2026-1-28 RSU 5 Board Meeting

001Good evening. Welcome to the RSU5 board of directors. It is Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. We're at the Freeport High School. We have a excuse me, a full board with the exception of the vacant Durham spot. Uh, I do believe that the the select board has sent out um an email, a news blast to the community today suggesting folks that are interested in uh the six months between now and when the election uh would happen in June. Um there is a a process to submit a letter of interest. Um so I would suggest folks from Durham that are interested in that um seek that out through the town office. Um it would just be it's a six or well I guess fivemonth appointment through June. Um my sales pitch is that this is a great way

002to find out if the school board is something you're interested in without committing to a three-year term. So you can try it out for six months and then if you love it, you just run again in June and and we're all on our way. So um just want to throw that out there as a reminder for folks who may be watching um because we certainly want to get that spot filled. All right. Uh otherwise we have a full board here and we will get started with the pledge of >> allegiance. And while the first budget meeting may be a longer meeting, uh I have heard word on the street is that on the street at 11 o'clock there's a parking ban and I'm parked on Hullbrook Street. So we will definitely be out before that.

003So you're welcome. All right. So, do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the January 14th, 2026 meeting as presented, barring any errors or omissions? Valerie, thank you. Cara, all those in favor? Great. None opposed. Uh, adjustments. >> Yes. I'm going to ask that we table item 12A, which is consideration and approval to join cohort 3 of early childhood special education. Although I do have some remarks about that that I will make in my report. All right. Uh look at that. Making the meeting shorter already. Thank you, Tom. Uh so we will move on to item six, which is good news and recognition. So we will look to Maria for that. Hello. So we have officially wrapped up midterm week. Thank god. and we have started semester 2. We had

004the curriculum fair and senior project meetings today. We have some new classes this semester and this is the last high school semester ever for our class of 2026. Eighth grade and eighth grade student and family night was last night. We had over 40 FHS student volunteers for tours and club organizations as well as faculty from every department there to meet eighth graders and families to share information about FHS. The student leadership committee hosted conversations with students and staff to discuss communication within our community and they will share the data and action steps with the whole school in midappril and with the board in May. The one act rehearsals are in full swing. The show is coming up so stay tuned. I don't know the dates so please don't ask me but it is coming up.

005Um the winter sports are approaching the end of their season and spring sports will start in late March. And we have awesome news that Mr. Greer was selected by the US track and field and cross country coaches association as a 2025 high school cross country coach for the year of the state of Maine. We are very lucky to have Mr. Greer as our coach and our teacher. That's all. >> That's great news. Congratulations. All right. Uh we will move on to item seven which is public comment. When I walk by the list, I didn't see anybody who'd signed up, but I will. Okay, my quick pause. There will be another opportunity at the end of our agenda. So, we will move on to item eight, which is the report from the superintendent. >> Okay, good

006evening everybody. Um, I have a lot to talk about tonight. So this has definitely been since our last meeting a very complex stretch of time for the district with many overlapping issues that have arisen. Um I can I very much appreciate the care and the seriousness with which the board and our administrative team who are here tonight and the staff have approached uh have used to approach this work. Um tonight I'm going to be touching on four areas, excuse me. The first is student and staff safety. Next is early childhood education. Third is the budget. And then last is just the broader context of all of that and how we're navigating that together. So first with regard to student and staff safety, um I need to acknowledge the situation that is going on in our

007area with regard to the presence of ICE in our area. And there have been incidents highlighted in the media. There has been discussion about that. Um, I need to acknowledge there is a full spectrum of perspective on that issue and it is not my job and it is not the school district's job to take a position on that as a political debate. So that's not what my remarks are aimed at doing. But I do feel I have a responsibility to be honest about what we're seeing and hearing and experiencing here in our district. And that is that there is fear. There is fear here. It is widespread. It's affecting people disproportionately. Some people are very directly affected. And our job as a school system is to respond to that fear with calm and that is

008what we're trying to do. So even if there are incidents that are not occurring on our campuses, which there are not so far, um the impact and the anxiety that people are feeling are real. So, we have, as I sent out to staff and students and parents, we have taken a look at our protocols around what to do if people come to the schools. In particular, what to do if non-local law enforcement come to schools. We've reviewed what the law is around that. We've reviewed what our students and staff's rights are. and we have a protocol in place for how to respond that keeps calm and follows the law and protects people's rights. Um we have worked very closely to um make sure that the expectations are clear and consistent and we are responding to

009the needs of individuals as they arise in a very sensitive way. Um, we are doing everything we can that is within the the excuse me, the framework of the policies that we have and the law to support individuals who are directly affected and on a case-byase basis in a thoughtful way. I want to emphasize that I believe we are as prepared as we can be in the face of a very uncertain situation and frankly an unprecedented situation that I don't think we've ever had to contend with before. Um we certainly cannot anticipate every scenario. We are grounded in respect and empathy and realism about what we're facing and we are again I want to emphasize the job of the adults in the school is to maintain groundedness and that is what we're striving to do

010and to be thoughtful rather than reactive. Um, and we're also mindful that our actions or communications could um draw undo attention that we don't want to draw. So, we're trying to stay the course and be responsive. Um, now I'd like to talk about early childhood. So, I just tabled um I asked to table another motion as I did last week to vote on whether or not to enter the cohort 3 for early childhood. The reason for that is that I still don't have all the information from the state that I would need to have to lay before you to make that decision informed. Or I should say as of the time this agenda was written and finally proofed, I didn't have that information. I can report that at 5:16 tonight while I was in the

