2026-02-04 RSU 5 Board Meeting

001What could be one of those days? Sorry. Good evening. Welcome to the RSU5 board of directors meeting. It is Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. We are here in the Freeport High School library and we have a full complement of the board this evening with the absence of the Durham seat that's still vacant. Hopefully, we'll be getting that filled in the uh in the near term. But uh let's get started with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We don't have any minutes from the last meeting. That's weird. Okay, maybe we'll get them next time. Maybe we only vote on those at certain meetings. That's fine. Moving

002along. Uh adjustments, none. All right, so we will move on to Moon for uh student rep under good news and recognition. Um so to start off uh last week uh students had a curriculum fair in the gym like all grades high school students um to see all the new classes that Free High School is offering for students. So some of these classes are like AP human geography, a mapping elective and like a fundamentals of music class. And then also we have four new student council members who are representing the class of 2029. And our new reps are Cooper Jamo, Alex Robinson, Lucy Erskin, and Lily Matluck. And if you don't know, student leadership are like a group um a part of the high school um that help plan events such as like homecoming and pep

003rallies and really like anything rel related to school culture. And then also on February 12th, we have um the option making Valentine's Day cards for the elderly. And um the track team has a Western Main Conference championship this Friday at USM at the track um at 6. And then um this Monday from from both the middle school and high school had a walk out against ICE. Thank you. All right. So item seven on our agenda is public comment. So, if we have anyone who is interested in speaking, we ask that you come up to the microphone. You tell us the name, your name, and your town. And uh you have three minutes. And Erica is checking to see. No, nobody wants to speak. Okay. All right. There is another um public comment at the end

004of our agenda. Uh so there will be another opportunity. So, we will move on to item eight, a report from the superintendent. >> No long report tonight, just a few hires to inform you about. Jamie Gershuk is joining us in the central office as our instructional support administrative assistant. Colobby Best is coming on board as a laugh and learn teacher and Marin Gardner is also coming on board as a laugh and learn teacher. >> Wonderful. Um, all right. So, we have no administrator reports, no board comments or committee reports, and no policy review this evening. So, we will jump right into unfinished business, which is the fiscal year 27. I just started saying 26. Now, we're talking about the fiscal year 27 budget uh review. And I believe uh we are starting with community programs.

005Peter Wagner. Fantastic. I'll talk very quietly. Um well, thank you for um giving community programs a shot to go first in the in the budget review cycle. This is fantastic this year. Um and hopefully this will be uh super um quick and direct for you all. Um looking at where we've been and where we are for the coming year. Um for fiscal year 27, we're remaining flat in our request for the local share at $88,000. Um there were no appreciable changes foreseen in our adult ed program right now. Um with our total number of English learners and high set students remaining stable and our coordinator and instructional staff hours forecast to be consistent with fiscal year 26. Um just for your information, we're at roughly give or take around 30 English learners in the program

006right now and we have about uh eight high set students that are that are engaged with us at this time and um uh been pretty consistent with those numbers and it's light years beyond where we were before the pandemic where we just had a handful of of each. So the program really has grown and sustained. Um so looking uh looking back at fiscal year 26 uh we had a reduction in the local share by $24,000 which represented a little more than 21% um of the money that we received from taxpayers uh primarily to reflect the shift from a full-time adult ed coordinator to a part-time coordinator. Um that coordinator is remaining and also remaining halftime and there were no staffing adjust adjustments for fiscal year 27. So, we're staying flat and um steady as she

007goes and all's looking well in the world of adulthood. Um I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have about that. >> Questions for Peter? >> Really, this is unheard of. I guess my question for you, although I did promise to someone I wasn't going to ask questions tonight, we all know that was not true. Um, so with the reduction in the current year of from full-time to part-time, you're able to meet the needs of of the position with with less >> Yes. So um uh so the the reduction um along with the reduction in hours for the coordinator were pretty much corresponded to one another and along with the state subsidy um which is a little hard to predict. It's very formulaic. different different categories of expenditures are are um subsidized at

008different rates and it's on a two-year look back. Um so it's a little hard to predict, but um but that plus the local share has been Yes. is is adequate for adult bed right now. >> Great. We're really letting Peter off the hook this this easy. >> All right, Valerie, thank you. >> He's like great. >> So I guess my question is broader in terms of the documents says community programs, but you keep saying just adulthood. Is that the only purview that you're covering today? >> So, um, so our, uh, community programs has a super wide range of programs that we offer. We're the recck department, uh, so recreation and enrichment. We have our laugh and learn program, the preschool for three and four year olds, uh, the before and after school care for K

009through five, all of our summer camps, and all of those are self- sustaining, 100% self-sustaining. So um so the only money that we receive from taxpayers is allocated specifically to adult education activities and nothing else. Um in uh in in past years I would give some updates about those other parts of the budget but um I'm not going to say that taxpayers aren't interested in that but it's not that funding is not coming from them. It's all elective um revenue based programming. >> Thank you. I that's the clarification I was looking for. So thank you. Thank you, Peter. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. We will move on to school nutrition. Hello. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. Um, I'm also planning to keep this a bit brief. I don't know if I'll beat

010Peters, but I'll try. Um, Thank you. Um, so, uh, I'll give you a current status for the nutrition department and then where we're headed for school year 27. Um, consistent with previous year's budgets, our program is in a great spot. Year to date, we have served over 185,000 meals with over 3,600 pounds or so being from local main food. um school year 26 year-to-ate stats. Um our average monthly operating expenses are at around $120,000. Um we've spent 49% of our budget with 51% remaining. So given that it's early February, we are right on par. Our average breakfast participation in the district is at 38% and lunch is at around 67. Um, looking ahead for school year 27, I have two small increases for our staff hours. Um, an additional hour was added for two positions,

011one at Freeport High School and one at Freeport Middle School. These incremental, you know, smaller increases are really just to help improve kitchen efficiencies and stay ahead of any changes that we might have um with staffing going forward. looking at budget for school year 27. Um I know it looks scary that it's like a 50% reduction um from the general fund. Um this it's really important to just remember that uh most of our funding comes from other sources other than the local contribution. Um, and just to give you an idea, um, about 92% of our revenue from last year came from other funding sources other than the local contributions. So, we get state and f federal reimbursements for all of our meals served. We have our allocart and our catering and we do receive interest

012on our school nutrition bank account as well. Um, so even with this cut, um, I have multiple equipment replacements, um, and repairs in the pipeline for this school year. A couple things at More Street School, Mass Landing is getting a new condenser and evaporator on their walk-in freezer and, um, an oven out in Poundell. Um, we're continuing to serve even more local foods than before. We've expanded our purchasing to include more farms and broaden from, you know, more suppliers. Um, today, for example, during our professional development time, we had a district-wide staff training. Um, we used the brand Maine Goodrest, um, which is a completely local man-made uh, grain company out of Scow Heaggan. and we're going to start serving um these small little they're kind of like mini pizzas and they'll be primarily breakfast

013options served in those. Um and with those we receive um reimbursement using the local food fund. So we actually get 50% back for every dollar that we spend on mainade products. So um it really helps us to bring in more local foods while keeping cost down. Um, so this is all to say that even with a decrease in local contribution, our program is still moving in a positive direction, serving a larger variety of local and fresh foods, offering more taste test to students, providing meaningful professional development for staff, and keeping our kids fueled. That's all I got. Questions for Erica? I guess I will just say that I appreciate um I appreciate the continued growth in the program and growing the the lunch and the breakfast participation. Um that 92% number is good to know.

014I guess I never really I never knew the percent that came from other sources. I knew the majority of it came from uh previous um from other sources other than the the local budget. Um, so similar to Peter's, you know, most of the most of the funding for Erica's program does not come from from our local budget. So, um, I I appreciate the willingness and the ability to, um, reduce the local share that you're taking, but still be able to accommodate the increased needs, you know, while they're not huge increases, um, but to support your staffing. So, thank you for that. >> I have no doubt we'll still be we'll be fine. Other questions for Kelly? >> Yeah. And I just also wanted to express appreciation for your um expansion of the local foods program

015in our schools. I really uh think that that we as a board value that so we we like to see that you're making those efforts. Thank you. >> Other questions for Erica? >> You're good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we will move on to uh superintendent proposed budgets, right? Yeah. A3. Are you >> I'm Are you okay? Thank you. Sam, what was the room number again. >> 238. There it is. It says 238 math lab. Is that right? >> No. 238 library. >> Oh, okay. Look at that. It's the first one. Okay. So, >> I mean, I kind of liked it that way. >> How did we feel? I guess more light up there. >> It's funny if that's what you're after. >> Okay. So, last week I walked you through the entire

016budget, including an overview of all three of the tiers that the board asked for back in November. That was a tier at 6% increase, 7%, and 8%. Um, after walking you through the whole thing, I drilled down on the tier that I recommend, which is the middle tier at roughly 7%. Tonight, I'm going to go back and remind you first of what that tier included, and then talk about the other two tiers, the eight and the six, and talk about why I don't think they are as appropriate as the one I recommended last week. So, this is basically just a review of what I just said. Um, I want to start by reminding you again there are additions to the budget and I broke those down by necessary and recommended additions. Um, the necessary additions

017are all items that the board has at one point or another um either voted to approve or that we have talked about. Some of them are special education costs that are currently being paid for out of reserve but need to be transferred to the general budget because of specific student need for next year. Um and those are uh 1.0 full-time equivalent speech language pathologist five full-time equivalent teacher of the deaf out of district placements for special education. um the uh money that has already been approved for our energy audit plan and our vehicle replacement plan and funds for a board approved sbatical leave. Um those add up to $87,000 roughly. And then some recommended additions, most of which are actually costneutral, are funding more street summer school, which was previously in title one, adding a

018small stipen for a middle school swim team um in response to very strong demand from kids. Deferring some facilities maintenance of painting and carpet requests. deferring some uh I'm sorry I said def we are planning to defer some facilities maintenance but we are still hoping to add some um painting and carpet and defer some of what we think we need and keep I'm not saying this very eloquently. I'm sorry. I talked about it last week. Now I've gotten myself all tongue tied. We're there's a certain amount we would like to do. We are adding I'm recommending that we do some of that, but I'm also recommending later that we hold back on some of that. Yeah, that was better. Um, same with technology. I'm recommending that we in the interest of not letting this completely

019drop off the radar, add in some money for technology, but not as much as we would really like to do. Um, I'm also recommending that we add money for a facility study, but then pay for it out of capital reserve. And last, that we add a half-time transportation administrative assistant position, but offset that at central office by the reduction of a half-time bookkeeper, which would essentially shift the roles of staff that we currently have and be neutral to the budget. Now, let's review the tier that I recommended last week. In my view, this is the best mo move for us right now because it positions us the most strongly to respond to needs that will come up in the future. So, it does make real reductions now. It avoids kicking the can down the road

020on decisions that are hard. Um, it preserves our core programming and services. And again, it will let us um think about things that we know are coming down the pike like early childhood or buildings that we may need to make serious investments in within the next handful of years. This is again a slide that you saw last week, but this is the projected enrollment for next year. And you have that in your packets obviously. This is the historical student enrollment. And if you're looking at the bottom row, the trend is that enrollment has gone down. And in 2023, we had almost 2100 kids. that has gone down to 1970 which is what we're projecting for October 1st of next year of this year. So reviewing what I presented to you last week as the recommended

021tier again, what's in red is the 8% tier, which I'll talk about in more detail shortly. What's in blue is what's added to that to get us to 7%. So I want to talk a little bit more about some of the things we discussed when we landed at recommending that tier. Again, deferring a decision now means potentially harder decisions later, and we may even be in that position now from where we were last year. One of the key considerations we looked at was keeping our class sizes within the policy guidelines. And at tier 2, we're able to do that across the board at every grade level. One of the really key features of this proposal is changing the schedule at Freeport Middle School to make it more efficient, but to also allow more time for

022what I with my social studies teacher bias considered to be very critical, and that's social studies. It did provoke rich discussion about how to address unified arts or specials at Freeport Middle School. And we have a recommend recommendation about how to do that which we discussed last week. And I think the overall way I would like to characterize it is that yes, these reductions would have impact. The impact will be manageable from a a programming perspective. And in some ways at Freeport Middle School, there will be strong benefits for from reworking the schedule. And another factor that I considered about how to bring that from tier one to tier two, if you remember that at tier 2, the reductions in staffing are nearly all edtech positions. And we currently have 5.5 open specialed edtech positions.

023Those are not the same kind of positions that are recommended for reduction in tier 2 because those are general edtech positions. But we have um open positions for the folks who are already in the general ed tech positions to go to if they wish. So I feel that tier is the best balance. And now I'd like to go back and talk about the other two tiers. So at tier one which is what I have up there for you. Now, one of the things to bear in mind with regard to the math again is that the status quo budget was over 10%. You asked for six, seven, and 8%. So, the 8% is actually halfway down to 6%. So, that amount by itself is the biggest like in single bite. It's a big increment of reduction.

