2026-02-25 RSU 5 Board Meeting

001I was a while, but yes, I mean, David Johnson, I'm probably when I was Good evening. Welcome to the RSU5 board of directors meeting. It is Wednesday, February 25th, 2026. We are here in the Freeport High School Library. Uh currently Steph isn't with us yet, but she is on her way, but we'll get started in the meantime with the Pledge of Allegiance. To the flag of the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. So, do I have a motion for consideration? Did I knock that off? Okay, good start. Uh, do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the February 4th, 2026 meeting and February 11th, 2026 meeting as presented, barring any errors or omissions? Kelly and Karen. Thank you. All those in

002favor, let Steph vote as she's walking in. There we go. None opposed. Adjustments to the agenda. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh yes, I'd like to add item 13A, which is a motion to make a change to the school calendar. >> Okay, we will get there. Um so we will start with good news and recognition with Moon. >> Hi everyone. Um, I'd like to say that um, a lot of sporting events have happened over the last couple weeks and I'm pleased to say that both the boys and girls did really well um, in their respective sports. And to start off, the girls indoor track team won states. The boys indoor track team came in second at states. Uh, the girls Nordic team came in first for states. The boys Nordic team finished eighth in the state

003championships. And then the Freeport Yarmouth girls um are the state champions in hockey and they beat Chevis. And then the boys alpine team got fourth at states. And then we also have region 10 students of the quarter. And we have Aada Cornish in the auto collision repair. Uh Michaela Feltus in the certified nursing assistant. Jacob Hana in the building trades. We got Kaylee McGary in the creative digital media. We got Logo Logan Proctor in the pre-apprenticeship. And we got Kay and Santos in the IT/Cyberc. And then also on March 25th, we have a career fair that'll be held in the Freeper High School gym from 10:30 to 1 for students to learn about careers and hear from different organizations and businesses. And then also last will be Freeport High School has a senior class has

004an auction night. Our auction that begins um that began Sunday, February 22nd and also will end until or run until Sunday, March 8th at 6 p.m. And I have the auction link if anyone wants it. But it'd be great to support the class in um for their I guess their night. I guess their senior night. >> Thank you. Yeah. I don't know if anybody watched any of the gold medal hockey games in the last week or so, but I think I was more stressed going into the overtime of the girls hockey state championship game than I was sitting at home on uh last week and Sunday. But congratulations to everyone in their sporting events um as the winter season comes to a close. Uh all right, so we will move on to public comment. Um

005did you give me the paper yet? No, not yet. Okay. So, we'll do a little bit of uh um housekeeping on how public comment works, particularly because we do have a fair amount of folks, so we want to make sure we can hear from as many people as possible. Um and uh so how it'll work once I have the list, feel free to put your name on if you'd like to speak. Um is we will call folks up and I'll probably call the next person so we can kind of queue up uh to keep things moving. When you get to the microphone, we ask that you give your name and the town where you live and that uh you keep your comments to three minutes uh per person. And we will have a timer running.

006So, if you hear the timer go off, we just ask that you kind of wrap up your thought uh so we can hear from as many folks as possible tonight because we do we also do have a full agenda as well, but we want to make sure that we hear from uh from folks who came to join us. Um, and just um just a note uh we have two public comments on our agenda every board meeting. Uh so one's here at the beginning and one is at the end after we've gone through all of our uh board business. So if you weren't uh inspired to speak now but are so inspired later in the evening, there is another opportunity. All right, so we will start with Lindsay Han and Heather. Um I'm just apologize for

007names. I am terrible at it. So, Heather Lamaka will be uh will be next after Lindsay. >> Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. So, right here at the podium and uh the mic is right there. We you do generally need to get closer to the mic than you probably feel comfortable with. Um but we want to make sure that the um not only the folks here can hear you, but also the meetings are live streamed and recorded. So, we want to make sure people at home can hear you as well. So, uh your name, your town, and three minutes is yours. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um my name is Mark Douly. I'm the father of a Pano Elementary School student. I live at 196 Merrill Road and I'm here to talk about the recent proposal from

008RSU5 school board that negatively impacts Pano. RSU5 has a budget shortfall. The top budget goal is to use the six school buildings in a more efficient manner. At the February 11th schoolboard meeting, the superintendent proposed to repurpose Panel Elementary School into a new early childhood school for all RSU5 children. As far as I could tell, 100% of the board members supported the motion to further explore this scenario as the most promising option. Scenario two requires Panel to give up its elementary school and bus kids to Durham instead. On the other hand, Freeport and Durham get a new early childhood school in Powell with lots of outdoor space. Free if the plan is followed to fruition, Panel kids will have a longer bus ride and receive a lower quality education. This will trigger a drop in

009property values and ultimately a reduction in town revenue. From the perspective of the members of the panel community, this seems like an unjust proposal. Considering RSU5 as a unit, the proposal appears efficient because early childhood education can be expanded without adding additional buildings. I'll get back to the costs in a moment, but it's it's important to acknowledge the quality of the education at Pano Elementary School. Will sending Pano students to Durham result in a better better education for Pano students? It doesn't really seem likely. Pano is ranked as a top school in Maine. One's website had the school at number two out of 288 just two years ago. In addition, enrollment in in Pano increased by about 18% since 2023, while district-wide enrollment decreased by about 5% during the same period. Last Saturday, I knocked

010on doors to speak with neighbors and get our petition signed. I learned firsthand that Pano residents want to keep their elementary school and that budget is very important to them. This brings us back to costs. I think there are a few big budget risks associated with such a complex reorganization of the district. For starters, I think they're the for starters, if the plan is implemented, RSU5 will still maintain the same six buildings, except now they'll have increased programming for three and four year olds. In addition, the change might ultimately require building modifications to account for the change of use space, transportation redesign, staffing reorganization, and curriculum realignment. Each of those elements carries financial and operational uncertainty and risk. And my time is up, so I was hoping I could pass it to Lindsay uh so

011that she could advocate for scenario one. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. >> Good evening. My name is Lindseay Han. I'm a panel resident and a mother to four young children who hope to attend PES one day and presently attend. I would like to present a case to explore scenario one instead of continuing to explore scenario two. Scenario one would allow the district to minimize uncertainty by implementing manageable targeted changes with more certain budget outcomes. It would address mandates by ex and encouraging exploration of public private partnerships for early childhood education. It could resolve cost imbalances by utilizing less disruptive tools such as opening interd district enrollment. It could manage the budget in a controlled manner. Scenario one would allow us to explore options to address shortfalls without placing a disproportionate burden on one specific community.

012Given the inequity of scenario two of repurposing the Panel Elementary School for mostly Durham and Freeport use and the budget risks associated with the complex change, it would be very difficult to get the Panel community to agree to this plan. The keystone of the plan is to change our elementary school, which is the heart of our community. It is my hope that the panel community rallies around pees to support a solution to the budget shortfall that does not include dismantling the school and sending our kids to Durham. I appreciate the board's stated commitment to gathering stakeholder input before moving forward with scenario two. And in that vein, I would like to present a petition created by the parents of Panel children to oppose the dissolution of our elementary school. The petition now carries more than

013800 signatures with 500 of those from Powell, Durham, and Freeport residents. In a town of our size, that number represents a significant and unmistakable expression of community will. Families have spoken clearly and in large numbers. Mr. Gray's email to the RSU5 community on February 12th stated that the perspective of parents and children are essential and will shape the path forward. If that is true, then the overwhelming response from panel families is that eliminating or repurposing our elementary school is not an acceptable solution. Respectfully, any further time and resources spent investigating scenario 2 should be redirected to other solutions that do not include repurposing Panel Elementary. We understand the district faces financial and structural challenges. We're ready to engage constructively in conversations about sustainability, equity, and early childhood programming. But this conversations must begin with the

014assurance that our local elementary school will remain intact. We look forward to continued dialogue but with the clear understanding that parents of panel children are committed to the preservation of Panel Elementary School and will continue to voice our strong opposition to scenario 2 until the board has decided to move on from it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Lindsay. Heather. And then after Heather, I have uh Taylor Steel, I think. Hi, my name is Heather Lee Maka. I live in Powell. I'm a mother to two kids who currently attend PEES in preK and kindergarten. I could not be more happy with our cute little school. The amazing things that has done for my kids in just the two years that they've attended, it's unmistakable. Um, I know you guys face a lot of pressure in trying

015to make decisions and find a way that's going to work for RSU5 and the communities that it serves. Um, the heart of Pel in my opinion is our school. We have such a strong connection with that school. There's there's adult programs that happen there just other places, but having that as one of our our stakeholder resources in our small town is such a big deal to that community. Um, we moved to Panel because of its outdoor kind of uh leanings and what it has available and I think the school has really integrated that that outdoor play in how they create and shape classrooms for our children so they can grow diligently. We so value what these teachers are putting into our kids. We um I'm just so worried that if we pursue the second option

016that we go down a very scary pathway for my family and a lot of our families. um when you think about what's needs to transition to have three and fouryear-old IEP students um if they were to you know be in that school in that scenario I think it changes the the building classification from an educational to an institutional and if you look at just fire suppression alone that's easily $200,000 just to think about doing that because you have to have an entirely different system if it's a different code so all of the codes are way stricter and it opens up a huge can of worms and I'm I'm sure you guys have thought of that, but that is a huge financial burden to repurpose that particular building. Um, when I think about for my family

017the extra the travel, it's, you know, 28,000 miles per year extra beyond going to Panel Elementary School. It is 48 extra hours in the car just to bring my kids to and from, not extracurricular there. That is just the bare minimum. If if we're thinking about other solutions, just to put it out there, um if we combined with MS851 North Yarmouth, and we were to potentially use that North Yarmas community center that they have on Route 9 that used to be a school, so has a lot of the codes and those things, and it has a gym, and it has all of that space. I don't know how it's being utilized, but wouldn't it be cool if that was one of the things that we could potentially do between districts and other community um ideas?

018I hope that we continue to remain open to opportunities that people can bring forward from the community so we can find a different option that doesn't give us um the uh the loss of the heartb blood of our town. >> Thank you, Heather. So Taylor, right? Yeah. So after Taylor, I have Rich Brenl. >> Hi, my name is Taylor Steel. I am a mom of two, one who's at Panel and one who I hope to send there um in a few years. I've watched the video from the last school board meeting more times than I care to admit. A few key takeaways stood out to me. You all recognize that PES is a wonderful school and as you can see this evening and also the outpouring of support gained within just the two weeks since

019your last meeting, the community strongly opposes moving forward with scenario 2. I also kept hearing concerns raised about the inequity of class sizes across the district. And when looking at year-over-year class sizes across RSU5 grades K through five over the last five years, the averages are Morse Street and Mass Landing or 20, Poundell Elementary at 15, and Durham at 16. While the total size of Poundell is smaller, which is also reflective of the population as a of the town, it is far from an outlier when it comes to average class size. And on the topic of growth, the Panel community is growing. In 2021, eight new homes were built in Panel. Since then, an average of 14 new homes have been built each year with multiple developments planned, one of which is slated for 20

020homes alone. Families with young children like mine are drawn to Panel because of its elementary school. It is why we moved to Panel and bought a home in Panel. As that growth continues, average class sizes will reflect it. Finally, I think the board moved past Chris's point too quickly. The idea of repurposing or expanding more street to accommodate early education. If part of the argument for scenario two is avoiding deferred costs during a high inflationary period and if more street will require significant investment in the future anyway, then that feels like a very valid path to at least explore. One that doesn't completely uproot an entire community's elementary school. This is a timely and worthwhile idea that deserves serious consideration. Please do not close a thriving school. >> Thank you, Taylor. So, after which I

021have Megan Mezer. >> Thank you. Um, since I'm the fourth uh panel Oh, thank you. Perfect. Since I'm the fourth uh Pel parent in a row to come up here, um >> I'm going to ask you to just I I know I said your name before, but just so it's for the >> Rich Ridge and Panel Libby Road. Um I have a a first grader in Panel Elementary School now. Uh a prek to be enrolling in the fall and a middle schooler in Freeport Middle School um in sixth grade. And I just uh I want to second all of the um great ideas and oppos you know opposition to the scenario too. I've watched the video and um I also want to acknowledge that these are uh difficult issues that the board and uh superintendent

022are are grappling with and I really appreciate the work that's going into this. Um I want to share one just p personal example about panel elementary school and the culture that's fostered there. uh my first grader, it's actually his seventh birthday this evening and we had the birthday birthday celebration before this and I went to the school board and we've been, you know, we've been struggling to talk about the the possibility of what's what might happen to the school, but he really wanted me to come and he also wanted to tell me that his favorite part of his birthday today was um one when his name was announced on the loudspeaker uh in the morning announcements. that's a that you know that's that's a panel elementary school tradition and the other that it coincided with

023the hundth day of school celebration that uh that PES does. Um he was he was more excited about those those things that made it special in the school today um than anything else about his birthday um save maybe for the cake. And he he also um he also it demonstrates that each of these students at pees is known and nurtured and loved by the by the staff and a a a a real culture of um individual um you know knowing the knowing the student and the learner as an individual is really fostered there. And that kind of culture uh doesn't take one year or even one decade to build. and um it it can be uh easily and quickly um you know taken apart and it it will take a long time to rebuild. So

024I appreciate the the board's work and um want to come to this with an open mind but certainly want to um echo the the the um opposition to the dissolving of panel elementary. Thank you. >> Thank you Rich. So after Megan I have Nicholas Seir. All right. Is that working? Nope. You're gonna do it. Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Megan Mezer. Um I'm a Panel resident and the mother of a current first grader at Powell Elementary. Um, we've lived in Panel for 10 years now, but it wasn't until our daughter started at Panel Elementary that our lives in the community began. It's not just about meeting and connecting with so many other families there at the school itself. It's that the school is the core fiber and heart of the panel community. As so as

025so many others have said, it's not because of the physical presence of the building. It's because of the magic that is created there each and every day by multiple ages learning together and from each other in a close-knit, thriving community. I'm here to ask the board to remove all options under consideration that involve dissolving or restructuring Panel Elementary. It's overwhelmingly clear that this is widely opposed and really affecting the panel community, which has been, I should note, year after year, notably supportive of RSU5 budgets. We know mindful discussions and compromises will need to be made as a community to ensure our school district remains strong and sustainable, but it is also important to identify the non-negotiables. Non-negotiables. Dismantling a thriving school and community hub is off the table and panel has only started to begin

026to voice how we oppose this. So we ask you to please continue to consider option one and take option two and three off the table. Thanks. >> Thank you Megan. So after Nicholas I have met Aliieri. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Nicholas here. I am a father of uh Winslow, a first grader at Panel uh Panel resident um and soon to be Margot prek going in this fall. Um when this proposal was um presented and um shared with me for the first time um a lot of thoughts came to mind and um as echoed by a lot of the parents here just how important the school is to the families and the the community in Pel. Um, my daughter, uh, uh, Pan Elementary is extremely important to my to my my daughter in

027particularly. Uh, and just seeing her flourish there has just been, um, very, um, rewarding. Um, couldn't couldn't describe the amount of pride I have for her, um, developing there. Um, trying to think of what to say tonight. um didn't really know what I was going to say, but Monday staying home with her for uh the snow day, she kind of to told me what to say. So, um sitting on the floor playing um with our dolls, doing a picnic, um she looked at her sister Marggo and held up a doll and said, "Ponel Panthers are learners that show they show cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control. Go Panthers." Um I think that just in a snapshot kind of highlights what it means to the kids and the families in Powell and I hope you um

028consider option one and not option two and three. Thank you. >> Thank you Nicholas. >> So after Matt I have Andy Seymour I think. >> Good evening. I'm Matt Alieri. I'm the proud parent of three current panel Panthers. Um, I want to start by observing that I speak from experience when I say I know it's a difficult position to be in uh to be on a board where you're making decisions about which people feel great passion. Um, and I I have a proposal. I think it's in line with what everybody else has said that that would make the next year or so a lot easier for you. Um, over the last two weeks, I've seen a community in Panel that has just been galvanized. I've seen people start text threads, uh, start petitions that have

029gathered nearly a thousand signatures, uh, nearly as many signatures as there were votes approving last year's RSU5 budget. seen uh people go doortodoor knocking to talk to their neighbors about their RSU5 and Powell elementary school experiences. Um we've started parties to get together and talk about ways to both help RSU5 and ensure that this plan to shutter our school doesn't go forward. And and this is just the start. This is a community in action. It's been inspiring, but it's not at all surprising. Here's why. Shuttering the best perform one of the best performing schools in the state in the name of academic success and student outcomes just doesn't make sense. Depriving children of the community in which they've thrived and which they have started to call their home in the name of equity is simply

030wrong. The reality is that as long as closing PES remains on the table, the opposition that you see here tonight will just grow and grow and grow. This room is full and in two weeks, if this plan is still on the table, it will be double in size. I assure you of that. We'll be here organized, vocal, and passionate for as long as it takes. And I have complete confidence in this. At the end of this process, whether it ends tonight or it ends a year from now, you will conclude that this proposal, scenario two, misses the mark. It doesn't meet the objectives that Superintendent Gray identified. So, it as a simple choice. You can end tonight the proposal to shutter Panel Elementary School and replace it uh with something that's altogether and entirely different.