011finance committee meeting, a very lengthy email came in with all kinds of information, but I need to digest that and I hope to bring it to you next week. Um, I did receive phone confirmation earlier this morning from Megan Welter, who is the deputy commissioner, that the allocation that we should expect to receive will be about half of what we originally requested. So I need to take a look at that with the team and decide what that means for stepping into cohort 3. To me it's very important that particularly in the context of other items that we will discuss tonight that we can do this without impact to the local taxpayer right now. So I need to look at what they're saying that they'll provide us and figure out how that would enable us to

012step in to that cohort. And I will bring you more information next week when I have that broken down for you. Um, we would need to part of the information that Megan also gave me this morning is that we would need to make a commitment to join cohort 3 by early March at the latest. It is now late January and if I think about what lies between us and early March, February vacation is also in there. So to me, early March really means before February vacation. So that means we have two weeks. So um we'll be doing our best to look at this and bring you something to vote on hopefully next week. Um that also I'm mindful that we started this process very deliberately in the hope of being transparent and inclusive by having

013a task force. Um, I don't know that within the two-eek time frame we have time to reconvene that task force, but I need to at least communicate with the folks on there and invite them to board discussions that we will have. So, that's part of what I need to be transparent about. Now, the timeline of this information from the state has just given us something to contend with. Um, if I pause for a moment, are there any quick questions about that before I go forward? Sorry, just quickly on you said half of what we requested I don't what who is requesting what from whom. >> So the way that the funding formula for early childhood is supposed to work is that the the mandate is that school districts take this over from CDS. The money

014that is currently going to CDS to for these services is supposed to be diverted to school districts. And when we did the work with the task force at first, the state gave us a spreadsheet to work with that calculated what we were supposed to get. And it was Kelly who discovered a couple of weeks ago that their spreadsheet actually had a calculation error embedded in two cells. And those cells were what made it look like we were going to get a million dollars when actually it looks like we're going to get about a half a million dollars. So we have to figure out how to make it work with that reduction. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh, let me talk about the budget. So, we're obviously going to talk about the budget a lot tonight. I

015want to talk about this very carefully and with a lot of empathy. This has been this is going to be a challenging conversation and it's going to be a heavy conversation. First of all, the staff across the district have just within the past few days received news about what the budget what the impact is likely to be on individuals. Um there has been great professionalism shown throughout that process. I really have to thank the people sitting back there, the administrative team. Um they for months we've been talking about this. We've been brainstorming about this. We've been thinking about how to approach it. They've been empathetic. They've been extremely collaborative thought partners. Um, and they did something, every single person on that team did something which is very difficult, which is to step back from your

016own lens, the lens of your domain, your building, your school, your whatever to look back and see what the impact across the board is. And that can be very very difficult to do. But it it is the lens that we kept as a group and I'm very grateful for that. Um the staff have also been very steadfast as information has been shared and I'm grateful for that too because in moments like this again I return to a theme of groundedness. It's the groundedness of the adults in the system that helps co the kids co-regulate. And I'm very grateful when staff even when they have gotten bad news or difficult news have really come forward for their work with kids with professionalism. Um the fact that we are here this evening again I want to make

017sure everyone understands it means that the individuals who would be directly affected by the changes that I'm going to describe in detail tonight have already been informed by their immediate supervisors. That's the people who would be immediately affected. Um, and obviously those are not easy conversations. Um, in I do have to add in full transparency that the ripple effects of these changes cannot be fully anticipated at this time. And that's simply because between now and the end of the school year or even the end of concluding our our budget discussions, there could be any number of things happen. There could be retirements, there could be resignations, there could be things that affect the jobs that are available. So that will obviously mean different conversations would have to happen. Um, I also want to take this

018opportunity before I present the budget later tonight to just gently remind everyone why we're here talking about the budget the way we are. We have to look systemically at our budget. We also systemically means two things to me. It means a view to the organization as a whole and it means an eye toward not just next year. It means an eye toward the long term. It is also when you when you see my slideshow tonight, what will naturally pop out are specific positions that are up for discussion to be reduced. What I want to emphasize is that behind every one of those positions that you see listed are hours of conversation around what are we maintaining. Everything that's listed there is listed because it has come after many discussions of about here's what we need

019to keep and here are the ways that we can keep what is most essential. And that includes things like keeping our first grade, second grade, kindergarten, etc. are within reasonable class sizes. It means keeping supports for the neediest students. And so I feel that that lens is really important to emphasize going into it. Um this is we are talking about reductions, but on the flip side of that, we're really talking about what we're keeping, what what our choices will enable us to maintain. Um, you will see that in my recommendation tonight. And the themes that we emphasize are keeping the class policizes within policy guidelines in each school and at each grade level. Um, and I want to talk a little bit more about our process for doing that. We have more than doubled the

020amount of hours that are typically spent by the administrative team to consider the budget. we have deferred other conversations that needed to happen because we had to talk about this a lot. Um the first conversations were using the staff feedback to establish criteria for what was most important to preserve and then we applied those criteria to the situations we found. Um because as Colin recently said uh a budget is a moral document. So we really tried to ground it in prior criteria that were established from input from the staff and we're keeping the long view in mind and part of why I the rationale that I need to articulate is that we need to position RSU5 to be able to anticipate what will come not just next year but in future years. We need to

021be able to, if I take early childhood as an example, we need to be able to be sure that we can do early childhood in a way that we feel good about. And we may very well need to have the flexibility financially to do that in future years. We need to position ourselves to be able to do that. We need to think about buildings that we may need to build in the future and being able to do that. We may need to think about programs that we haven't even envisioned yet because the world has not changed in a way that we can have thought about them yet, but they're out there. We just need to be on firm footing to be responsive and flexible in that way. Some of that work has already been done.