024Um, some key themes here. Again, the elementary schools are where it's already the tightest in terms of staff to student ratio and class size. So, there aren't as many um reductions to be found at the elementary schools. Class sizes at the middle and high school are where we could stay within the policy. So, we looked at all position. We looked across the entire grade span. We looked at teaching positions. We looked at non-eing positions, support positions. Um, we also, I know that many uh people would naturally ask this. We did look at administrative positions. We don't have any recommendations for reduction administrative positions, but we did have rich conversation about that. And I've broken it down here by staffing reductions and non-staff reductions. Just bearing in mind again that staffing costs are roughly are more

025than 80% of the overall budget. So to bring it down even to the top tier, it's really not possible to do that without looking at staffing. So these are some of the things that are prominent in my mind about that top tier. So some of the benefits are it's fewer reductions in staffing in programming right now which means it's just less difficult in that regard at the moment. It's less change in the short term and it also maintains the edteex for general ed which is a key component of our MTSS structure as we currently have it. MTSS being support for students who are not who need extra support in a particular subject area. They don't necessarily need special ed, but they're a little bit behind and they need extra support maybe temporarily to bring them

026to catch them back up. But I think there are some cons to going that route. And the first is that it does it just defers decisions that might come back to make other decisions more difficult in the future. It means that in the future we may risk having to do a more abrupt reduction or a larger reduction. So it's a delay rather than fundamentally addressing the structural issues that we face. I think it just makes it more difficult over the long term. And if I figure in it's not on the slide but it's in my head. If I figure in knowing that the many of the people who would face a a loss of their job at tier 2, we have another job for them to go to. That figures prominently in my thinking. So

027now I'm going to talk about tier three. And as I said last time and as I'm saying again now, this tier is not recommended. I don't think it would be I think it would be very disruptive to reduce at this level right now. Um I'm offering this because if the board wants to come in at that level, this is the kind of thing we would need to do to get there. So as I said before, it's much more difficult to make reductions like this at Pal because of its size. Um but you know we have to look at the big picture and we have to talk about areas across the district. So if we were to go to that level we would have to look at pal and we have some ed techs there who

028also serve in other roles which I discussed last week. Um and we could do something fairly uh out of the box thinking. We could move the panel fifth grade to mass landing school where the class sizes would allow them to be distributed among the fifth grades there and still be within the class size policy. I don't recommend it because it's a big transportation issue that we don't yet have the answer to and it would be disruptive to the kids to move them for just one year in that way. But it's it is something that is possible. um we would have to reduce another position from the middle school and the option there would be to reduce the health position and try to embed health in other content areas. Could it be done? Yes. Could it

029be done and do health as effectively? I do not think so. And then at the high school, we could reduce a half a social work position with mental health needs being what they are and the amount of benefit that we gain from the work of that person. Um, I don't recommend doing that, but it is something we could do if we needed to. So strong points why I do not recommend this tier. I just think it would be um staffing losses in really critical areas at this point. Um it would limit our flexibility to respond in key areas, special education, what if our enrollment went up? What if there was some kind of unforeseen need? I I think at Powell in particular, the RTI reductions of those ed techs would be strongly felt. um moving

030mass uh pound fifth grade to mass landing possible but disruptive and difficult and we don't have all the answers yet of how that would work. And then at the middle school removing two unified arts positions would be too much change and compromise the overall student experience. And I just believe that the community would not support removing these positions. I don't think we need to do that to be on the footing where we need. So a look at class sizes. This slide is the class sizes at tier two, the recommended level. If we look at how that changes at tier one, it's similar because most of the changes from tier one to tier two are edtech positions and an instructional coach position. And then going to tier three. The major change here is shifting that pow

031fifth grade to mass landing. So you can see at mass landing if I go back a slide we have 18 fifth graders in Powell. It's right in the middle of the screen. And five fifth grade classrooms at Mass Landing with 17 to 18 kids in them. We could distribute those 18 kids at Powell across five classrooms at Mass Landing. And that would mean class sizes of 2122 at Mass Landing. Not ideal, but within the policy guideline. So, I'm coming to the end of the presentation for tonight, but a reminder that what is not included in my presentation are community programs and school nutrition, which you've just heard about, but also region 10. Region 10 will be presented to you later this month. Um, I don't know what their numbers are yet, but I do know

032that they're planning on expanding and they're planning on adding a program in HVAC plumbing down at the landing this year, which is a great offering. Um, I just don't know yet what the budgetary implications for the sending schools will be. Um, so next week, here's what I will present on. The board had asked for a concept about longerterm sustainability. And I will share ideas about that next week. I want to emphasize that next week the ideas that I'm going to share are conceptual but they are not finely tuned. And in fact, the point of the presentation would be to ask the board, do you want us to even run further down these rabbit holes and flesh them out with the understanding, which I'm sure you'll appreciate, that fleshing all of those fleshing those ideas out

033takes a lot of time. So, if they're not even ideas that sound good, we can just move on and spend our time on other things. But if they're ideas that you'd like to hear more about, we can do that work. Um, you had asked for at one point look ahead scenarios like what would the budget look like not next year but the year after if we do depending on what we do now and I will share that with you next week as well. Um, and I can talk about next week the local tax impact of the budget I'm recommending versus the local tax impact if we keep just the status quo budget. Um, in addition to just strictly budget considerations, we'll have an update about strategic planning and then there will be a time for

034extended questions and discussion from the board about the entire budget process. And before I close, I want to again just emphasize a theme I tried to draw out last week, but I it I just want to repeat it because it I just think it's really important. every talking about reductions is really hard. It's incumbent upon us to keep our discussion about positions not about people. But every position has a person in it and that's very difficult to separate. What I have to think about is and what the admin team has really given lots of thought to is every position that we've talked about as a reduction has all the positions behind it that aren't written that we would be keeping. And I in particular I don't mind saying it. I he I am mindful I

035was a high school teacher but I am mindful that the places where the kids need the most is in the early grades. And it is prominent in my thinking to keep our class sizes for our littles manageable and our supports in place there. Questions or discussion before I >> can you just remind us what the class size policy is for each grade level? I can, although I would have to I might have to rely on people who know it more intimately than I do. It's definitely smaller at the younger grades. Um, and there is within the class size policy, there's a there's a level that you're allowed to get to before you can take have to take any action. And then there's a threshold above that where it's allowed, but you have to is it

036come to the board? Somebody reminded me, will help me. Kate's nodding. Yeah, we'd have to come to the board for clearance. Um, so all of the class sizes that you see are before the level that the board would have to grant accordance. Thank you. So from preK, the threshold action level is 16. >> But that's by law. >> That's by law. Yes. For K to two, the target level is 18 and the threshold level is 20. 3 to five, the target level is 20 and the threshold is 22. 6 to 8. The target is 21 and the threshold is 24. And oh, there we go. >> And that's it. I don't see for high school. >> I don't know if it's in there for high school. >> No. No, it's not in there for high

037school, but it wouldn't be higher than the middle school. Thanks. >> I'm holding my question till you come back. If you're coming back, are you waiting there for questions? >> I was trying to stop mirroring. There we go. >> Okay. So, this question might be more for Kelly than you anyway, so I'll ask it while you're walking. Um, so the the discussion of tax impact next week implies we have the ED279. Okay, I know what I'm going to be checking tomorrow. >> She said yes. >> And I whispered it, too. >> Yeah. Um, so how does that change with the budget, the state budget not being completed yet? Is that in flux or potentially in flux? Thank you for giving my moment to shine, Michelle, right? Because you know the answer to this question, but

038um yes, uh 8279s are actually preliminary numbers, especially in a year where the budget um has not been passed by the um it's a proposed governor's budget. um that still needs to be passed by the legislature. So um and I just want to say that um it we are receiving additional funding um with the current proposed budget the way it's looking. What we really haven't gotten time to do um as a as a team is to kind of look at um what the proposals look like and and how to push those through. I mean, I've looked at them individually, but I haven't had time to sit down with cabinet or um any members of the administrative team to kind of look in look at what that fleshes out to. Um, and part of the troublesome

039process for us is because we do this so early as a board, um, and you're and you're typically setting the warrant articles, um, in March is there's very little time for anything to really happen with the governor's budget, right, between now and then. Um, it will still be in flux. So if there is any sort of curtailment um then we would have to deal with that um say say if it happens in late May or June um and we're already through our process a curtailment ultimately which means we wouldn't get as much money as we were expecting we can't tax more right because we're the assessments are set when when the when the um budget gets passed the very next meeting you guys send the assessment warrants out for taxes. Um, and as part of

040the warrant process, when you're kind of walking through that, you are establishing the amount that we can assess taxes for based upon expenditures that we're approving at the budget meeting and then um any anticipated revenues. So, if any of those revenue factors change, you just have to be responsive within the year. So, for example, we haven't had one years and we're going to knock on some wood. There hasn't been a curtailment since I started around in 2010 here at five. Um I think it was 2011 that year we dealt with a curtailment and we were looking for a couple hundred,000. Um and basically we ended up freezing council and capital projects. We froze book money. We froze supply money. Uh those types of things. So that's something that we would have to consider. Um, and

041again, if we get too far along in the process, all the contracts have been issued. Um, there's not a whole lot of atwill employees within the district. The majority of our staff are under collective bargaining agreements. Um, and so, um, it's typically not going to hit the areas of salaries and benefits um, if there's a contailment >> other than we may choose to not fill open positions in the meantime. >> Correct. Thank you. >> But if that is that is that a a case where we would use undesated fund balance to sort of fill some of the gaps or how does that work? >> So we don't have authority to use undesated fund balance except for during the budget process. So, one of the other potential benefits of having the article reserves that we've established

042over these past two budget cycles would be you could potentially tap into those um for those resources. Um so, that will also be coming to you as a discussion at a later meeting about whether or not we're going to um increase those reserves. What does that look like? Where are they at currently? um that will be at a future meeting as well to talk about so we can deliberate that. >> And if there was a catastrophic drop in funding that we couldn't work our way around, we could hold another annual budget meeting sometime in the year to get authority to access more of the undesated fund balance, but it would require >> you you do the entire process. Yeah. That you do now. It's just a special meeting. Yep. Thank you. >> And this is

043why we have also some of that buffer of like we're saying 7% but it's slightly lower. Is this to help um us with that potential gap as well? >> Yeah. And I think also the numbers that we don't have a firm a firm grasp on, right? Like region 10, those types of things. But but once March comes and you actually vote, that sets the cap of expenditures, >> right? We can't go above that. Right. >> Right. Um, one of my other questions that jumped out uh was you mentioned there might be actual benefits from the the shift um in how we're looking at the middle school with the with the um >> Schedule. I'm looking at just >> Yes. So, the unified arts and how the the uh adjusted schedule might work. Um I think

044that was one of the items the board had mentioned last week that we would love to hear a little bit more about if if and when you guys were ready to do that. And Pam's coming up so I think maybe she's ready. Right. >> Pam and Bill have worked really hard on this and so they have they do have something to show you. I got kind of I don't want to say a long thing to share, but um Bill and I spent a lot of time and a lot of consideration into this and I just have a slideshow I want to show you guys. It's going to be a little bit to digest. I'm going to slowly walk us through this um and certainly give an opportunity for any questions. But first of all, I

045just want to thank you for the opportunity tonight for us to share this with respect to the budget. We want the board to understand the scheduling concept for FMS and how we are confident in offering a strong product despite the proposed budget cuts. Is this just Apple uh screen sharing? >> All right. Library. All right. I just went to room 212. >> Okay. Got it. Yep. >> 23824. I have that right. Sam might need your help there. So, like I said, a lot to digest. I'm going to kind of walk us through this slowly. A lot of thought um has been put into this. Um just want to give Mr. Ridge a big thank you, too. Um he and I have spent a lot of time on this. Well, this is the most challenging part.

046I'm doing pretty good. Sam gave me a faulty laptop. It's his fault. And again, thank you for giving me the opportunity tonight. I know it wasn't really built into the agenda, but I just, you know, you guys had asked last week, so I wanted an opportunity to shed some light with some visuals here. got a whiteboard. We could just draw it. >> We I mean I know Mr. Gray is really good with the markers on the whiteboard, right? Can you send the Tom's still has it on his laptop, too. So, maybe we can because I definitely want to show you guys the visuals as we talk through this. Sorry everybody. >> All right, we're doing better here. >> All right. All right, so the Freeport Middle School schedule concept. So follow follow with me. So,

047I'm going to give you an overview. I'm going to walk you through the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade structures along with some key comparisons. So, per the last meeting, um, we talked about some budget cuts. So, trying to figure out how to creatively create the forest product for our kiddos here at Freeport Middle School. So, the sixth grade structure, as referenced above, would be daily core classes with 50-minute periods and optimized class sizes for foundational learning. Seventh grade would be continued daily core instruction in smaller math classes to support skill development and growth. Eighth grade, and that'll get a little tricky, but I'll talk you through it, will have a rotation still, but an innovative rotation system with extended class periods and language opportunities for high school readiness. So, key comparisons will give you a

048visual analysis of class sizes, instructional time, and scheduling benefits across all grade levels. So, sixth grade schedule, 50 minute daily periods. All core subjects meet every day for 50 minutes, ensuring consistent instructional time. Math class sizes will be between 18 and 20. Smaller math classes allow for individual instruction and skill development. Core class sizes 22 to 23. ELA social studies, STEM, science classes maintain optim optimal learning environment. The unified arts rotation will be JMG, health, PE, art, digital media, and music. So, class sizes are below the threshold action level that Tom was talking about earlier set by policy. Students will have access to rotate through the listed unified arts. Math class sizes will be slightly smaller due to the accelerated math class. So, they'll see every class every day. That's including that social studies piece.