031and we can move forward as a group to identify proposals that will work to address the very real challenges that Superintendent Gray has identified. All it takes is one member of the board tonight to vote to terminate the consideration of scenario 2 and any plan that would shutter Panel Elementary School as it currently exists. And the rest of you are voting in favor of that. I beg you not to waste another moment on this plan. This board and this community need to move forward together on proposals that will actually work. >> Thank you, Matt. Andy. Okay, so after Andy, I have Brett. >> All right. Uh, hi, my name's Andy. I'm usually uh I speak more from the hip, but tonight I had to organize my thoughts, so bear with me. I am I'm a

032panel resident. I have a kindergartener and a fourth grader at Panel. I've lived in Powell for nearly 20 years now. I watched the recent RSU meeting and I want to offer perspective from the community most affected directly by the proposals on the table. This conversation puts us in a clear ethical dilemma, something Tom mentioned in the last in the last meeting. uh a simple right and wrong frame that doesn't reflect what this school tr truly represents. It's a hard discussion but panel cannot stay quiet. Our school is special in a real everyday way. It sits on the backside of Bradbury and offers an outdoor learning environment that people across the district openly praise. I've heard board members call it an outstanding out outdoor experience and a unique resource for students from Freeport and Durham. Yet

033in the next breath, it becomes an aging, inefficient real estate asset that needs to be repurposed. That contradiction is impossible to miss. How could something be an incredible resource for everyone else, but not worth keeping for the families who actually live here? And here's a part of the panel uh here's the part that hits the panel the hardest. It's being framed as an amazing opportunity, but only when panel children aren't the ones attending. When our kids go here, the school is called inefficient. When the kids from Freeport and Durham are imagined here, suddenly becomes a district-wide gem. The double standard makes it clear the school is valuable uh just not for the families who built their lives around it. Equity has been mentioned many times. Equity matters, but it should it should not erase the

034community's only local school. Many of us chose Panel specifically to send our children to the school. And this is why history matters. When RSC5 was formed, the board and superintendent promised Panel Elementary would not be closed. I've been here long enough to remember when Panel was an independent school. Um, the current proposal may not be labeled as a closure, but if Panel children can't attend, then the school is effectively closed to the town. A school that the community cannot attend or cannot use is not that community's school. Cost per student has also come up repeatedly. Yes, it is higher per in panel, but that's not a failing. It's the nature of a small community education. And the motto that the district agreed to when RSU5 was created. Families here didn't create that number. We simply

035set our kids to school in our town. Using a metric to eliminate panel school experience feels less like equity and more like efficiency at one community's expense. So, I need to ask, is it equitable for Panel to be the only town that cannot send its children to grades 1 through five in their own community? Is it equitable to remove the very experience many of us moved here for? If the board chooses to take our school away, please don't call it equity. That does not pass the straight face test for the people who live here. For years, we've heard whispers about closing, and I appreciate the board for finally acknowledging them. But this doesn't feel like a shared sacrifice. It feels like panel being asked once again to take the largest hit for the advantage of

036larger towns. So that's probably the sound I'm supposed to wrap up. Correct. So I'll I'll read my last sentence. So tonight I'm asking you to to see what's right in front of you. Panel has been loyal contributing part of this district from the start. A school is not a liability. It's an asset the community built supported and shared. If it's a valuable enough for students from Freeport and Durham, it's valuable enough for Pal's children. If we're asking for fairness, for honesty, and the dignity of being treated as a full community with within RSU5, you have the opportunity to choose the path that honors every town. I'm asking you to take that path and let panel keep the school that has shaped our identity and our future. >> Thank you, Andy. >> So, after Brett, I

037have Ren Renee. >> So, I'm I'm Brett Victory. I live in town and uh first of all I have to confess to an egregious mistake that I made earlier this evening in coming in I was signing my name and like on so many other petitions I signed my name my wife's name under it and uh I I without really considering uh that she uh might not want to speak. So don't don't expect don't expect Renee to come up. So and I'll hear more about that later. Um so uh I was raised by uh two uh teachers and in a small school um and uh um we raised our children our two children in Maine and uh when we heard and um our our daughter uh and husband who live in Pel um were pregnant. Uh

038we really ramped up our search for a home and uh um we bought a house um uh three months after our grandson was born. And uh I know uh personally what the closure of the Powell Elementary School would mean to my my grandchildren uh who we um take to school and pick up from school and uh and and to my children to u Heather and Mark Leah. Um it is the cutest, sweetest little school I've ever seen. It's just amazing when I think of the experiences that I had in um as as a youngster in elementary pre in kindergarten and elementary school. They were a mixed bag. When I had a chance to um uh chaperon and help the teachers at Powell Elementary School on a on a field trip outing, um I was uh

039so impressed by the kids. They are the sweetest little kids. and when one of their classmates would do something they didn't like, they showed so much patience. I've never seen such a large group of kids behave with such respect to one another. And as I've gotten to know the teachers, I can understand exactly uh about the parents in Panel and the teachers of their children. It I'm just speaking from my heart. what I see out there is unlike any public inst educational institution I've ever seen and this goes for charter schools and you know it it's just amazing and for our family to see the skating rink and and the playground and have our kids come home. What did you do today? Well, we went skiing. We went snowshoeing. We took a walk in the

040forest. We went ice skating. It's just like holy cow. And there are so many activities that involve not just the kids, but their parents, their whole families. And it's just such an unbelievable treasure. And it would it would break our family's heart to have the school close. Thank you. >> Thank you, Brett. So, I'm going to give Renee a second to decide if she wants to speak or not, and she's she's giving me the uh oh no. So, we will move on to Brandon. uh Perry Ferry. And then after Brandon, I have uh Jesse Fisk. I'll do the honors. I'm Brandon Perry. I'm at 290 Fet Road in Powell. I have a prek and a someday going to be a prek uh kiddo at home. Uh so I came here before you guys today to

041say much of what I've heard a lot of other Uh so as I was hearing people articulate things far more effectively than I can, I thought maybe I'd take a different tack as well and kind of discuss uh economically and in terms of a feeder cycle for our uh educational staff and the general culture and educational excellence I'm sure you all strive for every day. uh how panel is kind of a model uh school for this and I I think starting from the position of panel clearly has strong outcomes and that there's a concern about equity I am dismayed to hear uh option two is on the table because it kind of says to me that we are sacrificing excellence in the face of efficiency or in the face of uh you know averaging out

042the experience across the board for everyone. one. Uh, but I think, you know, if we're being honest, we'd want all of the children to receive that excellence standard of education. They'd all like to be able to experience that level of excellence. And I think the uh core uh you know direction it almost feels like it's a directionally wrong proposal uh because we aren't moving towards something that's actually going to advance uh either the children's outcomes uh it's going to potentially shatter the excellent staffing that we've built in Panel Elementary. What happens with them? Are they well represented here today and in the other meetings? uh these people have built up their careers, their um you know experience has been in very strong educational settings and many of them come with a a very lengthy background

043and again you've heard how wonderful it is and the the kids it's unreal. You get a room full of 100 pound kids. It is incredible like these little adults running around really. They're they're so well put together and well adjusted generally and they are kind and smart and driven and uh you know I'd hate to see that lost. What I would like to see is that it's gained across the board and I know that doesn't really help with the financial woes. uh you know inflation being what it is, we have some need for either income or you know cut and we also have a passed down um you know dictate about how we're going to operate even earlier childhood care special education is eating us alive and so I recognize the need for something to

044be done and uh I I recognize you're hearing a lot of just no today and that you probably also need to have a path forward on something that can actually reach those goals. And I don't have that answer for you today, but I just say uh there's this concept of uh online if you ever want to get an answer to something uh and you're on a forum, post the wrong answer confidently. And I feel like that's kind of what maybe happened here is, you know, there is a very strongly proposed option two. Um, and it really it it wrankled a lot of people. And I think at this point now, we're all willing to lend a hand to make sure that that doesn't happen, but that something good does come of this. And uh, you

045know, you've caught our attention and you've gotten us involved and I'd like to see us continue being involved and helping sculpt what the future can look like and be more involved in budgeting and being really present in this process. Uh, and I think we can do that together. So, you know, I wouldn't necessarily consider us in opposition, but more that we want to navigate to a strong solution that'll actually meet the educational goals for Freeport and Durham in addition to Panel. And we'd like to propagate these educational stories out to as many kids as we can. So, we see how valuable it is. Every generation who has their kids go through, they feel that way and uh we want to make that happen across the board. Thank you. >> Thank you, Brandon. So after Jesse,

046we have Megan Arena. >> So my name is Jesse Fisk. I am a panel resident and uh our children are in grades uh 1, four, and six. Uh obviously I'm not unique that my wife and I chose to move here in large part uh because of the school system. Uh having a small community elementary school and then the opportunities of a larger regional middle school and high school uh made a lot of sense to us. uh and we haven't been disappointed. Uh but just as important as what the school does for our children is, you know, as mentioned, what the school does for our community. Uh for a large segment of panel, uh PS is the foundation of our community. Uh it's where parents meet each other and where relationships between families are made. At

047the last board meeting, uh, Superintendent Gray uh, told you community identity is quote something we cannot underestimate and then both proposals ignored that. I was confused. Uh, the justification uh, a lot of talk about equity understandably uh, equity of class sizes has been discussed. Panel is growing. The other schools are stagnant or shrinking. Our building permit numbers are going up. I don't think that'll be a problem too long. the equity of cost per student. Yes, as I believe Andy mentioned, we're a school of 100 students. The economy is a scale. It's not practical that we're going to be that we're going to compete with schools 300 plus students. It doesn't matter if you put prekers or sixth graders there. Uh if anything, the cost per student is going to increase with the associated transportation cost

048to bust them in from across the district. uh not explicitly discussed as far as I could tell uh last meeting, but I still get the sense there's uh equity concerns or almost jealousy uh about our how wonderful our school is. Uh the unique opportunities that PES offers. Uh we are blessed to have an amazing PE teacher, Mr. Mr. T. Uh but a lot of what allows these activities to be available to our children is really the community. Uh the parents as you see are very invested in our school and so many of us volunteer with the school in one way or another. We have impact who's instrumental in organizing a lot of these programs and don't think that building that the building at 587 Elmwood is intrinsically special. If the building's repurposed, I don't think

049there will be the community support to allow many of these activities to continue. You talk about equity at the middle school level. Understandably, uh you want to help Durham middle schoolers have access to more activities, but at the elementary level, it seems you want to decreased opportunities so we can be equitable across the district. Uh to wrap up and echo Andy, uh one last question is how equitable is it that Freeport will continue to have an elementary school, Durham will continue to have an elementary school, and Panel Elementary School be closed? That doesn't sound equitable. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jesse. After Megan, I have uh Julie Baird. Good evening everyone. Megan Arena uh from Panel. I'm the proud parent of a Panel Panther as well. Today I'd like to express my strong commitment to

050maintaining Panel Elementary Schools, a pre-K to 5 school for Panel children. Panel Elementary serves as a hub of our community and the pride in our school. As you've heard many times tonight, our teachers, the pride in our teachers, our school, and our students runs deep. It is a place where students regularly play in the forest, as noted by several of you at the last meeting, and where parents stage a second impromptu talent show to host a performer who is sick during a school's regularly scheduled one. It's a place where families know and look out for one another and regularly share resources, achievements, and struggles. It's a place where the community comes together to build an ice rink each year to clean out Minkleberry so that it's safe for our children and volunteers as swim chaperoons

051in the middle of the day. In fact, most of the day uh so that children learn this important life skill. It's a community who cares deeply for each other in our school. The community is responsible for this as Jesse just noted. It's not the building itself. If you take away that affinity, that community, the rest of what's appealing about PES disappears, too. We may not have a new community programs building nor a fancy playground like other schools in the district, but the relationships formed at Palinal Elementary between parents, students, and teachers are irreplaceable. Community connections and identity must be honored and recognized as important. I watched the recent board meeting with interest, and I know budgets are a concern here and everywhere. However, I found the board's discussion of the options to be anything but

052thoughtful. There seemed to be a great deal of concern over equity, presumably referring to cost per student, though that was never stated. What was articulated was the desire to provide panels outdoor space to other groups instead. Swapping one group for another is far from equitable. I also heard with great interest that equities exist at the middle school level, and I agree that those should be remedied immediately. However, world language, STEM, and athletic offerings seem to be fixable in far less drastic ways. While I applaud the importance you place on equity, I urge you to consider the equity surrounding ripping students from their neighborhood school so that another group of students can simply use it instead. While I heard at the board meeting that these things have been quietly talked about for a long time, I

053can confidently share that many other ideas have also been quietly talked about in the panel community. And should anyone have reached out to us or engaged us in brainstorming, we would have shared those valuable ideas with you as well. Mr. Gray, you opened your remarks by stating your belief that we should do what's right for kids, not for the budget. What's right for students in Punnel as well as other impacted schools is not to shuffle and rearrange students at all grade levels so drastically. Surely you're well aware of the research surrounding building transitions and their negative impact on student achievement growth and mental health. One article I sent Mr. Gray discusses the chaos factor that naturally comes with upending students announces that some students never recover, particularly those with IEPs or those that are underrepresented.

054Oh god, I'm only halfway done, you guys. Okay. Uh, thank you for your time tonight. Um, what I'll say is that there will not be buyin from the panel community. I'm the 12th pond parent up here. Um, the room is packed as you've seen. You've heard that there are is a petition with over 800 signatures. There are lawn signs distributed. There are postcards already at at homes. We'll we'll keep working together hopefully, but this is not something that you have buyin for. Thank you. >> Thank you, Megan. So, uh, after Julie, I have Kate Martins. >> Hello. My name is Julie Baird. I'm a panel resident. I have two kids in the district, one in middle school and one in the high school. So, I no longer have skin in this game, but it is

055still very important to me. Um, I am a panel resident. Um, as a former full-time elementary school teacher, I as my I was increasingly nervous about sending my school age kids to school as they grew older. Having come from a large district out of state that was labeled one of the best in the nation, I saw firsthand how much this format of education hurt children, especially the littlest ones. I wanted something different for my children than that and I found it in Panel. So passionate for this little rural elementary school that I drove 25 minutes from the Wolfneck Peninsula where our rental home was to Panel and then back again so my kids could attend there. And PS that's without bus stops. So think about that for those families. Um when my daughter was in

056first grade and my son was in pre-k that meant six trips there and back again in the morning there and back at noon for prek and there and back in afternoon for pickup. But it was worth it for me because the community school is so special. And that is a word I want to emphasize. This is a community school. Without Panel Elementary School, Panel will cease to function as a community. This is a community um a community. Mayor Casey Tinken, an associate professor at education at Bates College, wrote an article on the impact on closing of rural schools. Now, I will understand that you're not closing our school altogether, but reconfiguring it. However, you will be closing our community school and turning it to something different. So the the uh the impact she cites in

057her article can be applicable. Quote, "Although schools are often closed to save money, there are few studies on whether this actually happens. The little research conducted so far suggests that savings are minimal at best at a time when fewer than one in five Americans live in rural areas. The demise of local schools can also lead to closures of local businesses and expedite population losses. Rural schools provide political power and they tie people together. Once the schools are gone, the community loses all of those benefits. There are smaller crowds at the diner and fewer seats on the school board. Property values may also decline. Close quote. Close quote. I do want to reiterate that I know you're not uh closing the school in the manner that these schools were closed. However, for Panel, it will have

058such the main same impact. In Panel, the school is how we get to know our neighbors. It is the core of the community and what holds us together. Without a school that is designated to serve Panel's families specifically, there will be a irrevocable repercussions in how we relate to one another, interact with one another, and serve one another. Without Panamel Elementary School, I would have never would have met my friend Malik Farlo, whose is my friend and whose childrens are friends with mine, but they wouldn't have been because they're in alternating grade levels. Without Pounder Elementary School, I wouldn't know most of my community members because either they had children in the school or had worked at the school. Without Panel Elementary School, I would not have had the opportunity to serve as a community

059through the schools as I did for nine years as a parent volunteer, long-term substitute teacher, and regular substitute teacher. The teachers like Mr. Donahghue and his son, Mr. T, that have impacted my students in a way that will affect their lives forever, will be placed in pos other positions or will lose their positions entirely. I understand the reasoning behind exploring this decision. Funding our schools is an everinccreasingly difficult situation. However, rather than reconfiguring our town identity and firing teachers, I would rather see that we reallocate funds from elsewhere, I would rather see the money we spend on iPads or any other kind of excess be completely rerouted to our schools and our teachers. Surely, there are other avenues we can explore if we just think outside the box of what quote all the other schools

060are doing and look into what is actually best for our community. I also understand the need for early integration in the school district. Having sent two children through panel, I saw both the benefits and drawbacks to being in such a small school, I still wouldn't change that experience for them. Their ability to get along with different personalities, serve their community, and have a strong sense of place and identity is rooted in Panel Elementary School. I urge you to reconsider this decision and the impact it will have on Panel's community and identity. Thank you, Julie. My name is Kate Martins. I'm a Poundell resident and I have three children. My oldest is a first grader at PES. Equity is a concept that resonates with me and it's a word I heard again and again when watching

061the board meeting on February 11th and again and again tonight. Before having children, I was a teacher myself and issues around equity were at the center of the work I did with students and families. The way I've understood the term is as the recognition of individual differences and systemic barriers and the provider providing of tailored resources to achieve positive outcomes. This is different from the concept of equality which simply provides every individual with the same things. Walk in the door at PES on any day and you will see that it is a vibrant, energized and productive school. It is the heart. It is at the heart of the community in Panel. In fact, in many ways, it is the community in Panel. I feel that to maintain some kind of equity with other schools in

062RSU5, it is essential that Panel Elementary School continues to exist in its current format. The things that students need in Freeport are different than the things that students need in Panel or Durham. Freeport has a library, coffee shops, the Y. Freeport has neighborhoods, sidewalks, and playgrounds. These are all places that build community identity. I grew up in Powell and recently moved back after 20 years away. I love living in a rural place and my children do too. The fact that Panel is a rural town with few institutions means it relies heavily on its elementary school because the school is where community is made and sustained long term from preK to grade 5. perhaps the most formative years in our education system. To remove the school is to decide on behalf of the entire community that

063the primary structure and panel that builds lasting systems of education, socialization, and collaboration is no longer important enough to fund. It feels both inequitable and unequal to remove this school and force current students, teachers, and staff to lose their sense of stability, belonging, and continuity in their education and work. I urge you to think deeply about the implications of this proposal and the harm it will cause our children and our community as a whole. Thanks. Thank you, Kate. Okay, so that was everyone I had on my list. I will give a quick pause to see if there's anyone else who would like to speak. >> I would. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Bill Bogart and I'm a Palmer resident and I come to this from a slightly different perspective. I have

064no children or grandchildren in the school. They've never attended the school, but I am a Palinal resident and I recognize the significance of the school to the community. I'm going to take Superintendent Gray at his word when he made the presentation last week or week before that the needs uh for kids and families should always come first before financials. And if in fact that is true and that's what this board believes, you have no justification for closing the panel school. You're asking the smallest community in the district to send their kids from kindergarten through high school outside of their own community when you've heard, I hope, very compelling testimony from all the families whose children go there, how important it is for them to attend. And if in fact this is part of a solution