022And part of what I want to emphasize in this budget is that there are many forward-thinking ideas that you all and I have to give a lot of credit to Kelly have already started on. We have a very forwardthinking energy audit that is keeping our buildings where we need them to be. We have a vehicle replacement plan that is very forward thinking and responsible. We have reserve accounts for many major capital pieces of infrastructure. That's really important. Not every district has those. That's a good solid place to keep building upon. So the budget I hope I can tell you that when we talk about the level of budget that I will recommend it keeps it will still provide it will provide a robust education for kids. It will keep multiple offerings for kids and it

023will support kids where they need it the most. and it will position us to go forward in the future with stability in mind. So, you will see um tonight when I present three budget tiers, the three tiers that you asked for back in November, a status quo budget is over 10% and I don't know how that shakes down in each town, but it doesn't necessarily shake down that at 10% at each town. It could very well be more than that in certain towns. Um, you've asked for roughly eight, seven, and six%. My recommendation is the 7% tier. It's tier two. It's the middle tier. Um, and I'm also going to tell you very strongly that I will present you the the lowest tier, which is a 6% increase. I do not recommend that tier. Um,

024as you'll see, the way we would what we would need to do to get there is pretty extreme. So I I want to make it clear I'm it's more an academic exercise for me to present that rather than a recommendation. It is not recommended. So just to zoom out a little bit um this is a moment that tests it's not just a test of our finances. It's a test of our relationships. And honestly the way that any organization makes decisions is what defines the relationships. That's true in an organization. It's true in a family. It's true in a partnership. The way you make decisions together is in fact diagnostic of what your relationship is. So I go forward hoping that even though I anticipate disagreement about the proposal that will come forward because that would

025be healthy. um we will continue to approach the work collaboratively and with care for each other and a commitment to what is best for kids and to working through that. So I'm grateful for all of you to engaging with this thoughtfully and professionally and under strain and for the community that they are trusting us to do this even when the conversations are hard. Okay. Thank you. >> And I do also have a new hire to report. Nate Walwrath is coming on board as an edtech here at Freeport High School. >> Great. All right. So, that is item eight. Uh, and we move on to item nine, which is Kelly with our finance administrator report. Sorry. So, uh, in your packet this evening is the are the expendit revenues and expenditures through December 31st, 2025. Believe

026it or not, it's halfway through our fiscal year. Um, and as you can see on the revenue side, we are um almost directly even on that as far as what we expected. Um, the expenditure side, we're still um healthy and on track even though it looks at like the 8.8% number that you see. That's largely because all of the salaries and benefits for the employees uh throughout the district are included in the incumbrance numbers. Um so it's really reflecting what we anticipate spending through the end of the year. Um the other the other numbers that are within those are um some debt service commitments and some other open purchase orders that we haven't paid the invoices for for uh supplies, materials, and all of those things that the schools um live off of. So, at

027this point, I do not see any uh foresee any issues with the current budget as it stands. Questions for Kelly? Don't go far. I'm sure we'll have questions for you tonight. All right. So, we will move on to item 10, which is board comments and committee reports. Uh the first is board information exchange and agenda requests. I know we have a few of the uh finance facilities and policy are going to give a report but just wanted to provide an opportunity for um either request information from board members or members of other uh committees that wanted to provide an update. >> Valerie, I just have a very brief non-update update um from region 10. We still haven't heard back on this from the state on our three submissions for funding. >> So, were they grant

028fund requests or >> Yes, I think so. There were the building fund requests where you submit and then they partially fund and then we would have to fund the rest by probably some sort of town vote. >> So, similar to uh and maybe this isn't a fair question for you since I don't think you're on the board when we did this. Um the bridge that they did at >> it is yeah they kept mentioning the bridge. It's exactly the same kind of process. >> I wasn't there but they kept referring to it. So >> which is really just the entrance to region 10. It sure is. >> Yeah. So I don't know why they call it a bridge but >> they do. It was confusing to me until I actually went to site and I

029was like oh this must be it. Um yes. So, it's an elevator, um, a sawdust removal system, and a third thing that I do not recall, but I'm sure is very important. And do they have a deadline for when they would have to have the approval from the state in because I my recollection was it had to go on to the ballot that we did in June. So, I think they were trying to get the referendum out uh off cycle because the elevator maybe needs to happen over the summer >> uh while children or students are not in session. So, I my understanding is the state said by February, which is rapidly dwindling in time. So, uh I don't know. I haven't gotten any emails updating, but we're hoping to have something soon. Okay. Well,

030more to come on that one. It sounds like it's an apt description of a non-update update. So, there's an update there. It's just we don't have all the info yet. It's a common theme tonight. Uh any other updates, comments. All right. So, um item 10B was the finance committee and facilities and operations joint meeting. Um you doing that one, Kelly? Well, I thought you were gonna do both. Um, okay. So, um, part of we we did a joint, um, facilities, uh, and operations committee along with finance in December. Um, one because there's only one board meeting in December, so one of them would have had to miss out on their meeting. And two, um, it was a good opportunity to sort of bring those two groups together. And by two groups, I mean Kelly and