049Let's go on to seventh grade. So again, 50 minute daily periods. Uh maintains consistent daily schedule structure for all core academic subjects. Math classes, math class sizes 17 to 18. Reduce math class sizes provide enhanced support during a critical learning year. I mean every year is a critical learning year. Core classes 19 to 21. Smaller class sizes across all subjects compared to grade six. Again, we have the unified arts um options below, ranging from JMG, health, PE, art, and digital media. Remember, two students have access to band and chorus as well. All right, bear with me here. I'm going to explain this really well. Eighth grade um rotational. So, eighth grade currently does this and has historically followed this rotating schedule model. Our sixth and seventh graders are living it this year. And as it

050may seem a little bit confusing, these kids knock it out of the park. Um, it out of full transparency, when I first onboarded, it was a different model for me, but the kids really do a great job with it. It's communicated really well by staff. There's visuals in classrooms. There's visuals on the flat screen boards. Um, the kids just they really do a great job with it. So, what we'd be looking at, and I know this might sound a little confusing at first, is a rotation breakdown. So if you look at rotation one and rotation two, that means either the morning chunk or the afternoon chunk. And we still got to figure out how those rotations will fall into place. But what will what it will look like is math for 60 minutes, ELA for

05160 minutes, social studies for 60 minutes on that first rotation. Each class will meet two out of the three days a week, keeping class sizes at 17 to 18 kiddos. The second rotation would be the other half of their day. They'd have STEM, science, and Spanish for 60 minutes. So, Spanish becomes a core class. Again, these classes would meet two to three times um two to three two out of the three days a week. Class sizes 17 to 18 students. Unified arts include the JMG health per digital media. So, math, while this is a shift, we have had teacher input. We spent a lot of time getting some teacher input. will continue to align with surrounding schools in terms of instructional time. In addition to instructional class time, we have the the ability to offer

052um intentional math supports through our BCS model if kids require more support and review. We're looking at ELA and social studies. So, in the eighth grade model, we view these curriculums as aligned. These teachers work really closely to structure classes in a way to support each other's curriculum. Uh some schools will refer to this as a humanities type model. With that said, students will have access to social studies in ELA, one to two classes uh periods each day. So, it's a really really good experience for that. Here's a chart um kind of talking about how we're um the class threshold. So, you can see that red bar up top. So, class sizes still fall below the threshold set forth by policy. The eighth grade rotation class sizes across all subjects promote personalized learning and project-based

053learning styles. So some of you very very familiar with Freeport Middle School. We got the National History Day, the Dirty 30s. The kids do the science board games, the STEM clocks, robotics, independent end of the year options. This will give us some opportunities to even be more creative um with some other ideas with that. So, if we're looking at instructional time comparison, and I've got it graphed out here, right, eighth grade, seventh grade, and sixth grade. So, sixth and seventh grade daily model provides consistent daily instruction with the 15-inute periods, seeing every core class every day. The eighth grade rotation model offers an extended 60 minutes, allowing for deeper exploration, project based learning, and activities while meeting two of every three days. extended class periods and rationale schedule and the eighth grade support high school

054readiness skills and learning. So the eighth grade schedule kind of gives them a little bit more of a transition I think to what they do like at the high school. So you can kind of look here the two shades indicate the differences between how rotations fall in the eighth grade schedule meeting the minutes the kids need in each core class per week. So if we look at another diagram with the eighth grade rotation. So if you look at the two rotation models, classes will be divided into a rotation one and two for a balanced curriculum every day. The 60-minute periods extended class time allows for deeper exploration and hands-on activity. And for what I've learned from this eighth grade team, they knock it out of the park with these super duper creative ideas. Meeting two

055out of three days, each class meets two out of three days, providing time for processing. That includes Spanish being one of those four classes. and the class sizes meet the target sizes. Key benefits of the schedule structure. So we have class sizes. Class sizes for sixth to 8th grade remain within the limit set forth by policy and more often align to the target class size set forth by policy. Eighth grade flexibility rotation schedule with extended periods allows for that deeper learning and project based activities. high school language readiness. Spanish language introduces into the eighth grade rotation and prepares students for the high school language requirements. So, they would see social uh Spanish as a core class. And then finally, our schedule comparison summary. So, breaking it down by grade levels, comprehensive overview comparing the scheduling

056framework across grades six through 8th, highlighting key differences in structure, timing, and class configurations. So, we've got the class duration, sixth and seventh grade, 50 minutes, 8th grade, 60. Meeting frequency, daily and daily for sixth and seventh graders, two out of three days for the eighth graders, which they already do. We look at the class sizes, those fall right into uh policy. Um, really fair. of the core classes. Sixth grade's a little bit high, but we're still not hitting that threshold. Spanish, um, the kids will have that more. They won't suffer from any summer gap from any thing they learned through seventh grade, meeting as more of a unified arts. Eighth grade can just kick off and not have to worry about rebuilding those skills from the seventh grade and really can start building to

057get that robust foreign language experience for them to get them ready for high school Spanish. That was a lot. Um we have put a lot of thought a lot of thought into um what we have to work with. We put a lot of thought into the amazing staff we have, the skill set the staff has, the creativity the staff has and what's really good for kids and we've taken all that and we feel we have a really strong product to support the learning of our sixth, seventh and eighth graders to prepare them um for for the high school. I just wanted to present to you tonight to let you know that we're taking the cuts seriously and not just the cuts, taking our job as building administrators, educators, and everybody on the team uh who

058works hard to deliver the best education um and experience for our kiddos. Um and I just stand here today um to appreciate the confidence because I am so confident that we are going to rock this school this year and next year. I'm just feeling really, really good about it. And that's what we have here tonight. So, >> Thank you, Pam. I love that you had like different visuals like to see it in different ways because that was that was great. And to get pull that together since last week is pretty impressive. So, thank you. I know that's a lot of work to >> pretty passionate about, >> but put all those puzzle pieces um in a way that works. >> Again, thank you for the time tonight. >> Questions? >> Um yeah, >> sorry Pam.

059I think I have a question for you. >> Just give back Bill's laptop and come back. So, thank you so much you and Bill and everyone who's been working on that. That's really really helpful to see the visual of how that would look and and hear the the um the plan around that. That's really helpful. I am a little I'm still wanting to hear more I guess about the language change and currently sixth graders I believe are exposed to a language in a world cultures class. >> Right. And would that world cultures class be absorbed within that social studies class that would be happening? >> It would really be absorbed with that digital citizen course that we're going to be implementing in. Um, which won't even just be just digital citizenship. It'll be better research

060skills, communication skills. Um, still looking at a creative way to figure out how to bring that to sixth grade just looking at the cards we have. But we certainly feel it's also important to bring that digital component and citizenship to kids especially in the the world we're living in now with the AI component and the cell phones etc etc. So >> that would be an absorption. Yes. >> Okay. And currently seventh graders get to choose between JMG, Spanish and French. Correct. That's correct. >> And so with this plan seventh graders would not have a language. >> Seventh graders wouldn't have a language and we really thought hard about that. So right there's a common misconception um that sometimes more years equals more learning. Um when we look at this the way they're getting whatever foreign

061language they're choosing now it's a UI UA option right um and then so you're just getting I want to say a minimal amount but less amount of that core instruction with the foreign language in that summer gap. So the way we're looking at it, while we're putting Spanish as more of a core class, they'd be aligned with an eighth grade team. It wouldn't be a UA option, can really start setting those skills and really taking off with that with the kids. So we're hopeful that that model will be more beneficial. It actually calculates more minutes of Spanish instruction that way. Um, can you say more about how Spanish was the chosen language and is that an enrollmentbased decision or can you can you say >> I mean really hard decisions, right? All of them are

062really really hard decisions. Um, and certainly you're looking at the high school too, right? The theater program. Um, and I know that um, in hearing from different administrators too, sometimes we're filtering kids in and they have that different skill set. Um, which can be a benefit and certainly can be a challenge if you're a teacher trying to get kids here to here. It's hard, right? You don't want to have to pick one or the or the other. And I could maybe have a better prepared answer, but I think when we're looking at it, it's going to prepare the kids for a more equitable experience. Um, and I don't want to use DCS, but DCS has that Spanish experience, too, and it kind of filters that in. The kids still have that foreign language option when

063they get to the high school. >> Pam, am I correct that there were there are more kids right now choosing Spanish than French, too? So, I guess I I'm wondering if if DCS and FMS students are all coming into the high school with Spanish experience, would would that impact the Spanish uh language teaching needs? Is that making sense? And then kids who want to learn French, would they they would all be coming in needing a different >> probably like an intro to French. And I I guess I'd have Mrs. Ggo maybe talk more about their programs, but that would be my strong assumption. And I would imagine the kids coming in that would make the program even a little bit robust because they're going to have a setup on those skill sets that are already

064kind of commonly foundationally set um from filtering into the high school. It's a tricky one, right Cara? It's like, you know, you don't want to cut any programs and, you know, I'm coming into this school and they've just got an awesome opportunity with all these different options and opportunities and no one wants to sit here and have to choose what programs are being cut and unfortunately you're tasked with doing that and looking at data and what's least impactful and then it's like you making the right decision. Are you second guessing, but you do the best you can to make that best decision. Um, I'm this isn't necessarily a budget issue, but I'm just thinking for those eighth graders who maybe in the past have gone on a sort of a capstone trip to Montreal or

065I'm sorry, to Quebec City, I'm assuming without a French program that might not be something that the eighth graders are able to do anymore. So, I'm just thinking if we go to Spanish exclusively, it would be really nice if we consider something similar. >> I agree. >> And I'll just throw in because from an equity perspective, the Durham kids don't have any access to those types of programs. So, if there was one for a replacement for the Quebec City one or it's Quebec City, right? Yeah. You know, that maybe they go together. You know, I'm always always open to fresh ideas and exploring new things. That's what we do, right? Um and I'm always open to that. I'm always open to trying to figure out how to provide opportunities for kids, no matter how big

066they are, small opportunities, medium opportunities, or we're thinking way outside the box. >> Malik, >> um I would not a question for you, Pam. Um but Tom, I would love to hear um maybe next week when you talk more about kind of the long-term plan um the strategic thinking that's gone behind this the language decision and how it um will then affect the kind of the high school course of studies. Um the I mean the the French the French language um reduction at the middle school is the one that I'm having the hardest time kind of wrapping my head around right now. I would just love some more information about that. >> Sure. >> Don't need it right now. >> Yeah. I I think that that is something that we have to we have to

067flesh out um because it would certainly impact the numbers going forward to the high school. There's there's time to think about that and not that I necessarily want to take too much time to editorialize and I I hope that when I say this it will have some credibility with people. I I'm personally actually very passionate about language. I had the opportunity to take German from fifth grade and at this point I'm fluent in German and I would love I would love for us to be a district that had world language going down to kindergarten. Um I just don't see that as possible right now and um I think that's a great topic to talk about in a strategic plan as an aspirational um you know something we could aspire to. Um, the short answers about

068why we would propose this are the schedule at the middle school really does need streamlining and Pam and Bill have done a great job thinking about how to make that happen. It really makes the social studies teacher in me happy. I don't think what they're getting right now in social studies is nearly enough. Um, and everything is a really difficult tradeoff. Um, this is a painful one to consider. Yeah, it' be interesting to see, you know, numbers for enrollment between the different languages at the high school. Um, be interesting. I don't know if they can track this, but to see like how many kids come from Durham that then choose to move to French, right? Because they never had French in middle school. Maybe they choose to do it in high school, maybe they don't.

069I don't know. Um, I appreciate hearing that it's actually more minutes of Spanish um, educa, you know, instructional time than splitting it over the two years. Um, because one of my questions was going to be is I know um, my I I know coming out of Durham and I imagine it's probably similar coming out of uh, of FMS. um you know, kids who have have, you know, taken to the language can move into, you know, Spanish 2 as a freshman and get all the way up through Spanish 5 as a senior if that if that's their desire. Um, and so I guess my question would be, you know, with only 8th grade, does that still cover all of the the the Spanish one curriculum so that if kids so chose and maybe had a recommendation

070from the the teacher could move on to to Spanish 2 as a freshman. Um, so that was one of my questions. Definitely a wonder other while we have Pam up here. Yeah, thank you. Um the visuals were very helpful and appreciate you putting that together in such a short amount of time. Um a few questions. Um, one is you mentioned in seventh grade there's no music that's offered, but they do have chorus and band. >> Yeah. So, that's similar to the model we have this year as well. So, they definitely have access to that band chorus grouping um and are pulled out for individual lessons with band and chorus as well. So, similar to what we have this year >> and that's during the school day. Yes. >> Okay. Got it. Um, and then could

071you not related to this schedule, but in terms of the ed tax, looking at the tier 2 reductions, >> could you walk us through just a little bit about um how many edte you currently have and the different categories of them? >> Sure. So, I can focus on we're talking about the uh tier 2 with the two general edit texts. So, we have three. We kind of align them by grade level, >> sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Uh they work really closely. They attend all the team meetings. They work very closely with supporting kids. They pull kids out for structured support, which is really helpful. A lot of times during our BCS time, but work really closely with the teams. Um we meet twice a week with each grade level. That includes administration, school counselor,

072social workers, um ed techs, and we identify some kids that And it may just be a motivation thing. It may be an obstacle that's really getting in their way to get those academics done. And those those staff members who again a huge shout out do an excellent job not just helping the kids academically make some really solid connections with them and kids that even struggle maybe attendance-wise coming to school. That's their person, right? So they do a really great job with those connections. And so the two reductions that we're talking about at tier two, that would be from >> two grade level general ed texts. >> Got it. >> And currently how many are there? >> Three. >> Thank you. And um last question is it looks like the largest class size is actually a