065to deal with equity issues between Durham Middle School and Freeport Middle School, if it's a concern about the three-year-olds and foury olds and this is just the consequence of that, then there are other ways to deal with those problems. But if in fact what's really driving this is a concern about inequality not equity between the cost of students or that this board thinks that panel school is too expensive to run then be honest about that and say that and then we can deal with that and how you deal with that as a budget issue. But if in fact this is just the result of imaginations to deal with the issues in the middle schools to deal with equity issues in extracurriculars then there are another ways to do it without closing the school because be

066being very clear pal will bear the brunt of these changes. The kids in Powell the hundred kids who go to school there are going to have a different experience than they have currently and a different experience than other kids in the district. and it's fundamentally not fair to them. So if if you need to solve the problem in the middle school, there are a lot of Bright Mountains in all these communities who can help you deal with that. If you need to solve the problems with the three and four year olds and their integration into the system and early education, you can deal with that. And so this does not need to be the result of that closing this school because you can hear how important it is to our community. Thank you. Thank you,

067Bill. >> Good evening. Um, my name is Ian Nichols. Um, we are, uh, my wife and I are panel residents and parents of a two-year-old who will soon enter RSU5. Um, last night we read the planning for the future proposal and wanted to share our thoughts in tonight's meeting. Um, we do genuinely appreciate Superintendent Gray's commitment um to planning thoughtfully for the district's future. Uh, we know these decisions are hard and that uh the pressures facing RSU5 are real. Um, and we share the goal of ensuring that every child in this district has access to a great education. Um, Panel Elementary School is highly regarded and its reputation speaks for itself. Uh per the superintendent's proposed budget for 2627, enrollment has grown 18% since 2023. Um and we chose panel because of this school in

068this community and we believe that that growth deserves to be celebrated uh in central to this conversation um on the scenarios that were outlined. Um we we believe scenario one is is absolutely the best path forward. Um before concluding that it is unworkable, we would love to understand how much space is actually needed for the early childhood requirement. Um and whether alternatives like portable classrooms or office re office reconfigurations were explored uh regarding the early childhood requirement. Our research indicates that this is in regard to main law 20- ma chapter 303 uh and the federal individuals with disabilities education act. Uh Maine is transitioning responsibility for early childhood special education to local school districts and phases. Uh this means that children with disabilities uh found eligible for an IEP between ages three and five need

069support. Um it's not a universal preschool requirement. The district already has space for four and 5year-olds with IEPs. So the challenge seems to be specifically about three-year-olds. So how many three-year-olds with IEPs are projected for 2027? How much space do they need? Uh that number feels like the foundation of this entire conversation. Um scenario two and three both ask panel to bear a disproportionate share of the change. Uh we're requesting detail on what outcomes these scenarios are projected to deliver for students, for families, um and for the district's finances. So there are four questions that we hope the board will strongly consider. Um one regarding early childhood programming. what is the projected number of three-year-olds with IEPs for 2027 and how much space is needed? Uh that single data point would help the community evaluate

070whether these scenarios are truly necessary. Uh two, regarding middle school equity, what specific metrics demonstrate a meaningful gap between Freeport and Durham, uh we're hopeful that there may be ways to address any inconsistencies without full restructuring. Uh three, regarding financial sustainability, um you know, we're excited about the opportunity for RSU5 to leverage, you know, modern productivity tools to drive efficiencies within its central office. Uh has the district examined whether it's uh whether it's spending on non-eing administrative roles is producing commensurate results for students? Um and four, lastly, regarding community identity, uh Panel Elementary School is the beating heart of a small close-knit community. We ask that proposals of this scale be accompanied by the facts, data, and studies needed to demonstrate uh that they've been rigorously vetted and are expected to deliver to deliver better

071outcomes for children. Um yeah, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Ian. Okay. So, thank you for everyone who um who came tonight and obviously for those who took the time um to share their feelings and their and their thoughts and their perspectives and there was a lot of great ideas. Um so, I just want to I just want to acknowledge that and thank everyone for doing that. I know it's not easy to get up and speak in front of a group. Um so, um thank you for that and we will continue on with our agenda. Uh so we will move on to item eight which is the report from the superintendent. >> Hi everybody. I don't know how I can follow much of that. Um I'm not as eloquent as many many of

072the people who just spoke and some of my remarks tonight will be aimed at some of the questions that you have. But I do have some other things to talk about too. Um, so the last time I gave a formal report was January 28th because they are usually reserved for the last meeting of the month, which this is. Um, there's been a lot that's happened since then. Um, there's been budget work obviously. There's been this conversation about longerterm possibilities for district configuration. There's the strategic plan, which had a really um, thoughtful presentation from Maria and some other board members last time we met. And there's the weather, which has kind of made its presence known lately. Um, I'm going to start with the weather. It usually seems like a safe conversation starter. Um, as of

073today, we have used five four of the five snow days that we have built into the school calendar. Um, and we're about halfway through winter, although it feels like there's still a lot of winter left. >> Halfway >> about about It's Maine. Um, so understandably I'm getting questions at this point about what are we going to do if we exceed the five days. Um, nobody wants to be in school on the 4th of July. So I wanted to tell the board and the public we are looking at options and we've been talking about these options and I want there's uh well I've asked for an adjustment to the agenda tonight to talk about the school calendar. So the options that I'm going to share with you now are what the team and I have discussed

074as the most reasonable path forward with this. Um the first thing is I'm going to ask you tonight to change the school calendar to convert the March 13th professional learning day which is a teacher day but a non- studentent day to a half student day. Um that gets it to count as a whole day and it makes up a snow day. and we can condense the PD down to a half day and it seems to be the best choice that we can make at the moment, at least from my perspective and the team's perspective. Um, we've looked into operationally what we can do to make that work. Um, we can do it with minimal disruption. So, if you approve that change tonight, that is not a done deal because it has to be then approved

075by the commissioner of education. But I have got that application ready to go as long as I get a vote and I can click send and hopefully get a yes on that. So assuming that is granted right now our last day of school is Tuesday, June 23rd for kids, that would scale it back to Monday, June 22nd. So that's one day. That would mean we've basically used three snow days. Um I don't think it's done snowing though. So, um, the next thing we've talked about is, okay, what's the next what's the next plan? Um, we talked about remote learning days, which have not been a practice in this district for some time since CO. Um, when I arrived here last summer, I asked about whether that was a practice here. It is in some districts,

076it's not in others. I was told pretty emphatically that that was a practice that was deliberately moved away from after the pandemic. Um I I get it. I support that actually. Um the reasons for that are both instructional and logistical. Um remote learning is not the same as in-person learning. It's ju it is just not it is a poor substitute. Um so and that is particularly true the younger the kids get. Um and it's also a real burden for for working families to have to make up to, you know, do a remote day. So that said, what we're weighing, boy, we're all it's all about like what's the path, what's the what's the best way to thread a needle, and that seems to be the nature of my job these days. Um, we're weighing that

077against not wanting to be in school on the 4th of July. So, we are looking right now at a school year that ends past the summer sto solstice already, even with making it up with the March uh PD day. So I am proposing that we keep remote days in reserve and I am going to suggest that we use them if we get past five days. So rolling past that March day would bring us back to three. That would give us two more days. And if we get to two more days, that would mean the last day of school is Wednesday, June 24th. And then if we got to a sixth snow day, we would kick in with remote days. and we are putting the plan in place to make that work. Here are the other

078options that we could do. Um, I'm going to tell you right now, they're just far less desirable. Um, we could lengthen the school day by an hour for a week. That's five hours. That is enough to gain back one day. That has been done in this district in the past. Something I've lived through in the past. Is it fun? No. Is it good? Is that last hour of day of the day really good learning in a first or second grade or even a 12th grade classroom? Nope. Um, does it disrupt sports? Does it disrupt everybody's schedule? Yes. Is it highly problematic? Yes. Can we do it? Yes. Um, the other option is you can have school on a Saturday. Um, I've lived through that, too. Um, again, not fun. You have to make sure that

079enough kids actually come so that you can count it as a day. It's not a great option. It is something in the arsenal. I think it's better for us to use remote days, but to keep them in reserve and go out the full five days that are accounted for on our calendar as it exists. So, that's what I'm that's sort of like the plan for the weather. So part of that involves you voting tonight on the March PD day and then if we have to go to remote days, I would need to have you vote on that as well, but I'm going to save that for the next meeting. That the voting on remote days is not on the agenda tonight. Okay. So the budget um talking about just next year's budget, not the longer

080term budget, we have time on the agenda to discuss this more deeply tonight. Um I want to provide some context for that conversation. Colin had asked a question I think it was Colin at the last meeting about um what would happen going forward not just next year but the year after that and the year after that if we keep the budget as a status quo budget or if we make reductions. So to project that far forward, it gets much less precise as you go out each year and it's also a heck of a lot of work. And I have to tell you that Kelly is I didn't do that work. Kelly Wentworth has done that work. Um so kudos to Kelly who has really been doing a lot for our district lately. But I asked

081her to project what our budgets would look like out through FY29. So that's three years if we in two scenarios. One is if we keep status quo budget with no reductions and the other is if we make reductions at the level that I recommended which is that tier 2 level. So again reckoning that these are estimates and imprecise and less precise the further you go out I do have some information for you. So without reductions, the projected increases for next year, that's fiscal year 27, is 10 point about 10 and a half% which is not new information to you. But then if we go out to fiscal year 28, it's another 8 and a half%. And if we go out to fiscal year 29, it's another 8.9%. And that assumes lots of things. It assumes,

082for example, that the raises across the board for staff are going up at the level that they are going up. Now, we have not we have a teacher contract to negotiate in the middle of all that. We're negotiating a support staff contract now. Who knows what's happen what happens with other things in the world. So, those are projections. Um, this contrasts with the way it would look at the recommended level. my recommended level. If you accept that proposal, it comes in at about six and a half percent for next year, which is again not new information. The year after that, it comes in at about 5.6%. And the year after that at about 5.9%. Are those still significant increases? Yes. Um there are towns that are nearby our district that have been flat for a

083long time which means effectively a reduction every year. Um so those are still significant increases but I would suspect that they are more likely to be within the range that we can responsibly present to the community. Um so again those things those are not hard and fast figures. Please don't, you know, hold hold me to to those as time goes on. There are best estimates at the current moment. So, and last, I want to talk more about the ideas that got shared two weeks ago. And I have a little script here for myself that I always make and I always sort of loosely follow it, but I'm going to go off of it for the moment. And I just want to say that I'm sorry genuinely. This is really hard. Um, and I have nothing

084but the most most respect for Palol, the school, the community. Um, I didn't come here with the idea of wanting to disrupt a community school. I did open this up because in my opinion, anything that is not talkable is toxic. And these are ideas that I've since I arrived here six, seven, eight months ago, whatever it was, I've realized have been talked about in the margins since before I got here. And it is the moment now that they come out into the open and get discussed here in the board and with the community with full participation. I think the comments that I heard tonight were about the healthiest public conversation I've heard in a long time. I didn't hear a single disrespectful comment. I heard productive, heartfelt comments and I don't know what the decision

085will be but that is commendable and I respect it. Um it is clear that um this has generated strong feelings and that is understandable and as I said when I presented identity is a non-quantifiable factor and it's impossible for us to know how much it should weigh in the decision until the idea is put out there and we see how it lands in the community. Um, I want to emphasize that there is not going to be there cannot be a decision about this tonight or the next board meeting or anytime soon. This is a conversation starter. It is not a conversation ender because you don't have enough information to make a decision yet. A lot of the questions that were raised here were completely valid questions. The scenarios that I presented two weeks ago were

086the three scenarios that have emerged since we started really talking about it at the administrative team level in a in the few months since I've been here. There could be any number of other ideas that surface. Um my intention is to knowing how much effort and investment it takes to actually flesh out any scenario. It takes investment not of just of time but of district resources, money to actually figure out how to go forward. And one of those is something I'm going to ask you about tonight as well. So my intention two weeks ago was to make the conversation open and make the topic talkable and to see if it even want if we should go forward with any conversation. I am still hearing that that conversation needs to go forward. there a lot of

087conversation needs to go forward. So here are what I think the next steps should be. Um the first step is really what we're doing tonight, which is just that a community had a bombshell dropped on it and there needs to be a lot of space to listen and to just allow for the feelings that naturally come up around that and the ideas that surface around that. That's not just a this board meeting thing. That's an ongoing thing. Um, so in addition to public comment like tonight and the opportunity to email the board, I do think we should consider some structured opportunities through the rest of this school year for community input. Um, that is sound information for the board. Um, I have personally offered to go to the select boards in Powell and in Durham.

088I'm in the process of trying to get those scheduled. I understand. I heard yesterday that I I've been in particular going back and forth with the town clerk in Pel to try to figure out a time that works. I understand that it appeared on the town calendar that I was coming there like Monday or Tuesday, but that was a mistake and then it got removed and it looked like somehow I'd can I didn't cancel a meeting. We just haven't figured out when I the schedules line up yet. Um Oh, where was I? Let's see. what happens when you go off script. >> That is what happens when you go off script. Um, second, I there's some concrete information that you need to be able to make this decision that we just don't have yet. Um,

089one of the best ways we could get that is through an objective facial facility study by an architectural firm. That is something that I've seen done in other districts that faced this issue. um particularly in RSU3 where I was a few years ago um that faced the closure of two small schools very much like Po. Um, a facility study is going to provide a very detailed and professional analysis of the infrastructure of the district, each building, the capacity of each building, the highest use of those spaces, how much we're paying for them, what the infrastructure in those buildings would cost, and what its expended light life expected lifespan is, and how else they could be used. So that's the kind of insight that we need far more than what the admin team and I can

090think of um during our rich and you know informed discussions on this topic but professionals who specialize in that are going to be able to give you much more uh specific information. So, I'm going to ask you to actually approve some money from Capital Reserve tonight so that we can move forward in putting a facility study out to bid um because that's a process that by itself takes months just to get that going. And then in the nearer term, I just have some uh I have some advice for the members of the board. And it is simply that I really think each of you needs to reflect on the values that should drive the decision. It's going to be a different mix for each of you. And it's not going to be one value. It's

091going to be multiple values. Um it's not for me to tell you what they are. It's for you to decide what they are. It's for the community to decide what they are. Is it equity? Is it community sentiment? Is it a long-term vision? I those are things that have kind of come up. But I think that's what you need to think about now and give yourself think, time, and thought partners in that process. What values will come to bear on your decision and how you will vote? Um because as I mentioned before and I've had some training in ethical decision-making and I I want to dig a little deeper into a a thought that I laid out last time. An ethical dilemma is not a right versus wrong situation. That's a moral dilemma. An ethical

092dilemma is when you have two things that are right in and of themselves and they come into conflict with each other. It's a right thing versus another right thing. and somewhere one of them has to give and that's what you have here. And um ethical dilemmas typically fall into four paradigms. By the way, those four paradigms are truth versus loyalty. Are you going to tell the truth about what your friend did or are you going to remain loyal to your friend? Individual versus community. Long-term versus short term. and justice versus mercy. I won't go into more detail than that, but I'm sure you can think of a million situations in which you have two right values and they come into conflict with each other and they fit somehow into one or more of those paradigms.

093Certainly, this decision that we have about what how to go forward as a district touches on more than one of them. So, I'm going to suggest that at some point this before this school year ends, we dedicate some time to awaited uh to discussing the values that should underly this decision. And that is not a binding conversation. It's not a vote, but it's letting the thought process and the feeling process play out in front of the community, which the community deserves. Um because our responsibility is to just be transparent about the tensions between those values and how we see them and in the end how you vote based on them. And my role is not to decide that. My role is to help frame this discussion and to provide the information that you need and

094to do my best to facilitate a thoughtful and open process. And the decision itself is yours. That's what I got tonight. Okay, thank you. >> I do have a couple of resignations to announce. Um, Meredith Hook, uh, the librarian at Moore Street School and Pel has resigned and Jeremy Arsenal, the director of transportation, has resigned effect at the end of the year. So, we have just posted for a new director of transportation and that will be a big his are big shoes to fill >> and I believe an email went out to the community if folks are interested in being on that hiring committee. >> Yes. So, check your emails if you're interested in in being involved in that. Uh, okay. So we will move on to item nine which is administrator reports and um

095we have Sean Shabbat from Region 10 Technical High School. Um welcome Sean. Thank you for coming back. >> Thank you for having us. >> We have some slides that I'd like to share with the board and the public and there are some handouts too if anybody in the audience would like to see it. Yeah. Usually there's plenty of chairs, >> not this evening. So again, thank you for having us here tonight. Uh Civil Brewer, our school uh business manager, is with us um and helped create a lot of this work that we did for you tonight. This first information is our region 10 4-year enrollment increase over the past four years. And you can see with a totality of we have gained nearly 40% enrollment over the past four years at region 10 between the

096three sending districts. So, our numbers have grown substantially from 285 in 20 uh 2223 to we're just over 400 as we stand today. And we anticipate next year being up close to 450. And then the next slide, please, is the four-year enrollment of Freeport High School students. And you can see those are yearbyear. and the the the total number is nearly 80% uh more students from Freeport High School attend region 10 than they did in 2223. So I just give that as some context for our budget presentation tonight. Um that our numbers certainly are increasing and that's a positive thing. Um and we support that. Obviously that's good for students and CTE certainly um career and technical education that's an acronym that we all use in education has grown in popularity and I think folks

097in the communities of all three districts see the value across not only the our sending districts but across the state and across the nation of career and technical education. So the next slide is our proposed budget that we presented to our finance committee back in the middle of February. And then we had another meeting this past Monday night with our finance committee and our full school committee, our cooperative board, which Valerie and Colin both sit on. And we discussed um our proposed increases. And of note, you can see the um we made some cuts um from our initial entry of what we collected for information from our staff. Um with that given given that increase in enrollment um initially we felt like we needed to add more ed tech support for those students and um