031I are on both. Um so we were already there anyway. Um but the the other members of those of those committees um to talk about um the energy audit and the phasing of that and what the financial impact of that is. Uh so we we talked about uh you know what phase 2 looks like, what's included in phase 2. Um, one of the one of the I think good things that was built into the system was kind of a bit of flexibility that as things arose uh in terms of um importance or need to be fixed, they could be moved around through the phases. So some things we thought were going to be in phase two got moved to phase one and vice versa. Um so Glenn was able to give us an update on

032those along with the vehicle and equipment replacement plan. uh similarly how those uh are moving into their next steps. Um and we started the discussion on the uh the tennis court replacement with an update on how that RFPQ RFQ went. Um and um so that went out and was received back. Um at that point uh the this the district had not yet met with the winning bidder who at the time was the who was the only bidder on that project um CHA architects. Um but since then uh there has been updates and meetings and Kelly will talk about that in the finance or excuse me in the facilities uh report from January. Um and then the other thing we talked about which um we have talked about here at the board because we approved um

033a a transition um excuse me a transfer from the um capital reserve for the FA uh the FHS pumps uh the variable flow something I don't know sorry Glenn I messed it up variable flow device there it is um so uh so We we had talked about that and the need for those which then came to the board for an approval which uh was done. Um so it was really an update on kind of how phase one went uh and then the work on phase two that's ongoing. Um this was in December I know uh in over break uh a variety of projects were actually able to be done. Uh and my understanding is the lights are arriving and some of the schools are getting done. So um oh that's in yours. Okay. So, we'll

034just kick it over to Kelly for the rest of it. >> Facilities and operations committee met on the 14th of January. Um, and the vast majority of our meeting time was spent discussing the updates to the FHS tennis courts. Um, Glenn Reynolds reported, as has already been mentioned, that CHA was the one and only bidder um, respondent to the bid for the engineering and design services. Um Glenn did meet with um representatives from CHA to discuss the scope of work. They um submitted a proposal for engineering design services and project management for the construction of the courts. And they recommended um replacing the three existing asphalt courts and potentially adding a fourth court um if feasible with post-tension concrete construction. Uh because in their research the post tension concrete provides the best overall qual quality

035in terms of durability, longevity and overall upkeep. Um however there was some concern that the cost of post-tension courts may be more than our district can bear. So um some committee members and some guests expressed concerns about that and requested that we also asked the vendor to give us pricing for design and construction of asphalt courts which I understand they will do. They will provide that at no additional cost. Um, next, Glenn did talk to us a little bit about the energy audit phase one project update, which is that we are actually now and I think probably by now have installed the um new energy efficient lighting at Panel Elementary School. Uh, also a new fire panel has been installed at Panel and fire protection devices have been added at Durham Community School. Um, finally,

036an update on the Capitol project list. Uh, Glenn shared that over the December break, they were able to replace some bathroom flooring in the boys's bathroom at Mor Street School and solve a little odor problem in there. So, that's about all we talked about. Questions on finance or the facility committee updates? Okay. So, we will move to policy Colin. Uh, good evening. The policy committee met on Wednesday, January 8th via uh Google Meets. Um, we looked at a couple different policies. One um for law change uh which is the JICJ which we're bringing to you uh for second read. um tonight. Um and we're we also uh discussed as part of regular review um GICK and GICKR uh bullying and bullying administrative procedure um which we are bringing to you for first read um tonight

037and I'll speak more about um each of those uh later. We also looked at uh GBCC employee uses cell phones um but there were no changes made to that policy. So, we're uh as per our usual deal, we're not bringing them before you or we are I don't >> I think it's included just for information purposes. >> Yeah, but we're not we're not we're not reading it. We're not reading we're not first or second reading it is I think what I meant. But thank you, Cara. Thanks for keeping me honest. Um uh love Colin. That's the end of that report. brief pause. Move on to the next. Okay. So, do you want me to get a motion on the floor for first? Are we doing them all together? >> Yes. >> Okay. We can pull

038one out. I don't know which one, but if we had to, we could. Um, so, all right, we'll get a a motion on the floor for Do I have a motion for consideration and approval of second read for the following policies? J I CJ, student use of cell phones and other personal electronic devices. EB CF automated external defibrills, AEDs, and EBBD, temperature standards in schools. Stephanie and Kelly, thank you. >> Great. So, we bring before you uh these three policies for second read. Um I will just skip uh for the moment to EBCF and EBBD. Uh we did not make any changes to those policies after first uh read. Um so you're seeing them as uh we dis as we discussed them previously. Um we did however uh make a number of changes to the

039um to JIC uh JICJ the student use of cell phones and other personal electronic devices. Um uh I guess the history lesson is we talked about this in was that December? November. December. Um and uh we had a good uh we had a good chinwag about that and heard a lot of um of great feedback from uh from the students and from the community and we and you gave us a lot of feedback as well. Um and we went back and reshaped that. So that is what we're bringing to you tonight. Um I I have a relatively lengthy uh kind of breakdown of like what of like what we changed. Um, but I thought I would just maybe sort of begin with anything that jumped out to any of you um that you noticed. Um,

040and we could talk about that first. >> Like a quiz. What did we notice? >> What's that? >> It's like a quiz. Like what did we know? >> Well, it's more I just don't want to I don't want to It's like a lecture and I don't want to deliver a lecture. >> So, we love when you lecture, Colin. Um, so I just want to make sure one thing I I believe I understand this change but want to confirm. Yeah. um was uh in that first paragraph the or without internet or cellular was struck through. My my recollection of that decision was around allowing um earbuds because they don't have their own direct connection to the internet but could be used to for students with their with their laptops etc based on some feedback. Is that

