers and staff pay millions. On a state level, it's about a hundred and fifty million or more dollars. Okay? Taxpayers, teachers, and staff pay millions more than necessary year after year when identical health care plans for the union, identical plans with identical providers could replace the current vendors at something like 20% less cost. We are not talking about determining whether we are overpaying for those

010benefits, something we can not know about without an independent fiduciary review, what I've been asking for for years, getting the medical claim data. That's the heart of the matter, along with explaining the expenses with seven and a half million of overhead, okay? In my opinion, which is not a legal opinion, inquiring about expenditures I previously mentioned as well as sourcing medical claim data would be sufficient. Thank you, and I'll just leave my cards here in case anyone wants to get in touch. >> Thank you, Daniel. Uh Jill Hyland. No one filled in the second spot. I'm sorry. Someone apparently wanted to be fifth also cuz they skipped number four. That's what it's all come down to. Good evening, everybody. My name's Jill Hyland. I live in Brunswick and teach here at Freeport High School. Privilege

011is when you think something is not a problem because it does not affect you personally. RSU 5 says that equity is at the center of our new strategic plan, yet we are cutting a position that supports our most vulnerable students. We are cutting a position that's vital to multilingual students' daily success. We are cutting a position that is protected by laws, just like special education. When we remove that support from students whose voices are the easiest to overlook, that's not equity. That is the privilege of others. I'm speaking maybe for the last time tonight about the decision to reduce the ESOL staffing from three teachers to two. Our team has proposed to the board to reduce the position by 0.5. By saving 0.5 of a position, our team will have three people to serve five

012schools. To serve students in a way that is effective, and to serve students in a way that they deserve. In the first meeting, I spoke of our new ELL plan and how it protects our students. I spoke that if we made this cut, we would not be in compliance. My comments were dismissed, which again shows the perspective of privilege, not awareness of the reality this district faces. In the second meeting, I spoke of structure and how if we made this cut, two teachers will not be able to adequately serve our students. This point, too, was dismissed. What does all this dismissal say about the value our community places on multilingual learners? When I arrived at RSU, there was barely a program in place. Schools were not in compliance. There were no individual language acquisition plans.

013There was no viable ELL plan. Students cannot be adequately supported with the bare minimum of teaching staff. Over the past 4 years, when appropriate staffing has been prioritized, we have watched students thrive. It doesn't make sense to return to the bare minimum. Now kids are working, getting what they need. Now kids are pushing themselves and are invested. This is what equity looks like. This is what priority looks like. The RSU 5 administrative team has proposed this cut and the ESOL team has opposed this cut. Admins aren't there. They're not in the rooms. They're not in the classrooms. They're not driving between buildings, talking to parents, caring for students, building trust, and doing the work. Admins will see this result on paper. The students will see this result of the cut in their grades, in their

014understanding, in their trust, and in their everyday reality. This is the work that I live and breathe. This is the work that I was brought here to do. And this is the work that I will never give up on. These students are the students that I will continue to advocate for. The reality of this cut is that we're going back on our promises as a district. Tonight, if we cut this position, we are living in privilege, not in equity. >> Thank you, Joe. Casey Ellis. >> Good evening. My name is Casey Ellis. I live in Freeport, and I have two children in our school system. I was formerly a high school math teacher, and I have a master's degree in educational policy. I'm here tonight to speak out against cuts in staffing that this budget

015proposes. No one wants to cut teaching positions. So, let's get creative. Let's think outside the box. And let's see if there are a few places in this budget where we can tighten our belts. Let's say it costs the district district around $100,000 per teacher position. On computer materials, we spend $345,000 on MacBooks. Funding from the main learning technology initiative fully covers the cost of Chromebooks, whereas MacBooks cost about $500 per student. I asked my son, a seventh grader, if he would be comfortable using a Chromebook instead of a MacBook, especially if it would save teachers' jobs. Without hesitation, he said, "Absolutely." Another consideration is purchased professional services. A vague category, but I believe it accounts for things like consulting, testing, training, legal services. Some of these feel unnecessary at a time when we are tightening

016the budget and trying to save teachers' jobs. We have $249,000 allocated for purchased professional services across the district. $114,000 of that is spent at the superintendent's office. Let's cut back on purchased professional services and save a couple of teachers instead. For instructional supplies and books, we spend close to $400,000 annually. Keep in mind, the single most important thing we can do for our kids is to keep a teacher. If we were to cut this spending in half, we could gain back two teaching positions. To recap, if we trim back the budgets for computer materials, purchased professional services, instructional supplies and books, we could save six teacher positions. Grade one, grade two, grade three, French, Latin, math. And this is just the tip of a $47 million iceberg. You cannot tell me with a straight face

017that there are no other places we could make cuts. For future budget considerations, two more actions we can take. One, let's put a pay cap on the salaries of our highest paid administrators. Two, let's offer an early retirement option for our teachers who are close to retirement age. Both would offer budget relief during this difficult time. You all have the power to do something here. One person among you has the power to affect change. Don't approve this budget as it stands. Make a motion to make a change. We don't want to lose any of our incredible teachers. Thank you. >> Thank you, Casey. Emily Sampson. >> My name is Emily Sampson and I'm a Durham resident. I'd like to share my thoughts about the possible school redistribution, particularly the benefits I see from scenario two.

018If the efficiencies gained from co-locating pre-K eventually make full-day pre-K or on-site full-day care possible, that would significantly expand equitable access to high-quality early childhood education, not to mention a better experience for threes and fours with IEPs. For families with two working parents in Durham and Pownal, there are very few full-day options to bridge the half-day program, and I think the number of transitions required for a half-day program detracts from the value that the curriculum provides today. There will be even That will be even more important now that kids will need to attend pre-K to receive services they previously could have received at their regular daycare, which I think is a great idea, but it would have been very challenging to manage for our family. I also strongly support earlier middle school integration for all

019the social, academic, and operational reasons Superintendent Gray outlined. I have a lot of empathy for people in Pownal right now. However, I am detecting a fear that moving to DCS would mean a lower quality education for their children. I want to share that everything the commenters have shared that they love and consider unique about Pownal, caring teachers and staff, a strong culture cultivated over decades of consistent leadership, an active parent community, beautiful outdoor space, and ample outdoor time are all things I love about DCS. While I don't put much weight on rankings, all of our district's elementary schools are in the top 10% of Maine with relative ranking varying by source. I also appreciate what DCS's slightly larger size offers things that Pownal students could benefit from, enough classes per grade to give flexibility with

020teacher-student matches to address tricky social dynamics and to help kids find their social circle. It also means more administrative and instructional resources. Personally, there were moments when my children would have been underserved in a one class per grade model, something I might not have recognized without exposure to a slightly larger school environment. If Durham and Pownal join, the combined school would have grade sizes similar to Freeport's, still very small by local comparisons. That would expand our clubs, sports, and cultural opportunities for both towns. A Pownal parent mentioned recently that they hadn't heard people speaking in support of scenario two. I have heard many people ranging from very excited to feeling like this is the best plan in a tough situation, but it feels uncomfortable to stand up here and say that when it's already going

021to be explored and our friends and neighbors have reacted so negatively to the idea. I wish we weren't in a cost constrained environment, but we are and we're seeing the impact of inefficient that inefficient school distribution play plays out this year. Where Durham and Freeport are experiencing serious cuts to teachers including elementary classroom teachers, while Pownal cannot share that burden. And finally, I want to say this directly. I care deeply about my friends and the community of Pownal and your children and I cannot change the fact that DCS is 10 minutes away, but I would love the opportunity to build a new community together and I'm confident your children would thrive in a combined school. Thank you for your time and everything you do for our students. >> Thank you, Emily. Wyatt Pillsbury. >> All

022right, my name is Wy Hi, my name is Wyatt Pillsbury. I'm a seventh grader at Freeport Middle School. I have gotten a lot of people at my school to sign this petition to save French and world cultures from getting cut from the school budget. 86 students and five teachers teachers have signed this petition. A lot of people at my school were very surprised that French and world cultures were getting cut. For me and my classmates, French is one of the most enjoyable classes in the entire school. Even if you don't know French very well, you can still have a lot of fun. I also believe that it's important to learn about other languages and cultures. A lot of my classmates seemed upset because French is such an enjoyable subject. Our French teacher is such a

023kind person who is always making the day better. Thank you. >> Thank you, Wyatt. John Jakes. I feel like we always put you after a hard act to follow, John. I'm sorry about that. >> Nice nice job. That was really really powerful. Good stuff having students come in. So, I'm John Jakes. I'm from Freeport. Um I have Nico, who is in 11th grade, and Henry graduated in 2017. And um I am also here to, like this woman shared, advocate for you not passing the budget tonight, that you put it off and do a little bit more work to find some other cuts that we can make, and there were some really good fresh ideas, I thought, shared about that tonight. So, uh you've proposed a 7% increase in next year's school budget. Considering the current

024situation, I believe that is an acceptable number. What is not acceptable is gutting our foreign language program and reducing upper-level math. That would also eliminate computer science. At FHS, currently, we offer French, Spanish, and Latin. At this middle school, at our middle school, we offer French and Spanish. And this should be maintained. Um this young man spoke very eloquently about the middle school French program. It's extremely important. Um your proposal could very well lead us into a Spanish-only school system. This could also mean reduced enrollment as families choose other schools instead of Freeport High. The hit to our reputation can have economic consequences, making our declining enrollment situation worse. As I have stated before, I feel that the current teacher cuts are unwise and should not go forward. Uh the FMS French position should be

025retained as well as the FHS Latin position. We should restore the FHS math teacher position, too. Ed techs will unfortunately have to be scaled back. Cuts here are unfortunately needed to present prevent a 10% hike in property taxes. And I'm going to digress from my prepared remarks there. I don't We all would like to save everything for sure. But we do understand the reality. A 10% increase would probably not pass. And we would be in a bad position. I do think you would run the risk of not having a budget pass for also cutting these teaching positions that are so important to somebody. So there's several of these that I think what ones that I'm advocating for people are advocating for the different positions. But these I think are critical for it to pass. And

026we all want the budget to pass. And so 7% seems reasonable. There's going to be some hard cuts, but I don't think taking the foreign language hit the way it is is the way to go. There's other places we can find the money. Back to my comments here. Um I'm also making several other suggestions for areas to cut. Technology first and foremost, the RSU should not spend any more money purchasing Apple products. MacBooks or iPads should be phased out. Chromebooks should be purchased at a new lower cost. A new lower cost and the district technology plan should be developed. Um and we are working with Google products already. The Google Classroom, our students are using that. Runs perfectly on Chromebook. The Chromebook has the functionality that we need in order to, you know, keep our

027programs going. Um there's a whole another discussion. Do we want to continue with one-to-one? There's some debate around that, but the cost savings for the Chromebook is kind of a no-brainer. You know, to go there. Um I want to thank Superintendent Gray for providing me with the energy efficient contract from ESCO. I reviewed it yesterday. Uh in July 2025, the district signed a contract for $3 million to save money on energy, a noble cause. Unfortunately, this was a very costly and perhaps unnecessary expense in my opinion. Frankly, I'm mystified about the cost of this efficiency uh expense report um you know, this this to I know I'm taking over my time, so I'll skip forward a little bit. Uh I'm not sure that the $3 million needs to be spent. As I read the contract

028um it there are opportunities for that contract to be the change of the uh scope of the work to be changed, so there could be some savings that we can get out of that $300,000 contract. That's a big big chunk of money. Uh transportation is another area for reducing spending. It's unfortunate that we might have to run older buses, vans, and mowing equipment, but it's better than cutting teacher programs. Uh these are fairly painless cuts. Uh I understand the energy efficient contract was signed less than a year ago under a previous superintendent. Um but I think, you know, finding these additional cuts to restore these uh teaching positions um is they're just too important to cut. Um my last point is that uh most costly of our long-term financial problems is maintaining the Panel School.