098we're simply not able to do that and still be be responsible. So, we had cut the one and a half edtech positions from our budget. We had looked at increasing our EMT program from a half-time program to a full-time program. And um while the numbers were probably going to be there, it wasn't a guarantee at this time. And so, we've kept it like that. And then we had one vacancy that we filled and we were able to make some vacancy adjustments. And then you can see on that list in blue the associated other adjustments that we reduced the budget. Um and we came in at just just over 8.6%. Which is more than we would like to be to be quite frank. I was um shooting for more like five or six% and um without

099negatively impacting students um the board was pre the finance committee was pretty clear with me um that they weren't going to support that because what the next cut was going to be um student supplies, instructional materials and supplies. And in a CTE environment, you can well imagine you cannot do culinary arts without food. Or you can't do a carpentry, what we call building trades, without lumber or metal fabrication and welding without welding materials. And if you built a house or remodeled your house or go grocery shopping every week over the past couple of years, you know the cost of that. And we face those same costs. In addition, region 10 was built in uh and our building is aging like lots of schools around the state. Um we applied for a school revolving renovation fund

100grant and that's the next slide. Um and that that while we didn't get everything we asked for and most like most most people nobody ever gets everything they want. Uh they the state did cost share um our upgrade to our fire panel that needs to be upgraded. And if you've been to region 10 and you come into the building um we have a camera and you get buzzed in from the foyer, but there is no visual line of sight besides the camera for allowing people to access the building. And in my in my opinion and others, that's not the best safety. Even though we have a camera and a door locking buzz system, uh we would like to put in a a pass through window. So that way when visitors come or guests come, we

101can put eyes on visually. And sometimes you can just limit that interaction of actually coming in the building by passing through a child left their book at home or something needs to be passed through um from the outside and you don't need to allow that person into the building. So those two uh upgrades were approved by the state and that local share increased the cost uh cost share up to 9.63% that you see there. And then the next page is some of our largest budget drivers. As was mentioned before in the previous discussion, salaries is one of our main um cost drivers like every school budget. um our salaries are up near over 10%. Our our collective bargaining agreement with our instructors takes the weighted average of our three sending districts. So whenever you do

102RSU5 does a collective bargaining agreement with your teachers that directly impacts our teachers as well. Our teachers receive the weighted average of the three sending districts to be fair. Uh we also have five vacancies. We have retirements coming up, which is unusual for region 10. Usually we have folks stay until they retire, but this year we unfortunately have a couple of five vacancies coming up and they're all retirements. Um, and when when you have a small staff, you have to budget for the high end. We can't do an average of some some will some folks coming in at high, some low. We have a smaller budget um smaller number. So we budget for the high end of the scale and full family because if we hire somebody and then they have a family, we have

103to pay those medical benefits in that which makes sense. So that costs we have to budget for that. Um we are starting our HVAC program. Uh we tried to do that a few years ago. Um and it wasn't successful. our instructor that we had hired left after a couple months and we moved the children us children students high school students into other programs. But this year we feel confident fingers crossed that we'll be able to hire instructor and the um we've been doing our recruitment um for the past couple of months and that program is nearly full between the three districts. So that's that's positive. Um you can see our average teacher instructure instructor is a nearly a 7% average increase and that's a direct result of those collective bargaining agreements and our budgeting for

104health insurance and dental insurance is we budgeted we put a placeholder of 12%. I know some districts around are doing 15%. Um we were at 10% last year and so we felt like it was comfortable to be at 12. Then you can see the SRRF loan payment if the voters approve that. And then with an aging building, um we are facing other repair costs for that building. And we maxed out that budget line early in the fall this past year. And so we anticipate probably more things. If you own an older home, you know what I'm talking to. Um, and then the last page, smaller print, and again, there's extra copies over here if anyone would like to look at it in more detail. It's a three-year comparison of the region 10 budget. Um, so

105you can compare year-over-year. There's enrollment numbers in there. Our projected enrollment of next year of nearly 450 students. And new this year, we also put in a cost per pupil. Um, and that is not to compare region 10 cost per pupil. I just want to be clear to any school district. We don't have a central office. We don't have transportation costs per se. We don't have a nutrition department. We don't have special education, English language learners, um, where we have a whole programs for that. So to compare our costs and say how come other districts are so much higher, it wouldn't be apples and apples. We put it on there to to demonstrate and hopefully uh show that our cost per pupil per year has gone down over the past three years. So the point

106of that is I think we're doing a a decent job of trying to do um more w um with as without asking the taxpayers for additional revenue as as much as possible trying to be good stewards of your taxpayers dollars. So you can see in there that region 10 of overall um your school district's budget is still at less than 1% of your overall budget and our goal is always to remain under 1%. So we hopefully find you feeling like that is a good value for your high school students to gain that career and technical education. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have now or anytime in the future. every time by find myself. >> Thank you, Sean. >> Uh, questions for Sean. >> Okay, thank you. >> I have some.

107I just try to open it up to them first. So, I give them a second first. Um, a couple of questions. One, um, the the loan piece, the um, the surf loan. >> Yes. >> Is this similar to what was done in for the bridge a couple years ago where there's a separate question on the ballot for that? >> Yes, it's exactly the same process, the same loan, same loan program, if you will. And so our board has tentatively given us the thumbs up to move ahead with that and they don't approve our budget until the March school cooperative board meeting which is what the 16th 16th. Um but yes if that's approved it will go out to referendum in the June primary along with the other warrant articles for supporting of the schools. >>

108Okay great um and that's a zero interest loan from the state. Yes, it's a 0% interest loan from the state. Thank you for that question. I should have said that. U would kill me if I walked away without saying that. Uh 0% interest loan of the state and nearly 50% 47 I'd ask it's in my notes nearly nearly 50% 47 point I can't remember exactly is forgiven by the state. So we have to pay just over 53 just under 53% and the other remaining balance is forgiven. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Uh, and I know this is a primarily a budget discussion, but you're here, so I'm going to ask >> away. >> And you probably know what I'm going to ask, which is, you know, the discussion around um uh a centralized um regional

109technical school that's full-time. >> Sure. Uh so as you know and we've talked about in the past that region 10 has explored the option and we did a feasibility study similar to what you folks are talking about for buildings but this was is could a 4-year comprehensive high school >> comprehensive that was the word. >> Yes. Could a 4-year comprehensive CTE school be feasible? And we did that work hired an outside consultant presented it to folks. um it was but in order for us to move forward with anything like that there needs to be legislative changes in Augusta um by state statute we don't issue diplomas region 10 CTE schools don't do that the sending schools obviously do that so until there would be state statute changes that is still a goal of ours um

110it was a clear goal that the cooperative board set for me when I arrived at region 10 and we've worked towards that um but that is something that until um legislative changes occur in Augusta that will not take place. >> You can't move forward. >> Yeah. So we just to continue with that thought just for a second we are maintaining that and mo trying to move forward with that but at the same time on a parallel track working to grow options for students within the CTE traditional umbrella that we've always had. So, we're doing two parallel tracks at the same time. >> Well, based on the enrollment figures, it looks like you're doing a great job with that. So, >> thank you. Certainly not me. It is the team that we have at at region

11110. It's a good team. >> And the percentage um that is allocated to the sending districts. How often is that? Is it every year that we figure out the percentage that each sending district has? Is it a fixed amount that's looked at every so many years >> based on the cooperative agreement which is based on the US census of the three of the total population not the student population the total population of the three sending district >> sending districts. Got it. Thank you. >> So it's every 10 years. Yes. >> You may have answered this in the past. This is my second board meeting. So are there a number of slots that are allotted to each of the school districts that are part of your school or if suddenly a hundred more kids wanted to

112come from Freeport that would be available for them? >> The answer is no to that for 100 more students. Uh so yes to your first part of that question based on the cooperative agreement and you can see those percentages based for the percentage of participation for the the rates um on the bottom of your chart um is roughly Brunswick is at 38.17 MSAD75 which is 36.44 and RSU5 which is 25.39. So every year with the slots that are open for new students, we divide those out based on that percentages and we have an admissions process that we work with our all the sending school counselors, the sending school principles to discuss that. We try to be very transparent with the number of slots per program that are available for each of the sending schools. um

113an enrollment for what we call phase two closes actually this coming week and then we meet as a team with each school to discuss how many slot again how many slots they have the list of students that they would like to help prioritize for those slots and then after that takes place in mid-Marchch then whatever number of slots is open at that time is a rolling emissions sort of first come first serve until all the slots are full. Does that answer your question? Maybe. >> Yes, it does. Um, yeah, I think I'm well set. Thank you. >> So, yes, we try to proportion out slots initially for every sending school based on that percentages and then if they're not filled, it's a rolling admissions sort of like college. So the extra 50 slots next year

114that you're anticipating is that the HVAC program >> that we not the it's not a 50 slots that's the our anticipated number of students that will attend region 10. We could take up over 500 total but we anticipating being at 400 about 450 students. >> I see. And is it because of the HVAC program? >> That's one of the reasons. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Valerie, thank you Sean for your presentation. Um, as you might imagine, most of it is familiar to me. Um, I was hoping you could speak a little bit to the board because I've mentioned it a few times, but I thought it might be worth coming from the horse's mouth. Um, the expansion transition to the landing. >> Oh, yeah. Thank you. Um, so this past Thank you for that question, Valerie.

115Uh this past year we partners we partnered with Main Maritime Academy at the landing the old naval air sta station at Brunsw in Brunswick. Um main maritime signed a long-term lease with um the reality group that owned the old commissary building which was the wayfair building for a number of years and they have turned that into a learning center. We started our a new program called pre pre-engineering architectural design there this year where students are earning main maritime credit um concurrently and we're looking at and the board approved the plan to expand further into on that base and add um our HVAC program over there move our electrical program over there our pre-apprenticeship program and our IT cyber security that would open up space in our main building because we do have a portable out

116front that they uh brought in during the COVID um time during the pandemic. And it would allow us to because our lease is up on our portable, our 5-year lease to decommission that, get rid of that, and so we would no longer be paying that payment for the lease. and the money we were paying for the portable would go for um leasing out the space with Main Maritime. So, that's been a great partnership with them. The students have done a great job. It seems to have gone really well. So, we're looking to expand there. If that continues and works well, we'll look at the possibility of further expansion on there. We're our classrooms are completely full. uh we cannot expand any more inside the building region 10 building without looking at other opportunities and we

117wanted to leverage Main Maritime who have been nothing but great partners BIW who has supported us and um the space that they have over there. So we're trying to make it a win-win for everyone. >> Any other questions for Sean? happy to come back anytime you'd like us. >> Thank you. >> I know last year we had a tour for region 10 for was that last year that the board did that? >> I think it was two years ago. >> Was it a two year? It was great. So if I don't know if people are interested in that, but it was very very um educational for me to see the you know um >> you're more than welcome. You can come see the new bridge in that new entrance there when we did it. That's

118right. >> That's right. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. So, Kelly, finance. >> A little shorter than Sean. Uh, good evening. In your board packets tonight, uh, the in your purple sheet. Oh, I think Jenny's still color coding. Yes. In the purple sheet, um, are your expenditures through January 31st, 2025 for the current budget year, budget to actual. I was just reviewing where we were last year at this time and our percentages are um strangely identically on um so we are about um 56.5% collected on the revenue side and we are for expenditures we're uh 91.8% expended and encumbered. I don't see any issues within um the budget lines at this time. Um and uh so as far as the local budget's concerned, we do we did talk this

119evening um and we'll talk a little bit later. Um I don't know if you want me to mention it now, Michelle, that um there's a proposal that you'll see tonight. Um there have been some unfunded positions within the special education department. We've had them advertised all year. Um haven't been able to fill them. So that's allowing us to have some additional monies available within um article 2, which is our special education line to help facilitate um the position that you will be considering a little later and I'd be happy to talk about that later when we come up. Um but um the proposal from the superintendent tonight regarding the facility study um needed to continue the work for the future of RSU5 um that is actually being proposed to come out of the capital reserve

120account um which sits outside of the local budget not reflected in these >> questions for Kelly and just in case anyone gets like you know anxiety hearing that we've collected 56% of revenues and expended 91 1% of expenses. Um, that's encumbrances, too. So, for full year salaries and things we know we're going to pay for the full year, we encumber those early. So, we are not we're not out over our skis, as some might say, >> right? And, you know, our revenue sources are pretty solid. Um, we um we're funded through taxation and state subsidy. So um while it we do receive them on a u monthly basis both the subsidy and the taxation amounts from each each of the uh participating communities. So um so it's in line for where we would actually be

121um normally >> right and we haven't spent 91%. We just know we will spend it so we kind of set it aside. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Um you'll you notice that when you when when we f when we do our first report out in September and we've have encumbered all of the returning staff salaries and benefits. Um that's when you really see that percent um encumbered and expended change. >> Y thank you. >> Okay. Board comments and committee reports. Uh, so board information exchange and agenda requests. So this is where I'm going to look to Anna if she wanted I think she wanted to share something on a committee uh a committee meeting. She wanted to provide an update. So I apologize. It was fine. Um, I was just wondering, so the curriculum committee, which

122is right now just me and Karen, we've been meeting about once a month, sometimes a little bit more, which from my understanding, previously curriculum committee was only meeting like twice a year. Um, and it just seemed to make good sense to share what we've been learning. Um, if it would make sense for us to kind of have a time to give an update. >> Yes. So, I think any committee that wants to in this point um can always do that. Um, but we can also add it like we have facilities and finance like if you if you think it would be helpful to include that there. >> Yeah, that would be great. And just to share quickly what we did, we met two weeks ago, Karen. Is that right? Yeah. Um, and we spoke about

123um, NextGen Science and learned a little bit about our science curriculum and um, it's really interesting. We've also talked about math. That's a big um, priority area right now for the curriculum. Um, and I did make a request to learn about our reading curriculum as well, and we'll just keep sharing updates as we continue to meet. >> Great. Thank you. So, I'm just going to look to Lois because we were talking about curriculum committee and um, as a as a new board member, we were going through orientation and committees and I I think I told her that or the sheet said they you guys meet like three times a year. So, I said, I think there's only one more for the year, but it sounds like there might be more. So, if you're interested, >>

124maybe I'll find out how many more. >> That's true. Maybe one was a was a selling point as opposed to monthly. Fair enough. Um, great. Thank you. Uh, so then I will I found out at the finance committee that I'm apparently I'm the chair of that committee. Did I miss that meeting? Is that what happened? >> That is what >> usually that's what happens. you get you get nominated for something. Um so I will just quickly go over the finance committee minutes from our January meeting. Um you know primarily because this was the meeting where the original budget um the superintendent's budget was presented to the board. Um uh Kelly and Tom provided us with um the proposals that were going to be presented to the full board that evening. Um, and so we just

125got a little bit of a little bit of a sneak peek before that and were able to ask some initial questions and and prompt some um some feedback. Um, we met again tonight. Um, and um, but I don't have the minutes for that yet. So, you'll just have to wait and see next meeting. >> I mean, I know, but I I you don't have the paper in front of you. So, Kelly already told you some of the stuff we talked about because it's going to be coming back shortly with the um facility study and the uh early childhood education. So, I will send it to Kelly for facilities facilities and operations committee met on Wednesday, February 11th. And as many people know, the FHS tennis courts have been on our minds quite a bit lately,

126especially since they have been officially um condemned for play. So, it's really important that we move forward with a plan to get them uh replaced quickly. Uh, director Reynolds updated the committee that the contract for design services was signed and our um vendor CHA has scheduled this or I guess it was completed on 218 although we haven't gotten core sampling yet. That's the next step before we move forward with the tennis court design phase. the energy audit phase one. Um Glenn updated the committee that the lighting project has been completed at Panel Elementary School in the district office and the lighting vendor is or is working in the middle school right now and then we'll after that move to the Mass Landing School to replace the lights with new LED um energy efficient lighting. >>

127Okay, very good to know. New lights are really great. director says superintendent. Okay. DCS Automation. Um Glenn said that the contract has been signed and our vendor EMC has bid out the project to um and it has been a awarded to Main Controls. So that project will be moving forward soon. And f uh actually not finally, we have a couple more things. We have we had a guest come and give us some feedback. I'm going to skip to that really quickly. Molly Meyer, she's our FHS tennis court co uh I'm sorry, tennis coach, and she shared some information um regarding the application for the USA grant that uh will be important for helping us offset the cost for the new tennis courts. So Molly provided the committee with some documentation showing what information will be

128needed for the approval of the grant and also shared that the grant would be estimated um to be awarded at between 25 and $35,000 per court for a maximum amount of $150,000. Okay, back to the baseball dugout roof. Um, we've had some money donated by our boosters for the replacement of the baseball dugout roofs. There are two roofs that need to be replaced at the baseball dugouts at Freeport High School. And they uh estimated cost for the replacement is about $3,000. The new roofs will be the same as the current ones. They are metal and so that makes it easy if the dugouts themselves need to be replaced, which will happen sometime in the future, it will be easy enough for us to just reuse the metal roofs and put them on the new structures.