041was that an accurate maybe not? >> I'm not sure that's accurate. Um my recollection of that was more for um because if we kept um if we kept or without uh it would have meant like a whole collection of electronic devices that do not have internet but are still studentowned personal electronic devices. Um, so I my recollection though, everyone please jump in here and correct me. Um, was that that was not key to that discussion, but I may be misremembering that that was not one of my lecture notes. >> Karen, you >> maybe Valerie remembers. I My note is that it would be up to the schools to decide on >> on the headphone specific. >> Okay. Well, I remember two specific points. One was the headphones in that it would be pretty obvious if

042somebody was trying to make a call on their headphones because of shouting at me and how headphones generally work when you're using them without the device itself. Um, but also because it would preclude things like a pedometer or a calculator or numerous other things that are kind of >> the resurgence of the Walkman. I believe I believe the Walkman was brought up. >> Somebody said she's getting one. >> Yeah. I mean, unless we're bringing back the abacus, I think we're in trouble with the without verbiage. >> I got >> Yeah. And I think >> like we mentioned Kindles specifically to >> reading devices do have internet access. >> Yes, that's true. They do. Even the real old ones that I have. So, I think just the I think the a point that will keep coming

043up tonight, no doubt, is that um there changes that we made to this um based on what the on on what you said, but also based on what we feel is appropriate and what we what we thought the board told us, what the board feels comfortable um making as policy and then what is left to the administrators um to make decisions about. Um, and so again, I'll just say at the beginning of the conversation, just so it's clear, um, there is nothing in here about um the presence or absence of pouches. >> Um, that is a decision that will be uh will be left up to the um the administrators to um to decide and then there there will there would be a cost if we were to go that route. Um, but that would

044then be proposed, but we're not putting anything in here um that directs that one way or the other. So I just want to be clear about that. Um so yeah just to your very particular question no the or without conversation was not that striketh through was not for to allow for earbuds. That would still be a decision that would be made by the um administrators. >> Okay. But they are not specifically procluded like the watches and the phones are. That >> I think that is I think that is accurate. Yeah that is accurate. >> You look like you were gonna put your hand up. Maria, >> you're good for Okay. All right. other other noticings from others. I do think it read better this way because I know you kind of moved things around and

045and separ separated things out a little bit differently. It felt to me that it flowed better this way. >> That's good. That's positive. Um >> I did that. >> Tom did that, but I like helped him do it. >> Okay. >> No, I didn't at all. teamwork makes the dream work. >> Other reflections or uh thoughts. >> Um as I said, I can go through some of these things just to to make sure that it's in the air of what we were thinking about. >> I mean, we had gotten some feedback specifically around the watch piece and maybe it's helpful to talk to the decision to include those in this in this policy. Um because they they do have um I mean they do have if if they're functional other than as a watch then

046they have access to the internet and and cellular service. And while some parents may have special modes they can put on, um that's not something that could be governed like student to student, like you wouldn't want someone having to check like the mode and because um you could go in and you know make it so they can call anybody or or you know you can set what the those parameters are and the thought around um you know communication going through the the office and through the emails um seemed seemed seemed appropriate. Um, and thank you for pointing out that this doesn't dictate how these are, you know, how this policy is implemented schoolto school. So, it doesn't say anything about requiring yonder bags. Um, I guess we couldn't make the guarantee that we would never

047do that, but it's not part of the policy. That would be in the school's decisions on how they wanted to implement the policy. Um, so that is that is not a part of this policy that we're voting on today. So I think that's that's helpful to know. >> Um, again, I don't think in our correct me if I'm wrong, but I think in our um uh policy meeting, we were not talking specifically about whether to include uh smart watches or not. I think that that conversation had happened here. So I think the the logic that you just articulated was the logic that we were taking into it. Um I think uh again um how that would actually play out depends upon the um depends upon the the the decisions the administration makes. I think one

048thing I would remind us of is that we are trying to uh one of the goals um the the primary goal uh in this policy is to um well first is to provide clarity. The second is to um create a healthy learning environment for the students and then uh lastly we want also to make things easier for the staff to be able to do their jobs um efficiently. Um, so I think part of the conversation we were having around smartwatches was if we start um sort of including other items that do have these capabilities that's creating more work for the classroom teachers um or anybody who is uh just in the school and having to police that that's one of the things we are trying to not have to do. Would you say that's accurate

049Tom and Chris and Cara? Um, other thoughts? >> Does, um, I think I know the answer to this question, but, uh, does the recommendation from the governor last night to put a legislative bell-to-bell ban in place starting in August change how we look at any of this? >> I I I don't believe so. I mean, that's kind of fresh off the I mean, it's slightly older than your 5:16 p.m. email from the uh Department of Ed, but um but >> not quite 24 hours yet, >> but yeah, I mean, I don't I don't know. I mean, see that it would seem to me to be that would be a relatively quick moving legislative process for that to be done by August. Um but maybe maybe government is magic. Um and that will and that will

050they're known to be >> and that will occur. um other but I don't I don't think so. I mean I think I think if we if we were to if we if we were to pass this tonight and if it uh goes into effect uh July >> one um I think we're perfectly primed for that. So, um the good news is we don't have to do like we're not caught now with the possibility um like there's some districts that will not have done this and will not have will not be in a place and then they might be like they would really hope that government will not be efficient because they're not going to be ready for that um August um date that the governor gave. >> Okay. I thought that was the answer but