029I don't think it is cost-effective to keep it open, not as a K-6, nor as a preschool. Sending all of our smallest children to Panel I know this is just one proposal. Uh means longer car bus rides uh for children. As a parent, I would not send my three- or four-year-old to Panel on a long bus ride. As I stated last week during my public comments, Panel has the ability to withdraw RSU and maintain its town school. Uh that is an option. Uh not a great option, but it is an option if if they are adamant that the school should not be closed. They have an they have a way out. Uh I appreciate your consideration of my suggestions. I also recognize the amount of time you spend serving as a school board member. Not

030an easy job in tough economic times. You do very important work, and it's most appreciated. Thank >> Thank you, John. Okay, so that was all I had for the sign up. I'll give folks a second. See if the spirit moves them. Okay. So we will continue on. We will still have the public input portion of the budget if someone wanted to ask a question. We can certainly take that up. But in the meantime, we will move to item eight, which is the report from the superintendent. >> Good evening, everybody. Okay. So tonight's big night. I'd like to start by reflecting on the conversations that I've been having with our communities in the RSU about this idea of long-term potential reconfiguration. And the most important thing I want to talk about is to share the experience

031I had on Monday evening when I went out to Pownal and attended the select board meeting there. And I had done that in Durham prior to that. The Durham meeting was very heavily attended as I mentioned, but I think that was mostly for the the dump night issues, not so much for me. I think in Pownal it was different. There were it was standing room only there and there was another room that I wasn't even in where it was being televised, so there were lots of folks. Um It was 3 hours long roughly. Um It was very thoughtful. It was very candid. There were lots of questions and concerns, which are totally understandable as we consider this potential facilities and demographic study and the direction that we may go in as a district. Um I

032really want to say that I appreciated the tone with which I was received cuz I don't mind admitting I was nervous walking in. Um but people were very, very respectful and curious and really engaged in a very healthy way and I appreciated that personally very much. Um, and I could tell that people want to approach this issue with a lot of intention and thought. And that's the way we'll get where we need to go. Um, and there were a few themes that I picked up on strongly and also a few things that I said that I would bring back to this body so I want to cer- certainly follow through on those promises. Um, first when I was there, there is definitely a clear interest in showing that as a board you all are explicit

033about the values that will guide future decisions. And you may remember that in a previous meeting I suggested that it would be a good and profitable exercise for us to take some of our agenda time and talk about the values that would underlie your own your own personal values and then talk about how they intersect as a board as we go forward. I still think that that's a worthwhile idea and to do that publicly, to articulate what what matters most to you as members of the board and to the district and then how you would weigh your values when you think bring them to bear on important decision. Um, that would be difficult but it would help this work. And I think it would help us continue to mold a shared framework for decision-making over

034time. So I recommend that we dedicate some time on our work plan this year, which we still have some time left, to engaging with a weighted values tool. There are many. If you aren't familiar with that, we can talk about it. You can Google it. There's all kinds of stuff to consider. That would frame some candid conversation about values. It would not be a vote. It It not be a binding decision. It would be you as a board talking in front of the community so that they can understand what your thinking is. It would support transparency, reflection, and discussion. So, I will work with Jenny to look at the work plan and figure out when that might work. Um and if you have questions or concerns about that, please email me, but for me, that's

035a priority. Um second theme that came out of that meeting is a strong desire for clarity about timeline. And that is that's also very understandable. Many of the folks in Panel are concerned about the outcome, but the concern is actually magnified by uncertainty about when and how decisions might be made. And so, to that end, my recommendation is that this spring, we focus on laying foundations. First, talking about weighted values, but second and more concretely, the task in front of us now is to develop a clear and thoughtful RFQ for a facilities and demographic study, and then again, publicly discussing how that demographics what that RFQ would include. Now, I want to add a caveat to that. I don't think it would be a good idea for us to try to create a document together

036as a board. I think that working with the administrators and the facilities committee, I would like to bring you a really, really strong draft and have you provide input on that rather than try to write a document together as a board. But, that doing that publicly is not necessarily a step we would take for every RFQ we put out there, but I think for this one, given the stakes of the conversation, that would be highly valuable. And then, once that work is completed, what we have to do is be patient because the purpose of that is to get objective opinions and perspective on the data we would need to make any informed decision and that takes a lot of time. I would predict that we would have that I would hope that we would have

037that by early next winter. So we're talking the better part of a year. And um I I also want to be very clear about another aspect of timing which is that we should not try to merge a decision about configuration with the timeline for any other major decision. I.E. early childhood. I think that you know, understandably when I presented scenarios one of the benefits of scenario two in particular was that it presents a nice solution for early childhood needs and we are on a timeline for bringing three-year-olds into the district by the fall of 2027. That does not mean we should try to re to rush our reconfiguration conversation to match that timeline. We will find a solution for three-year-olds whether we reconfigure the district or not. We might not find the best long-term one

038but it would not it just simply would not do to try to ram through a decision on anything because of early childhood. Each process needs its own independent and due consideration. And I also feel related to that it's important to reinforce that we have not made any decisions about reconfiguration. The scenarios that I shared earlier this year were starting points for conversation. They were what the administrative team and I thought of in the time between November and January when I presented February when I presented. Um and there was no vote by the board. There was discussion by the board and granted that discussion did signal enthusiasm for one idea that had been raised that evening, but as I said then and I I need to continue to say, there are many possible paths forward including

039many that haven't even been thought up yet. Um and one that I did not mention in my original presentation, but should really be thought about more carefully is redistricting, which would simply be drawing the lines on the map within the district differently so that potentially students from pre-Freeport or Durham attend Pownal. Um we have not fully run down that thought process yet. But we we should in the course of things. So, I feel it's incumbent upon me, but also upon us to keep communicating that this is a broad and open exploration of possibilities. It is not at this point narrowing toward an outcome. That's probably a next-year conversation. And the more we can lower the temperature of the conversation, we will more we will build trust. Um and make sure that people feel good about

040our process. I would also like to offer a reminder that came up in conversation after the meeting. Um when we talk about the impact of any of these ideas that have been discussed across the towns, we really have to bear in mind that the lines on the map, the lines that define Freeport, Pownal, and Durham don't exist on the earth, they exist on paper. We all live here. We are all connected. All the schools in this district are excellent schools. Every single one of them, I'd be proud to send my kids there. And any of our students would be very well served in any of those schools. And I think it's very important to hold that value as we continue to talk about this. Um because it's a shared responsibility to keep that tone. And

041when it's all over, no matter where this lands, whether one town stays, whether one town goes, where we have pre-K, where we have this, where we have that, we're all going to see each other at Shaw's at some point. And we need to be able to shake hands. So, that leads to a broader point. Um I would like to encourage everybody, leaders, students, community members, um to speak about all the schools with respect and appreciation because every school in the district matters. Every community in the district contributes to who we are. And maintaining that sense of shared purpose is really vital for us to go forward together. I also want to touch on the strategic planning process, which of course has been underway since roughly this time last year. So, as we move forward, it

042is important to ensure that the strategic plan reflects the reality that these discussions about possible reconfiguration are part of the landscape. Last fall and last spring, when we were having focus groups and surveys, these ideas had not been laid on the table. And so, they weren't part of those formative parts of the discussion. And I've talked with our facilitators at Great Schools Partnership about a way to ensure that now that they are on the table, they have to be part of what's considered by the strategic planning committee. So, that is not to say that the strategic planning committee should be making decisions about how we reconfigure, but it does mean at this point that that committee needs to create space within the plan for an ongoing process, for ongoing conversation about these important topics. Um

043not predetermining any outcome, but we just need to make sure that that thread is in the plan. Uh, the committee meets again this Friday morning, and that will certainly be part of conversation. And finally, the budget. I'm going to say something that you might find funny now because I found it really funny. The sentence that I wrote in my predetermined my my remarks is, "If all goes as planned, you will adopt a budget this evening." But whoever put this binder together for me crossed out "If all goes as planned" and wrote "You will adopt a budget this evening." >> It wasn't me. >> So, you will adopt a budget this evening. That is no small thing. >> to you if we don't. >> Um, the process that brought you here has This has been a

044lot. This has been a lot for certainly for me. You'll notice the administrative team is not here tonight. I think they've I think they've paid their dues. I told them to stay home tonight. If there are questions, I will do my best to answer them without backup. Um, it's certainly been a lot for teachers. It's been a lot for the board members. I just I know that it's a lot and it has required a lot of endurance. And we're all sitting with very difficult trade-offs. And there are any number of really good perspectives on what the best trade-offs are. And now's the time when we need to decide what the trade-offs will be. Um, I know it's really hard. And I just want to say that if it felt easy, I would be worried about

045that. This should be a really hard decision because it's not an easy situation. It's not a budget that you can just sort of pass on in the way that often we can. Um and a decision like this involves a lot of tension and I don't even think that the tension between individuals is the hardest tension. It's the internal tension that now is rests with you. Um but that tension is not a sign that we failed, it's just a sign that we care. And there's been a lot of disagreement as we've gone through this process and the disagreement is healthy. The disagreement is okay. Um disagreement is far less toxic than groupthink. So I'm thankful we don't have that. And we can disagree and we can go on and respect the board's decision. Certainly my goal

046has been to represent the administrative perspective transparently. Um to provide information that is accurate to the best of my knowledge and to offer the recommendations that I think with as many inputs as I could gather that are the best set of trade-offs. And I um I respect different opinions about that. And I certainly respect your role as the deciders. So I want to thank you for the way you've approached the work. You've shown a lot of curiosity, a lot of respect, a lot of genuine commitment to making sure this district is healthy for the long term. And I think that the district is well served by that spirit. So thank you. Before I'm finished they're not printed on your agenda, but there are a couple of resignations that I need to report to you. Cheryl

047Sleeper, who is the Mass Landing School RTI MTSS math teacher has resigned. And Martin Huertas, who is the Durham Community School EdTech bench sub, has also resigned. >> Thank you. Okay, so we are at the public input portion of the of the agenda around the budget. I know most of most of the commentary um from public comment was surrounded the budget as well. I don't think we had anyone that deferred to the budget portion, but I will give people an opportunity if they wanted to get up and speak. Um same rules apply. We just ask that you give us your name and where you're from. Is that 7 seconds? I think that's the the amount of time you're supposed to wait to Okay. Thank you. All right, so we will move on to item 10,