073grade six. if you're looking by it's still below the threshold but just under um could you talk about if you have do you have any concerns about that? So enrollments up in grade six. Um you know there's always concerns when class sizes get larger. Um you know not speaking to prior experiences but I've come from school districts where unfortunately class sizes can be 2728 which is like mindblowing right. Um I've had experience as a classroom teacher where I have had class sizes in a science classroom 2728. Right? it's like so hard to wrap your head around that. So, I look at this um and it's really ideal to keep those class sizes minimal. I look at the team of teachers that we have in grade six and you know definitely be some further conversations with

074them and you know where do you see there being some obstacles? How do you see us supporting you because this is a little bit new for the staff with having those class sizes bump up a little bit. Do I have concerns? I don't have concerns. I have faith and I have faith that we'll figure that out. Um, but we certainly want to keep an eye on some of those class sizes that are a little larger than normal and support the teachers, support the curriculum, support the materials, and support the connections that the kids will generally have with the teachers. >> Thank you. >> Other questions for Pam or for others? I think I have a question. It's probably more for Tom because it's kind of about that group of edteexs as a whole because we

075call some of them general ed edte. We call some of them RTI edte. We call some of them bench sub edex. And I think I understand the bench sub. Thank you, Ray Groen. Uh what's up? >> Yes. Um, it's it is kind of funny because I feel like the the the bench sub name came from Ray and Ray's no longer here. Will had his own name for him, but I can't remember it now. But >> oh, it was the floating. Okay. Yeah. So, um, >> maybe once you leave, we'll take your name. >> Although, we're getting rid of it, so maybe not. Um, so I guess I'm I'm interested in knowing are those are those essentially the same positions in different schools or are they doing different things depending on the school they're in? >>

076So in general there are two categories. There's special ed and general ed. RTI is general ed. And so they are >> and for for new board members RTI response to intervention. >> It's basically extra help for kids who are behind. So they may not have a disability, which is what special ed would be, but you know, if I think about likely scenarios, these may be elementary school kids who have not been exposed to language in the same degree as home as other kids, and they don't have a disability. They just need to be read to. So they they need extra support in that area. Um they they provide small a lot of small group instruction and individual instruction and support pull out And it and that's so whether we call it an RTI edtech or

077a general ed edtech or well the bench sub is a bench sub right they're filling in when people aren't there but um >> an RTI edtech and a general ed edtech are essentially the same. >> An RTI edtech is a version of a general ed edtech. Okay, maybe >> general ed is anything outside of special ed >> and a special ed edtech is going to be in a more specialized role in one of our special education programs like life skills for example. So they'll be directly serving kids with IEPs and it's it's a just a different beast. >> Okay. Um and then the RTIB that is also a general ed edtech. Yes, >> correct. And we are not in tier 2 recommending any reductions in that programming. >> Well, that was at Panel on RTIB,

078>> right? No, but I I don't believe Panel is the only school that has RTIB edex. Correct. >> Um, >> I don't think so. Yes, >> also has >> Yeah, because I feel like that's something that's been added in the last, you know, as we were seeing more behavioral issues, but not necessarily special ed behavioral issues, the support of the or the RTIB ed techs. Um, so I was just clarifying that none of the recommended reductions are in those positions, assuming we don't go all the way to the 6% tier three. Correct. >> Correct. >> not true. No, there there's a proposal in tier two that the RTIB ed more street. >> Okay. It just says RTI ed tech. So those are RTI. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. So behavioral versus academic. >> Okay. So those

079are both B's. >> That was my question. Thank you. >> Those are B. >> Thanks Pam. Thank you everybody. >> But just to be clear, these positions are not filled right now. Is that correct? >> No, they are. >> Oh, they are. So the the RTI the general ed ed tech positions that are in the recommended tier to be reduced are filled right now but we have 5.5 special ed vacant edtech positions and I feel like the appropriate question is how do we meet the needs of the stuff that's being done by this group without them. >> That's for you, Tom, or anyone else who wants to jump up and help. But >> well, it it would certainly be an impact that would be felt. >> Um, we'd have to do more RTI within the

080classroom. Most of RTI is supposed to be done in tier one, which is right in the classroom with differentiated instruction, and that extra person does help. Um, so I I certainly wouldn't pretend it wouldn't be an impact. it would be a manageable impact and given the other choices of where we would reduce to achieve that level I think that's the most appropriate place. The last thing I would want to do is be cavalier about um saying that any of those reductions wouldn't have an impact. >> Oh yeah. I mean, I think I think we can all all agree that we don't have any positions that don't add value. And I appreciated you starting the presentation last week, you know, putting that front and center. Every single position has value. Um, and every position will be

081felt. It's, you know, what's manageable, what how do we continue to provide the best services we can with the resources we have. So, um, yeah. Chris, >> um, something I would like to see for next week is >> kind of a thought on a I don't know exactly how to word this, but like kind of kind of a blend between a seven and 8% tier >> because there's a lot I see in this 7% tier that I very much question. And I know again every position has value. Um, an example of this is that I see us cutting two from two of these general edexs from mass landing or not mass landing, um, Freeport Middle when there are three total, which is twothirds of the edex that we have there. Um, and so I'm I'm

082I'm curious if there's kind of a a balanced proposal in in that with those two tiers, >> or maybe what might be helpful is what do we have now? What are we proposing for next year? Right? So, what I don't know is, you know, is there only one and we're cutting one? Is there three and we're cutting one or we're cutting two? It it might be helpful to know, you know, kind of what what do we have now versus what's the proposed? >> Yeah, you had mentioned that like one of the things we don't see on this list is the is what we are keeping. It it might be good to know what we are keeping um to understand that you know the cuts have this proportion of impact versus this proportion. >> Absolutely. >>

083So you're asking to see something of between tier one and tier two. How would we get something between tier one and tier two? >> Yep. >> Yeah. I think it'd be helpful for me with some of these positions, particularly the behavioral edte, to hear directly from the administrators about the actual impacts that they perceive would be from eliminating these positions because I know we can talk in generalities here, but it would just be helpful for me to know, you know, exactly how they see think this is going to impact our kids in the classroom. Can I add to that and and a plan for um medi um mediating that >> mitigating thank you that's not the >> right yeah what's the impact and how are they going to deliver >> with in the absence of

084that person or people >> I haven't really heard anything much about the instructional strategist so just making sure that's included. >> Sure. for the instructional strategist. Correct me if I'm wrong. This is one of two, correct? That we have at >> three. >> It's actually one at three. >> One of three. Okay. >> And at at the elementary level and the the plan is to go from three to two. >> See, that would show up in the what are we keeping pile? Yeah. Yep. This is maybe a strange thing to ask for, but if there was any way we could hear about um uh impacts that we will see um reflected in uh test scores that are brought before us sometimes later in the evening in which we're talking about this. Um and then ones

085that are not really testable or or or are not tested or are not um maybe let me put it this way are not shown to the board um are not something where the board can say oh we really see what that impact is. Um not to say that again the >> like how kids work in groups. >> Yeah. I mean, it's not to say that I'm I'm in no way prioritizing the the um the testing scores as an educational measure, but just like we do see those and so we can talk about them, but if we don't have any, we don't see other measures um and how they sort of like operate yeartoear, we kind of don't really have a sense of that. So I think that um because I found myself as I was

086going through this just at a sort of like one logical way to look at this is like if our scores if our test scores are not where we want them probably reducing our teaching staff is not a great way to get them higher. Um again that's oversimplified but it's like one way of looking at it but um uh maybe that's just again maybe like we're not we wouldn't see that we wouldn't see it play out in that way. Um, so I don't know. I I think that might be helpful to have some sort of sense of that. Um, and yeah, I think I would just I would also say that the um I would I think the on the one hand the mitigation question is the much harder question. Um, but unfortunately that is that

087is the question. Um it's not like like your initial question Kelly of like what's the impact going to be is like important but it's like the mitigation and like can it be mitigated or can it not be and is the mitigation satisfactory um for uh the administrators and then we eventually get to determine whether or not that mitigation is satisfactory in terms of our responsibility by law to be serving the children. Okay. >> Yeah. And I just want to mention that the question about how we measure all of this is really important and one that the strategic planning committee is taking seriously this year with the strategic plan is how are we measuring everything? How are we measuring the goals that we have? Um so I appreciate this being brought up again and um we'll

088we still have a few months to develop that plan. Um, but I think that this process will help that process too. um on the ESOL position. I know that we have a few board members who are definitely attached to that for good reason, but uh could you give us a sense of like the the number of students that are in that program over I know the last couple of years um I know you said it's dropped um but again seeing numbers as well as the number and we can't predict the future but kind of as we project out um to get a sense of why >> Erica actually has some numbers. >> Okay. Yes. Yep. We could look at that really quickly. >> You want the overyear numbers as well as Sorry, Erica Matio, assistant

089superintendent. You would like the overyear numbers as well as the current or projected? Okay. Um, let me start. So, I don't have the trend numbers up, but I can grab them in just a minute. I can start with our current um population that we serve. Um, I don't have a presentation for you. >> Okay. Um so uh we are currently serving 44 students um 13 of whom are at the prek2 span uh 12 of whom are at grades three, four and five. Uh at the middle school level it's five students. Uh we have 10 students in grades 9 through 11 and four in the cohort that are meant to graduate in June. So if we don't gain any new students, we can anticipate retaining about 40. Um if we do, um we're s you know,

090this is the level at which we are currently serving. Um and then inside of those counts, um they have different levels of need as determined by their annual assessments. Um and so those range between one and two service hours um instructional service hours which is not necessarily measured in a 60minute increment but rather standardized um comparison to their regular general education schedule and um we have uh 14 students in the twohour range and 30 students in the one hour range. >> Is that per day? Uhhuh. Yeah. Instructional hours and they can be served in groups and um primarily our students exist in the Freeport schools. So MSS, MLS, FMS, and FHS. Um I'll look up the trends. One of the things that I think we learned about last year, and I don't know if the

091these numbers pick those up, was there's uh a a group of kids that are like, I'm sorry if I'm using the wrong term, monitor, or >> is that in this number as well or is that separate from this? >> It is separate because that is not a required service area. Um and so we are currently monitoring 16 students. >> Okay. So they don't have any I no one to two hours a day, >> no required service structures. Typically the guidance is that those students are served through what we're referring to as RTI, academic services, um or MTSS, which is the essentially the same thing. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. So historical numbers um and this was in the spring, sorry, in the September presentation. Uh but I'm going to pull up

092um so the service uh count in 2425 this was overyear total so there could have been some coming and going was 46. Um in 232 24 it's 116. Um in 2223 it was 101. Um and across all of those years and including this year there were 3.0 I know FTE serving for reference >> Chris >> um in the kind of projections on that is there I mean do we have a sense if the the CDS transition is going to increase those numbers um is that something we we we can get a sense of >> I don't know the answer um I would be I would be very surprised if it increased it back to 100 plus where we were before. >> Yeah. Interestingly, the um what we what is referred to as the I don't

093know why the screen is flashing, but it's not me. Um the home language screener, which is what we use to do the initial identification, um is uh administered by us. And I don't know that CDS has an equivalent to that. um because they're not providing educational services. So um I don't know how they would record that. Um certainly we do it on our screening and our um onboarding through the enrollment process. And um I don't know how Erica's numbers have that she has her finger on >> back to 2017. I was going to say because there were there was a point in time where we had a 0.5 ESOL teacher for the whole district >> 2021. >> And how many students was that? >> 14. >> Okay. >> Um and we had we did have

094some edtech supporting um in those really high volume years. Um I I don't know what exactly their schedules look like. Um but I do have a note of that. I not my lived experience. So, somebody else would have to probably uh clarify that, but we had 2.0 FTE in 2122 with a total count of 24. It's the most recent time we have two. >> And I do think in the sort of the the peak year of 23 and 24, um I think we had three full-time and then we had a contract. So we were almost up to four people covering that retired December and and I don't >> Yeah. No. So >> I don't have enough context about that. >> Yes. I think we've been as low as a halftime position for the district and

095as high as essentially four full-time. >> I think there was some um mobilizing to register students at their place of residence and that was also part of the need. >> Yeah. that that was the year that a week before school started, we got a call that I think we had 40 kids that were that needed to be registered or something like that. So, >> did that answer your question, Chris, on that? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Y >> um I think two questions. One might be able to be answered now and the other probably would be next week. Um, but has D uh DCS ever had a French offering? >> Not since I can recall, but we got 23 years of experience. So, >> we've not had French. >> No. Okay. The answer is not

096had French. Okay. Um, my other question was I know that there's a collection of schools that we like to kind of like um keep up with um for lack of a better word. Um uh I would be curious to know among those schools um what sorts uh what sort of offerings are do they have at the middle school level in terms of languages and and I suppose well I mean yes I guess it'd be nice to know and be shamed uh if we don't >> if everybody else offers uh Latin in kindergarten um that would be helpful to know. Uh but I'm primarily uh interested in the >> the district that I just came from. My previous position had is RSU40700 kids across seven schools. Uh much lower tax base they had Spanish to in

097kind going down to kindergarten in every school. >> So I am shamed. Okay, great. Thank you Tom. I needed I needed more shame to carry around. Thank you. >> They had 30 kids in kindergarten though. So they didn't try to make it feel better. >> Can I add on to that the middle school language but also high school language? >> Sure. >> As well. >> All right. Any other things they Oh, Valerie, sorry. I looked right. I was waiting >> patiently. Um, while we're talking language, do we have enrollment numbers for Latin or of the three languages? I noticed I know I thought I remembered that we have have two Latin teachers and that's why we thought maybe reducing to one might be less painful. Do we have enrollment numbers for their languages in the