129So, they are planning on replacing those roofs by mid-March before the baseball season begins. And that's about all we talked about. >> I think the um metal roofs that they're putting in are the same as the current the new ones that were done in the softball fields. I don't think the current baseball fields are metal if I'm correct. I'm I'm seeing him nod. So, um they've replaced the softball ones a few years ago when they redid the field and those ones are metal. >> Okay. Yes, I do. They will match. Yep. So, they'll match the ones that are on the soft football fields now. And then the other thing, I don't know if we mentioned this or not because what the last time when we were talking about the tennis court update and we had

130the vote to initiate the uh engineering work, there was some discussion around adding asking the um the engineer if they could provide us with some costing information for both of the two different types. Um and they have agreed to do that at no additional cost. Um, we won't get full prints or or plans for any projects until we pick the one that we want, but we will get general costing for both types as well as whether we can have three or we currently have three, whether there's the ability to add the fourth court. Um, so all of the work that they were already going to provide, um, they'll they'll give us the option of what they both look like and then when we decide which way we want to go, then they would draft up

131sort of full bidding documents to get a full cost estimate. Is it realistic that that's going to be able to be the tennis court revamp done by for next season? >> So, next season being 27. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> That's what we're told. >> Okay. Yeah. >> I got a shrug from the back. So, >> it my understanding is they're hoping to be done no later than September. Is that correct, Glenn? September, October, hopefully. So, it may not be ready for the middle school season, but for the high school season, it looks it looks likely. Yeah, it's tough with the weather. >> Is that our timer that we're done talking? >> Yes. Um, any other questions on the facilities update? Cara, >> can you say again what the DCS automation replacement is? >> What

132is that? Uh so the system that they use for the swipe cards what that was put in when they built the school 15 16 years ago. >> Actually that right >> that's not it. >> No it has to do with the climate control in the building. >> Oh I lied. >> And it's the Glenn's now nodding. Yeah. It has to do with >> Oh just come and tell us >> managing the flow of the air within the building so that it's efficient and it's going to where it needs it. >> I don't think he believes you because he's coming up to talk. Oh, he's right. Yeah, >> it's the building automation system that runs the HBAC, your boilers, uh, ventilators and so forth. So, yep, we just installed it here at the high school and

133also at the middle school. >> So, it's a new So, it's not something that failed from the original. >> It is over at Durham. Yes, that's failed and that's what we're we just signed the contract for and that's going to be installed. >> Okay. >> We had projected in the energy audit to do that in in the next phase, but it's failed. So, we moved it up to this phase because it needed to get done. >> Okay. So, we knew it was coming. We just >> going to be a phase two. We just pulled it out. So we could do it now >> in phase one. By >> are these the pumps that are the the bane of Chris's existence or different thing entirely? >> That's the geothermal system. >> Yes. >> Wait, those are

134the bane of Chris's existence. You don't like them? >> We just kept replacing them. >> Oh, >> and they got expensive. So that's what I talking about. >> This is the system that runs the pumps. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Other facil Thank you, Glenn. >> Other facility questions, comments. All right. Moving on. Policy. Colin. Hey y'all. So, we met on Wednesday, February 5th, uh at 4:15 on Google Meet. Um and we um were joined by a number of uh of administrators uh to discuss the two policies that we're bringing to you tonight for first read. Um we looked at um JIC which is student code of conduct um and JA uh compulsory attendance. Um and so we'll be talking about uh those a little bit later after we talk about the um

135second read. And just to note uh for our public I just I like seeing all of these people here. So, I'm just going to say that these policy meetings are open to the public. Um, and we encourage folks uh to attend. Um um and if they would like to attend, they can do so and uh bear witness to what we're doing. Um the public is not um uh permitted to speak at those meetings. Uh because we want anything that the public uh says to be communicated to the entire board because the policy committee has no uh power itself. Um, so we encourage folks to attend um and also to reach out with any uh uh thoughts that they have um to the board email. That's a good point. We don't tell folks as often as

136maybe we could or should that all of committee meetings are open to the public uh but run along that same um same methodology. Um the policy I believe is the only one that's run virtually. All the others are in person. Is that true? So, uh, but all of those agendas and scheduling is on the RSU5 website. Want me to get a motion on the floor? All right. So, uh, we will move on to item 11, which is policy review. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval for the second read for the following policies? JIC K bullying and JIC KR bullying administrative procedure. Kelly, thank you Steph. Great. >> Um, so we're bringing before you JICK bullying and the associated administrative procedure JICKR. Uh, this is for second read. Um so at our last

137meeting um we uh presented you the work that we um had done in our previous policy meetings to bring um to make sure that um our bullying uh policy and procedures were um in alignment with all uh appropriate codes and also just cleaned up to make sure that they represent our best practice of what we're doing currently. Um there have been no changes made um to those policies since you saw them. So, we are asking for your uh approval of those uh tonight. >> Okay. So, these uh we didn't have you changing anything on these. These are exactly what we saw last time, >> I believe. So, I don't we may have made some like periods and um there may have been some super pedantic things that Cara wanted us to uh get into, but

138um otherwise uh >> Cara does love the pedantic. Hey, you need those people on every committee. >> Oh, I'm I'm very grateful. Chris is going to up his up his pen in game. I have no I have no doubt. Just uh we're competing currently. >> Any comments or questions? Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor? None opposed? Thank you. Um we're also bringing two um policies for um uh for first read. I neglected to mention that um in our um and this is for all of you but also for our our guests um that there are three reasons we will review policies. One is a law change, the other is part of a regular 5-year process and the other is uh at board request. Uh so these

139two policies that we're bringing before you JA compulsory attendance and GIC systemwide student code of conduct um those we are updating because of law change. Um so I'm going to just give you a kind of like top level um overview. Uh I'm not going to go through the actual document, but I'm going to give you some uh just some highlights of of what was changed to bring us into compliance with law. Um and then um if uh my colleagues on the committee would care to share anything or Tom if I miss anything. Um, please throw it in. So, let's look. What's the first one in the Is it Ja? >> Yes, >> just in order. Okay. Um, blah blah blah. Okay. Um, so basically the bottom line here is that we're updating this uh to

140reflect changes in current practice in main attendance and truency law. Um, and we're making the policy also internally clearer and more usable for us. Um and uh so a few things to note here. Um we are uh we're making some clarification around um sort of kindergarten rules um and compulsory age uh attendance. Um we also um were making sure that religious observances I think we we're making changes to religious observances. So now there is no pre-approval required by law um uh for religious observance. So we're making sure that that um is there. Otherwise um we were just working on uh improving the logic uh of the the the policy itself and also making sure that the cross references um are accurate. >> Um let's get a motion on the floor and then we can talk

141about them. How's that? I already I already talked about it, but yeah. Okay. >> No, I mean the >> No, I know. I know. I know. >> Do you want to take a motion for these two together? >> Yes, we generally Yeah, put >> We haven't talked about student, >> but does it matter to I just want to get it on the floor so we don't forget >> put it on the floor. Let's put it on the floor. Let's get into it. >> Erica's itching to write it down. I can see it. >> All right, Erica. We'll do this for you. >> Do I have a motion for consideration and approval for the first read for the following policies? J IC student code of conduct and JA compulsory attendance. Cara, thank you. And Chris. Okay.

142Uh, so you want to talk about questions for compulsory attendance first? >> Yes. So just everything that I just said before I said just now. >> Said it now. >> And so now we can discuss it. >> Love that. Uh, questions. Lois >> on page three of four in the um compulsory school attendance section. It's not really a question, it's a comment and I believe that maybe Cara is also an editor. Um there's a word missing under the section credit for attendance at a private school that's then been crossed out. Um the bottom line says from the private is filed. It should say in from the private school, I believe. I just want to make sure that the language is correct. >> Yeah. But what you don't understand, Lois, is that like I'm a poet,

143so like I can like I can break the language in like all sorts of different ways and like that sort of thing is just sort of acceptable. I know you're new here. Uh but that sort of thing is totally >> forgotten that for 40 years I used a red pen. >> Exactly. Uh so can we please add uh school uh to that and it will be a slightly less interesting poem but a more accurate uh policy document. It is noted. >> Other comments or questions? Valerie >> on page two. Um I had two. One is possibly pedantic. Um and I'll go to that one first because it's easier. B5 at the very end. I can't tell what that punctuation is. Is it a period, a colon, some >> semicolon? But why is it a semicolon?

144>> Thank you. That's my question. >> Again, it would be a cool poem, but let's make it a period. >> I was like, what is this puzzle? Um, the other thing I was wondering is two just says parent or guardian. Do we need legal guardian or is guardian sufficient? I believe guardian is our standardized language across the policies, but uh I'm going to defer to someone else. >> Okay. And then I'll just plow right into my possibly final question. Um I noticed that in this document we call the district the school unit in many places. Am I slow and just didn't notice before or is this the first document we've started doing this? >> Okay, so I am slow. That's fine. >> Well, you may not have looked at all of them that I mean

145>> there's a lot of them. >> It's fine. It just it reads funny to me and I it was I kept stumbling on it, so I wasn't sure if that's just the standard that we're using. >> Okay, that's fine. Kelly, >> since we're going for pedantics, I might as well mention one. um on page three of four. Actually, if you go to 204 and you look at the heading for number five, it says attendance at public day school days crossed out, but at the top of page three, it is not crossed out. If you'd like to be consistent and again, totally up to you, you might want to cross it out in the actual language, the very top line. >> Yeah, good catch. Let day be stricken. So maybe this falls into your poetry phase

146that you're in. Um >> that I'm in. >> Um I'm curious about the >> super invalidating. >> What? He just said he was um the first sentence was that from the lawyers like that seems very like so compulsory education is essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people and the continued prosperity of our nation. Like that's very >> No, we just thought that was super cool, man. We just like we we came up with that ourselves. That was like off the dome. No, that was came from the lawyers >> from this this sample policy. >> Wow. Okay. I mean I mean I guess I'm not opposed to it. It's just seemed like a very >> poetic >> big entrance to this policy. >> All right. Just just also to say we

147uh we uh let me, you know, I'm going to use the I'm going to use the singular pronoun. I uh have been trying to take uh a note from Tom to sort of reduce the uh amount of kind of um beautifying uh that we do to the English language within the policies. Uh when we encounter when we encounter something like that, we're at we're trying to just kind of leave that alone. Um unless >> takes a lawyer to write it that way. >> Yeah, it's really really really >> I mean I felt more poet than lawyer, but okay. >> What poems are you reading? >> None. Okay. Uh other questions or comments on compulsory school attendance? All right. You want to move on to the other? >> Yes, please. Um, the next one is >>

148wait a second. Karen has a >> I think you're talking about the semicolons. Okay. So, >> yeah, page 204. That's okay. Somebody else brought out the semicolons because it's one of the following sections, right? So, A has a semicolon at the end, B has a semicolon at the end, C does not, D does not. So, either they all have >> Karen, this is a beautiful observation and I'm totally here for it. Um, let uh I don't care, >> right? So let uh let's make them periods. Let's make them periods. >> Sure. >> Let's make them periods or we can take or you can trust the committee uh to in when we meet next time to have like a good solid discussion of that and >> full faith and trust in this committee to figure out

149the right punctuation. >> Okay, great. >> So I can say in good faith we we can adopt the policy. It's just first read. So yeah, we can adopt we can move it forward and clean this up. >> Absolutely. Yeah. We're not we're not tableabling this for semicolons. Absolutely not. So Lord, Lord, help us. >> Okay. >> All right. Systemwide code of student code of conduct. >> Um, so this is uh systemwide student code of conduct. Um, and again, this uh this is bringing our uh code of conduct into alignment with the state laws um notably from 2021. um and with really an eye toward um discipline limits for uh grades five and below. Um and also updating um uh protected class language. Is that accurate? Really is those two things, right, Tom? Um so, um

150how how much detail would you like me to get in to the substance of those? Because I can get into it if you would like me to. In other words, what the law now requires, just so everybody's clear about it. Would you like me to do that? >> Uh, is the age defined like the ending at five fifth grade? Is that specifically defined in the law? >> The uh grade is what is defined? Yes. So, it's not age, it's grade. >> Thank you. Yes. >> It limits suspension and expulsion in students grades five and below. Um, which is a change in the law. Um I I'm trying to figure out so on page two of nine the bottom there article five. So we created article five says ex or maybe it was already article five

151we just struck the e but so now it just says expectations but now everything else in that article has been struck. Well, then all the old stuff is gone. >> Oh, this is all still article five. Oh, okay. Okay. >> Yeah, good, good call. So, yeah, what is under article five is what we find starting on um the top of page five. So, that's violence, threats, weapons, hazing, discrimination, harassment, um etc. >> And this is as laid out by the law. >> Yes. Uh yes, yes, my colleague to my right. >> Thank you. Um I did have a question page five for weapons. It explicitly says knives and then says it elaborates that things that are not necessarily designed to be weapons. And I'm struck similarly with our uh cell phone policy and the non-in

152um items potentially being like a calculator instead of an abacus. Uh are we now banning like knives in the cafeteria? Like how like the other things firearms and explosives understandable. Probably no everyday use for those in the school. Um, knives, however, there could be. And is there is this a legal definition that we have to keep or are are we putting ourselves in danger of not allowing people to butter their toast? >> This is from the sample policy that came from our attorneys. Um, and the intent here is to not prevent butter knives in the cafeteria, but to, you know, prevent a a makeshift shiv that some kid might bring in whittleled out of a I don't know, whatever. >> Yeah. I mean, the way I read that is the distinction in the two sentences

153is that uh this is again weapons B on page five. Students shall not possess or use weapons of any kind. So, it's the possession and use. And then the second is uh specifically use. So I think the first is basically saying don't bring weapons and then the second is saying don't use something as a weapon. If you do it will be treated as a weapon. So it's not saying if you have a butter knife it is a weapon. It's if you use a butter knife as a weapon you've weaponized it and therefore you will be uh responsible for that action. >> Okay. Because >> I understand where you're coming from Valerie though. Like we literally put it as an example of things you can't have or use. >> Yeah. >> It's not in the like

154don't use it poorly. >> We're a family that carries small knives as a a scissor replacement for things like cutting off tags and not, you know, stabbing people, but benign uses that probably would be banned in school. Not allowed. >> Yeah. >> I mean, my kids don't currently carry knives. >> Um there's a principle in the back, right? >> Then they are not currently in violation of the of the law. That is fantastic for them. >> Yes. >> Uh so yeah, I mean again I think this is this is coming from uh the lawyers. This is the kind of language that just uh we in general do not mess with. Um because as soon as we start messing with it, it then creates something where if it is uh if it is beyond um what

155is legally um uh uh detailed um then we become uh liable for those changes. Um so I think I am not going to modify knives to knives except butter other than butter knives. Um I think we need to keep knives as it is. So I often struggle with these policies where we strike through multiple pages and add two new multi multiple pages. Um is there you mentioned the change in the fifth grade and below. Um are there any other material changes that we are either adding or removing? Um yeah, let me um um there's what could what should we say about the restorative um aspect, Tom? There definitely were um I made some notes that um uh that we're including positive and restorative interventions um before punitive steps. So that is just a an an

156important part of again it's we think it's an important part of what we should do as a school. It's also an important part of um bringing us into alignment. Um the other is uh that the updated protected characteristics. Um and so that uh that list now includes race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ancestry, national origin, and disability. So again, that is by law um what we are um protecting. Um other >> you may remember >> thank you Jenny will thank you too. Um we adopted a policy earlier in the year that was to comply with the new law around restraint and seclusion. >> Yeah. >> So this policy is congruent with that new policy. Um, as Colin mentioned, it adds gender identity to the protected characteristics which reflects the evolving civil rights landscape

157and it has limits on physical restraint and seclusion. It includes as permitted by law language throughout the document where appropriate and it um updates all the other policy cross references. So, that was my last question is this I would say this policy has probably more cross references to other policies than any I've seen. Um, are we sure that all of those other policies have been updated to be in alignment with this? >> We still >> No, we are not sure of that. Um, that is a good question. >> Um, I'm not sure. Yeah, let's take a look at that. Let's just take a look at what what might be impacted there. I mean, again, the thing to remember for all of us um is that the law always trumps our policy, right? So, even if

158uh if like we make the changes to this and this is uh now accurately respect um uh reflecting policy, I'm sorry, reflecting law um and let's say we didn't uh update tobacco use and possession. Um but the law around that would still apply no matter what we have in the policy. >> Oh, absolutely. I agree. >> Yeah, that's for just the world. >> Um, you know, obviously like bullying, cyber bullying, we just looked at that one, so I'm going to presume that one's probably in alignment, but there's there's quite a few in here. Yeah. >> And some of them are a little more >> um that is frequently looked at >> like bomb threats. Yeah. Um I think the other thing I just want to I I do want to actually just go through the

159grade five um the adjustments there just because they're like they're actually quite specific and I think they're just important. Um so um so the again there limitations on expulsions out of school suspensions and loss of recess for students in grade five and below. So that is the sort of the what has been um what has been changed. So um according to law um expulsion for grade five and below um is tied to federal uh gun-free schools act um and also the state policy around firearms. Um the out of school suspension for grade 5 and below is uh sharply limited. Um and but there's an exception for two things. One is for a gun-free schools act situation, a situation that falls under that. Um or uh quote imminent danger or serious physical injury uh and less

160restrictive interventions would be ineffective end quote. Um so those would be the two reasons um that uh the an out of school suspension um could be indicated. Um there's also a hard cap on out of school suspensions for um greater than three school days um which is important to note. Um and then also there are limits on recess withholding restrictions. So recess generally can't be withheld for K through5 discipline except when recess is the only available time for restorative interventions. And so the emphasis also there is on restorative and that was something that we um uh was clarified for us by some of the administrators who visited us for that meeting that was super helpful. >> Yeah. Lo is it three days for each incident or three days a year? >> Uh each incident. >>

161Yeah. I'm pulling from I'm pulling from the law and it doesn't state in the law. So I or it doesn't state in the language from the law that I'm pulling from. So I don't I don't know the answer to that. So if you're saying for incident then that would be >> each incident. >> Yeah. Because it says any out of school suspension which would be a specific incident. >> Yep. >> Of grade five or below can be no longer than three school days. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good call. Yep. >> Other questions. >> So it's not about the fifth grade. Can I go to a different question? >> Yeah, please. >> On the same page, um, number 10 at the top of the page above discipline. >> Sorry, which page you on? >> I'm on

162page two of nine. >> Two. Okay. >> And it's actually I I'm actually looking at number nine, not number 10. It says, "Refrain from cheating or plagiarizing the work of others under the article three general behavior expectations." Um, how does AI play into this or is there a separate policy for AI plagiarism? Uh, that's a good question. Uh, we currently do not have a separate policy for AI um plagiarism. I mean, we have we've had conversations um over the and we had a presentation earlier in the fall um about sort of the how how the school is uh working to both take advantage of AI where appropriate but also create limits uh where appropriate. Um, and my general understanding, um, is that, um, and I will also say this just as a teacher in case

163any of my students are listening, um, that it doesn't matter whether you're plagiarizing with AI or you're plagiarizing because Stephanie wrote it for you. You're plagiarizing and so that applies. So, I think that that um, and I will uh, go to the mat for that if anybody wants to come at me. >> That would be my opinion, too. But it doesn't say anything about AI. I just worry that we're >> Yeah. No, I'm with you. I mean, I think um yeah, I don't know. What do you think, Michelle? >> I don't know. I mean, are you asking, do I think we should have an AI policy or should we include it here? I mean, I I think here the the generalized refrain from cheating and plagiarizing is appropriate in the code of conduct. And then