048which is administrator reports. And the only one we have for this evening is finance, Kelly. >> I sometimes feel like a broken drum. Um beat the same one all the time. Um included in your packet this evening are the expenditures through February um for the district expenditures and revenue. Um we do appear to be on track to where we were last year. I don't have any concerns or issues at this particular time. Um but while I'm up here, I will take the opportunity under my report out to talk about an emergency situation that's originate Mass Landing School. It was part of supposed to be part of the superintendent's report out. Um but um I if you don't mind as a board, I will allow it I will ask if you um Director Reynolds will be

049able to come up and talk about that situation. Um So I do feel that within some of the the underperforming lines within the facilities budget we will be able to cover the repair, but I will let Mr. Reynolds talk about the repair. >> Good evening everyone. Glenn Reynolds, Director of Facilities. So as Kelly alluded to, fortunately we had a situation over at Mass Landing where the hot water high efficiency hot water boiler system has failed. Um we do have two quotes. I do have uh from CCB and Mechanical Services. Um present that with Kelly. We'll sit down and go over them and select a vendor, but right now uh currently the building excluding the kitchen there is a hot water boost for the kitchen, so the dishwasher does have hot water, but the building as

050a whole does not currently have hot water until we can get this fixed. We do have two of these types in the district over at Mass Landing and over at the middle school. Took delivery to have Mechanical Services go over and do a inspection of the current one over at the middle school. That one's currently okay, but unfortunately just due to age, wear and tear, we just ended up losing the one over at Mass Landing. Any questions? >> Always. Um uh the Was this on the um the list of projects over the next few years to be consi- >> Not on the So it was a what the boiler itself was not identified during the original audit, but the tank the holding tank was. The holding tank is a concrete line tank and it leaks.

051So that was on the list to make uh for phase two to replace. Unfortunately now that the boiler has failed we would replace that entire system as a whole. >> Uh do you have a rough estimate of of costs? >> I do. One from CCB is around 23,000 and the estimate from Mechanical services is 34. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Louis. >> Go ahead. >> Can you tell me, please, what the required temperature is for hot water in a school? >> So, for the the the basic temp for one school is 165. Now, that varies on the size of the school. So, the larger the school, the farther the classroom, you have to bump up the temperature at the tank to have that required temperature for the classroom. So, we usually set

052it around 200. So, the temperature at the farthest out point will get to the required temperature. >> So, am I understanding you to say that there is no hot water in any of those classrooms? >> That is correct, ma'am. >> How are you dealing with that if the standard is to have hot water in the classroom? >> With without that system, we do not have it. The only hot water that we do have is we have a hot water boost for the dishwasher in the kitchen, so we can sanitize the equipment. But, as far as the classroom, until that system gets replaced, we do not have it. >> Do the classrooms have water in in the class I mean, I know >> They have sinks. Yeah. So, they have >> All of them? >> Uh

053yes. Yeah. Same thing over at Palona, same thing over at uh More Street. Yeah. >> And how quickly uh could this get fixed? >> Mechanical services, the equipment is in South Portland, CCB. When they looked when they talked to their supplier, it wasn't in stock, but they were looking for an ETA to see if they can get it overnighted. I did not get that information prior to tonight's meeting, whether or not they could have it overnighted or not. >> And then, how long does it take to install? >> We can start the We If we get Once we get approval and sign it, we can start the dismantle of the current system tomorrow, and we could have the new system up and running by Wednesday of next week. >> Is the hot water boost to

054the kitchen, is that something we had to temporarily install or is that just something that we normally have? In other words, did we have to pay money to get that in the place? >> so that that's a separate system. It basically it it's a miniature hot water system within the hot water system to get the temperature for that dishwasher to required temp. So, it's just a hot water boost. So, it'll just boost the temp up to 210, 220, whatever for that particular machine needs for for temperature for hot water. Yeah. >> Are we replacing like for like here then or is this an opportunity that we can do something with more technology? >> Absolutely. Yeah, so that that technology at the time, I mean that that one system that failed was running roughly around 80

055uh excuse me 95 to 98% efficiency. Very good piece of equipment, just age got it. So, we took the the liberty to see what else is out there and what they're proposing is high-end efficiency equipment, much like we did when we replaced the boiler here at the high school when we replaced the 50-year-old, we installed two high-end Viessmann efficiency boilers. We did the same thing over at Pownal when we replaced that boiler, we installed two high-end efficiency Viessmanns. Before, they only had one. Now, we have two, so we have some redundancy. If one boiler goes down, the other one can carry carry the load until we're able to get that fixed. Um so, we're taking every opportunity when systems fail to look for high-end efficiency equipment. >> Would the new one you're putting in have

056that redundancy for Mass Landing or no? >> No, not for the hot water system, no. But, I mean typically that's all it serves is just the hot water. So, >> So, it's not the heating for the >> Exactly right. That's completely separate. It's a stand-alone just for hot water. So, life expectancy out of that is twice as much out of a regular heating system. Yeah. >> Did I see a hand over there? >> It was me, but you asked my question. >> I thought I saw another one. Okay. Well, we look to to expeditiously get this >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> Was that it for you, Kelly? >> Yeah, so I just wanted to clarify there's been there have been two employees that have been out on workers comp that we haven't been paying

057for. So, that's where um the two custodial positions. So, that's where the money's going to come from to cover the the cost of the replacement water heater in the emergency situation. >> So, we're not looking to access the capital reserve for any of this. We're able to cover this with the existing >> I scrubbed the numbers and was able to to find it within the local budget itself. >> Good. Other questions for Kelly or Glenn? Thank you. All right. So, we will move on to board comments and committee reports. Uh board information exchange agenda requests. I know we have a few of the committees uh here for report out, but if we have other other members that are on other committees that want to share an update, happy to hear it. No? We've done enough

058sharing. Oh, Cara. >> Well, I will just say that we do have a strategic communications committee meeting on Monday, I believe. And if anyone has any suggestions or proposals or feedback on communications, then we're happy to hear those by email ahead of time at [email protected]. Thank you. >> Um all right. So, we will move on to Oh, yeah. I do have another question. And I know I've emailed about this, but I'm I'm >> Oh, AI? >> Yes. I know at the board retreat we had talked about AI being as part of our work plan this year talking about about that. And I'm wondering if that like when we might be talking about that roughly so that we can be prepared to come to the board to discuss. >> Well, we already had a whole presentation

059on it in the fall. So, I think that was the original for what we had at the retreat to add it to the work plan. That I think got satisfied when we did the presentation that Erica and Sam presented. Um but I I do think there was some question about like what's Okay, now what? Like what are the next steps? So, I don't know if that necessarily entailed a whole another presentation to the board or just updates. >> I guess I'd seek clarification about what in addition you we might like to do this year on that topic. >> That's a question for us? >> Yeah, beyond the presentation that that occurred already. >> Well, it sounded like there I mean from the presentation it sounded like there were some some opportunities for learning for staff.

060It It It felt to me like that was kind of the first step of getting, you know, the teaching and the staff more up to speed on potential use cases or proper usage. Um and then the next step would be Okay, then what does the curriculum look like for students? Um That was kind of what I took away from it. I don't know what others did. Looking at Maria, but I don't think she was on the board yet. I think it was before before you were elected. >> So, can I return to that at another meeting after I confer with the team? Okay. >> Yeah, and I appreciate that summary, Michelle. I I didn't remember what next steps we had talked about. So, I'm curious if anyone else on the board has any thoughts on

061what direction we should be going with that or what decisions you might be needing to make. >> I thought we had talked about in addition to the staff learning pieces thinking about maybe an AI committee and talking about but I I don't seem to recall exactly what that discussion was going to be about with the committee. >> I actually had a similar but different I thought we were doing something that was going to be incorporated with our um education around the cell phone policy and trying to have the stewardship of trying to disconnect from our devices be also integrated with our AI education and having all of that be in one technology kind of bucket, I guess. >> Yeah. >> What Kelly just said, which I think is is right. Sort of the the concept

062of the digital citizenship piece, right? The >> Thank you, Kelly. >> Um clearly we all should probably go back and rewatch that meeting to remember what we walked away from it. I remember there was a lot of really good information that felt uh like like a lot and so I'm guessing that may be why we all kind of left with little different tidbits on what um what we were going to do next, so. Colin. >> Yeah, I mean I think um I would like to go back and look at that look at that video, um but I do remember being personally being annoying about a thing, so I'll just be annoying about it again. Um which is that I think one of the flags that I threw up was um just a cautionary uh note

063about taking uh as we go forward taking the lion's share of our guidance on AI policy from uh institutions that gain monetarily from AI, including uh MIT. Um and so I think that was one of the things that um that I, a board member, um asked that we look at is just if as we are thinking about how I mean one of the things I do remember us saying in uh one of the in the presentation um was that a lot of staff just feels not trained um in how to incorporate either in how to incorporate AI uh well, how to incorporate AI pedagogically, but also how to understand the benefits and risks um thereof. And um so as we do that to not be looking uh to the people who want to sell it

064to us um for how we would use it. >> I remember that, too. Thank you. Okay, so you'll come back to us with >> Yeah, I mean I remember these conversations, too. The strongest thread that I remember was the digital citizenship, the intention for direct attention to digital citizenship, particularly in connection with the cell phone policy. And we definitely need to flesh that out. We haven't turned our attention to that yet since that meeting. Um but I would say that focusing on AI needs to be a priority as we go forward. >> So thank you for reminding us, Cara. All right, any other before we move into committee reports? All right, so first up is uh we have the finance committee from February. Um so, uh we met on February 25th. We meet just prior

065to the board meetings, the second meeting of the month. Um, we, uh, discussed the assistant director for the early childhood special education, uh, component. That we spoke about that prior to the board voting to, uh, create that position. Uh, we also talked about the beginnings of the facility study, um, starting to prepare that RFQ that Superintendent Gray mentioned. Um, and so we had sort of a draft and that we were going to continue to refine. And it sounds like we'll be sharing that with the board in advance of, of, um, its release. Um, we did our annual cost sharing review where, uh, so you guys may or may not recall that, um, the review of the cost sharing formula, um, spanned many, many, many years. And, um, probably 2 years ago we sort of came

066down to a, um, a view of, um, how to look at sort of total contributions of our current, uh, cost sharing formula to the district by town. Um, and, um, and it felt, uh, from the board at that time that that that felt like a fair way to, um, to ensure that it was a fair formula for for the communities. Um, and part of that decision a few years ago was that on an annual basis we would sort of rerun those same calculations to make sure that things hadn't gone out of whack as it relates to contribution versus, um, uh, students in the district. And I believe that the review this year showed pretty similar, um, pretty close correlation between those calculations. So, um, the finance committee felt like that that met the met the

067standard um for our review. So, that was So, we'll do that again next year, but that we did take take that up in February. Insurance bidding update, so um not not to be confused with the health insurance piece. The finance committee this year has we are in the process of sending our um uh um property and casualty liability insurance out to bid. And so, the finance committee is working through that process right now. And in the in the minutes you'll see kind of the the steps of that process. We sent out a questionnaire for interested parties to provide information back for an RFQ to see if they're qualified. So, committee I'm going to give you a little teaser for the next minutes. We met tonight and we did get those qualification packages. So, we will