098high school? >> I don't have them at my fingertips. I don't know if Jen has them at her fingertips. And as a former world language teacher, I'm sure it's difficult for Jen to even think about reducing a a world language position. So, we we'll start with that. We know this is hard. >> Yes. Thank you. Um Jen Gok from the high school. So, um I think the thing that we have to consider is what's the balance of the class sizes across the three languages because right now um our students almost always get their first choice of a language. Both of the other districts that I came from always had students pick a second choice for a language and did not guarantee their first choice. Now, at some point, if they didn't get their first choice

099and later on in high school said, "Okay, I've taken two years of Spanish. I'd like to switch over to French." They were able to do that. You didn't have to be in nth grade to get into an intro level of a language. Actually, we offer an award here at Academic Awards for students who take on multiple languages. So, there will be an impact of the number of ninth graders who can get the language of their first choice. that is a definite that will happen. Um what we see right now is that when we get up into because currently we offer Latin four, we offer Spanish four and five and we offer French four and five. Currently our numbers for French four and five are very uh very low and so they are combined into one

100class. Last year that was the case for Spanish four and five. we've increased Spanish by a little bit and so um we have a large enough class for Spanish four to be a class by itself whereas Spanish 5 is very small and so I do think that we are going to see a benefit of those numbers growing in terms of the upper levels of French and Spanish. um what the impact would be of not offering French at the middle school level is that we would not offer um French five in person. And right now the numbers I can say um in the last four or five years they have been under 10 students every year in French five. Um, right now the the number is um, if I pull that up right now, sorry for

101one sec. Um, the number of students in French 5 is four students. And so we'd love to see that be 20 students. 20 in that class, 20 in in um, Spanish 4. And um we would also have the opportunity which we have right now is that students who have um had a strong foundation in Spanish in the middle school will be able to start here in Spanish too which they could do right now. And so then they would go level two, three, four or five. So while we are reducing the number of sections that we're offering for Latin, the hope is that we will still have a robust uh number of program and number of students who are able to take Latin with our one Latin teacher and also potentially see those numbers grow at

102the upper upper levels for French and for Spanish at the same time. Um, in terms of the number of students who are taking Latin, I will say that Latin is um they they have done our Latin teachers have done um a phenomenal job of um growing that program and having students um a a large number of students in that program. Uh and so um but we feel that we would be able to balance that some students might not get um to take Latin in their freshman year um but they they might then be able to join we would pri prioritize them getting it in their sophomore year so that they would be able to do that. So right now for example um we would need to configure who teaches um what well with one teacher

103which se how many sections they would need of Latin one versus two versus three versus four. We currently don't offer Latin five. So um that would be the case next year. Um and so right now we have a section of Latin one that has 13 students. We have a section of Latin one that has eight students. Uh and then we have um uh a section of Latin one with 16 students and uh another with 11 and another with 13. And so those are small class sizes um you know as as we compare and we're talking about other grade levels. And so some of those classes would be combined to be in one section and then some of those students may not get their first choice and may be um in a place where they're choosing

104French or or Spanish as their language. >> Thank you. All right. Have we exhausted our questions for this evening knowing all rights are reserved to continue asking questions next week? Okay. Thank you. All right. So we will move on to unfinished business uh 12B which is the um which is the early childhood special education. Uh so we will get a motion on the floor and then we will have Tom provide us an update. So, do I have a motion for consideration and approval to join cohort 3 2026 2027 of the early childhood special education EDSE transition from child development services CDS to RSU5 Kelly and Cara. Thank you. >> Okay, I just have to show you so I go up. Okay, so at long last we come to it. I need a cookie for this.

105You might need a cookie. Okay. So, long story here and we've been sort of following it week by week, but we >> Sorry. >> Bigger. >> Make it bigger. Well, let me >> We don't need all those blank lines. >> How am I going to make this bigger? >> It didn't like it. >> Oh, it doesn't like it. Here, we'll do this. We'll try this one. >> Yeah. >> Is that gonna work? Because then you can see it. >> Yeah. >> I'll I'll move it around. So without recap without recapping every single detail that I've already shared several times in previous weeks when we did our TRA task force process which we really we did for the sake of getting lots of input and transparency we didn't know that we were working with a faulty

106spreadsheet from the state. We didn't know that until just beginning of last month. And we had of course in that process received guidance from the state several times about what it would take what we felt was quote reasonable and necessary unquote to assume responsibility for four year olds for next year. This is of course to take on the special education responsibilities. Um upon discovering their spreadsheet error in January. Go ahead, Sam. We um had to do lots of last minute planning and thinking with them and and collaboration to try to make adjustments based on their new guidance. So, the new guidance from the state was not only working with a much smaller number, but it was also much more granular about what they would approve in our budget. We had we had run our plan

107by them before and had gotten their approval based on the original numbers they gave us. But when it was evident to them that they had less money to work with to give not just to us but to other school districts, um the guidance that came from them all of a sudden became much more specific about what they would fund. So, we finally got just a few days ago final confirmation from the folks at DOE that after a lot of back and forth um what we what they will approve. So, this is what I'm bringing to you and let me see if I can make this understandable. One of the biggest needs that we have is a director administrative oversight. Um the state has determined now, they had not determined this in December, but they've determined

108now that they will really only support in the early childhood allocation a certain proportion of administrative time to o oversee that program. And what you see up there is 0.2 of an administrative position we are we can put into the early childhood education fund which is from the state. the rest. Can >> I just ask a question? Is this um this entity that is uh making these determinations, are they the ones that also have administered it in the past? >> Um no. >> That's a great question. >> No. So, who's administered it in the past is CDS and they're diverting that funding from CDS to school districts. So it's this is coming into the DOE in a way that it did not before. >> I see. So it's CDS's uh >> CDS's >> efforts that

109they are downplaying uh not their own. >> Sure. So what you see up there, the cost of $176,000 for an ECSE coordinator. I just want to be clear that is not the salary of an ECSE coordinator. It's the salary plus the benefits package. Um, and that is at the level of an assistant principal in our district. So, we can push 0.2 of that into the early childhood fund. The rest would have to come from the local fund. Now the our local taxes, but spoiler alert, they have at the same time approved other expenses for staff that we are already paying out of our local budget to go into the CDS money. So all of that is broken down in this spreadsheet. So one of the needs that we have is a 282B teacher. That's a

110special education teacher for a special purpose classroom. Most of that would go into the early childhood education fund. 02 of it would have to come out of local. We've asked for two specialed edexs to um serve in that program. Those would be brand new on top of the edteex we already have. Those would be fully in the early childhood fund. Um a speech language pathologist. We already have a speech language pathologist serving preK and that person is paid for it right now entirely out of local money, but we can put 0.9 of that salary into the early childhood fund. So there is some offset with the director in in what you're seeing here. Um we would have to set aside some money for contractors like psychologist, teacher of the deaf, etc. um that could come

111out of the special allocation, some hours for drivers, and um another addition which they had not told us they would approve back in December, but they have told us now is a portion of a general ed prek teacher could go into the special ed early childhood fund. And that is because many of the kids with IEPs and preK need to have access to a general education setting for their least restrictive environment. So that is a half of that salary could go into early childhood. So what it all shakes down to if you see the orange square, the $17,300 is a net impact to the local taxpayer. Um, but what we're getting out of that is to be able to enter the cohort in a separate pot of money that is not reflected here that's 100%

112from the state. We can get all kinds of necessary equipment and assessments and curriculum to get that started. Um and we're adding a an assistant special education director most of whose duties would be in early childhood despite the fact that we have to break the budget down by line line items in that way. So that is an impact that Kelly and I have talked that 17,000 that is an impact that Kelly and I have talked about and feel is fairly represented in what we are bringing to you for the budget as it is because many of those costs in the budget and Kelly and I could say this better than I could are estimated >> staffing costs. So this represents a good deal for the district. It does enable us to join the cohort at

113this time and start most importantly I think when we focus entirely on money we lose sight of the work and the earlier we start this work with kids the more we're serving the kids who need it and that will pay off in the long run with kids being getting their needs met earlier getting earlier intervent inter interventions and being able to move out of special education earlier um thus saving us money over call. >> Um, is it fair to say that um, obviously having the director on next year to cover, you know, the the launch of the program, that is a position that wouldn't necessarily need to increase in the following year when we add the three-year-olds. So, would we be able to shift a larger percentage of their time into that funding formula because

114they're supporting potentially twice as many kids going from four-year-olds to four and three? >> I think that's a possibility because what they're telling us right now is >> Is that far too logical? >> Um, sorry. >> I want to be really respectful. Um, I think the folks at DOE are really doing their best with a hard situation and they were very gracious when that spreadsheet error was discovered and they they owned that it was on them and it put us in a hard position. The guidance they're giving us specifically is that they can only improve cost based on a per pupil count. And you know, I the back and forth that we had with them is my explanation to them that we're we're trying to build a program that's not just for the four-year-olds that

115come next year, but for the threes that come the year after that we're promising to take on. And with the fours, we do have an early childhood intervention team already on staff that meets most of that need. where we really need help is the oversight to build the architecture for the threes that will come. Um, and that's where we still have a lot of work to do. I think that that person that we hire, even though it says 02 of their salary would come out of that allocation, most of their work right now will be in building an early childhood program that we will be mandated to take on in 2028. And then potentially once that's up and running, I mean, you know, essentially having the the cost of a an assistant principal for 50

116kids, right, which we wouldn't typically have. We wouldn't have a, you know, we wouldn't have a school with 50 kids and say, "You guys need an assistant principal." Obviously, it's not apples to apples because these are kids that have higher higher needs. Um but you know is that something where some of that could be could be shared since the cost is being shared with the local side could be shared with more you know general general special ed support. >> I I think so. Yes. >> Yeah. I don't want to overpromise because the I I just have to be mindful that this is all coming from from the state and laws I don't think that it would take a change in the law to do this. Laws can change, administrations can change. We will have a

117new administration in Augusta within you know >> a year >> by 2028. So um we we are basing all of this on the assumption that we have a mandate to fulfill by 2028. No, I was just thinking I mean sort of less about the state and where they're going with with early childhood education. More thinking we can't really hire a point 2 administrator. Nobody's going to do that. Right? we would get a full full person which the maj the majority of their time certainly in the next year or two is going to be about building out this program but presumably there would be some capacity after that to support the the district at large as a special education >> yes for sure that my hope is that we definitely need a whole person who has

118extensive knowledge about early childhood and special education and that we could have that person now build this program for us but also be able to assist us with special education in general. >> That's that's what I was hoping for. Okay. Thank you. >> And and thank you guys for kind of finding a way that that works within their parameters but also gets the needs for the program met to get it launched in next year. I know that was no easy feat and a lot of back and forth. And I guess my last question, um, how confident are we that they're gonna stick to that? >> Well, Sandy Flack, who is the person at DOE that we've done most of the discussion with, emailed me yesterday and was pretty effusive about this plan. Um, so we

119were very specific in making sure, you know, the reason we didn't do this a few weeks ago is that I didn't want to bring you numbers that were not accurate. I am confident based on what I'm told from the authorities that this is accurate and doable. >> Okay. >> And this is on recorded. So Chris, >> um I see you added the driver hours. Is there any other transportation requirements for this? So there are >> just on our regular pre-K buses that we're running right now or >> um it can operate on those buses right now because we are meeting most of the need already through our current preK program. I do think when we talk about three-year-olds, we have more thinking to do. But one of the costs that we also had had in

120our original ask for this pot of money was for a van. And we've been told, take the van out of this pot of money, but there's another pot of money that is 100% state funded where you can get the van. >> And remind me, um, not necessarily this pot of money, but the pot of money that would contribute towards our supplies and materials, the other pot, um, that would we would need to build out this program. um we are at an advantage if we start this year because if we don't that money is going to be distributed to other programs correct >> so that that is correct and and others in the room who've worked with this Ted Ted's here somewhere right >> hey Ted I'll I'll try it but if I save me if

121I say this the wrong way so when this entire proposition was put forward there was a special pot of money for districts that joined early and the incentive was if you join early and commit to taking this over from CDS there is more financial support for you to get all that stuff that you just mentioned. So the earlier you join the more incentive there is for startup support that a lot of that money is is dwindling. So there is not as much of a promise if we wait that we will get be able to cash in on that. >> Is is there a promise that if we do join this year we can get that money or is that like I'm >> coming up with numbers but like let's say there's you know $3 million

122left in that and all of a sudden there's a $7 million ask and they're like actually you only get you know 37th of your money >> if I'm if I'm completely honest. So, that could happen. Um, because I can't stand here and tell you I that I know how much money they have in that fund or how they're allocating it. All I can tell you is that the the promise is the earlier you join, the more likelihood that there is that that money is available. >> So, what happens if it's not? So, what happens if we go, "Okay, we need a van, we need chairs, we need tables, we need big fat crayons, whatever we need, and they go, oh, sorry, money's gone, and we have committed and now we have to fund those things

123because we have four-year-olds showing up." >> That is the case. >> Okay. So, what are we doing? Because if we find out after we adopt the budget, >> well, Kelly and I would sit back. Kelly, Alicia, and I would sit back and think of what we would need to ask for and we would have to come to you with a plan for that. I don't have that backup plan now. I do have an assurance from them that that money is there for us now. >> Do we have a >> I see the face you're >> hopefully I'm not on camera. I'm over here. But um uh do we have a sense of what that number could be? like what do we think the sort of startup costs for this program are that we expect? >>