164if you know, maybe we're adding another cross reference here to another policy um in the future around AI. Um, but I think you know it comes down to teaching within our schools that just asking AI to write your paper for you is in fact cheating and plagiarizing and it falls under this. So, and I do believe that that is >> and I don't and I don't Yeah. And I guess I really don't I don't I have not heard a um uh for example there is that we had a really good um and rich conversation um around cell phone use uh in the schools and had some wonderful presentations from students who spoke really um eloquently about that issue. Um in that case I would say that there is there is a question of um of

165sort of balanced interests and sort of different sort of points of view and opinions on that. I I have never encountered any um in any academic context anyone saying differentiating AI plagiarism from any other form of plagiarism. Um so plagiarism in my in my experience in encompasses um all of that. I don't think unless we define it somewhere else um because we would just be defining plagiarism which is using somebody else's words >> as your own even if it's computers >> but we're definitely going to be returning to AI because that is a big concern of ours as a district and as part of our strategic plan it needs to be part of that um and so we're building off of the great work that was presented in the fall um but Good note. >>

166Yeah, I think it's more likely something that gets embedded into the curriculum talking about that. Other comments or questions? Okay, we have a motion and a floor. Wow. A motion and a second on the floor. Uh, all those in favor? So, this is the first read. These will be back with appropriate punctuation. >> Great. Thank you so much everybody. Really appreciate it. >> Okay, moving on to item 12, unfinished business. Uh district reconfiguration. Um we just wanted to put a a brief uh spot on the the agenda here. Um, obviously Superintendent Gray um touched on a variety of things in his um in his remarks for the superintendent's report. We had over an hour of uh public comment. Um just wanted to provide some um a spot for for folks to ask some questions around

167process um information they would like. Um, we're going to talk a little bit more about the the facility study a little bit later on, but um, I just wanted to open this up, Chris. >> Um, yeah, thank you for providing the time for that. Um, I really appreciate it. I do have kind of a list of questions that I wanted to just publicly ask. Um, understanding that those answers are not coming tonight to start with. Uh, but a lot of it is just about process. So, kind of outlining the process that we're we're using moving forward as well as and I know you talked about in your um in your report kind of having us reflect on the values that we would like to have in this and I would also like kind of understand

168what the one what the timeline is um that we're thinking of for this what the factors of that timeline include um because I think that's important. And I know the CDS transition is one of the factors that that's included in that, but that scenario 2 presented multiple different things that are honestly very different. Um like the middle school consolidation versus changing changing a PES. Um so I kind of want to get a sense of understanding the timeline for that. Um I'd like to understand how the community can have input on that. I I'm so happy that a lot of my neighbors, most of my neighbors probably showed up um and and I really appreciate the input that they've they've given us. But how do we have uh kind of a more formal way of of

169having the community participate um especially because we we presented three scenarios, but really those three scenarios are just a conglomeration of some ideas. Um, and so stepping back from those scenarios and and ignoring them for a second, kind of how do we get to the point where we go, what do we want our district to look like? And now, how do we make that happen? And the scenarios are in the how do we make that happen part, but we haven't really figured out the what do we want our district to look like part. So like, do we want our middle school to be consolidated? Do we want it seventh? Do we want it sixth? like if we decide our our values in that then we can figure out how then we can use our district

170to change and um the facility study is a big part of that. So I would I'd love to have a facility study kind of push forward. I think that's great. Um that goes into kind of what other information we need. The facility study will help provide that. I think um but beyond the facility study is there any other information that we need um that we're kind of not thinking of? So putting some thought into that I think would be important. Um, and how can again we have these these three scenarios and and and I understand that but how do we present alternatives whereas they're not fully fleshed out but we have ideas that we like about certain things to then come together and collaborate into that. So, um, I wanted to kind of make sure

171that we we we thought about this in a way that is very kind of data oriented and the things we're thinking of are real and not perceptions because I know that there's a lot of perceptions between the three towns of of the different schools being in certain ways, but actually understanding the the real data on some of that, whether that's student numbers or costs or contributions from each town. Um, I think that'd be really important. So, Um those are not so much questions as statements I guess but uh I think timeline process moving forward how how that looks um what sort of community input we would have on that I think are the three big things on that. So >> thank you Chris. Those are all excellent. I I would think for me those are

172all things that I would want to know as well um before I could come to what I would feel is a even the beginning of an informed decision. Um I'm trying to think about ideas for um input from from the district. Um and I'm trying to recall in my brain what it was around but um we have had in the past um sort of like roundt like facilitated discussions where like anyone who's interested in coming comes and like tables are given a question and they come up they brains it's basically a lot of brainstorming opportunities that then get shared out and it just provides I mean uh you know several of our speakers said today like we have a lot of really bright minds in this district. Like, let's tap into them and and think

173of opportunities. And, you know, I mean, there's probably infinite opportunities, but there's probably, you know, a handful or a dozen that have real validity and possibility to move forward. Like, how do we collect them? How do we distill them down? Um, and for me, that probably that I think can be happening. Um, and I don't know. I don't know what the right time, you know, pacing for these things is. I don't know if you need to have the facility study before you have that or if you do that while we're getting the facility study prepared or maybe there's two stages to this. Um, you know, I I would just like to see a way where we can try and tap into like all of these these ideas and these, you know, diverging um perspectives and

174um and and be able to in a um an open and transparent and safe place be able to say all the things, right? like why why this might be a good option for this group or that group or this this you know constituent or stakeholders or you know um sort of the the right versus right right like understanding what those all look like um because I think while you know we're not all going to love everything we hear I think that is the core of a of a open you know uh healthy discussion about something like this. Um so, you know, I think maybe we can brainstorm on how we brainstorm with our communities and provide opportunities for that. Um to start collecting those, you know, the feedback and and obviously we have board meetings

175and people are welcome at the beginning and end of every board meeting. We have the board email which um which folks are most folks are familiar with, but if you're watching and aren't, it's boardrs.org or and that goes to all of us um here on the board. Um >> so if I if I might >> Yeah. >> So I want to just in response to where this is not a full answer, but this is sort of like my thoughts on how we should go forward from for right now. Um, as I said before, none of us here, none of us here and none of us here in the room has full information about what all of this entails. Um, we each have a perspective. They're all valid, but we don't have full information yet. So,

176the process of getting the information we need is a pretty long and it process that takes an investment of time and money. And so I'm going to ask you in a little while to invest some money in a concrete step which is the facility study which will take some time to develop. And the time at the moment is for everybody to be curious about what should inform this decision. I think what's happened at this point is that the issue has been laid open as necessary for discussion and the discussion and curiosity. So I I think now is the time to be curious and also to be empathetic. And I think it's a very good thing frankly that folks in Powell especially. We're hearing from folks in other communities too but we have a prepoundonderance of

177folks from Panel in the room are here to engage in this conversation. Um so what we can do right now is be very deliberate about listening. I think board members can go back to your constituents and encourage them to come to board meetings, offer public comments, send emails, and watch the board meetings and become as informed and engaged as possible. I think it makes sense within the next few months for us to have open conversations about what we're thinking, what we're qu what we're curious about, and what our values are while we wait for the information we'll need because that that information is going to take time. And part of what we'll come up with that is I have no doubt, you know, I presented three scenarios. That's a starting place. There are going to

178be other ideas to consider. um those things may be in the well in the rearview mirror by the time we actually know fully what we're talking about. So I I just personally think the way forward is right now to listen and be curious, get the ball rolling on a facility study and invite people in. >> Um yeah, I appreciate that. Um >> I hope that doesn't sound like nothing. I it it's actually a lot, but it's it's >> these it's a little snowball that gets bigger over time, >> right? And and being being clear to to kind of us and some of the members of the public, we're not we're not talking about making a decision in weeks. We're talking about making a decision in >> this is at the >> double digits of months

179kind of things. Yeah. >> At the earliest, it's a next year decision. >> Okay. Um, and the other thing I'm thinking I one second, Colin, um, is, you know, um, tools we already kind of have at our disposal that feel like they might help inform this is like the strategic plan. Like we have just gotten a lot of feedback from community members all through the district, right? Can we look at the feedback we got from that and you know kind of key into some of the the questions that Chris said like like what do we want the RSU5 to be like what comes out of that that helps inform the values that you said you know we need to weigh um you know I'm I'm trying trying to think of you know uh groups that

180are already you know involved and and doing some of this work that seems to me feels like it overlaps with that question. Um, >> so just a thought, Colin. >> Yeah, I mean I was also just going to reference the strategic planning process which u if any of our guests are not currently involved in it, please get involved in that because that is our our uh our work as a district to try to articulate what it's exactly what you said. Um that is that is where we do that. Um and that we are doing that um and that is in process. uh we're working from the um the portrait of a graduate that um our uh high school student presented to us last week based on that work. So, um, so I just want to

181touch on that. And also, I think one thing that would be helpful, and I don't think this is a um a short-term thing, but it might be something to kind of either develop um uh kind of either out of the um facility study or kind of in tandem with it would be kind of an articulation um a sort of a public facing document of um sort of like drivers and dilemmas um and questions that we're trying to wrestle with um because I think that is uh the piece that that fundamentally um everything comes down to um is that we are we're responding to um a constellation of interacting um factors and um trying to navigate those. So I think that in terms of also like what Chris what you were saying in terms of like

182how also the community can have maybe kind of a clearer sense of sort of how to contribute um other ideas would be to would be in response to those response to those things um to say if we're if we're juggling like some of the things were already were already mentioned this evening and were discussed last week right sort of question of like um uh middle school or equity or transportation right? The sort of um and sort of aging infrastructure and all those things. So to sort of have that all kind of in one place um to get a little bit of a sense of sort of what are we like what are we really trying to juggle so that when folks are presenting ideas uh to us um it's with an understanding that it's that

183full constellation of things that we're trying to address. Um there's no it's not that like if somebody has an idea on like a very acute thing sure that's great but like uh very much the um the wicked problem we have right now is like how to address these interacting factors and so I think it'd be helpful to have some sort of public facing document that could uh articulate those. >> I'm curious if you have a sense of how long a facility study would take because I think that would be helpful as we think about a timeline and and conversations. I can't give you a fully informed answer right now, but I can tell you it's going to take at least a couple of months to put it up to bid and then get in bids

184and then the facility study itself is going to take at least I this is a total ballpark at least three or four months. >> So, we're we're definitely looking at this year >> um at the earliest I would say. And in in the meantime, I hope it this is really for everybody who's in the room. I think what has forced why the timing for this conversation has happened is that we have a confluence of factors. We have this really difficult budget situation. And you know when I came here I realized I can't be the superintendent who just tries to pass on a 10 and a half% tax increase budget increase or on the other hand um radically slash the budget which would have a significant impact. So that's why I had to bring that to

185you all for guidance to find a target and having taken in mind what your target is and then having worked for hours with the team of people in the back of the room to figure out what's the least impactful way to get there. One of the hard truths of those conversations that shows up in the presentations I gave is that if we start at tier one and then go to tier two and then we go to tier three being the deepest level of cut that I didn't recommend, there aren't any cuts that are at aimed at panel until tier three. And the reason for that is because the structure of that building makes any cut the the impact of any cut there much more magnified. That's just the nature of the one classroom per grade

186level structure of that building. So when we're having conversations about combining classrooms at Mass Landing and Durham and Mor Street and we can't really make a change at Powell until we get to a non-recommended tier, it creates a dynamic when looked through the district-wide lens of we have to make that talkable. And that that's what I need to ask folks here to understand is that through the district-wide lens, we have to at least talk about this. And the feelings that I'm hearing are I I would feel the same way. I would feel exactly the same way. It has to be a two-way conversation about how do we balance those needs. Sorry. >> I also think we need to name some of the the feelings that we have that maybe aren't uh as happy as we

187would like them to be. Um someone earlier used the word jealousy which I found offensive. Um I want all of our children to have a great education. I celebrate it. Um I'm not jealous of penel. My kids had great education at Mor Street and MLS. Um, I don't do this happily. I don't think any of us do. Even considering it, I don't do it happily. Um, I really, that word struck me in a in a bad light. And I know that I know that panel folks are feeling that same ugliness and that they did their best to not use ugly words. And I appreciate that. But also, um, I don't think there's a happy way to get to compromise. I think that's why compromise is what it is. Um, I I I'm not saying that

188I definitely believe that we should do option two. I'm not there yet. I don't think that. Um, I just know that we have this constellation of needs, many of them legal requirements, and we have limited resources. We're making probably making cuts this year. Um, we have a set number of buildings, which is why we need this facility study. I It's an ugly thing. I It's unpleasant. I get it. I agree. That's why we're all wrestling with it. Um, and I appreciate the panel residents coming tonight. I really do. Um, all the ones that didn't and still emailed, I appreciate that, too. Last year I was over there doing exactly the same thing, speaking out about something that I didn't like. Um, and I understand your position. I understand the passion behind it. Um, we all

189love our kids. I get it. I mean, every single one of us has family in this district as well. That's why we're here. Um, we don't want to take anything away from you. We're in your community, too. It's a bigger community. I agree. But we're also in your community. All of us. Even the Freeport people, even the Durham people. We don't want to exclude you. We want to include you. Um how that looks. I I don't want to do this. I have seen some absolutely beautiful emails. Beautiful. The testimonies tonight, most of them very beautiful. Um, I think we all feel the same way, but also we have a constellation of things that we have to address. And I'm not saying that this is definitely the answer. None of us want to do it, but

190we need an answer. And we're looking for partners. We We have to educate our three-year-olds. We don't have a place to put them. That's the long and the short of it. We also have this pain point of middle school that we addressed at length that some people touched upon but nobody really addressed where our Durham kids are on a totally different time frame because they're in a a school that is different than most middle school hours. I there's more than one problem that we're trying to figure out and I it's a it's a hard thing and I understand it and I understand the feelings behind it and we want to be partners. We don't want this to be adversarial. We want to listen clearly. Um our doors are always open. Our emails are always open.

191I read every single email I got, every single word. Um, I'm sure everybody else did, too. We're partners in this and we want we want to do what's best for all of our kids. That's what we were elected to do, the kids first. We swore an oath to it. And so, I just wanted to level set to that. We're we're considering the kids first and anything implied otherwise is kind of offensive to us. So I think I mean I think everyone on this board is open to learning more, right? I mean I think that at the core of the vote that we took last time was we want to learn more about any scenario that could meet the needs, right? I don't I don't I I won't speak for everyone on this board, but I

192my sense is that no one is tied to any specific solution. I think we are very much in the curiosity, find out more information and if there is other solutions that still meet the needs of all the things we're trying to do in that in that constellation um then great. Um and that's what I would love for us to you know engage with with our communities to to tap into that. So um and I I think I I think I put that in every email to everyone who emailed the board. Um, I think I've emailed everybody back unless you emailed me this afternoon. I haven't we haven't gotten to those yet. But, um, but please know that we do read them all. We do appreciate the feedback. Um, we will find a way to to

193continue soliciting feedback, right? Like public comment is great um because you can get a lot of people through quick, but it's not a two-way conversation. Um, so I do think we need to have another there'll be another mechanism. there'll be another avenue um to continue that to continue that conversation. Um and you know and you know similar to similar to all the other things we just seem to be tagging into um Tom's uh uh superintendent reports. He gives us a budget update and a strategic planning update. Maybe this is a subtitle under the strategic planning update that we're constantly you know where are we at? What's the next step? um how can we engage both as a board and as a community? So um so thank you for that. Yeah. Okay. I've been listening to

194what everyone has been saying and thank you for everyone showing up. It's it's a lot. Um I had a question about the strategic planning um portrait of a graduate. There were focus groups. there were um surveys sent out to everybody and we could join or participate or not. And I'm wondering if there's we could do something like that with this because I do think that there's plenty of ideas out there. We are not the only minds. There's three communities that have great minds and I'm wondering if we could do something like that where there could be a two-way absolutely. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. that I mean that's what I was very inarticulately saying trying to remember how we did what what we were doing it for before but it was it was you know it

195was basically a facilitated discussion that anyone who was interested and we had him in a couple different locations a couple different times to provide you know some prompts and and to just basically get to ideas and thoughts and feelings about things and um and brainstorm so >> somebody will remember what we were doing >> in particular or both. >> Yeah. I mean, it could be either >> more personal, you know, face to face, but there could be an initial something that goes out to people via email that, you know, hey, if you have any ideas, write them down and send them in and then we gather all the information. I don't know how much additional work all of that would be, but I think this is such a large decision that it's >> I think

196it's kind of warranted to get some of that information. Yeah. Who's on our strategic communications committee? >> Seems like a great idea for you guys, Steph. >> So, if I could offer a thought about that, >> I think the answer is yes, um, more than once, but with being mindful of what kind of feedback is useful at what time. For example, it would not be useful right now to send out a survey among us or the teachers or the administrators or the public to say, "What do you think we should do?" Because we don't know everything we need to know. But the kind of survey that would be useful is what do you value? What questions do you have? What are you concerned about? What problems do you see? That's useful information at this stage.