051just wanted to one thing that might be different going forward is that is how it's implemented since this I believe the state will be providing funding they will have some funds for schools to be able to implement this. So that is still to be determined and might impact how schools are choosing to do that. >> Uh Kelly if you wouldn't mind checking their spreadsheet before we spend that money. >> Sorry. check every spreadsheet. >> Um, >> everyone knows I'm a little uh cautious about what the money from the state comes with. >> Yeah. Uh, Tom, is there anything else that you want to just highlight from the conversation from again from kind of the administration's uh point of view? >> I think the only thing that's worth mentioning and it dubtales with the presentation I'm

052going to give later is that we have we're not planning on entering this with yonder bags and we're not budgeting for yonder bags. So, There we go. >> Right. So I Yeah. So I think practically um again for everyone keeping track at home that like if this were to be passed tonight and to go into effect July 1 um then at the beginning of the school year um it would be an off and away um situation. And so then that would be what the um some some version of that um rather than um a yonder bag. Again, it's not a binary, but um but it's not yonderbacks, however adorable they are. >> I'm just glad it's not the one that I couldn't open repeatedly during that meeting. >> Yeah. >> And the other thing I

053is worth mentioning, it's not this policy. It's the one that's actually not up for being read. It's the one about employee use of cell phones that's in your packet. The committee reviewed it and really the only reason it went before the committee was because Val had suggested actually in a board meeting that we should look at that while we're looking at the student policy just to make sure that we are consistent. And so we looked at it. It is consistent. We we don't need to change it, but we've done our due diligence. >> Other thoughts or things that we could talk about? Yeah, Kelly. I think it's overall it's a really great policy. I think you've done a lot of great work on this and I just had a couple of um comments on some

054of the sections and whether or not they flowed under the subheadings um in particular staff modeling is under prohibited uses of electronic devices and if we're going to include that section at all I'm wondering if there's a better place for it. Uh similarly with responsibility for personal devices, it's under parent student communication and responsibilities. And while I can see how that could potentially fit there, maybe it would belong under the guidelines or uh somewhere else. >> Sorry, Kelly, I got lost in the the um prohibited uses. What was the second point? >> Uh the second point was that um the subheading responsibility for personal devices is >> Yeah. is under parent student communication, >> right? Uh yeah, both good catches. Um anybody have any ideas where they want to put those things? >> I think

055the second one is okay. Um it's parent student communication and responsibility. So I think responsibility for personal devices. >> That's true. That word does connect. Yeah. >> Yeah, I can see that logic. I think it al also could belong under the guidelines section. I mean, I guess if we're if we're getting wonky, there are only there are only three uh top level headers, right? Isn't that true? There's the >> guidelines prohibited. >> There's guidelines prohibited and parent student communications. So I think uh I think tech I mean I guess just technically the t the u modeling doesn't neatly fit into any of those. Um so probably if we wanted to maintain the three of them I would probably recommend putting it in in the first just because it's the most kind of like >> broad

056and kind of overarching. Um so that's one possibility. Yeah. Well, I was just wondering parent student, does that modify both communication and responsibilities? And if not, should we put responsibilities first? And would that make it make more sense in that section? >> Um, that it is doing it refers to it is modifying both, but it is doing different work. So that's actually kind of a for anybody for any English teachers uh like uh because it's like well no it's just like parent student is like that that part is about like how do parents and students Yeah. Let's not uh how do parents and students communicate because that was a concern that was um that was raised uh uh and it was an important one that was raised by the students um like how like how

057do they get in touch with uh their parents? So that's what that is about. Um but then I think parent student responsibilities I think that does apply as well. I think it's sort of it's it's noting that it is it is it is a parent um and student decision to allow uh a device to come to um to campus and the responsibility um lies with them. So >> so the dash is a two in one case and an and in another case. The dash is >> wait sorry what which dash? >> So parent so it would be parent to student communication and then parent and student responsibilities. Would that be a true statement? >> I'm just trying to parse this so that it makes sense. >> Yeah, sure. Um, >> slash >> I mean, bless

058you guys, but also like >> we have other we have other things to we have other stuff to do. Uh, so I would say unless that truly substantively alters the meaning and is going to confuse any parents or students, I would say let's leave that as it is. And and I think um one of the things we have done in the past even after a second read vote is you know sort of grammarical grammat grammatical slashclarity you know edits were within your purview as the policy committee. So if you felt the slash versus the dash versus the amperand I trust you guys. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for that punctuation gift. >> You're welcome. >> Other we should have a whole meeting on it. >> Other No, we shouldn't. Uh, other

059thoughts? >> I think this means you did a good job with the policy, the fact that we aren't talking anymore about it. >> Yeah. Um, just also I did I did I just want to to give credit where credit is due. Um we uh we were uh joined by um uh Principal Crosby and Principal Gulo uh for that meeting and and they gave us some really helpful sort of on the ground feedback in terms of understanding um the impact and I think one of the takeaways and and again somebody can throw something at me if I'm saying this incorrectly the general sense from uh Principal Crosby was that the like the the ch the the the change that this makes to practices at the middle school or um and I think probably that is also

060true at Durham Community School would be negligible um because it's not there's not like there are like it's tightening some screws but it's not really changing things substantively. it is changing things sub substantively at the high school. Um and I think that uh I think one note I had in my um notes uh was just that uh no one is under any um uh any illusion um that uh there is great support for this among the student body. Um that's that's known that's understood. Um and uh and I think that um uh principal Gulo feels that uh it's the policy that makes the most sense. She supports it and um that we will find a way to um to implement it in a way that is uh fair um and supportive of the students. >>