124I don't have it right at my fingertips, but we had that worked out in our earlier proposal and itemized. I don't know if you had it handy, Kelly. >> Check your pile. I'm just curious of kind of, you know, what was stuff that we would like to have that would be nice to be able to get us off and running at a great start and versus what do we absolutely must have in order to take this over when the kiddos start show up on the first day of school. And to me, that what do we have to have is the potential we're on the hook for if they say there's no money left. And I'm not saying we shouldn't do this. I'm just saying we should know what that number is in case we have

125to find it somehow. >> So, it's there's curriculum assessments in PD um adding up about $3,200. Um >> Kelly can find that. >> There's $43,000 for a van. There is a special request form for a van. Um there's car seats and boosters. They add up to about $380. >> That's like one car seat. What do you guys buy? I mean, we have them at 150 a piece. >> Okay. >> Um, there's some technology equipment and PD. There's some iPads, some teacher and staff computers, and some programs. All of that together is about 10 and a half thousand. >> So, compared to these other line items, they're not those aren't hugely expensive. >> I mean, the biggest one is the van, right? >> Correct. >> So, if we if we had to, could we do it

126with the number of vans we have now? Do we think >> it would be tight? Yeah, >> it would be tight for sure. >> And the and well, >> I mean, this is just worst case scenario, you know. Not that they never go back on what they're saying. >> They're important questions and I I don't know if it like makes me look any better, but it's we don't have the answer. Not because we haven't done our homework. It's just because the answer isn't clear. >> Yeah. We just don't have it yet. >> We just don't Okay. >> The state doesn't >> Yeah. I just think it's important for us to know what, you know, we could potentially be looking to cover if we had to. >> Yeah. How quickly after this is approved does the

127funding actually get dispersed? >> So there is the option to have the funding for it's dispersed quarterly. They they have extended an option to us to to disperse the quarter one bit of money early. I think as early as April. >> Now, I don't know that that really helps us that much because getting we will need that money at the end of the year. So, um it's coming >> it. Yes, >> that's true. It does make it start coming even if you don't plan on it. What about the um the little pot of money for the the the >> The special money. Like is that like can we can we start sending in our requests and invoices tomorrow? >> Not tomorrow. Ted, do you happen to know? >> I'm just gonna ask you to come

128up to the mic because the folks at home can't hear you in the back. >> Um so that stuff we had a site visit from Lori Whitmore. She's a director of preschool programming. She went through the all the prek rooms. Um she's she made a list of what she believes we could use. We she won't come back until the commitment form has been signed. At that point, she will order stuff for us and deliver it for that that amount of money that that stuff. You don't have to pay first. They're going to order it, deliver it, help set that up. The stuff that we want to um cost through a one-time allocation that can start at April 1 um through the early allocation funds, which takes away from the first quarter, which is July. One

129thing to keep in mind is July. We you don't have any students starting responsibility till September 1st. So you don't have a lot of expense um for uh July and August potentially. So that the money you do take from there you may not have to push down the line and reckon with a year from June. >> So so things like a van that we would need. >> So a van is a special requisition form. Okay. >> It's outside all all three of these funding streams. Um, and it's existed for longer than this initiative, so that's probably going to stick around. Um, again, I don't I don't know, but >> Okay. So, that's not specific to early early childhood >> that I know. No, it was around before that. So, yeah, wouldn't be at least these

130three funds that are coming through this law. This is probably a question I probably should have asked before we got all the way to this point, but does this taking over the CDS? It prompted the question when you said they won't were not responsible until September 1. Are most of these kids extended school year kids that we would now have to have a preschool program running through the summer? >> So, um I don't know what most of them means. There will be a significant portion that will be ESY. Um there are some stuff that the EIT does already. Um I think one of them contracts to do services for students. Um so yes, short answer is yes. You'll have to have a ESY program that's available. It has to be um six weeks in length.

131I don't know when those six weeks are that I don't actually you know what that means I need to check that that is the law right now for CDS or but as it transfers over I don't know if that comes with it so good question they will you will need to provide ESY services we'll have to figure that out um it sounds like they're already doing some of that >> right and it I mean I guess what I would want to make sure of is that our staff that are already providing services to these kids um are on contracts that don't require necessarily summer. So there could be incremental costs to to that and want to make sure because that would be I presume covered by the programming cost or no that's already built into

132how much they're giving us per student. So the difference is on us to figure out. >> Yes. Um those but the services themselves when they go up should increase. So there's that high cost allocation which is reserved for kids that are high cost in for one student that's a high cost and then if it pushes over the total allocation for the year then it kicks in. So if there's enough ESY work that even if those kids aren't um high cost in their the amount of needs that they need in their IEP that if that amount kicks it up above what the quarter allocation was then there would be more money. We could recapture some of that cost. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Y. Um Tom, if we if we uh approve this tonight, um is

133there a relatively uh is there a relatively straightforward way to present um this uh as an accompaniment to the budget going forward for this year? Is there a way that we can kind of like like at what point I guess it'd be helpful to know like is there a point before we pass the budget where we're passing the budget with knowing exactly what we are uh signing up for or is >> that's likely >> okay >> because you wouldn't be voting on the budget till March and so we would certainly by that time we would have more information back from the state. Um, so at the moment I can, you know, I can share there would be that $17,000ish cost. Um, and we would have an answer about all the other special things I would

134hope that they're approving. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> I think we should probably include that like in your future as we look at the budget. I think that needs to probably get added in there so we're capturing it. >> I would I I was think Kelly and I were talking about this. I would put it under the additions >> part. Valerie, >> I'm gonna borrow Ted's phrase and say since we get to do this, um, is the intent to Michelle's point for outfitting our special ed classroom in the short term to keep that off the budget to include it in the budget and then anything that we get reimbursed falls away? How are we managing those funds in our budget? >> So, the technicalities of that I would have to ask Kelly about, but

135the intent is to keep keep it off the budget as much as possible and in the CDS money. >> Tom, I'm wondering the money that we're getting, is that a year after year after year? >> It's quarterly and it's based on student numbers per quarter. >> Okay. So this we're guaranteed that we're getting money every year. >> I mean guarantee might not be >> Yeah. We expect to >> this would be um annually and it's based on the amount of students that we can project for the first quarter of next year. So you know by the end of October and we can't we're not allowed to project having more students as the year goes on. So it's a projection based on what we are expecting for the first quarter. >> Do you know what the

136numbers are at this point? >> Yeah, I think it was 25 kiddos. >> I don't remember off the top. It was right around 25 kiddos. >> That's what I remember also. >> Yeah. I think it's going to be really interesting when we start guessing how many three-year-olds we have showing up. like the four-year-olds is a little bit different because we kind of have screeners and prek and um I think the three-year-olds is going to be >> three-year-olds I I there's a lot of unknowns y >> with that my sense is whatever we can quantify there are actually more that will come >> because we have a program when we don't now >> right but I do think and correct me if I'm wrong um to your question Karen if we have to you know we

137have to say 25 but if 30 show up. We do get to recapture that in like the future quarters. We can catch up because we have more kids. We can't we can't assume we're going to have 30 and hope they come. We can say 25 because that's what we have confirmation or information for, but if 30 do show up, we are able to like capture those numbers. Kelly? >> Yeah. So, that raises a question. Are we sort of budgeting a certain amount of space for a certain capacity looking forward to the future? Right now with the four-year-olds, it's pretty easy because we have the capacity to absorb the numbers that we will be getting. That's because we already have prek. And you know, if we compare it to this year, we are already serving three

138quarters of the kids with IEPs in our district through our existing prek. So, we can tap into what we already have to to make that work for next year. I think the real question that we have to do a lot of work over the ensuing year here to figure out as three-year-olds because we don't as of right now have a space to to put them in. But more on that next week when we talk about the longer range vision >> and the only I think added classroom for next year would be the new special ed prek but there is a space at Mor Street for that. So yes, right now we we are proposing to add a special ed classroom that's a special purpose classroom. Um it's for children who would have a higher level

139of need who and if we don't do that we would face having to send those children out somewhere else where they could access that which would be a cost to us. Um so we can make space for that at the moment at more street. It will be tight, but we can make that work and we can then serve those kids and it will be a lower cost and with our own people. >> I look forward to hearing more about that next week. Then >> other questions on the motion on the floor, which is to join cohort three based on the information we have right now. Seeing none, are folks ready for a vote? You got the motion on the second? Yep. Okay, great. All those in favor? None opposed. Thank you. And thank you to

140the group that was involved in that task force to to Tom, to Erica, to Tim. Um I do that every time. Ted, sorry. I don't know why I do that. I apologize. Um just to I mean this was a lot of work. and Kelly, this was more work than anticipated when it started. Um, as it always is. So, um, so thank you for everybody's hard work on that. I kind of like sitting in the dark over there. >> Durham Bacon. >> Durham vacant. That's me. All right. So, um, new business on the agenda is item 13, the district scorecard. And Erica is going to present that to us. >> Am I moving again? >> You might want to go back to the dark. >> Back to your darkness. >> Sometimes imaginary. Sometimes >> you're not

141an island. >> Thank you. It's way cooler than >> So, in your packets, you had um the district scorecard and then you had a presentation um for career and college readiness. Um what wasn't in your packet, Jenny's call, um is that this this presentation specifically um about the key findings in the scorecard, which we're going to rip tonight because this is the last scorecard presentation. We just we're going to evolve into a different style of presentation going forward, unless that's not no longer what you want. Um but uh this is the last presentation of the scorecard as we've known it for 10 or 12 years now forever. Um so uh the first findings I'd like to share with you tonight um are with are coming from the traditional scorecard report that you um are familiar

142with if you've been on the board for a while. Um and I wanted to just caveat this entire presentation with these are standardized test scores um and not students children are not standardized humans and so there is you know an element of there isn't a test in here that's that's appropriate for all kids all the time. So we're working with data that is you know in a human environment um that comes through as maybe it's not always the right fit or um the best way to measure our profession is a science I believe and science there in science there is measurement so we are trying to measure things and to your earlier point there are other things we could probably measure to paint other pictures or shine light on other areas so I'll um caveat

143some of these um data pieces with more of that but just an overarching um uh you know statement about standardization. Um so this is all again coming from your uh scorecard as you knew it. Um so the graduation rate uh for you the state average I believe is trending at about 86% so we're in a good spot in comparison. Um the scorecard does a lot of comparisons. So you'll see that throughout this one. Um the scorecard has uh continuously elevated for you the fountains and panel reading scores which are our benchmark assessments that we are utilizing K5 primarily. Um and um these data carry over into the new report that I'll be sharing. Um but um you can see the trends there and you received this in advance. So I'm I'll pause at the end

144of this one and ask for your questions. Uh the main throughear assessment. So in the scorecard there was an emphasis on the throughear. Um Maine's had quite a moving target when it comes to what uh how they're measuring students in Maine and where those cut scores are falling. Um so it's frankly less reliable than um hitching on to what the assessment uh creators have indicated as national norms. So we're going to be paying closer attention to that in going forward. So this is where we stand per the main three-year assessment which again has some challenges in terms of um validity and reliability longitudinally. Um the mainstate science assessment has also evolved over the years. Um and the tricky thing I just want to caveat uh so the new assessment the new instrument is attached to

145the next generation science standards um which are now legislated by the state of Maine. We were a little bit slower to the game than other states. So this this uh was then passed not too too long ago and there wasn't a ton of implementation support for this from the state. So districts have sort of taken it on themselves and taken like different approaches to it. But the big challenge with the main state science assessment is that the approach is interdisciplinary. So earthlife, physical, engineering, all the things are in one assessment every year. And that's not necessarily how we're teaching science. So, a child sitting for an assessment um that's exposing them to content that they may or may not have been experiencing relative to the the assessment. So, this is a tricky one. Um but

146we're still trending better than state average. Um PSAT and SAT, I really want to highlight that um we uh are not a state that does this statewide any longer. So when we compare ourselves with the state average that becomes no longer a super credible like norming group or linking study. Um and so this is um how we compare to the state amongst colleagues schools who also administer the PSAT and SAT universally meaning for all students. We do do that um in grades in grade 11. Um, and that's why you can see that when you put all the kids in the pool, the scores are um comparatively a little bit lower. Um, I did do a statewide study to see where we fall um on this uh in terms of offering it universally. So, we subsidize

147that locally and we do it universally in grade 11. Um, uh, I had 23 responses from high schools across Maine, including Bangor, Portland, Augusta, South Portland, Ellsworth, Auburn, Bifford, Brunswick, Kerman, and many others. Um, and uh, universally we have um 11 of of those, sorry, uh, six of those administering uh, universally PSAT and five of those administering universally um, SAT. in 11th grade. So, just as a comp. Um, and then this one is an interesting one I think we're going to want to follow um going forward is that persistence rate uh once kiddos metriculate into their first and maybe even more importantly their second year of um post-secary studies. Um, if we go back to these scores, we'll dive into PSAT and SAT a little bit more, but the uh threshold is uh meeting or

148exceeding a predicted likelihood to perform successfully in a 100 level class with a grade of a C or better. Um so this is the SAT and PSAT cut scores are intended to predict whether a child is ready to uh persist successfully meaning earning a grade of a C or better in a 100 level coursework. Right? So then when you go into um when you go into the advanced placement and post-secary persistence rate um we can you know sort of make connections that readiness matters potentially for students. I will say that this data set is coming from 2022 and these are COVID years and a lot more kiddos would have uh taken us up on the um state subsidized access to two-year colleges, right? So, we've got other kids in this data set that might not