197I I think it would be helpful to have what Colin was suggesting earlier document explaining the constellation of needs to go along with that so that they don't think this is just another strategic plan survey. >> Um some of the questions I'm thinking about the strategic planning process and and I'm looking forward to looking back at the information we collected. I don't think there was anything related to space. You know, it was all like bigger picture. what do we hope our students will be learning and who are they developing to be as humans? How are they a part of the community? Uh but I don't think there's anything that would really get to what we're talking about here. Um so I I look I think it would be great to do send another uh survey

198out but with the context of why we're asking. >> Yeah. And just to follow up on that, I think it would be really helpful for us as a board if we could close that feedback loop really quickly and get that feedback from those surveys um just sort of periodically as we go through the process so we can sort of be thinking about that um as we move through and also if we get some really great ideas from those surveys to incorporate them into our feasibility study so that we're not just sort of railroaded down scenario two so to speak that we're really kind um making sure we take those into consideration when we do that process. >> I think in term I'm sorry Steph, >> we've cut her off twice. Let her go. Let her

199go. >> I I I'm curious what you have to say, Tom. But um uh no, I just wanted to jump on the constellation document. Um that's something that I'm kind of holding I think in this process. Um, and just to sort of name where um, what might have felt like a quick jump on a scenario is that these are long meetings and we absorb a lot of different pieces of information at different times and you start to hold the different pieces sort of collectively in your mind. As a board member, I'm learning because I'm still very new. Um, and so I think it would be helpful for me as I consider something like this. And I also think like even if you're completely engaged in all of the meetings, it would be hard to hold

200all of those pieces unless you're here doing this work on a weekly bi-weekly basis. Um, >> yeah, sometimes daily depending on uh hiring. But um yeah, so I just I just wanted to name that as like maybe both um a piece of information for why it felt harsh and abrupt um that so many of us were interested in exploring an option like this. Um and also that um yeah that like I think it would be helpful for all of us to have a collective understanding of all those competing priorities because they don't feel easily reconcilable. Um and um we've kind of we've named it, but I just want to reiterate that that um desire to pursue an option. I'm I want to hold all options on the table. I think we could we should consider

201all options and we shouldn't take any off of the table. I think that that's how we get to the best answer um for our students. um even the ones that feel impossible and super painful. Um I think that that's how we feel better about making a choice in the end is when we consider them all. Um and then the other I guess request that I have is the on like this constellation of problems document um the poet. Yeah, the poet. um is to also like maybe highlight the limited resources and how they interact. And I it's sort of like kind of the same thing, but I think it's also slightly different. Like when we're trying to solve this problem, what are the constraints that we're facing when we're trying to solve the problem? Um I

202think would be helpful. Thanks. >> I was just trying to I I'm thinking about um when we can accomplish >> this work. So, I just want to make sure the kind of things we're talking about, I think they can happen in the next month or so or couple of months. They can't happen by the next board meeting. Um, we're we just got a lot of plates in the air. So, I want to make sure our sense of what we can accomplish in the time we have is is realistic. Um, so I will be working on this and I will keep you I will invite your help with this um and try to develop a timeline that that works but it it can't be like next board meeting. Um, two quick things. one is um I

203just uh to that point of all the things we have in the air um after we finish this particular conversation we are going to have a 120minute conversation uh about the budget >> only if you choose to >> No, we're going to use every damn minute. No, but I but like I bring that up also like to say that um to just emphasize we do have a number of uh balls in the air. Um but also that like we all we also are wrestling with some very like some very immediate um questions that I can't remember which meeting is it like two out from now that we are supposed to make a recom like basically approve um a budget that we're then going to take to each of the towns. Um and uh and that

204that also as uh anyone who's been watching um is an incredibly uh difficult conversation where we're trying to figure out um how uh to uh cut $1.7 million um out of the budget that can only uh because it has been uh looked at very carefully um can only come from staffing. Um so also that again just to note that we are uh having that >> to clarify there is a lot there are a lot of non-staffing reductions. >> No there there are but the lion share of them like we we know that that needs to come from there. Uh the other point just again um since we're being pedantic I may have also misheard Kelly but just to make uh sure I see a big difference between a feasibility study and a facility study. A

205feasibility study is when we know something uh that we want to do um and we present that plan and see whether we can do it. A facility study is saying what do we ha what do we have? Um and just to be clear that my understanding is we are not going into a facility study with any sort of with any agenda of like um we want to do this, can we do it? we're going into it with an understanding of what do we have um and then yes how do we then uh take that information and put it up against um for example the strategic plan um to try to understand that. So again I just want to that may be just my like um uh nomenclature kind of thing but I just wanted to

206make clear that that is a distinction at least in my mind. Okay, you guys ready for 120 minutes of budget? Let's do it. Okay. Um, so my understanding is we don't have um we don't have any updated um budget documents. Uh so there hasn't been any changes to the um the handbook and the budget um the many many page budget document that we got I think at the last meeting from Kelly. Um so we don't have any additional information um from what um from what we had last time other than the request for kind of that roll forward budget a couple years and what does that look like? So thank you. Thank you for that. Um, that was that was helpful to see what that looks like. Um, and to to Tom's point, um, it

207is 9:30. It is been a, um, a long meeting, a a I I felt like a powerful meeting, you know, um, listening listening to to the community. Um, we certainly don't need to spend 120 minutes on this tonight. Um if if that is the will of the board, we have two more board meetings um to discuss the budget um before we vote to move one forward. Um but I do want to provide an opportunity if folks had specific comments or questions they wanted to talk about tonight. Um, I would I would suggest we don't really go into a huge 2-hour deep dive into the budget right now because I'm not sure how productive we would all be in that. But Chris, >> um, yeah, I I agree with that. Um I did have a question

208on and we talked about this before but if you had thought about we had talked about how to an extent the you know six seven% is somewhat arbitrary and if you had a an idea of what you would prioritize if we gave you the sense of going between the um the seven and 8% um and I don't know if you you'd thought about that or if that's something you you had any kind of thoughts on. Well, I did think about that and I have to say I gave an answer at the last board meeting, but I really was over my skis in giving that answer because I had not talked about it with the team. So, I I'm going to be not over my skis right now and say we have talked about that scenario.

209We're not done talking about it. So, that that's the best answer I can give right now. >> Yeah, sounds great. Thanks. I guess just on on that and I appreciate the clarification on that but to I mean to Chris's question I think the way I'm um currently sitting with that question is um is that I'm using the um the tears um as the way I'm I'm thinking about that. So for example, if uh the way my sort of understanding is that um if we were to say um we want to increase uh we want to give more leeway and say uh higher uh higher percentage tax increase um that then the things that uh are currently in tier two but not in tier >> one then tier one um but not in tier one. those

210would be the things to go. Um although I'm sorry, those would be the things that would be uh kept the opposite of go. Um again, that's not I'm not saying that's gospel. I'm just saying that's the way I'm holding it in my head. Um I think just to be very uh frank just to um I think for myself at this moment kind of keep uh keep clear what Tom has um reiterated a few times which is that those tiers were developed really carefully by the administrators um and it's their um it's their uh um recommendation. is their like best work um to uh solve a problem sort of to Valerie's point like to solve a problem we don't want to have um we don't want to have to cut the budget in that way but

211if we do to Tom's uh thing you you've reiterated a few times is that um the the least bad uh things that we can do um so again just to sort of name that that's kind of the way I'm kind of sitting with it but I I would be curious to know if there any uh updates uh next week I guess it would be um from uh from the administrators or from you Tom. >> I think that's that's really helpful and I appreciate you're saying that and I'm I'm sure others in the room probably appreciate it too. Um, not that our thinking is perfect, but I what I can assure you is that tier one is the highest tier is what we considered to be after much discussion from many angles the least damaging to

212what we offer kids. And then tier two is next. It's a roadmap. Um, so to come somewhere in between tier one and tier two would be you'd get back some of what is in tier two, but you would if I well I didn't show you this. I guess I could should I put this up on the screen >> if you'd like. >> So this is what I mentioned in my I will do. So this is what I mentioned in my um remarks. I'm just going to stay sitting here. 4162. >> Can I say something real quick while you're pulling that up? >> Yeah. So, I I totally understand what you're saying, Colin, and I appreciate that. I think what maybe a better way of trying to articulate what I'm I'm trying to get at is

213instead of forcing you to a 7%, if you stayed under 8%, what would you what would your budget look like then? That's kind of I guess >> right >> because I understand the tiers are are that but >> the tears were somewhat I mean those were arbitrary numbers >> right so I'm also trying to kind of understand is like are we are we cutting out something that would be incredibly beneficial because we have to stay to that specific number or is there like almost like an under 8% priority if that makes sense. Well, really you're making a judgment about the tax increase you feel you can pass on the will pass >> and to use >> to use sorry I'm really bad with this to to use really rough numbers each percent I mean it

214you can see so what I'm showing you here is if you look at what Kelly did is she ran two scenarios At my request, the top scenario is if you make no reductions and continue to make no reductions, what our best guess is for the budget going forward. So, I sure can try. Let's see. Hold on. >> Could you make the purple just a little more a little dark? >> Oh my word. Okay. So that's that's as good as I can make it at the moment. So the blue is this year, the purple is next year. Um next year without any reductions, the budget will be 49,000 49 million plus a little bit more. So that means that 10% of the budget is $491,000. So 1% is roughly, you know, a quarter of that. So

215each teaching position is roughly 1% of the budget. That's roughly what it boils down to. So if you carry forward this year's budget with no reductions, you're increasing the budget by 10.49%. If you do that again the following year, it will increase by an additional 8.51%. That's of course compounded as these things do. And the year after that would be 8.87%. That does not include the town budgets. It does not include the county budgets at the recommended level which is the quote unquote 7%. You the 7% is actually 6.46% right now. If you take that forward a year out, it's 5.55 and another year out, it's 5.91. So it it makes a big difference in the sustainability. Maybe this is a question for Kelly. What was last year's? What did we end up with? >>

216Last year's was about 6 point it was 6.5 plus change. This is a question not related to this. So, does anyone have questions about this before I launch? >> So, basically, just to be clear, if we added even one teaching position back into this budget for this year, we would be talking about more like seven and a half%. Is that what >> I don't feel like I can say that but I feel that that effect would magnify going farther out and what it doesn't what this does not account for is that next year we are negotiating our largest contract which is the educator contract and all the other things that are happening in the economy that are affecting the expenses for all of our households and businesses etc. I I think just the only other

217thing I would maybe add to Chris's question about the percentages is that is is that I think um and please jump in anyone else if they think I'm speaking nonsense. Um but those those percentages were based on um sort of two things. one sort of historical data um on not just what the increases have been but also um what the voters have told us um about those different um those different numbers sort of how uh um uh how much buyin from um the community as a whole and how much buyin from each of the individual uh voter the each of the individual towns voters um and so I think that the again that's the way I am thinking about those numbers is to sort of know that like seven is seven is higher than historically

218um uh has been something that the voters are excited about. I don't think you've gotten to seven actually. >> But but I'm saying but I'm saying in terms of the but in terms of the like >> I think I think we may have if >> hold on. >> What are we holding on? >> She's going to look up. >> I think I think >> this is where I need >> Michelle Kelly. So >> like it's in the book. So, yeah, in in the in the budget handbook um that we didn't we we have a new one because there's no new information, but um again online as well under um the uh on a district website under the budget documents for 2627 um the 10-year adopted budget history. So, FY26, the year we're in currently, it

219was a 6.83% year-over-year expenditures. In FY25, um it was a 6.48% 48% increase. FY24 was 4.99. FY23 was 4.22. And then we have those lovely um years where we had a lot of additional COVID money. So we we all saw unrealistic budget increases um or or low increases. F um FY22 was 2.09, FY21 2.32, FY20 was 3.43. Um so you can see kind of like the trajectory that's happened as the all the additional influx of COVID money um left the district um but the needs of students did not decrease um they've only truly increased honestly um since the co years. So um that's where we were at last year was 6.83 just below the 7% threshold. And if you remember the budget vote was quite tight. Um, and and I think maybe what I'm recollecting

220is I I what I didn't realize is our chart only goes back 10 years and my brain goes farther. Um, and I think if you went back to the beginning of the district, there is a period between 10 and 17, which is where we start here, where we were higher than that 7%. And in those early years of the district, um, the budget generally failed by a fair amount in both Panel and Durham and and passed it. I mean, we have never, knock on wood, failed the b the budget in total. Um, but it has it has varied based on a variety of things over the life of the district. >> And I just want to remind folks that this 6.46% 46% year-over-year increase actually amounts to um a lot larger year-over-year tax impact in

221Durham and Poundal um estimated at 8.83 in Durham, 7.87 in Pound. So that's that's going to be really hard for some people to um stomach if we go even higher than that. So I think we really need to be mindful not only of this number up here, but the actual town by town um taxation impact, >> which was the point I was stumbling to try to make. So, thank you everyone else for making it more uh beautiful. >> This um spreadsheet that you see up there, we just finished developing this this morning, which is why it's not in your packets, but I'll make sure you get it. >> I I'll just say, Kelly, thank you so much for putting this together. I know that again it's not it's not gospel but it's so it's so

222incredibly helpful to have that as a point of reference um because I think that like know again not knowing but having um a professional uh a numbers professional uh say that um that this puts us on a track um that is has a higher likelihood um of being more sustainable than the status quo. It's just it's just it's just really helpful and it and it and it eases my it doesn't ease all of my my concerns um globally, but it just it it it's really helpful. So, just thank you so much, Kelly, for that. >> Sorry, we were just figuring out some math because we had different papers. Um, Kelly, the numbers Kelly was referencing of the 8% 8, five, and seven for Durham, Freeport, and Powell tax impact um was actually last year's 6

223and a half% budget and the tax impact for the towns of that this so in our current budget year, that was the tax impact that that six and a half um this year's based on the budget um brochure, um it's in the it's five, three and a half and five, five and a quarter for the 310. So, just wanted to clarify that and that's mostly driven by um uh an increase in the subsidy. The subsidy went up >> um because the required mill from the state went down. So how much we were required to raise even though um valuations went up in all three towns the amount we were required to raise did not okay so yeah Anna >> one thing that I think maybe Chris had asked about in a previous meeting that I

224don't think we've gotten and would be helpful I think is um looking at edtech positions and what we currently have in the different ed techs. Um, and then alongside just like the proposal of the different edte that we're proposing to cut cuz that's for me I really want to try to follow what you all the you know the building administration administrators and Tom you've laid out um sticking to as close to tier 2 as we can you know just like Kelly's point. Um, but I think the edteex is where I'm having the hardest juicy for me when we're thinking about larger class sizes, especially just from memory. Like Freeport Middle School, we're talking about like 23 kids per class in one of the grades. I can't remember which one. Um, so it just seems like

225a really strong support staff that then we're cutting with larger class sizes and they tend to have less of a budget impact than teachers. So I would like a closer look on that. Um, and then also it would be helpful with that edtech data to have to look at how many special ed positions we have open. Um, five >> five and a half right now. >> District total. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Five and a half edte special ed edte are open right now. >> Got it. and like how maybe we've been told this information about how long they've been open for and you know um Kelly was mentioning we're going to be using some of the funding because they weren't and I think actually you Michelle in the last meeting had mentioned well could

226we just since we can't hire them anyways which I don't want to go there but it does merit some conversation of like well do we just hope that we're going to get five I mean at this point it seems maybe a little unrealistic that we would get all five So that's a little bit the only thing for me that I feel like I really need more data on. >> I feel I can speak to some of that now. >> So we did discuss as part of our deliberations whether we should just not include those positions and and gain a savings that way. We really feel we need to keep trying to fill those positions because many of them are IEP related and they're for the most needy kids. And so in in good conscious conscience

227we have to try to fill those positions and you know as I look ahead to next year we h are have some ideas that we can't put in place right this moment but that over time we could put in place to try to attract people to those positions. Um, in the meantime, the No, I don't want to get ahead of the agenda too far, but we >> hopefully we're coming up on the end of the agenda. >> Hopefully, we have budgeted for those positions. We're now more than halfway through the year. So, we have five and a head at five and a half edtech wages budgeted for that. even if we hired individuals into those positions right now, we're only going to spend what's left in the school year. So, we have some money there

228that we can dedicate to bringing on an early childhood director as early as possible because we need that person's help to get that program off the ground. Um, I hope that helps at least in part >> and you can perhaps for the next meeting give us sort of a layout of what ed techs look like today and what they would look like under the tiers. >> Sure. Sure. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I think I understand um what the the cuts that are proposed right now with edex, but what I don't understand is >> how many are left. >> How many are Yes. and in the behavioral versus the academic etc. Okay. So, um are we feeling like we're ready to move on from budget for now? And obviously we'll have more.

229Yep. Steph, >> I just have a a question of like what we should intend the next couple of budget meetings to be for us as a board. Um, so typically, um, I don't have the schedule in front of me, but it might be also in here. Is it in here, too? >> Okay, great. >> Yeah. And like more I guess a more specific question is like what are what do we need to do as a board at those meetings? >> That's why I'm checking to see what we've got left. Um, so we adopt on the 25th. So, um, in a perfect world, and I love perfect worlds, um, in the next two meetings, uh, we would essentially by the end of the 18th have come to a consensus on what we want that budget to

230be and then we would vote on it on the 25th because that that uh uh streamlines a lot of the signing and paperwork and things like that as opposed to if we can still be triggering things on the on the 25th if we need to be >> and the 25th would be like we're it's an agenda item on our agenda that we vote on. >> Yes. We adopt the budget on the 25th. >> We are going into that believing that we we know that we have consensus. That's the perfect world. >> Yeah. Ideally, we we have on the 18th agreed to what the budget should be for the following year and we would adopt it on the 25th. Then we have the three meetings in each town to talk about the budget and then we

231would have the annual budget meeting on May 13th. Um Cara has a >> um can I see that it says public input on budget on the 18th and 25th? >> Yes. >> Can you say more about that? I >> Yes. So um we wanted to uh highlight the opportunity for so um the where we go to the three towns that's sort of after we've adopted the budget. to help answer questions, inform folks. Um, but the we wanted to provide public input on the budget on the 18th and 25th where folks um well, there'll be a specific point on the agenda where people can either ask questions. They can come and ask a question, clarifying question, they can give us their thoughts on the budget before we adopt it. Um, because you know, some feedback we've

232heard in the past is like, well, great. I thanks for coming and te telling us, but you've already adopted it. there's really not much we can do other than either vote it down in June or or try to change it at the annual budget meeting. So, that was two um public input opportunities for folks that wanted to share their thoughts or suggestions or questions in advance of us adopting. Yeah, make sense. Okay, thank you. All right. So, new business. Moving on. Um, I will get the motion on the floor and then Tom will fill us in on the details. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval to create the position of early childhood special education ECSE assistant director Malik. Thank you, Cara. >> Okay. So, as I mentioned, we would like to get

233hit the ground running as soon as possible to hire this person to spearhead our adoption of early childhood and fulfillment of our responsibilities under the statute. Um, as I mentioned in a previous meeting, we have found a way to offset the cost of hiring that person through the money that's coming from the early childhood fund from the state so that it is a minimal impact to our district budget. We're framing the position as an assistant special education director so that they can be useful in facilitating all of the IEPs and meeting the needs of the kids in early childhood who for whom we're required to provide those services. Um and we can bring that person on board early in this year before the state's allocation kicks in for next year because we have money available

234for that we have not spent for special ed ad ed techs. So this vote here is to simply create the position and by creating the position it allows them to post for the position because most administrative or or uh hiring for next year people are starting to do those postings now. So we want to maximize our opportunity to uh get a great candidate. So this isn't to hire the person. This is essentially just to create the position and then they would post it. Uh, and then depending on what that process looks like, it's probably several months before someone um would come before the board for hiring and and you know, if we could get them to start before July 1, great. Um, but the timing of that will depend on the candidate and the process.