061Yeah. And and I'm hopeful that the sort of the off and away approach is kind of a a middle ground. A lot of what we heard from the students is, you know, sort of a push back to the to the um restrictiveness of the of the yonder bags or some other um tool like that. So, I mean, my hope is that an often away policy can be managed and and implemented without adding more to the teachers plates of policing, but also reaches the goal of, you know, the removing that distraction. So, uh, hopefully hopefully that's seen as somewhat of a of a middle ground there. >> Yeah. And I think one of the things we did discuss in that meeting was that the that the u the minds of several uh committee members were changed

062by the uh the testimony that was given by students. Um and so just again like that is just it's a very important thing for uh so we're so happy that the students came and voiced their concerns and even though the the final result is not um what uh a number of them desired um we did hear that and we did make adjustments um based on that feedback. >> Any other comments or questions on this policy? Okay. So, AEDs, we didn't make any. I thought we already did that one twice. Didn't we already do that one twice? >> Or did we table it? Just >> one word. >> Oh, right. >> We went from should to will, but we're now coming back to should. >> Sure. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Valerie. Um, I hate to be the

063thorn in everyone's side, but when you need an AED, it's pretty dire. I feel like we should make it will. And I know we got an email stating that will is not possible in the event that we need to use it. There's a lag period where we don't have paddles anymore. And I'm wondering if it's possible to have a spare set of paddles at the district office or somewhere so that we can achieve will because I as somebody in healthcare um I would be loathed to not be able to use an AED because we're in that gap time when we need it. Erica has a comment. Erica Mateo, assistant superintendent. So, um, we've already discussed as a nursing team to purchase a backup set, um, so that they can be replenished as needed if used

064or expired, juvenile and adult. Yeah. So, will is then possible. >> Can we go back to Will? I'm just pointing at Will. >> That's a retirement joke. >> Is he talking to me? Is he talking to me? Um yeah, I I agree. It should it should be Will. Jesus. I agree with Will. Um as I always do. Um um and if it's it's possible and feasible, I mean even if the policy says well and for some reason there is a moment in time where we don't have one. I mean policies are are what we're striving to be. I mean they are not the law. They are not held us. You know we could be like well you have a policy that says you're going to do this and you didn't do it. So I mean

065I think this is will have at least one at each school, right? Like I think we adjusted to say like not at every like event or field or whatever because that was challenging based on locations, but I mean if if um assistant Mateo and the nurses feel like will is uh doable, I think that's what the policy should be. Unless I'm missing something. As I recall, one of the concerns was that there may be legal ramifications if we were not able to meet will at any given point in time. But what I'm hearing from you is that this document isn't legally binding. So if we couldn't for whatever reason meet will, we wouldn't be >> Yeah. I mean, I think >> I I think if you if if we had a policy that says we

066will have one in every school and you went to every school and we didn't have one, that's we probably have a problem there. as if we say, "Well, we'll have one in every school and we have one in every school, but one because we just used it." That seems like a very different thing to have to go to court and be like, "Oh, you're you're liable for that." I mean, I I don't know. Maybe that's an attorney question, but >> I think I'm not an attorney, but I think actually, as wonky as this is going to sound and is in the weeds as it is, where we might actually get into trouble is if we threw in shall, which does have >> really just throw another one in. >> It does have a different connotation.

067Okay. So, Shall's out. >> Can I Can I retire from the board right now? Is that possible? Mid meeting. Um >> I think Will is fine. >> Okay. We're Let's We We have heard Will is what we are going to do. We will have it. Uh >> okay. Uh, so that word is now going to be will, which is spelled W I L L, >> I think. >> Okay. Um, then we have EBB D >> temperature >> uh temperature standards for schools. This also >> uh we did change we we changed again for people playing along at home. We changed loser to lower, which I'm disappointed in. Uh, and I will just use this opportunity to say I went I've only been to a couple I I ashamed to say I've only been to a

068couple of um town council meetings, but the town council meeting I did go to, there was a um uh a town ordinance that was under discussion and it was a very long one. and I was going through it and there's a typo in one of them that's so beautiful that I didn't point it out. So, it's still there uh because it's so it's so delightful. It doesn't it doesn't impact anyone's livelihood or safety or anything like that, but it is a very beautiful uh typo. >> Uh any other thoughts about EBBD? I don't think I asked this before, but um maybe because Glenn wasn't here, but I I assume this is one that he's weighed in on and and feels like we can meet. Yes. >> Uh yes. Okay, great. >> Yes, this is under

069this this was done under advisement. >> That's a joke. Yeah, Valerie, >> I have no additional edits except a tiny joke of >> look what I've done >> of maybe loser to winner since it's the gym. >> Maybe. Yeah, I like that. That's a good joke. That's a good joke. That's Tom, can you make a note of that joke, please? >> Thank you. All right. Uh, and anything else on EBBD? Okay. So, we have a motion and a second on the floor for all three of those policies uh for approval for second read. Any Yes, Anna. >> Oh, we already have the She's ready to vote. She's ready to vote. She's moving on. She's thinking about that parking ban. All right. Um can we vote with the going back to Will? >> Yes. With the

070adjustment. Yep. >> And then Kelly, >> we will. >> Kelly, did you your category categorization is that a change that can be made after we vote? I think so. >> Yes, that's we can we can shift that around as long Yeah, I think as long as it's not substantive and as long we are not as long as we are not um going against the the will of the board or making a decision that is substantively impacting the board's direction. >> I agree with that. All right. So, we have a first and we have a second. All those in favor >> opposed. You can vote. >> Yeah. I don't know if >> sorry we never told you that. >> Um it's Oh, actually this is now back to you for the first read. >> All right.