068continue to move on to sending out bid packages, which will be come back to the finance committee in the district, will get scored, and then we'll continue on with that process through May. And then we just did a budget review for where we were at that point in time in February. Feels like forever ago. And then our next meeting was actually this evening. There's our finance update. Yeah. >> Did you say what kind of insurance? >> Property and casualty. Yeah. So, this this is the insurance that covers obviously all of the buildings, etc. All of our vehicles. It also includes the educator um uh, liability, sometimes called school board liability, but often times the claims under that are actually not related to the school board. It's more, um, special education items. Um, so, our cyber,

069our cyber coverage, all of those things are part of this insurance. >> Just because, um, Dan came again to speak, I'm just wondering, what's the latest update on the health insurance and >> Um, I guess I'll look to Kelly to that. I don't know the frequency with which we're um, expected to send that out to bid. Um, I do know our contract specifically discusses the the current insurance that we have. Um, so, I don't know if that would that would be a challenge to change that insurance given given the contract. Um, >> So, we talked about it at the finance committee on October 22nd. Um, >> just pull that date out of like >> Well, again, remember I told you I had looked it up. So, it was October 22nd, 2025 when we actually talked

070about it. Um, and I I have to go back and review the finance committee meeting minutes from it, but I had sent out a survey to all of our out to my, uh, business managers listserv network that we have, um, through the state of Maine. I got 53 respondents. All 53 are currently using the MEA Benefits Trust. None of them had, um, I asked the question, had you varied from it and come back? We didn't get any of those. Um, we went over an analysis of the breakdown between the employee portion of the cost of health insurance the in the employer portion of the cost insurance during that meeting. And then, where we settled was is that we would like the MEABT Trust to actually a representative from the trust to actually come and talk

071about the process because part of what they undertake um throughout the the um the year is is actually they go out and and do kind of like the looking into all of the other cost plans and they kind of do their own form of bidding much like we're doing with our general liability. So, we wanted to get a better understanding of that process. So, it's on Kelly to actually reach out and set that appointment up and I have unfortunately not done that cuz budget kind of took over. Sorry. So, >> overtaken her life. >> Kelly, I know you're doing so much. So, thank you. No. Okay. Wasn't Wasn't sure if you're putting your hand up. Um okay. Thank you. Um Yeah, and I guess one thing that popped out in my mind from uh our

072public comment earlier about that when they were talking about fiduciary duty of the trustees. We are members of that trust. We are not trustees of that trust. There is a board, I imagine very similar to the property and casualty trust board, that are trustees that are that do have that fiduciary duty to for um you know, to to look into uh all of those items. Um I am sort of cognizant of what Colin just said about asking the person who's selling you something to do the background check to make sure what they're selling you is good. Is it you know, it's a fair It's a fair comment um on both AI and the insurance piece. Um but it'll uh it'll certainly be a question that we pose when when they come to our finance committee

073meeting. I know she couldn't help it. Lois. >> Can't help it. Sorry. I sat on on truck. I remember to turn it on. Um I sat on the trust for a number of years. And if you're concerned about I don't know how to put this exactly, so I'll try to do what you did. If you're concerned about the person or the the group representing Benefits Trust selling you something the trust purchases the health insurance from Anthem and does do a thorough read through and puts it out to bid and so every few years I I can't even remember. Sorry, it's probably every 5 years they put it out to bid. Maybe it's every four. Um so just going to defend the Benefits Trust for a minute here. So um I think you can trust them.

074Thank you. Okay. Um as usual I've lost my agenda. All right, facilities, Kelly. So Michelle and Karen, if you have anything to add since you were at the meeting, please jump in where appropriate. Facilities and Operations Committee met on Wednesday, March 11th at 5:00 prior to the board meeting and at that time Director Reynolds gave us an update on the FHS tennis courts, told us that the site survey is underway, core sampling should it was going to be happening. Has it happened yet? Not, but it will be happening soon. Yeah, right. Lots of snow, lots of cold. Um they went over a preliminary layout of the current three court layout and also a possible four court replacement option. They the committee reviewed and discussed early concept estimates for two different types of materials, asphalt and

075post-tension courts. And the women's tennis coach, Molly Meyer, gave the committee an update on additional steps that might need to be taken if we were to apply and receive a USTA grant application. And so that will include additionally some technical review of the original set of drawings, final review of all the bid documents by USTA before bidding can commence. And of course, that might push the timeline back a little bit. Um Director Reynolds was also asked to provide some information additional information on the layout of the courts and the possibility of using a curtain instead of fencing between the courts. Anything else to add on that? Nope. Okay. Energy audit phase one project update. Um Glenn Reynolds told the committee that the lighting vendor it was currently working at Freeport Middle School and will be

076soon moving to Mass Landing. Um he also shared that the lighting project at Mass Landing is complete. When it is complete, the vendor will go to Freeport High School. Um and that's a a little bit of a change due to the length of the time that the lighting project will take and the availab- ability of the S-Pack. So, a little bit of a change there. Um EMC is also preparing an updated phase two projects listing. Uh facilities study update, Director Reynolds shared with the committee a draft of the proposed facilities study request for call of qualifications, the RFQ document. Um and they also shared the overall concept of the facilities study process, which will begin with an overview of all the facilities, determination of the current conditions, the educational analysis of needs, a demographic and

077enrollment study, and community feedback listening sessions. And then once all of that's completed, they will suggest and rank possible space reuse to meet our educational and economic conditions in the next 10 years. And um in order to serve that purpose, our illustrious committee member over here, Karen Breer, shared that she has access to some other RFQ facility study RFQs, and she has since shared them with the committee. So, the committee's going to review any revisions to the RFQ at the next meeting, which will be April 8th. >> Questions on facilities? The light guys didn't break the hot water tank, did they? Okay. Just making sure. All right. So, we will move on to policy. Colin. >> Uh evening. So, we met on uh Thursday, March 5th, uh via Google Meet at 4:15. Um it was

078our uh full uh committee with uh Superintendent Gray and Assistant Superintendent Mazeo. We also don't joined by um Tim Gregoire, um who's a teacher at FHS, um who was there to um talk with us about um the policy that we're going to be talking about a little bit later tonight, IMB, uh teaching about controversial issues, and I'll talk a little bit more about his feedback on that. Um but we talked about um JJIF, student concussions and other head injuries, um and the uh accompanying concussion information sheet, which is um a a policy we're bringing before you tonight that's based on um, law change. Uh, we also were going to look at IHBAC which is child fine, but we tabled that until the next meeting. Um, and then we spent um, a good bit of our

079time talking about IMB, uh, teaching about controversial issues which is a new policy that again we're also bringing uh, for you to read tonight um, for first read. Um, it's not on the uh, this particular piece of paper unless I am blind to it. Um, but we have our next meeting uh, policy committee meeting on Thursday, April 2nd. Um, also at 4:15 p.m. and the link uh, will be online. >> Questions before we move into the actual policy review? Okay. Oh, yeah, sorry. So, curriculum committee met, but we don't have a report in here. Was someone supposed to provide it? Because Danielle George was the former chair and I did not realize was I supposed to do that? Cuz I'm happy to >> You became the chair. Sorry. No, I'm just kidding. >> I was

080there so I could write some notes, but I didn't. >> Yeah, no, that's okay. Um, so so how we have historically done them is certain um, committees will always have the written minutes included for discussion and sort of 11A so board information and agenda request, that's historically and I'm sorry I should have mentioned this, historically where um, if you are on a committee that doesn't that isn't listed, but wanted to provide an update, you certainly could. We have we have done that with Region 10, we've done it with the DEI committee. So, um, if there's something you would like to share about the curriculum committee, we'd love to hear it. But don't feel obligated since you we put you on the spot. >> Good Erica, since she was the one who was really running it.

081>> Do we um do we have minutes? Do do we Do you guys Okay. So, um does it make sense? I mean, we certainly could. I don't uh now we're putting Erica on the spot. >> I passed it. >> Yeah. As I pass the buck, I like that one. Um does it make sense to maybe just pick that up on the next um >> That'd be fine. >> Okay. Yeah, we'll just make sure um we put a note on there to add curriculum so we so we don't forget and so that the minutes get included in the package. All right. >> Um yeah, just quick thing on uh just the uh practice on this. I think could we bring the um uh JEA and JIC for uh just have them be separate motions. I think

082that will be cleaner for the second read. >> Okay. All right. So, do I have consideration and approval for second read for the following policy, JEA compulsory attendance? Valerie and Chris. >> Uh great. So, we're bringing before you tonight um uh JEA compulsory school attendance for second read. Um this is um we did not make any additional changes uh for this. The reason I've um asked to sort of segment it out is just we did get a um very thoughtful email from um uh Maureen Erskine, the um uh FMS nurse, um about some of the wording um in the document and its relationship to um the state law regarding this. So, I just wanted to draw the um draw folks' attention to this um as it's something I know I wanted to talk about if

083there are any other things that that folks would like to talk about on this that arose for you between first reading and second reading we can also talk about that. Um, but Maureen drew attention to on page one of four for JEA under two excusable absences from school. Um, A is listed as personal illness. Um, which on the one hand that is a very clear sort of statement of when the person that you are is ill. That would be a reason to be excused. What Maureen pointed out is that the law the state law of under truancy um, states that excusable absences are excused when the absence is for the following reasons. And then the first one is listed as following. I'm going to quote it. Quote, personal health {comma} including the person's physical, mental,

084and behavioral health. End quote. Um, and so Maureen's uh, I think a very valid point was that when a um, a parent or guardian goes to look at this policy to understand about attendance and what is an excusable um, uh, reason uh, personal illness might not for them um, mean something related to and this is what Maureen particularly noted mental health. Um, even though I I believe that we're getting closer to a culture in some ways that is recognizing mental health as part of sort of personal wellness and in general. So, she just raised the question about that and I said I would bring that before the board. Um, uh, I'm not sure Superintendent Gray if you have any thoughts on that. Initially, um, what I have just to be very blunt, I have no

085um, uh, particular reason to stick with personal illness, I would be fine going with the state's um language, um but if there are any thoughts about that, I would like to hear what they are. >> Since Since you ask, I I have no qualms at all about reiterating language that's, you know, statute. >> Was this the draft from the attorneys? And usually they would pick the same language, right? >> this This was the sample policy from Drummond Woodsum. And I do find it curious, but I'm looking at the language that Maureen forwarded to us, and it I mean, it it's close to what's here. This says personal illness, and the language, as Colin just said, is personal health, including the person's physical, mental, and behavioral health. >> Uh just And just to be clear, the

086other um uh the other B through E, I'm just making sure this is a true statement. Um track uh directly to what is in the state, or I'm not going to say letter for letter, but they track to what is in the um statute. Um and F is additional to that, just to be clear. F is not in the language that Maureen sent. Um meaning that >> law. >> S- Meaning that is not in that particular law. It's not in the truancy law. Um So, what I was going to say, other than the thing Oh, I just was going to make a point that one of the ways um I talked to my students about how um uh Aristotle defines rhetoric as understanding all of the tools at your disposal to convince somebody of something,