235But this just gets the um gets it moving. Questions? Lois, I need to have a clearer rationale for why we need this position. I'm not I I don't have a background on this position. So, I guess I need to have an explanation of why a full-time assistant special ed director is necessary. So, we're going to be taking on responsibility for FAPE for three and four year olds, which we currently don't have. And in addition to that, we have uh in this district, we have a special education director. That's not the actual title of the position. It's director of instructional services. And we don't for a district of 1900 kids, we don't have an assistant special education director. We have coordinators in each district. Um but quite frankly that is very lightly staffed in special ed

236and the needs are absolutely exploding in that area. Not only in the number of kids we are required to serve but in the needs of the kids especially since the pandemic. Um so we need an additional person. We just need an additional person particularly with early childhood which is a very big we need somebody with knowledge of early childhood special education as well. And I and I kind of asked that question too, Lois, when it was proposed. Um, and the way it was explained to me that made a fair amount of sense um was this person would also be responsible for sort of kicking off this process, right? Um, for the three and the four-year-olds. Um, I mean, we have four-year-olds now that we provide services for, but we are not required to do any

237of the we don't do the IEPs for those kids. We don't we are not responsible for any of that right now. That's still CDS. We are basically just the service provider. Um, and so the the ability to to launch that early childhood um uh CDS transition to the district, um, this person would be obviously highly involved uh in that. And then once that was sort of up and running um their support as a special ed um uh assistant director could help our existing director with the IEPs around the district. Right. So um and a a chunk of that position is funded through the additional funding for the um early childhood education. So, we're able to bring on a person that arguably we need already to help support this new program and get funding through the

238new um early childhood bucket, I guess, if that makes sense. So, and we don't have a number yet for three year olds. We do have a rough estimate. It's hard to predict, but I can tell you I forget what the number is off the top of my head, but what I can tell you absolutely certainly is that other districts who have are ahead of us in adopting this model are finding once you build it, they crawl out of the woodwork. And so that I shouldn't put it that way. The way I should put it is that families whose kids are not getting served right now find that the service is much more accessible when the school district takes it on. and they come forward to get services that are beneficial for their kids. So, we

239if if this district if it pans out in this district the way it has in every other one, there will be more than we know of right now. >> I agree with that. I obviously I mean that's an that's an obvious. So, >> can you estimate what the average full-time assistant special ed director salary is? >> I can tell you that we have budgeted this >> yes >> at the rate of an assistant principal >> because we don't currently have an assistant special ed director here. So we don't have a you know we don't have that already a model for that within the district. We've developed this model based on the rate of pay of an assistant principal and the way that um well if you've been on you unfortunately the timing of it was

240a couple of meetings ago I think it was like actually the meeting just before you arrived we went through the finances of it all but the way it boils down with the state's allocation versus local money is that for the cost of about $17,000 we can gain a assistant special ed director, which is just a bargain >> because of the additional funding that we get. Um, that shifts from CDS providing the services to us providing the services along with the responsibility that they were previously doing the work of partially CDS. >> Partially doing >> I do have the numbers. >> Thank Thank you. >> Go ahead. So currently, so that's and we don't have future because next year's three-year-olds are currently two, >> right? >> So um that's how math works in time. Um currently

241three-year-olds, two have been identified through CDS and are receiving services through CDS and five have been identified but are not currently being served. So there's seven in district that are three that we would be required to figure out some sort of plan for if we were live with three-year-olds today. >> And those are the ones that we know about. >> Correct. Those I mean >> and then >> we're not testing them. >> People find that all of a sudden people start going through child find more and the numbers increase. So, this person would be responsible for child find for three and four year olds, doing all of the written notices, coordinating all of those IEPs, coordinating the transportation that would likely come from some of them. It It's substantial. I should actually add another component

242of it is that to meet this need for special education services for three and four year olds, we also have to provide access to regular education for least restrictive environment. So there is some oversight responsibility of the general education that we haven't yet developed. We have it for four year olds, but some of the things we may need to add to do that better for four-y olds is full day programming. And we haven't even begun to figure out how we will meet the need for the three-year-olds when we take those on year after next. But they'll have to have some access to not only the special education services, but a general education environment. And this person would be responsible for coordinating that. I was just going to follow up with the four-year-old numbers since I

243also have those in front of me. Um, four-year-old numbers are 12 that are currently being served by RSC 5, 14 that are currently being served by CDS and then two that have been identified or not currently being served. And I think I think I recall them saying that this is a lower than average number for the year. >> It it is. >> So if I can just express my concern about taking people who have direct contact with students and cutting their positions while layering on another administrative position. That's my concern. >> Understood. Yeah. >> Just on that, I think again, I really appreciate you articulating that, Lois. I think that um again, my understanding is it just goes to what uh Tom said about the um it's $17,000 is what we are is what we

244are committing. Um and then we are getting um the the more than the lion share of that covered from money from the state. So I guess just uh for whatever it's worth in my mind it's not um the we're not making a choice between an administrator and a teacher. Um we're making a choice of whether or not we get an administrator and spend $17,000 or don't get an administrator and don't spend $17,000. that that's the that's the choice. Um, which again, $70,000 is $70,000, but that's that's the way I've kind of wrapped my head around it. >> Car. >> Yeah. And can you say more about what that alternative of not hiring this position, not creating this? >> We can't do this without this position. We must have this position, >> right? because I mean

245if if I'm doing the math right, we're we're talking about 40 IEPs that we currently don't do that we would be responsible for doing um in a district that does not have a very we don't have great depth in terms of the people we have at at the admin level for special ed now >> plus taking on that screening that is currently done by CDS. >> Right. Yeah. Chris >> and if we if we told the state that hey we don't need this position we don't want to create it we don't we don't save any money we just don't get that money from the state that's right >> it it's a reimbursement model right like they they don't they wouldn't just >> and that's year after year after year going forward that's not just like

246once that's that's continuous for correct >> I mean we know at this point right >> as far as we know right now it might be helpful to also that the 17,000 is because we've bundled this position in with other direct service positions. Some of those we're already paying for in our budget and we're transferring them to the state's allocation. But we're also going to be getting under the heading of that $17,000 an additional special education teacher to edex a speech language pathologist. Am I missing anything >> about transportation? So, but this we're basically adding an entirely new grade span to our district and this is the person who will set that up for us. Okay, any other questions on this one? We have a motion and we have a second. I'm getting thumbs up from

247Erica. See, this is why I try to do at the beginning because then I forget. Um, all right. All those in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, now we have to put a new motion on the agenda because we are past 10 o'clock, friends, which means we have a policy that says if we're going to go past 10 o'clock, we need to vote to continue. Uh, so um I guess do we have a motion to uh so maybe I'll tell you what's left on the agenda. We have two more things on the agenda. Uh, and I would say we want to get through both of them. My suggestion would be do them both. We have three. Oh, we have the addition of the calendar. That's right. I forgot about that one. Uh, so

248we have three, but uh they they should be relatively speedy, I would imagine. Um, do I have a motion to continue beyond 10 o'clock? Kelly and Cara. Thank you. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? No. Usually people always vote against that one. Um, or at least somebody. All right. So, so we will So, that was 131. So, 132. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval to expend up to the motion on the agenda says 75,000 in our uh our finance committee meeting today. Uh we felt it might be prudent. This is an up to number. We will only spend what the uh the bid comes back at for the pol uh for the um capital >> the facility studies. >> Thank you. the facility study. Um, but we didn't want to run into

249a point where we couldn't engage if it ended up being $76,000 and we'd have to wait for another board meeting to do that. So, um, while it says 75 in the agenda, I'm going to ask for a consideration and approval to expend up to $100,000 from capital reserves for a facilities study. Chris and Colin, thank you. Um, I think we've talked about this a fair amount. This would essentially allow us to put it out to RFQ um which we would receive back. Hopefully uh we would get some some good um options out of that. Um and then we could engage the work of the facility study. Do folks have additional questions on that piece? I know we've talked about a few times throughout the night. Great. So we have a motion. We have a second

250uh for 100,000 from capital reserves. Um, all those in favor? Great. None opposed. So, we will move on to the adjustment to the agenda, which I did not lose in all that time. Aren't you proud of me? All right. So, do I have a motion for consideration and approval to change the March 13, 2026.5 professional learning day to a 0.5 student day morning and a 0.5 professional learning day afternoon on the 2025 2026 calendar. Kelly and Steph, thank you. >> Do you have anything additional to add on that from what you told us at the beginning? >> Nope. I have a question. I feel like it would be prudent for us to come up with a plan for if we have three more snow days. I know you said that we aren't deciding on anything

251more than >> so ne at the next board meeting. I need to we need to flesh out our plan for remote days, but that's our next backup >> because before the next board meeting, we could have three more snow days. I I feel nervous about waiting until the next board meeting. Well, this week at one point it was like well Monday and maybe Wednesday and maybe Friday and it didn't turn out that way, but I mean we we are in a still halfway through winter like >> just with full disclosure that we don't have that plan fully fleshed out yet, but we're we're basically reviving and rejuvenating the plan that existed before during COVID. We just haven't had a chance to to fully flesh out the details of that. if you wanted to authorize us

252to use remote school days now um we could continue that plan and send it to the commissioner um and we would be equipped to do that. None of these are are really ready to go until the commissioner approves them. >> So my understanding of the remote days was you have to have a certain number of kids participate. We did it during COVID because we had onetoone access for every child regardless of age. So the younger ones had iPads to access. I I guess I'm if if we say yes to this and there's a snow day tomorrow, like there's no way it's a remote day, right? Like because don't we have to provide food? I mean, there's a lot of pieces that go into >> for it to for it to count for it to count,

253right? We have to send a meal home. And so, we either need to call it the day ahead um and have school nutrition prepare like lunch bags ahead of time or we would have to send out our drivers in the middle of the day to deliver it doortodoor, which is fraught dur because it would be bad weather >> clearly in a snowstorm. >> So, that's not really a good option. Um, so it it will take some lead time for us to develop that. >> Yeah. I'm just so confused on how some schools do remote days all the time. Um, like how are they how are they meeting those needs? >> I also am wondering about so what how many kids need to come to school for it to count? >> Oh gosh. >> Is there

254a percentage top of my head? >> Two. Right. So if you said both your kids I think I'm concerned about let's say there's school on June 24th and June 25th >> it doesn't matter if they show up that day >> because it's does it not >> that's a no what I mean is is like >> I think we should wait on this conversation. I think it's late and I think we're getting more into like what if this happens. I think we should go stick with Tom's plan of voting for the March day and then >> three snow days. It's unlikely that that will happen. >> It would only have to be two, right? Because the plan was we would only go to remote after two more, right? So, we're at three, four, five. >> If

255we do this, we're at three. >> Yes. Yes. If we do this, we're at three and then four, five, day six is would be the recommendation to go remote. So, we would I mean I guess we could get three days between now and the next board meeting, but um >> we could also call an emergency board meeting if we had to. >> Yeah. >> Well, I think that is what we would do. I mean, if it's if like Right. I mean, if we if we call two snow days >> before the next board meeting, I think um >> you all need to have a plan in pocket and we need to have an hour free to talk about that. >> Yeah. Is that is your hand up or you just like Okay, you're losing things.

256Oh, yeah. I see it. >> Thank you. Um, could you just tell me please if there's any impact on the collective bargaining agreement between either ESP or the teachers by changing the date in the calendar at this late date? >> Do you mean for the the um >> for changing the work day to day to a >> to a school day, half day, student day, and then I'm assuming moving the work day, I think you said this to the end of the year. Can you tell me if there's a collective bargaining issue? >> So, we what we had originally planned for was a half teacher uh PLLD day on that day. This would be turning it into a full teacher day. And part of what we would need to do is have the teachers do

257plans for remote days. >> But I don't think you would change their number of hours. >> It wouldn't change number of hours. It would >> it would go from half a day now um and presumably an extra day in June because if we don't do this, we have to make up the day in June. Correct, >> right? So we would do a full day now >> and they'd get the time then. >> Yeah. Got it. And it's basically the same with the edteex. >> Valerie, >> I have a question about the 13th. I think I remember that that's district three for band and chorus. >> It is. Yeah. And I I regret that Sean has left because I know that on Monday he stated that it was a weird thing if we do this. >>

258It is a forg wrinkle. They already have a plan and they can't change it for that day. So, we're not going to be able to send the kids to region 10 that day. Um, so it's a half day with no region 10. Um, and there is the District Three Festival at the high school that morning. We can work around it, can't we, Jen? >> Jen was looking right. >> There's gonna be so much music going on in the school that day. It's going to be great. >> Yes, we can. But I also wanted to note that for region 10, that is an event called um, Skills USA. So, a ton of our region 10 students will be on that trip no matter what, whether there's um a student day or not um for the music

259festival. Yeah, we'll have to make some arrangements, but um we definitely can do that. >> Arrangements. I see what you did there, J. >> Yeah, I know. That was that was a late night pun. Love that. >> Thank you. Will's impressed. All right. Any other questions on that? So, what I'm hearing is is we're going to vote on this. We're going to leave the remote days to a future date. Hopefully, not before our next board meeting. Great. Um, did I get a motion for that one, Erica? >> I did. Great. >> Kelly and staff. >> All those in favor? None opposed. Great. All right. So, now are we on to the last item? >> We are on to the last item. Oh, this is my favorite one on the agenda. >> This is a good

260one. >> So, do I have a motion for consideration and approval to hire a principal at the Durham Community School for the 2026 2027 school year effective July 1, 2026. Colin Anna, thank you. I am very pleased to present to you Kate Hillman Harrison. Um, who is currently the assistant principal at Durham Community School who absolutely has impressed everyone in that school with her abilities and her dedication and her caring. Um, as you can see from the materials in front of you, Kate has a bachelor's degree from the University of Maine and a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Hawaii, which I'm really jealous of. >> Came back. >> And Kate is I I can't overstate how deeply appreciated and respected Kate is here. So, Kate, are you in the room?

261>> Come on down, Kate. >> Can we vote first? I don't want to make her come up in case, you know, >> it's like when people like ask propose to someone on live TV and you're like, >> "Oh, no." >> True. >> You don't have to say anything yet. >> So, we have a motion. We have a second. Are there any questions? Just for for purposes of of folks watching or the folks that hung in there with us. Um we had a full uh hiring committee as we do for any principal position which included community members, board members, staff, administrators from across the district. Um we um had a open process for collection. We uh interviewed um the group met, developed questions, screened all of the applications, had first interviews, second interviews, um uh reference

262checks. So, it was a full comprehensive uh full comprehensive process um which landed us here with Kate this evening. So, all those in favor, none opposed. Congratulations, Kate. Yay. Do you want to say anything? >> Something now if you want. >> Um, I'll just say thank you very much for this opportunity. I'm really excited to step into the role of principal at Durham Community School. It's a place that I've grown quickly to love and um just really looking forward to taking on this new role and um I've had a excellent mentor. I've learned a lot um and I'm excited to keep growing with the school. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Kate. So, my question is is do you kick Will out of his office now? Do you start redecorating? >> All right. Uh, so

263we are back to public comment. If we have anyone who would like to speak, you are welcome to. Same rules apply. Name, town. Three minutes. >> Thanks for giving Oh, I should announce myself again. Uh, Brandon Perry panel. Uh, thanks for giving a few minutes. I just wanted to comment back after, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of feedback for you guys and I really appreciate all of the commentary that followed and my apologies especially on the tone of some of those comments. Um, and I know I just wanted to put a cautionary word in about having moved forward with the facilities uh exploration. I've been party to enough committees of the sort before that I know that once that ball gets rolling and particularly if there's only one option that's been explored that

264tends to just become the option and so we definitely want to stay involved and make sure that that doesn't happen to be the case here where we have a deep appreciation for your work and everything that's offered up. Um, and I I I think just, you know, putting that out there, I've seen it happen plenty of times where all of a sudden the clock just runs out and you have one option that's actually far enough to materialize. Uh, and I'd hate to see that here. So, otherwise, thank you guys. >> Thank you. All right. Oh, sorry. >> Um, yeah, Mark Douly from 196 Merrell Road. Um, I just wanted to follow up on something I think that uh Chris was trying to to get at. Um, going going through the um I was trying to

265figure out what the disparity is in costs for panel and it was really hard to find that information um publicly. Um, I'm pretty good at doing the calculations. I could calculate cost per pupil. I could see the uh square footage that each student takes in each building. Like I can find that information, but the cost disparity, I wasn't really able to tease that out. And I think like for me, that's what makes me feel bad. Like I don't want to have to be getting more than I pay for. And I don't think anybody here wants that. And so if we could figure out exactly what is meant by that, I think it would it would definitely help the conversation. Um, and some of the items would be um like a cost per pupil. I thought

266that was really relevant what the what the other gentleman said to compare yourself to last year. I think that's much more effective than comparing yourself to the other schools. Um if if we're seeing rises in cost per pupil, maybe we should be um also showing side by side with that. We want to see the courses and the number of teachers teaching those courses. How's the programming changing over time because maybe we're heading in a the wrong direction in that regards. So um that would help because it's not just inflation, there's something else going on. So thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we started and we ended with Mark. Yeah. Uh, so I would take a motion to adjurnn. Kelly and Cara, thank you. All those in favor? No one votes no to that. Thank

267you. Thank you very much for not only coming and speaking, but also hanging in there with us for many hours. So,