149have otherwise been there and it was COVID years. So, there's like it'll be interesting to follow this going forward. So, I take this one with a grain of salt. Um again we can do some questions key takeaways. Um those were highlighted for you um in the in the data set. But um uh I did want to point out that on pages five and six there was an error on a header. Um, and that is um, let me maybe I can open it up here. Just wanted to show you. So, if you are looking at your packet, I just wanted to make sure in full transparency here that there was an error. Oh, it was corrected on this one that I have. My apologies. But here, if you're looking at these columns on page five and

150six, the 24 25 was reading 23 24 when it says spring count in grades 3, four, five, six, and then on to the next page. Are you seeing that in your packet potentially? Yeah, just wanted to point that one out. Okay. So, questions about the scorecard data as presented knowing that some of it lives in the next presentation as well. >> Um just just so I understand uh the PSAT and the SAT um sheet that you had. >> Yeah. >> So, the test is the same for 10th and 11th graders. It's the same test >> for PSAT. >> Yes. Um, so the >> but the cut scores are different. >> Uh, so the PSAT is a different assessment from the SAT. >> No, no, no. I'm I'm saying so we have PSAT grade 10 and

151PSAT grade 11 given in the same year, that's the same test, >> right? So if you have an 11th grader sitting here and a 10th grader, they're taking the same test. Yes. Right. >> So I'm trying to um but you know, we don't have their scores on here. we have the percent meeting or exceeding the benchmark. So based on the 92.7 for for 10th graders and dropping to 66.2, maybe that's a cohort issue. Um or is it that the cut scores are different to be meeting or exceeding for a 10th grader as it is for meeting or exceeding as an 11th grader? >> Oh, great question. Um so we don't require our 10 we don't offer it universally. We don't subsidize it in grade 10. Okay. So, the only ones taking a grade 10 that

152choose to do it to engage in it. >> Okay. Okay. That makes more sense because I was that was a huge swing, right? So, >> when you all had asked for a presentation in September and I came back in the next meeting there, if you might recall that I showed those differences, that'll appear in the next report as well. Indeed. Uh that is the case for grade 10 for the PSAT. And then we have a an optional participation for grade 12 SAT. >> Thank you. >> Not showing on on the scorecard for whatever reason. >> Don't know. Yeah. >> Yes. >> On the um uh postsecary um those percentages are both of the graduating class, right? Or is in other words 55.2% 2% of the graduating class continue on. It's not 55.2% of the 69.5%

153that go >> of the class of 20. >> Oh, that would be really >> Yeah. I was always I was like I was like like something's going Yeah. Great. Excellent. Great. I mean, not excellent but better. >> Yeah. And part of this is really important because readiness to persist successfully in 100 level coursework also matters a lot for financial aid. So, um, not, uh, remedial coursework, not 100 level coursework for students who need it, is not covered through FAFSA. It's just a barrier potentially. >> Yeah. Do we see any trends with um our students who were entering school during COVID and academic learning versus those kids coming in now or kids who are already here like when we were shut down are the is that two to three year cohort kind of performing differently than

154everyone else? >> That's really interesting question. Um, you're going to see a little bit of that in the next one. Um, but I I'm afraid some of that data may take more time. If you're looking at it from like all the way out through post-secary in the lag in which we get this these data, I think I mean, yeah, I haven't studied those specifically here. Um, >> so like birth year 2015s who would have been kindergarteners in 2020 kind of like watching them go through time. I'm thinking kids who were learning to read while wearing a mask. >> Yeah, there are some trends I because you all had asked about some trend data in in September. So, I did prepare some of those for the next slide deck. Um, but I'm not sure it totally

155captures or answers your question. Um, we can look at that more. Ready for the next one? Okay. So um so in September um and through the work of the strategic planning committee there's been a a lot of talk about readiness um and so the the indicator for readiness when it comes to academic achievement is like the benchmark that um would be career and college ready an indicating of career and college readiness. So the assessments that we use from third grade up do have those benchmark they they have studied what is the predictive level of meeting or exceeding expectations for career and college readiness. So we are able to use what we have from our data sets to look at that from third grade onward. and the assessments that we are using. Um I don't know

156that the Fountain and Panel benchmark assessment does a um does a career and college ready predictive indicator but um I I maybe I need to look into that more. Um but so our third grade assessment onward would be the NWA primarily which many of you are familiar with and then the PSAT and SAT have that. For the purpose of this presentation, um I'm looking at the subgroup called uh economically disadvantaged. Specifically, the scorecard previously had gotten into a subgroup of um students receiving special education services. That felt a little bit global because not all students receiving special education services are receiving them in academic areas and not necessarily in both academic areas. And so this is from um you know from looking at our data this feels more important and um you know we can

157always look at the other subgroups as well but trying to stay at just just one for right now for a through line. U we obviously look at the other subgroups. Um okay so you're going to see economically disadvantaged as a subgroup and then I'm attempting to offer you some cohort data that you had requested earlier. Um this is just another way of looking at that. Um these are these are where the assessments are administered universally. And again you see our PSAT and SAT commitments. Sorry 10th is checked off. It shouldn't be um because it's not for PSAT. It's not um un it's universally available but it's not universally administered. Okay. Um, fountain and panel reading data. This is a carryover from the last report. There's nothing really different here. Um this is that same data

158set um with a descriptive and uh the dotted line then is going to be the district um total average. What we're shooting for when you start to see these line charts is like we want 80% or more of our students at that level. Like that's the goal. And if you're looking at like MTSS structures, that's that's the goal. Um prepared a year-by-year comparison for the Fontus and Panel assessment. we've just updated to the most current copyright of this assessment instrument and so um we're staying with um most current research in those tools and um we've been working on implementing that this year that again um the FMP is a K5 assessment As we move into our NEOA data, this is where things start to fall on that career and college ready indicator line rather than

159the state sort of moving target of what is meeting or exceeding the state's expectations. So it's staying true using our longitudinal data still. Um so NEIA has always had this indicator. Um and that is when a student is performing at the 61st percent or better. The bands in Numa are 0 to 20, 21 to 40, 41 to 60, 61 and up. And there's a band above 61. But for the purpose of career and college readiness, this is looking at the band of 61st or better. Um, reading trends per NWA from grades 3 to 10. Um, if you remember from September, I caution you grade 10 caveat. Um, it's a tricky um, application of NWA, a little bit of a stretch in terms of how that test is intended to be used. Um, but this is

160what our state uses. Again, no longer the SAT. We used to be an SAT state. These are our math trends per NWA. Then again, these um PSAT and SAT assessment um no longer really worried so much about the the comparing to the state of Maine because it's not universally utilized as a high school assessment instrument anymore. And then the career and college trends when looking at these different assessments. So we like I pulled in FNP the fountainis and panel piece because it as are they meeting grade level expectations. So these are students at or above grade level expectations per the fountain and panel NWA map with both reading and math. Sorry that's a lot of lines. And then the PSAT, um, you see the differences there in grades 10 and 11. 10 being that elective,

161but we subsidize. Um, and SAT, um, I'm only showing you grade 11 because the grade 12 was a was, um, like it's the same story as with the PSAT, but probably fewer because by that point, a lot of kids are already in their application stage, not taking us up on it. And then um pulling in uh the career and college ready snapshot across all grades trying to create a through line across different instruments reading and math. Um this is a cohort analysis. Um, so you're going to start to see those bands of cohorts A, B, and C. Um, and their graduating classes and the grades spans that are represented. I know you've had some time with this beforehand, so happy to answer any questions you have um, about looking at reading data across K5 and

162then reading data 38. Again, we don't use the end of UEA until grade three. So that's why that's starting there. Um the changes across those cohorts, so how much those kiddos have grown across their cohort band. Um and the small print reads, each bar represents the percentage point change in career college ready rates for a single cohort of students tracked over multiple years. Positive values indicate improvement. For example, the plus 20.6 means that 20.6% more students in that cohort met the benchmark at the end of the tracking period compared to the beginning of the period. Um the Fountainis panel cohorts spanned five years and the NWA cohorts span four years just for the fine print piece of that. Um and then this subgroup, the economically disadvantaged subgroup, we are getting more tuned on the identification

163of um economically disadvantaged needs um as a district, which is fabulous. Um but for these data, you will see that there is a range of like our identifications depending on grade levels and creating some volatility in the the data. So, um I'm hoping this becomes more steady over the years. Um but, um yeah, just a note that when it's 100% it's just a super small sample size. We tend to as a best practice not present anything that's that's a group size uh under 10 10 or lower. Um, this is that same kind of map but with the economically disadvantaged subgroup represented as well. And then um in a line representation for reading and math as as represented through NWA and the comparison for students who um are meeting that economically disadvantaged threshold. Um and then

164an equity comparison in the SAT. the cohort in reading overtime, the cohort in math over time, and then a summary of what you probably saw as well, but in case it's helpful. Um, and a note again that the PSAT and SAT uh vary across Maine because the SAT is no longer the state's assessment, nor is the PSAT. I will add one important reason for us to continue or to support I won't predict the future to support the PSAT is that the at this at this grade level it is also the NMSQT qualifier. So that's the national merit scholar qualifying assessment. So that's one reason why um schools uh maintain access to it whether through universal or elective subsidy and I'm happy to answer any questions you have a question about the well thank you for

165putting all this together it's a lot um and for breaking out the key takeaways for us as well. Um, as far as the areas for attention and the first two there about math, are there some um, guesses as to why those have gone down? Has the curriculum changed? Has the test changed? Love to hear more about that. >> Um, so this is my first year in the district, so there's probably a lot of context that I don't have. I do know that with most standardized assessment, there is a matter of timing of like when is a child learning things in a curriculum versus when is the assessment being administered and do those things line up? Um, so we should definitely, you know, consider that we're not teaching to the test and SAT isn't really that

166kind of test, you know, so we're not taking like released items and like, well, at least not in school cramming towards them, right? I suppose we can do that privately. So there's that part, right? Um and then um the fact that it is no longer this the state's assessment. So it's it's got a different weight um and post-secondary institutions are no longer on mass requiring it. The SAT is no longer like 100% required, right? They're giving other options. So maybe the the gravity of the assessment um other than that I think we have work to do across the board in math. So you know there's um there is systemic math conversation happening the need for math programming committee was identified last year. We've been doing that work and we'll be bringing to you later this

167year a presentation on some of the systems level work that we're doing with math. Um, but uh the SAT is not a best fit assessment for all kids at that time. Yeah, we see this equity gap pretty much year after year and it doesn't really seem to change too too much year over year. And I'm just curious what the thought is about how we address this kind of persistent gap, >> meaning the economically disadvantaged gap. Um so it's our MTSS or formerly called RTI systems um or both called RTI MTSS uh response to intervention and multi-ter systems of support creating comprehensive um timely um intervention systems and tuning those through continuous improvement um not just on the remediation end but on on the end where kids uh need more um keeping them engaged as well.

168So, um that is the work of MTSS. >> Um yeah, thank you so much again for pulling this together. This is so helpful. Do we have um any data on um declared uh concentrations of students when they are um leaving? I guess I'm I'm asking because um if there was any kind of it'd be interesting to look at the relationship between you know if um if half the kids leaving uh Freeport High say they want to go into engineering um and then we're seeing these math scores and then half of the you know whatever like then we're seeing a drop are we seeing a drop in it'd be interesting to see if we're seeing a drop in the areas that could be traced in any way back to these kind of indicators, right, of sort

169of saying like um do you think we have anything like that kicking around? >> Um in terms of where they what they do postsecary >> well yeah like um yeah I mean is there any do we ask students what they're thinking of studying when they leave is or do we have do we know what um their concentrations are? I know you don't declare one in freshman year necessarily, but um I don't know. It just it just it just struck me that the that that data point is concerning the number of that don't go on to um uh persist in the second year. Um particularly at the two-year colleges, that was um that was really disheartening. Um and I was just sort of curious whether there was any sort of way we could link those. I

170mean again it points to we need u some work do some work in math but um just curious. >> Yeah. To your point, declaration of a major in the first two years of of school in post-secary is variable depending on the institution. Uh liberal arts schools will often say you don't have to declare two third or fourth year. So like we could get a lot of like not super reliable data but um we do have um disagregated data. Engineering lives in the science standard. So it's earthlike physical and engineering. Um and we do have disagregated data about um all of those domains uh that we can look at. And then we have disagregated data for um the map uh the map of sorry the NWA map assessments that um shows us the domains of math

171um in which trending is needing our attention. So we are able to look at that um as well um and um know that because it is attached to career and college ready indication whether they're actually ready to persist successfully or not per that assessment. There are certainly other ways to do it but we would need to be very scientific in our approach. >> Yeah. I'm not sure if that answered your question. So you're saying we need math skills to figure out about the math skills. That's what I'm hearing. >> Thank you, Erica. One thing that I learned about on the curriculum committee was more about the RTI and MTSS and just how much of the uh general classroom should be served like all different tiers. And I was wondering if you could just discuss that

172a little bit more for the whole board and how you see particularly math where we're lagging behind a little bit. How you feel like that can be addressed in the general ed classroom as opposed to the pull out method where it's being done now as pull out and by ed I'll stop talking now. Sure. >> I think that's my question. >> Yeah. Um so multi-tered systems of support uh typically have three tiers. Um it's tier one that's universal that happens in the classroom setting. That is um kids who are like somewhere within grade level range. Typically they're um needing just some like real time support. Tier two tends to be a kiddo who's like about a yearish or like more than like below grade level in the year into the year prior. at some part