087and uh Maureen made a very uh very particular use of rhetoric when she used my own words against me uh in the email by saying that uh she says, "As you say in many a meeting that uh statute trumps uh uh law." And I appreciated I appreciated the attention to detail um on that because indeed it does. So, even if we did say personal illness and a uh and a and a a parent who looked into it um phoned up and said, "Well, I'm not sure if mental health falls under personal illness, but it's protected under the state. I need to have a day off for my child." That would be legally what we would have to be required to do. So, I would move that we change uh a personal illness um to How

088do you want to phrase it? Yeah, maybe just the same. Quote, "Personal health, {comma} including the person's physical, mental, and behavioral health." End quote. >> So, to clarify, are you moving Well, we already have a motion on the table uh I think it's I'm >> Yeah, historically we haven't required a motion. I mean, we've been >> to. >> Okay. You want to vote on it? >> I mean, I I don't I don't It's It's great. Whatever will make Marine Whatever will make Marine happy. >> Yeah. I mean, I think you know, historically we have um you know, tinkered as a technical term with the wording in these policies even at second read um and I think the motion would support what uh said tinkering covers. >> Fantastic. Let's tinker. I would like to tinker in

089that particular way unless Stephanie wants to go fight me about it. >> No, I guess I'm just I'm having a stray thought of was personal ill illness possibly more broad? Intended to be more broad? I I don't see it, but I just the questions in my brain, so I'm asking it. >> Yeah, I mean, from from what when when Marine asked, I didn't remember having a particular conversation from that. I didn't remember um Tom bringing from our council a particular reason why we were saying that. So, I mean, yeah. I mean, I think um I think I think Marine's point is the one that I think I would go with, which is the sort of like um what's what's clearest for parents and guardians to best protect the rights of the students. And so, that

090made sense to me. >> Anna. I just have a clarity question on um e, a planned absence for a personal or educational purpose which has been approved. What does that actually look like? So, you're asking for approval from the school for something, then they approve it, and then you use it as an excusable absence? >> That is usually a vacation. Or a trip, a special trip, a cultural trip that, you know, parents will say, "We're taking our child on the week before April vacation to uh an extended trip to France or whatever." And it's a cultural trip. It's an educational experience. >> Or college visit. >> College visit is a common one. It has to you have to get that approved then ahead of time. And then you ask for the >> No, that that's

091that is the excused absence. So, like when you >> excused. >> Once they say yes, it then becomes excused. Okay. Yeah, I I don't think that's currently being practiced. Well, I think maybe well, maybe depends on the school. Okay. Cuz it certainly is at the high school. Okay. Cuz it used to be at the high school it was like three days. If you're going to be gone three days or more, you had to fill out the um planned absence form. Um and now I think it's actually like if you know ahead of time, one day, like you have to let them know. >> I remember when we had the uh Moore Street report out that Mrs. Nickerson had explicitly called this part of the policy out as something that they typically will excuse one week

092but not two. >> Right. >> And we have been trying to quite frankly tighten up on this because it's it was having a huge impact on our attendance and that has come way down since we've been trying to encourage people to take vacations when school is not in session. >> I've personally used the form for mass landing. Um I had some family matters in western New York, so I had to fill out the form. But all the schools have them. So if you can't find them, they can find them for you. Pick them up the office and >> Yeah, I would I wouldn't even know where to find it myself. They just give it to you. >> I was just going to say other than my not motion motion to change that language, any further

093questions about that unless Valerie had a thing. >> I was just going to say that I really like the more specific language of the health excuse. Um I like calling out the various ways you might be unhealthy. Um because not everybody agrees on that. I think explicitly saying it makes it clearer as a as an end user. >> Chris. >> Um I I also like the behavior health um personal health. I actually think it's a broader term um which I think is a better in this situation. But do you know if it says included but not limited to? >> No. It says personal health including the person's physical, mental, and behavioral health. >> Okay. Did we want to add I mean yes, I don't know what other health there are, but >> Um I mean

094>> I spirit spiritual spiritual health. >> Here's where I would advise you. That's what's in the law. >> Yeah, okay. That makes sense. I kind of like spiritual and financial as as additional health, but I think for the moment let's be conservative and stick with what we have. >> Okay, any other any other questions, comments, recommended adjustments other than that um that sort of a replacement in A. Okay. We have a motion and a second on the floor, so we will vote on this one. This is second read. Uh so all those in favor? None opposed. Thank you. All right, so we'll move on to our other second read which cuz you still want to do that one, right? >> I do very much. >> Okay, great. So do I have a motion for consideration

095and approval for the second read of the following policy JIC student code of conduct. Cara and Steph, thank you. >> Uh we bring bring before you a second read of uh JIC system-wide student code of conduct. We have not made any changes uh to this nor have we been made aware of any concerns about this, so we bring it to you as we left it at first read. >> Thank you for the updates. Sometimes it's hard to remember from a month ago. I do recall this was when we talked about a fair amount cuz there was uh some pretty substantial adjustments from the previous to the new, so um but no uh no changes from first read to second read. Are there any additional questions, comments? All right, then all those in favor? None opposed.

096Thank you. Do you want to do these separate also or are these ones still okay to put together for first read? How many votes you want to have? >> Let's >> Okay, great. Uh all right, so do I have a motion for consideration and approval for the first read for the following policies JJIF student concussion and other head injuries, JJIFE concussion information sheet, and IMB uh teaching about controversial issues new policy. Valerie, thank you. Malik. >> Uh so we bring before you these three um these two policies for first read and accompanying information sheet. Let's talk about JJIF first student concussions and other head injuries. Um this is one that we had with us at the um the committee for a while as we just wanted to make sure we really understood um what the

097law changes were. I'm going to draw out the um uh a few notes here regarding um the major sort of some the major points that came up in terms of the law change. Um and then I'll make a few other points. Um the first is that uh this our new policy has a broader scope um in all of the settings. Um the where and when uh don't matter uh to the same degree that they were in in the previous law. Um this revision requires a written diagnosis of concussion um by a specifically licensed someone specifically licensed uh for concussion management. Um this revision also uh includes uh uh defined terms that were not there uh not previously defined. Um it also outlines a graduated school reentry protocol. Um uh makes clear the district must track

098every concussion. Um the updated form allows us to accomplish um all of the needs that were articulated in the other points that I was bringing up. Um and also just as a point, every employee is required to participate in uh concussion management training um with a recognition that uh concussions occur everywhere and it's not a concussion is not just going to occur in the company of a medical professional. Um so those are the main points. I think just a few other things I wanted to note. One um was that um uh uh Erica and the nursing teams and the trainer have all gone over this and have have given it their sign-off. Um and I also I wrote down a complete sentence here in my notes, which is always something to celebrate. Um it says,

099"We didn't just go with the sample." exclamation point. Um we we really we really got into it. It was old school policy meeting. We really kind of got our got our fingies dirty. Um uh let's see, what else do I want to say? Oh, this was the Maine School Management Association draft um not Drummond. Anything else, Tom, you can remember that we needed to share about this before we ask for any questions? Great. >> So, what was unclear to me, and maybe this is semantics, is I know of at least one student this year who was injured severely during a school vacation week, but did get concussed. Would they then have to step through all of these, or is this applicable to a student that's injured in the course of school business? I would imagine

100we'd want them to still do all of these steps, because it's about the concussion, right? >> Erica was point on this one. >> Yes, I'm not going to try to answer that question. >> So, if a if an injury occurs outside of school, then typically we know about that accompanied with a treatment plan, and we would support the treatment plan. If an injury occurs in school, there are certain protocol we need to follow um to re-enter both school activities and athletic athletic activities, including physical education. So, all of those all with there are pathways for all of these scenarios in the new policy. Um whether those um medical recommendations are provided by the physician or we're working through that here with our staff. >> Yeah, that that was my understanding, and I think on on

101page three of five, um I think the third point on the third third bullet on that is I think where I where I kind of wrapped my head around that, which is the quote, "The student and their parents/guardians will be informed of the referral to a licensed uh healthcare provider for medical evaluation for possible concussion or brain injury before the student is allowed to begin the graduated school re-entry." Uh I'm just going to end the quote there, but also the bullet before that is also referring to any student suspected of having sustained a concussion or other head injury, and note that it does not say at school, um is prohibited from further participation until they're evaluated by the school nurse. So, um so yeah, that was my understanding of how that was meant to work,

102but I think that's a really good question. >> Great. >> It also specifically points out in the front that the board acknowledges that concussions may occur during any activity of the school or outside of the school. So, those concussions would apply cuz we acknowledge that they happen outside of the school, and therefore these points would apply. >> So, I guess my maybe natural follow-up is what happens if our if this occurs and maybe the family doesn't notify the school that this has occurred. What do we have >> That has happened. Um and so, uh, a nurse or another provider. So, at this stage our nurses are trained and our athletic coaches and our athletic trainer is trained in concussion management, signs and symptoms. Starting next year and in accordance with this policy, every staff member

103will have concussion management training as a as part of their portfolio of mandated training. So, anybody would be in likely to see these symptoms and report them um or more people would be sort of aware of the symptoms and in that case we have a protocol in this to address things that aren't made known to us. Just leave it at that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Um, so our our school nurse is authorized to make that written diagnosis? >> You should just stay standing Erica, sorry. >> No. >> Um, yeah, no. They are simply, um, executing the protocol and uh the plans and attending to those, but they are not the medical professionals offering a diagnosis or release. >> So, if if having a concussion requires a written diagnosis and we don't have

104someone who can provide it in-house and a parent chooses not to go seek it uh for any number of reasons, access, cost, whatever. Um, how do we how do we manage that? So, so say we see the symptoms and we recognize this is likely a concussion, but we don't have the written diagnosis that's now required. How do we handle that? >> Um, we can respond to symptoms to the extent that um we know what we're working with, but there is not if in the absence of a diagnosis, our staff will not be making a diagnosis. So then referring to potentially a clinic that provides support at low to no cost or consulting with our district physician. >> But I think also uh, maybe more sort of directly to your point, that student would not be

105allowed to re- return to activities that required this re-entry plan if we if we I mean that would be that's I think that would be the implication. It would be >> to say, "We're even though you don't have the piece of paper, we're pretty sure you have a concussion and you can't go out and play other football games." >> my that's my understanding. >> Yeah, there is a lever if symptomatically the presentation is such that we should we should treat this as if it is a concussion, then we have we have a protocol for that. >> Okay. >> To not allow entry into physical activity or um, school-based activities if they are problematic. >> So what's the goal of the written diagnosis then if we're not we don't need it to enact the policy? >>

106We would not want to be using the policy in lieu of written diagnosis of concussion on a regular basis. We would be utilizing those protocol in these instances where we don't have other medical yeah, recommendations. So that's not where we want to usually be traveling through our process. >> Okay. >> Um, yeah. And there's often treatment plan recommendation accompanying the diagnosis with a sort of prescribed return to the physician for a checkup or expected recovery. >> Okay. And you said Eric was involved in this policy as well. >> Eric as well as Antonio as well as our entire nursing staff. >> Good. Thank you. >> reviewed it as well extensively even though it was written by uh Main School Management. >> They reviewed ours or they reviewed the Main School Management one cuz it sounds

107like we went off script from Main School Management. >> We went off script with the support of Drummond Woodsum. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. >> Other comments or questions on this one before we move to the next? Okay. >> Um I probably should have just Well, at least I mean uh JJIFE is the um parent information sheet and acknowledgement form. I think that logically connect I mean, it not only logically connects, it does connect uh to the um policy we were just talking about. Um and there are minimal changes to that. You'll see that it's underlined. Um and that's a good thing to uh make clear that all concussions are potentially serious. Which we think we should add cuz they are. Love, Colin. Okay, that's the end of that particular one. Let's go to the next

108one. Uh the next one is uh a new policy um IMB, which is teaching about controversial issues. So, this was a um a policy that was suggested um by our uh superintendent. Uh it's a policy that um I believe a number of the districts where you um worked previously um had this and um found it to be important and so brought it to our attention and so we we had a a good long conversation about it and this was also where Tim um Crevois uh from the high school um came to talk about this because um in the context of the um the humanities and and social studies is sort of where and uh where uh some of this might uh not that a controversial issue might not crop up anywhere, but this would be

109the place where um from a um kind of curricular point of view um it would be the most logical. And so he he brought up a few um really helpful points there. I think just maybe to kind of begin um just a few things that we sort of had consensus on. It's not that we had a lot of not consensus, but just some things that were very clear to us. Um was first that we that schools should not avoid controversial issues. We were clear about that as a um as a committee um and that was reinforced by also Mr. Gregoire. Um and that teaching them is uh is very much part of our mission, but must be done responsibly. Um so a few things in the draft policy we wanted to sort of bring to

110the surface. One um is sort of a an emphasis on civil discourse and respect and educational purpose. And I think particularly that last one is is one that um again we'll uh I might return to a few times uh tonight. Um and also a clear uh note that teachers are to act as facilitators, not advocates. Um so again, this is where a we're bringing this up in an educational context. So the the the idea is that if we are bringing up a controversial issue, it is so that we can discuss that as an educational as a piece of educational um as as education. And so therefore, it's not uh for the teacher to be advocating for one side or the other of the issue. It's to facilitate the conversation of that as um as pedagogy.

111Um and also and just a uh a clear thing we wanted to make uh sure was raised was just this point that students should encounter multiple perspectives. Um, and that should be part of the um, part of the design of any sort of uh, discussion of this. Um, I think a few other I'm not sure how much to get into this right now. I think maybe I'll just I'll just flag that that was one thing that was very important to um, um, Mr. Gruwa was the um, it was making sure that this policy does not um, enable what he I think appropriately uh, referred to as bad faith um, challenges um, or sort of false equivalencies um, that would be brought up. And I can get into a little more detail about um, sort of

112how we tried to address that in this draft um, but I think the idea there being um, we are not um, wanting to create a policy um, that uh, creates a um, unrigorous and non-academic um, uh, context of sort of both-siderism. Um, where just because there is an issue that uh, people disagree on doesn't necessarily mean um, that is something that is recognized uh, within by the educational community or by the academic community um, as being something um, that uh, fits this definition uh, in this context. Um, obviously there's nuance within that, but that was something that we um, I felt was really important for Mr. Gruwa to uh, to bring forward and something we wanted to address here. So, I'm going to stop there and just see what thoughts um, came up for folks

113as they were looking at this. I also I'm not going to put Maria on the spot exactly, but I would be curious if at any point in this conversation if you had any thoughts on this. But not you don't need to speak now, but just at any point I'd love to hear your thoughts. >> I think that it's >> Let's speak right now, please. >> I think that it's a good policy. I definitely think that, you know, the humanities and social studies curriculum can touch on controversial controversial issues, but I think that they're always handled with a lot of respect and like does not have a bias. So, I definitely think that this is a a good policy just to make sure that things are, you know, taught well and without a bias. So, yeah,

114I think it's great. >> You can criticize it also. People Critic- Criticism is fun. We had a good We had a good We had a good old chinwag about it at the policy committee. So, other thoughts? Or criticisms? >> Louis. >> I Yeah. For high school, maybe for middle school, I think this is really appropriate. Having been primary and intermediate teacher, I think this is more difficult when you have a child who says, "My mother says that and aims it at a child in the classroom that fits the description. There has to be a place where the teacher can, I'll say, give their own opinion and not give both sides cuz there are not two In my opinion, there's not two sides to it. But, there are those discussions that you get into with little

115kids about why that's not okay to be saying. >> So, just a a few points about that. The policy actually does allow for teachers to be able to share their points of view. And there are some who would contend that a student in a class should never necessarily know any of the educators' views on anything. I don't actually agree with that. I think that it's much more real for students if they actually know their teachers as a person and can take their teachers biases into account when they discuss an issue. And that's certainly the way I often handle things as a teacher, especially when they could some of these kids would come to my house and knew who I was anyway outside of school. Um what it does say is that the teacher is not

116to use the classroom as a platform for a captive audience if I summarize the language. And that's number five. The the reason that I actually felt we needed this policy is that I um I'm going to go back up a little bit in time and I was a high school history teacher and there was an instance when I was teaching AP US history as Mr. Grivois does. These bald guys that have teach history and have names that start with GR. Um and you know, I was teaching a whole unit about modern Supreme Court cases that are about the right to privacy and I had a colleague actually suggest that that was too risky. I shouldn't do that and I thought that's ridiculous and I thought there must be a policy that says I should teach

117about controversial issues. My district at the time didn't have one but the Kennebunk district did cuz I researched it and that's how I became aware that this policy kind of existed. And then there was um there was a reason a few months ago for me to think here when a certain a situation came up I thought, "Oh, well, we probably have that controversial issues policy." And lo and behold we didn't. And that's why I bring it to you because um I feel it's very strongly that we need to be able to endorse that teaching about controversial issues is our job and to have kids know how to discuss them and think about them. And to have teachers be able to be fair and real about that in the process um is really important. And the

118first point also does note that the discussion shall be appropriate to the age, grade, and maturity of the students. So, I think it would look really different at the primary grades. But, you know, one of the points that we discussed about Colin mentioned false equivalency. I think this is where we get into the point about where it says that we're obligated to try to expose the kids to multiple points of view. The danger could be that somebody could say, "Well, you had a lesson about the sky being blue, but I think the sky is black and my point of view wasn't represented." Well, that's nonsense. That's not a controversial issue. That's just that's fringe. That's not the intent of the policy. >> So, it was number if I if I may It was number five

119that concerned me because it says educators shall not use the classroom as a forum to advance their personal views. That was the piece. >> but are not prohibited from expressing their own views for legitimate pedagogical purposes. >> I mean, I think the way I I guess maybe just I guess just to talk you through the way I we thought about it as a committee was that was first for number one was that discussion controversially should be appropriate to the age, grade, and maturity. And I think the way we thought about that was around and again it's not I don't want to create a false binary on this. But, one is that when that is a curricular decision, right? When there's a if there's a a curricular decision, if you're going to talk about a controversial

120issue uh at first grade, you're going to do that in a different way than you're going to do that at fifth grade. We sort of like talked about that. I think the other is to to that if an issue comes up, I think as you were sort of you were talking about the kind of more the more um organic kind of human thing of a student coming in with a certain idea um and sharing that. Um again, I think the idea there is that the the teacher's response uh should still be appropriate to age. I think that was sort of the way we were thinking about that. Um and I think I think yes, the way that I think the um probably it gets down to verbs um and the question of like advancing and

121proselytizing and expressing. Um so I think that what the I think as a committee we were saying uh that advancing and proselytizing um are different from are different from expressing. Um and uh you know, I think there's like there's new there could be nuance in that, but I'm not sure how else we would we would make clear um that first point, which is that um uh it's just because I'm the teacher and I um am the teacher doesn't mean I can use this forum to uh to advance my uh position sort of regardless of the sort of educational context. That was sort of how we were trying to think about it. Does that make Does that follow? >> I can live with it. >> All right. >> Valerie. I think something that's unsaid here and

122I don't know if it's worth mentioning or not. Um our protected groups and and referencing our bullying policy um just because sometimes people think that some protected groups either aren't real or um shouldn't be protected and I'm wondering if we should mention and call out those protected groups as maybe not something we have a healthy debate about whether they exist. >> Yeah, I mean I I think that's a really good good question and I think one that I'd like to pick up and maybe take back to the the committee of sort of how we might reference that. I think again the one of the with again with Mr. Gruwell's um what he sort of led us to was this idea of really of really defining for ourselves um controversial um as actually being a a

123definable thing which is being um an issue of legitimate public debate with credible scholarship. Um so I think I think that's where um what we would be referring to as sort of more more fringe ideas around um uh maybe certain populations um that would not that would not that would never be considered um a controversial issue that is appropriate to discuss. Um does that make sense? But I think we should but I think we should take it back and sort of look at how that maybe crosses over with the with the bullying policy or any other uh policies having to do with individual rights of students or staff. >> And we we can definitely do that even if it passes a first read. >> Um my question was on number seven um Yeah. I think

124this is I think this is a good policy. I think it is one we should have in place. Um I'm curious how seven is accomplished. Is there any obligation to notify in advance of a controversial topic discussion to allow parents the opt out I mean we say that if they object based on particular sincerely held beliefs they can request the accommodation similar to the exemption from required instruction. Um I I just want to make sure we're not putting any sort of onus on the teachers to like We're going to talk about I mean I don't know. I wasn't >> I I wouldn't want to do that because I think that the that's just way too cumbersome. And it depends on who's defining what a controversial issue is. >> Well, it sounds like there's a defined

125definition of what a controversial issue is. >> We did try to pay some attention to that and and Tim provided some really good language about that. >> Yeah, I I'm I'm I'm not suggesting that we should, but I just want to make sure that we don't get pushback from parents that then come back and say, "Well, you have it in here that I could opt out, but you didn't tell me it was happening." >> Yeah, I mean, I I hear that. I guess the way I was thinking that through was sort of like it's sort of like the um uh uh forgive me for is the policy that covers um I know, exactly. I am not I am not the I am not the dork uh that I wish I was in terms of terms

126of policy. Um but uh so for example, we we uh parents and and guardians are allowed to um to raise questions about texts that are being that are being um looked at in school. However, um we do not uh to my knowledge include uh send out in advance of the school year a list of all of the books that are in this class in this library. Um there there could be books in this library that that uh any number of parents might have a concern about, but it is not I do not believe it is our obligation uh to flag all of those books uh uh ahead of time so that if um Maria's parents uh you know, don't don't want uh her to be learning about the American Revolution. You know, she has to

127go through and can't can't read the American Revolution books, right? I just I think that's the way I would think think about it. >> Okay. I just want to I just want to make sure we were saying >> Yeah, no, I think I think it's a really good thing. And again, I think just to I think the the point around the again, the I really want to thank Mr. Grievous for coming um because I think it really did it was a really important point to raise um about how how one of the things was also that we acknowledged as a committee um that this uh there are issues that have always been charged, but we are operating in a in a in a rather charged moment right now um in number from a number of