173of that year prior. Um and then tier three tends to be kiddos who are approaching two years below grade level tends to be um where those interventions are supported is what is different in different settings. So tier one should be in the classroom setting. Um depending on the human resources, uh tier 2 is often with push-in support in the regular classroom setting. Tier three is needing to have a very specific isolated skill set intervention in a small group setting outside of the classroom because it doesn't fit in with just the sort of business as usual in the general education in that classroom setting. Um, so those three tiers are really important and I think us uh the work that we're doing right now to make sure that we know like what are the non-negotiables for

174grade level expectations is really critical when you're moving in to do intervention on grade level expectations. Um so we're getting clear about um the non-negotiables at grade level. Um and then what are the resources we are pooling both human and print um and sometimes digital uh to support kids in each of those tiers. Um so our classroom teachers are doing a lot of work every day. It looks really um natural in the classroom setting. You would you might not know that tier one intervention is happening. Those small groups with teachers at the tables if you've seen them and and that is very um like organic. Tier 2 is very targeted inside the classroom saying this group of kiddos are really needing this skill or else by the end of the year they're going to be

175yet more behind. So we're going to like really focus on that. And then tier three is um we know that they're not likely to make grade level expectations and we need to capture further back down the line. Um, and throughout those tiers, we are serving multilingual learners and students identified with IEP support as well. So, MTSS serves all students. So, if you were thinking about it as a pyramid, then uh, multilingual and special education run through all of those tiers. Did that answer your question? I think uh well there's kind of one part further I think that I was trying to get at um and that sorry it's getting late at that time where I start fading away um is how can we use the MTSS or maybe better utilize it I don't know in

176thinking about um trying to address these inequities in the classroom because I think for me I think oh well we need more staff we need more people to come in but from what I've heard from you at curriculum committee. It's like, well, maybe, but that's not necessarily how we would do it with MTSS model. And are we >> I know we're currently doing some of that, but is there a world in which you see us being able to do it more? >> Yeah, I think it begins with a whole lot of clarity about what is when is when is the need determined and what is the isolated need for the child. Um, and it's not all about pushing out for support. It's knowing how to support small groups differently. Um, and so with clarity, with

177a lot of clarity. Um, and we're already good at that. We need more clarity about like the grade level non-negotiables and we're using all the best research out there to um to tune that right now. So, um, we have all the right people And I'm I feel very confident that we have all the right people to get that done um to build those systems. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Erica. >> You know what happens when I move 18 times? I lose my agenda. I got it. I found it. Oh, good news, guys. Only eight more things. No, I'm just kidding. Um, okay. We have no personnel items. So, we are back to public comment. We do have a folks a few folks that hung in there. So, if you'd like to speak,

178this is another opportunity. We ask you to come to the microphone, tell us your name, where you live, and three minutes uh is allocated for each person. And Erica has a paper which tells me we have someone. >> I didn't find that on my >> You can do it after. It's fine. >> This is generally when we have like 50 people who show up so we can do it in an orderly fashion. When we have two, we can work it out. >> All right. Thank you guys. Long night. I know you guys do this a lot. I do not. So, I wrote some comments down here. I sent you an email. I'm John Jake, by the way. Um, I'm a parent of a uh 2017 graduate and currently have an 11th grader. I'm a retired

179teacher. I taught social studies and American history. Mental Valley for a while, which I know you're familiar with. >> Yeah. >> And then I moved on to Falmouth High School. Uh, retired a while ago. I'm sure it was before your time. I was out in the valley quite a while ago. So, um, so I'm very pleased what I heard tonight from the superintendent about increased emphasis on social studies at the middle school. Uh, that's, you know, being a former social studies teacher, it's near and dear to my heart. And I think a lot of what's going on these days is evidence of the lack of social studies education. And uh I am not pointing the finger at Freeport High School or this district or this state necessarily, but just as an overall problem that we

180have as a nation, you know, needs to be addressed. So I really appreciate all the appreciate all the hard work that you guys put in. These meetings are long and your dedication is appreciated. It's it's a big job. I appreciate it very much and the community appreciates it. So, um, as you all know, numerous criminal actions by the Trump administration require citizens of conscience to protest. I'm extremely proud of our 150 of our high school students that participated in the recent anti-ICE protest. I'm sure we're all aware of the fact that we had a large number of students walk out at noon during a school day and march along Main Street up to McDonald's back to the bridge and they missed a couple of classes. Right? So students should be supported to exercise their constitutional

181rights to protest. Any form of punishment by the school system is unacceptable in my opinion. These are not normal times and the school board should recognize this. Our high school students know what has happened in Minneapolis. Videos have been watched by millions, millions of teenagers, millions of times. You know, the evidence is out there is what's going on. Uh they know what's in the Epstein files. They read this stuff. It's all available. and school boards should pass whatever is necessary for students to attend any anti-ICE protest and suffer no repercussions from their school. Diverge a little bit from my remarks here. So what the consequences were for Freeport High School students that participated, it was an unexcused absence. pretty small thing, but I I think it's a it's a gesture that I would like from

182you all to make an excused absence for anybody that participated in that. All they did was get an unexcused absence and if there was a extracurricular activity that they were participating in, they couldn't do it the next day. I've heard from other parents and other districts that they got three hours of detention. And I don't think it's really what you all intend to do is to punish students for participating in something like that. So you have to take some action. You have to either change your policy, create a new policy. You have no policy that covers such a thing. You have I got sent by some of the attendance office form that it was apparently developed, you know, over a decade ago that says that this is our policy if you're going to have your

183kid out. Well, I taught at Fmouth High School 20 years ago, and it used to tick me off as a teacher when the parents would say, "We're going to Switzerland for a ski trip for a week, March 1st. We just had a paper April vac, you know, vacation in February, and they chose to go at a different time, and I'm supposed to put together, you know, some work for them to do while they're in Switzerland or France or wherever it is." Uh, that's a different circumstance, and that's a different scenario. I do understand being a former teacher, spent many, many years dealing with, you know, parents requests for time off and you have to have rules and all that and kids coming in with Starbucks cups to the first period class late over and over

184again. I know all of that stuff happens, dealt with it. This is a def definitely a different time that we're living in now and a different scenario. So, please please do something so this is not an unexcused absence for these students. Um, back to my parents here. >> I'll I'll just ask you just >> I know I'm close to the three minutes. >> You're over, but I'll let you finish your thought. >> Let me wrap it up. Let me wrap it up. Thank you. >> So, since students are minors, parents permission should be enough for an excused absence to attend. Currently, the school policy does not allow parents to excuse an absence. I think this policy should be changed. uh social studies curriculum needs immediate improvement to cover the crimes of Donald Trump and his

185administration, particularly the high school curriculum. As a retired teacher, painfully aware of the fact that my most high school graduates do not study the last 20 or 30 years of American history. Doesn't happen. They never get to it. They never learn the last 20 or 30 years. This is not accepted. So, um I'd also like to comment about what I heard here earlier. Um, I'd also like to um comment about the proposed proposed elimination of middle school French. Studying enrollment here and surrounding district is a good idea. I'm in agreement that if we're worried about dropping enrollment, cutting out middle school French could lead to unattended consequences, which you brought up. Uh, parents choose this community based on the schools. If you cut middle school French, I think it's not be a good thing. I

186think you can probably find somewhere else to go for that savings. and I'd like to see the middle school French remain. Both of my children went to the eighth grade Quebec City trip and it would be a great loss to our students. Thank you. And I'm sorry I took time. >> That's okay. Thank you, John. >> Thank you. >> All right. If you'd like to speak, here's your opportunity. >> Okay. I don't want to speak. >> Um and Sarah Davis, I don't know. Can you hear me? I don't think Is it on? >> Yes. Oh my god. All right. And I'm on camera. Great. Okay. So, um, >> I'm pretty I'm gonna pull it all out. Thank you. Okay. So, I don't know how you do this because I'm I can barely stand up. I'm

187so tired. Um, I um didn't want to talk today, but I heard after Pam's um presentation, I just wanted to clarify a couple things. I'm Sarah Davis. I teach Freeport at I teach French at the Freeport Middle School and I live in Auburn. Um, and I may have to sleep here tonight cuz I'm exhausted. Okay. Um, so first of all, I think this is like the toughest thing for Bill and Pam in my building beyond any other administrator. They're brand new and here they are telling people that they have to go. Um, especially with dinosaurs like me. Uh, and I, um, but I do have a hard time hearing people talk about, you know, really like that it's really just more benefits to all the cuts like, no, it just kind of sucks around, you

188know, across the board. You don't have to come up with like ways that it's it's helpful and and beneficial to students because it's not. So, um, it really upsets me to hear like, "Oh, well, it'll be great because we'll have more continuity from, uh, no summer lag from 8th grade Spanish to freshman year," which is absolutely not true. Um, but a couple things. Um, I just want clarifying. Um, I just want to put some clarifying things out there. Sorry if I'm just tongue tied because I'm exhausted. Um, I am concerned that it's there are only five UA teachers listed in grades seven and eight because that's going to make numbers pretty high, especially uh in art. Um, and I let's see, Spanish numbers have been higher since I've worked at Freeport Middle School, um, which

189is 20 years. And before that, we didn't have Spanish for a very long time. Before I arrived at Freeport, it was French. Um, so and I think that's just because globally we have more people speaking Spanish as a first language in the country. In Maine, of course, more people speak French as a first language, but I think parents perception is that their kids should take um Spanish um to be more global citizens. Um I um have a hard time with having just Spanish and eighth grade. Uh and the fact that it would be a core class means every kid has to take it and you need a phenomenal amount of support. We don't typically get a lot of edte support in our classes. Um, so that's a concern to me. Um, because it's going to

190be large class sizes with kids of a huge range of ability and and motivation. Uh, I always have kids who are like really into French and really good at it naturally and the same thing with Spanish. So, uh, that's tough for me to make. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, oh god. Okay. Um, couple things. Uh, I really I promise I won't be long. Um, shoot. Uh, I don't actually think that eighth grade rotation works out great for language in terms of continuity. Um, and uh, I do want to make sure that we're keeping students uh, in mind and that should be our ultimate that should always be what comes first. But my other issue is we currently have a 6 Spanish teacher at our school. So, I don't understand where we're going to get a full-time

191position. Um, I didn't know if you were aware of that, but so that means you're going to be hiring you're adding to that Spanish position in order to have it in the core classes. So, it just I just that that was the biggest thing to me. It's like, well, where's that going to come from? um because our current Spanish teacher um that position was cut when Amanda Robson left Spanish to teach to do GT and so Rey uh turned the Spanish position into a point six and I started teaching world cultures which is Spanish and French in sixth grade. So every kid gets Spanish and French in sixth grade at Freeport Middle School. Um and then they get Spanish, French or JMG at seventh and eighth grade. Does that make sense? Okay. And I think

192I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Uh, special ed students, uh, art numbers. Shoot. Oh, I'm sorry. Kids willingness to learn another language. Eighth grade is like the worst time to introduce that. If you've taught middle school, there's like a progression. Eighth grade, they think they know everything and they're just like too cool for school. And it's really hard to get them out there into that comfort zone, like like discomfort zone. Um, so I just feel like, oh my god, that's like I'm glad I don't have to do that. Um, okay. So, thank you very much and have a lovely evening. Thank you for all you do. >> Thank you, Sarah. Hi, my name is Chantel Best and I have kids at Paddle Elementary and I also have a student that's a junior at high school and

193two students that went up through the middle school and high school. Um, I just want to quick comment on the tier three reduction. I know that's not recommended, but I feel like I need to advocate for pound a little bit. I'm sure I'm sad to hear everybody about their positions and budget cuts and I know it's not great anywhere but um what sticks out for me is the suggestion of possibly moving fifth grade panel to Mass Landing. I personally know all of the kid. Oh, I'm also a substitute teacher at PES. I do the after school program and I am the president of the PTA. So I met Pel a lot. Um the I know all the fifth graders personally and me picturing every single one of those 18 kids going to another school for

194just one year and leaving Panel their fifth grade year whether it's for their individual needs or because they're looking for their sibling coming into the class. We have other programs at Panel that other schools don't have, which I know we're very lucky to have those, but just see thinking about them missing out on all that stuff just seems like there's not a lot of pros to that. Um, and also just that tier has a lot of cuts in the RTI positions and panel alone got paused just this year, which is where the kids on behavioral plans get to utilize that. And seeing the impact it has on even specific classrooms, them having that space for them to choose to go there or to get that one-on-one help or to be sent to that classroom. um

195it makes a big academic difference and behavioral difference to all the other kids in that classroom. So yeah, that's it. >> Thank you, Shantel. >> Thanks. >> Private private reporting for duty. Um, all the talk is social today. I just want to push out there if you're not aware, tomorrow evening, the eighth graders from Freeport Middle School and Dar Community School will all be presenting their National History Day projects um at Darham Community School starting at 6:30. For the last two years, it's been hosted down um here at Freeport Middle School. We're thrilled uh and grateful to FMS to make that transition up to DCS for the uh presentations tomorrow. And um the student work is great and so you'll get to see the theme if you're not familiar with the process is there's a

196broad theme and then students can choose within that theme uh topic that they want to then research and present about and uh the theme was revolution and there's a lot of really interesting interpretations about what garnered a revolution or what constituted revolution everything from um as one might imagine the American Revolution um which I claim is actually a civil war but that didn't go down great and uh all the way to the revolution in goalkeepers using gloves in soccer games. So there's a broad range and kids have done an amazing job. So if you'd like to get a boost of what actually goes on with some of the humanities and social studies work um 6:30 tomorrow. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Anyone else? Okay. Well, then I would uh take a motion

197to adjurnn. Cara and Steph. Thank you.