128directions. Um and sort of just acknowledge that and to own that um as a school. And I think the I really appreciated him um bringing up this question or giving us some of this language around evidence-based inquiry or disciplinary scholarship or historical accuracy. Um so for example, cuz I I just sometimes this can be a little abstract for folks. Um for example, something that would not be considered a controversial issue under this policy because it would not meet the criteria of evidence-based inquiry, disciplinary scholarship, or historical accuracy would be Holocaust denial. Um there are individuals who deny that the um Holocaust of 6 million European Jews and 5 million additional um uh folks of different classes that the Nazi government uh deemed less than human um that that did not occur. Um and they have

129published books on it. Um but the scholarship, uh academia, the folks who um are responsible uh for helping us to better understand how to understand our own history and the world that we live in um have determined um that those texts do not pass muster. Um, so if, I think, if a, um, uh, a teacher were to say, um, "I'd like to talk about, uh, the question of whether the Holocaust happened or not." That would be a violation of this policy. Um, because it is not, um, yes, is it, uh, it's a controversial thing to say, um, but it is an idiotic thing to say, it is an ahistorical thing to say, it is an anti-Semitic thing to say, um, and it's a wrong thing to say, in addition to also being, uh, controversial through

130one particular, uh, definition of that, but that is not how we are defining it in this text. >> Thank you, Beth. Are there comments or questions on this policy? Okay. So, that is the last one for first read. >> So, just on that, so we will we will take we will go back to, um, committee and we will, uh, just look at this question of how does this, uh, crisscross with, uh, questions of protected classes and, um, and, uh, I believe unless we determine that there's something, um, extremely different, um, we will be bringing this back to you for second read. >> Okay. All right. Um, so we have a motion and a second for approval of the first read of both policies and the fact sheet or information sheet. All those in favor. None

131opposed. Thank you. Okay. So, we are, uh, up to uh item 13, unfinished business um for the budget. Um we as a board last week um provided the direction to uh the administration around the level um that we felt uh appropriate for the budget. Um I did give give people uh the the uh flexibility to to adjust their opinion between then and now. Nothing was There was no official vote taken. Um so I do want to I do want to honor that that offer. Um The proposed budget that you have in front of you today. So, we do have an updated uh workbook from from Kelly. Um which reflects uh the the discussion of the board last week. Um so, what we referred to as tier 2A. Uh the 7.1% um expenditure increase over the

132prior year. Um and then the associated impacts of that budget um by town, the estimation uh on the page two of that summary. So, those numbers have all been updated from our discussion last week. Um for for uh a reminder, basically that was the tier two with the addition of the um the instructional strategist, the uh uh Yeah. Yeah, the uh turning the 0.6 Spanish 0.4 EdTech into a 1.0 Spanish uh full-time teaching position and the two EdTechs at um at the elementary schools in Freeport. So, I did want to give folks an opportunity to provide any commentary. I know we talk we've talked about this a lot. Um we continue to hear feedback from community members, which we um which we all read and obviously hear this evening um and and appreciate. Um one

133thing that uh I think might be helpful not necessarily for the board cuz I think most of the board is pretty familiar with this process, but maybe Tom might be able to provide um or maybe even Kelly just a brief um one of the things that we heard about tonight was other line items um could we just cut them in half or could we just eliminate them completely? Um and you know, my understanding of the budget process is that those items um have been have been reduced to the level that we that we feel like we can and still deliver um before any positions are proposed for elimination, but maybe you could just give us a quick view of how that looks or what that looks like. >> Sure. I mean, I think the the

134really quick view is that we definitely have before we looked at staffing knowing that we would still have to look at staffing because it's 81% 80 more than 81% of the budget we looked at everything else. And we took everything else. We reduced everything else first to the degree that we felt it was responsible to do. And part of that is maintaining a long-term vision of what we will need and will not wanting to get us backed into a corner at some point when if we have some kind of catastrophic failure in our fleet of vehicles or our facilities, etc., that we would either have to tax or borrow our way out of a problem. And that's what the the energy audit is about. It's what the life safety plan is about. It's what the

135vehicle replacement plan is about. And it is also um I mean what the um various reserve accounts are for. And you know, as we have seen, the when it when something fails, it fails. And it's a good thing to have something in reserve so that we aren't facing a huge cliff. Um we faced that earlier this year with a condition on the track that we really needed to fix. Um unfortunately, our tennis courts are not playable. They couldn't have picked a worse year to become unplayable, but they are unplayable. And we have to contend with that now. Um we have kicked technology down the road. Um that was actually a pretty painful choice, but it's a really substantial choice. And in the the tier 2A that you've talked about, before we looked at staff, we

136have $125,000 worth of computers that we kicked down the road in addition to ano- another $125,000 worth of computers from the previous tier, which was tier one. So, we really looked at that strongly. We can get by with what we have for computers right now. Um I don't know if you'd like more other that at the moment. >> No, I think that's helpful. Um and the other thing I always want to make sure that I mention specifically as we're talking about the facilities and the upkeep and the maintenance um of of the buildings. Uh I don't know if I don't know if it was Kelly or maybe it was Dennis, but um our previous facilities director used to say that no one no one advocates for the buildings, right? They can't they can't get up

137they can't write us an email they can't um and the the importance of maintaining um safe buildings is is a obviously a priority for us um and I think it's an area where some districts have potentially um misstepped in that they will kick things down the road um to avoid um difficult decisions now um and they end up with bigger issues down the road which cost a lot more money to fix and deal with. Um so um I think the the creation of both the vehicle replacement plan and the um the facility uh audit um to improve I mean as as we heard about tonight I mean these these things are are not new. These these pieces of equipment are are aging um and if we don't have a plan for them then we end

138up sort of in a in a scramble. So um >> It's like with people, you know, so many people and maybe some of us in this room have lived large portion of life um having to pay debts every month. And you can work a long time to get to a point where you're paying yourself every month first. And when you're doing that you feel better and you're saving money and you're better equipped to deal with any contingency that might come up. And I know have known districts that have limped along that way. And we're in a position where we're not doing that and it would not be in the best interest of the district to become a district that lives that way. >> Other comments, questions? Here. >> Yeah, on the topic of facilities, I

139know we're going to be talking about this next, but I'm wondering if maybe Is Glenn still here? Um if he might be able to share with us like the biggest ticket items here are the air handler replacements. Can you tell us what would happen if those failed before we had a chance to replace them? >> Sure, absolutely. So here at the high school on the science wing, we have a rooftop unit that provides ventilation for this whole half of the wing, solely this whole half of the wing. So if that unit was to fail, you wouldn't have that to be able to provide the necessary and required ventilation for the side of the building. That unit's around 37 years old. Over at Mass Landing, we have air handlers that are older than that. And the

140life expectancy is since passed. You know, we've been keeping them going, if you will. But the energy audit when I first got here that we were asked to present, I welcomed it from a facility guy coming from other districts where you know, they they didn't ask those type of questions. So like Michelle just said, I'm the guy up here advocating for the building saying, "Hello, we we need to work on this stuff." And so I was thankful when they asked for that and it provide the backup data that I needed to be able to reassure that we do have aging infrastructure in this district. And this is proof in point. So we have a hot water heater that has since failed over at Mass Landing. Same thing with that rooftop unit here at the high

141school or mass landing or the air handlers over at the middle school. Those things are 41 years old. Those things are they need to retire. They are just They're still running. Don't get me wrong. We mechanical services and we've been doing a great job keeping them going, but they they've outlived their life expectancy. So they're no longer as efficient as new pieces of equipment that are out there and there is a ton of equipment that are out there that we can be getting those savings and also providing the building infrastructure that we need to provide for for our students and staff. >> Alice. I'm going to read this. I came on to this Board of Directors as an interim because I want the students in RSU 5 to have the best available education and opportunities

142that our three communities can provide. I spent 40 years in education. 26 of them in this district. When I came on as an interim board member I said that I believe in public education and that it's the most important thing we can do for our kids' futures. Over the years I've said it both publicly and privately that I'd be willing to pay more in taxes if I knew that every cent was going to the schools. And that it would improve students' lives. In the past few weeks I've listened to people speak about the importance of a strong district and varied programming. I've read so many letters as has the rest of the board. I counted them up a couple of days ago. It was 70. We've gotten more since then. I'm thinking it's 90. Those

143people support RSU 5 and they've made it clear what they want for our communities, for our schools, and most of all for our students. They want their kids and their grandkids and their neighbors' kids to have every opportunity for an exceptional education. Not essential services, exceptional services. Lots of those people have been clear that they do not want classroom program cuts. In all those comments and letters and from that podium over there, the vast majority of people want to keep programming that gives kids a chance to have new experiences in math, in languages, and in life in general. Therefore, when I vote against this budget, it's not because I believe it's too high. And I don't think that more cuts should be made. I'm voting against this budget because we need to preserve what we

144have and provide a wide array of opportunities for our students. And the only way we do that is to not cut classroom positions. >> Thank you, Lois. Okay, I'm going to get a motion on the floor. Um, that's certainly not meant to start stifle conversation, question, or comments, but just so we have it on the floor. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the FY27 superintendent's proposed budget as reflected in the handbook that we have from today. Thank you, Kelly and Steph. Okay, so we have a motion on the floor. Giving people their opportunity to think if they had any remaining commentary. Val. >> Um I once again, Lois's words resonate with me. Um but also last year I was over there fighting for exactly the same thing Lois said. And last

145year no one showed up to say the taxes were too high. Everyone that came mostly just me, but a few others um said that they supported no cuts. This is the first year that we've had people brave enough to show up and say the taxes are too high. Which makes me concerned that there are people at home who are watching this who feel differently than those who've come in droves and said no cuts. And those folks vote just the same as the ones who come here and tell us that they don't want to to see any cuts. And I tend to be a very pragmatic person. A hopeful leaning pragmatic person. Um which is how I I to 2A. Um but I still have a lot of concerns that our primary is the same day

146and that folks who haven't heard us talking about it who don't have students in the schools or don't as care as much as we do about the education of the students will just see the number and vote no. Or that we'll have a split and those who want no cuts will also vote no. And my concern is that the students don't win in that case. People who don't care and care a lot will be saying the same thing to us in June if they vote no. Um and that's my concern. I am really worried about this because it's conservative, but it's still cuts a bunch of really great teachers. We've heard the testimonies. Like really great teachers. And I don't like it. I don't think anyone on this board is celebrating the potential of doing

147that. I think it's a reality of the world we're living in right now where competing morals and competing maybe not morals, maybe competing ideas. What is most moral is causing us to make a decision that we don't want to make. There's no wrong answer. There are two right answers. And it's it's it's keeping me up at night. I'm not doing this with joy. Um and I I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a board member who is. >> Thank you, Valerie. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Let's take it to a vote. All those in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Okay. Um item 14, new business. Uh this is related to what um Cara had mentioned previously around the lease, the resolution. Uh so, do I have a motion for

148consideration and approval for the resolution entitled resolution to authorize lease financing of $2,429,416 energy dollars energy conservation project for RSU school facilities be approved in the form presented to this meeting and that an attested copy of said resolution be included with the minutes of this meeting. Kelly, thank you. Cara. So, before you um tonight is actually the motion that it takes in order to move forward with phase two of the energy audit which included in your packet also there's two sheets. One is the sheet from EMC which is a is a listing that kind of like just kind of goes down the list and list all of the items and then based upon our discussions that we'd had previously um we had kind of moved it into a different format which you where you could

149see the items but then you could see them in in by school columns. Um I will let Glenn speak to the items. I just wanted to speak to the motion that you're actually making tonight. And it allows us to move forward with phase two of this project but it also allows us to seek the financing for phase two of the project. Um the process will go if it's approved tonight at the board level then um EMC our vendor will start the beginning the process of bidding the um projects out uh seeking uh bids on those projects so that we can um so that they can then come back return those results to us so that we can pick the vendors that we want to move forward with and to get to act to get the

150actual cost of the project. Again, these are estimates um with some contingencies built in um for the for the market cuz we're not sure they weren't sure when we would actually get to the bidding process on those. Um and then the authorization for the superintendent and I to um seek the financing for the lease purchase financing for it um once that has been once the actual project amount has been determined the total project amount. >> Do we want Glenn to talk about the items or move forward? >> Sure. Let's see if any questions for you first. Yeah. >> I'm just uh can I get like a one-minute history um of like the financing plan overall of the energy audit. >> Sure. So, >> You can take more than 1 minute, but you know what? It

151doesn't have to be detailed. That's fine. It doesn't have to be detailed. >> We we talked about it briefly last time. So, I'll talk a brief again and maybe we'll get more pieces. So, last year the Facilities and Finance Committee met together to talk about once the energy audit was done and the phases were brought forward and presented to um to the Facilities Committee. We jointly met as a Finance and Facilities Committee to talk about how to move forward with the phases of the project and the Finance Committee's goal and my goal was to with the least impact to the to the taxpayers. Cuz obviously we're taking on debt service payments as we as we phase these projects in. And at the same time, you might remember, we were doing the life safety projects, proposing

152the the life safety projects, and we were also proposing the vehicle and equipment replacement plan. The life safety projects were part of this this past year's budget and part of phase one of the energy audit, so those got taken care of. Um the vehicle and equipment replacement plan we talked about last year and then the the energy audit. The energy audit, there are four actual phases of the energy audit and we kind of chunk them off in about $3 million pieces at a time. Um and we would lease finance them, lease purchase finance them over 17 years for each phase of the project that the board approves and we then move forward with. So, we took that plan with some estimated payment amounts and and put and the in addition to that, we included the

153vehicle and equipment replacement cost because we are lease purchasing them for three-year agreements to get into a cycle where we can build up funds within the budget to eventually not have to lease purchase those vehicles and just purchase them outright. We are stepping into that also over four-year period. Um and to level off the financing into taking on about at last year it was a 0.75% increase per year, which is around the 350, 360, 370 mark. Um we are utilizing some undesignated fund balance to help offset and step into that incrementally so they're even payments and there's no spikes to the budget. While there may be spikes in the use of undesignated fund balance, the there would be a leveling of what would come into the budget for the taxpayers. Did that help? >> Thanks

154for the reminder. Yes, I appreciate it. >> All right. I will pass it over to Glenn so cuz he knows more about all of the particular items that are listed. >> Did you want the little cheat sheet? >> That's all right, thanks. Appreciate it. >> Hello. Any questions? Go ahead. >> Yeah, um Cara actually brought this up, but I think it might be a good idea to talk about um we have a lot of projects on this list that aren't necessarily energy related. We have some numbers that are showing us how much energy savings we will get out of replacing some of these items, but obviously we're spending a lot more money than we're going to be saving. So can you just address some of the other reasons besides simply energy savings why we're in

155performing some of these projects. >> Some of these changes are due to age of the current equipment that we have. So, some of the equipment we can't get. I'll give an example, the automation system um in phase one, we had an automation system upgrade for here at the high school and here at Freeport Middle School. The reason why we did that, it was noted in the energy audit, but those system has failed and you couldn't purchase those systems anymore. So, that was one reason for the upgrade. Um the very little energy savings for an automation system, but it's it's crucial from a facility standpoint so we can manage our HVAC systems to make sure that they're running correctly. Another example is the fire alarm systems. Um we did a fire alarm panel upgrade over at

156Freeport Middle School. We also did a fire alarm upgrade over at Durham Community School. Both of those systems were obsolete. Couldn't get parts for them anymore. They just didn't make them anymore. They were just outdated. So, that was also noted in the energy audit and it was also, again, very little energy savings, but crucial to the overall function of the building cuz we need a fire alarm system that works. So, a lot of these upgrades, uh some of them the lighting project, air handlers, boilers, unit ventilators, reheaters, reheat units have savings with those, the variable flow devices. Michelle. There are energy savings with those. Um there is an upfront cost with that, but your savings is over a period of time or over the lifetime of the of the equipment that we'll be installing. Hope

157that answered your question. Perfect. >> And and those savings aren't in the spreadsheet, correct? Cuz it's sort of like it's hard to quantify future savings of electricity. >> Right. So, like yeah, so we'll we're going to need, you know, a year's worth of data to collect the CMPs bills to actually see the the savings overall. Um and you know, you're not going to see that up front. You're going to have to see that over a period of time in our savings through our energy bills from CMP. >> Yeah, I mean most of the items on the spreadsheet that show energy savings seem to be like weatherization things, right? Like easy fixes to keep basically heat from just flying out windows and doors. >> Exactly. When we did the initial energy audit of the district, EMC

158came in and they did infrared scans of all of buildings for potential heat loss. They did roofs, they did doors, windows, and that led to door replacement, weatherstripping and so forth. And that is continued in phase two. You'll see that here on the sheet. It's also continued in phase three and and so forth down the line. We did the worst areas first. There are some areas that didn't have quite so much that so that will be in a phase two and phase three. Yes, ma'am. >> So, the number that I'm looking at here when it says energy savings, am I to assume that that's per year? What period of time? >> Estimated. Estimated per year. That is correct. Yep. >> Uh Chris. >> Um I know that the catalyst for moving the facility study um

159was mainly due to the reconfiguration of the district, but that that facility study will also provide us with kind of a an overview of the actual structures and facilities that we have. And so, kind of a a couple questions in here. One, do we have an idea about how that will play into what to this and how that would change this? And two, um do we do we have the ability to incorporate this information and data that we've gotten already for this into that facility study, so then there's maybe less work and potentially less cost into that facility study, too? >> I mean I I certainly imagine Glenn would share. >> I want to share. Yeah, I like to share. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. >> Um I I envision sort of them going hand in hand.

160I mean, I think the study that um EMC did for this was probably a little more a little more technical than or or a little more targeted maybe than than what we're looking for for the for the full facility study, but there's I particularly as it relates to condition of the buildings, I imagine there's a fair amount of overlap. >> Correct. >> Um you know, the age of the buildings, the age of the infrastructure, all of those things I think would come into play. >> Absolutely. >> So >> Yeah, they're going to be looking at similar stuff and you know, we'll share the data that we did the energy audit so they'll see that up front. Uh but they're clearly going to see it when they do their own study. So and there is an

161overlap. Yep. >> So I was curious on um the uh the back sheet where we break it up by schools, why there was I don't know, four or five lines that had nothing in Were those moved Were those items that were originally in phase two and we moved them up? >> So some of these So this is just a phase two. So some of those that you're going to see that were in a phase one, some of those are in a phase three. So that's why you see some blanks. So these are the ones that we captured for a phase two. When we propose a a phase three, you'll see different blanks because we would have addressed those in a phase two. >> Glenn did a great job. This was just the format we used

162when we put it in four phases for you. >> Okay. >> So So we just cut out the phase two ones and Okay. >> Correct. So we're we just isolated down to phase two. So the list remains the same what no matter what phase you're looking in, it just Right, like the total items like the line items. Um So yes, we used it as a template for all four phases. >> Okay. >> Just so you can see where the work is actually being applied. >> Yeah. Okay. No, that's that's helpful. Um So uh I guess my question was in addition to this, we do still have our amount that runs through the budget for facilities. So, those items are less Yes, there's 382,000 that is in the current budget to support other things that are

163not on the energy audit that list that needs to happen. >> Yeah, okay. >> You get to say what those are. >> Exactly. We Yeah, when we presented it to the facility committee, we had roofs that were on for Freeport High School to bid out to be able to do. It was also on major maintenance and capital projects to do here. >> Yeah. >> That was what prompted when I saw roofs on here. I was like, there's there are roofs being done. It's just not through this project. >> Correct. >> Are there questions? We have a motion and a second on the floor to allow Kelly and Glenn and Tom to move forward with this. Anna. Oh, you're voting? Okay. All those in favor with Anna. Anyone opposed? Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so

164we have no personnel items, right? No. So, we are back to public comment and we do still have a a few members of the public if we had anyone who'd like to speak, yeah? >> Good evening. Thank you. Uh Michael Metzger from Pownal. I had not planned to speak tonight and I debated whether to come up here after such a hard budget discussion, but I did want to say a few words. First, thank you, Superintendent Gray, for coming on Monday to to Pownal. That was well received and and a very worthwhile conversation, so thank you for that. PES is an excellent school. DCS is an excellent school. While I can't speak for everyone in Pownal, I can certainly apologize on behalf of myself and others if we have given anyone the impression that we felt

165otherwise. But it is not our school. It is not the school that many of our community members grew up going to and looked forward to sending their own children to. It is not the school that many members of our community moved specifically to Pownal to send their children to. It is not the school that years ago was promised would remain open when the middle school programs were moved to Freeport Middle School. It is not the school that truly serves as a central pillar of community life in our town. The central pillar. It is not our community elementary school. While we strongly disagree with any scenario that leads to the closure of PES as a community elementary school, like many here, we also value the goals of middle school equity, early childhood education expansion, etc. Highly.

166We We value those things highly. What we strongly object to is a process that presupposes that the only way to achieve those latter two goals is to sacrifice on the first principle of sacrificing our community school. Rather than coming to the table with those problems in hand and an open mind on how to solve them, this board was presented with only two options for change, both of which involved the closure of PES. Even though Superintendent Gray found limited savings at that option. And additional further analysis by members of the panel community have estimated that they may even cost us money in the end. We are eager as a community to continue to constructively problem-solve with the board Superintendent Gray to make the RSU as strong as possible because we truly believe that we are better

167together as an RSU. As Superintendent Gray stated earlier tonight and I just want to truly emphasize it is the fear of the timeline that we're talking about today that's driving talk within to the town of Pownal toward more radical solutions to protect PES. And I'm sure to some of the stronger emotions that you have been the brunt of I'm sure through emails and and other things and again I apologize for that. So please when you can I would just emphasize what Superintendent Gray said, when you can state publicly that no matter that the long-term decisions that are made by this board the PES will remain open for the 27-28 school year. When you can please state publicly that lots of options will be considered including many that do not include closing PES. And please help

168us prevent a premature fracturing of this district when it's not necessary. Thank you. >> Thank you, Michael. Okay. Uh seeing no other public comment, I would take a motion to adjourn. Cara and Chris All those in favor?