071So the next one if I can find my agenda. Uh all right. So these are for first read. So do I have a motion for consideration and approval for first read for the following policies? J I C K bullying and J I C KR bullying administrative policy or excuse me procedure Chris and Anna. Thank you. >> Um so we're being bringing uh JICK bullying and its accompanying procedure before you. This was um a policy that we were looking at not out of uh of direct legal requirement. It was part of our our uh our cycle of review. Um, and we we've spent a we spent a great deal of time on this one. And also I will give um I will give uh as as the children today say mad props uh to Superintendent No,

072they do. They definitely do. They have their Walkman's on and um they say that they say that. That's what Superintendent Gray told me. Uh super I retire for the second time this evening. Uh >> yeah. >> Uh yeah, exactly. It's finished. It's over. At 7:33 p.m. on January 28th in Freeport, it was killed. Um but as we looked into it um the the the um the credit I'm giving to to Superintendent Gray is that uh he went very deep um both into our the existing policy and also looking at a number of sample policies and found um found some areas that we really we did need to update. Um and I'm just going to uh read a couple of notes uh here. Um so the the current or the policy that we did have we

073found that there were some statutory gaps. Um so there were some things that were um the there were uh 11 mandates um that are made clear in the sample uh policies that are that come from um uh two different two different directions >> from from the law is where it's coming from. Um and our current policy as as it had been written meet six of those. Um and we needed to update it. So it meant uh all 11. Um so the the deficiencies were um around around no mandatory staff reporting, no investigation procedure, no appeals process, no parent communication and no definition of alternative discipline um even though it is mentioned. So that was what we were um addressing. Um uh our policy also uh doesn't currently define what we mean by school grounds. Um

074that was also part of the discussion. Um uh but um Superintendent Gray I think because he was uh thought he was beating up on us for our earlier work. He did say, and this is the word he used, that our policy was superior uh in a num in one really important way. Uh and that had to do with um uh the way we were addressing uh language around uh gender and sex. Um and so, uh that uh remains um that I'm think I'm going to pause there. Uh anything else uh on that? Okay. So, anything else? Anything that jumped out um to folks? Kelly, I did have your note around some of the replication of language um between um the policy and the procedure and we can circle back to that. Um um as I

075said, that I think came from a desire to just make sure things were super super consistent because um in some of the pol in some of the procedure and policies, they were super super not. Um so, we wanted to make sure they were. Any other thoughts or reflections? >> I was trying to um wrap my brain around uh page two in sort of that big section three there. Bullying and cyber bullying defined. So bullying includes but is not limited to a written, oral or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof directed at a student or students that one. So basically one is uh physical or fear of physical harm, right? Two is interferes with u accessing their education. So fear, intimidation, hostile educational environment, right? So one is physical, two

076is more psychological I guess or three is based on perceived characteristics. So the the or I'm trying to come up with a scenario of what would be three that's bullying but isn't one or two because it feels like physical, psychological or anything related to protected classes. So like so like what would like I I can't even come up with an example. So I'm a Is my question super unclear? I don't know. I in practical terms, yeah, >> I think your question is totally valid. >> I don't know if it helps. This is basically right out of the statute. >> So part of the strength of the revision is that it just mirrors the language of the bullying statute that is was updated a few years ago. So, >> and part of actually what prompted this

077policy to be reviewed is that um last year you reviewed and updated the harassment policy and the older definition the older the existing policy for bullying that we have on the books does not have congruent language about protected classes in it. that's consistent with the new harassment policy. Okay, >> so that was what originally flagged it for me is like, oh, we should at least have this be consistent with the harassment policy in that regard. And then we did the deeper dive around all of the other statuto the updated statutory requirements for the bullying policy. >> So here so here's my here's my example and the way I read this this is considered bullying according to this policy. You are 12 years old. If I send you an email that say or I tell tell

078you that you are 12 years old. I have now done an oral expression >> except age is not listed. >> It is eight. It is actually >> distinguishing personal characteristics. >> I'm only I'm only going to I'm not going to stop you but I'm just going to say that I just I just brought up the uh legislature and that language is just exactly drawn from that. >> But the or or or >> or or is exactly what it is. So again, uh, >> so I'm I'm fine being in in in compliance with the law because, you know, I'm I'm a rule follower. But does that seem weird to anyone? >> Am I am I misreading the law that like if I tell you you're 12 years old, I am now bullying you and can be

079can be punished accordingly? >> Yeah, Kelly, what are you saying? Well, it's I mean based on something that has to be physically harming or perceived as physically harming like >> no that's that's it's or so it's physically harming or psychologically harming or related to any characteristic about you. Th >> this might be a simplification but essentially like the word bullying is not repeated in uh one two or three. >> I think it's implied that this is This is the definition of bullying. It has to fit into one of those. So the way I read this, if it if anything I say falls into item three, that is considered bullying. So anything specific to your personal characteristics, including your age, I I don't disagree with you. I think my point my the point I'm trying to

080make, I think, uh we'll see uh is that um like two would apply to that, too. Like there's nothing that says bullying in two. It's just you're interfering, but you're creating an intimidating or a hostile environment, right? Like that feels like bullying. >> So if you if you keep reading B, so 3B, um, a student's association with a person with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics or any other distinguishing characteristics and that has the effect described in sub paragraph one or two above. Okay. Is that clarifying? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah, good call. Cara >> identified and is associated with Okay. All right. So, then you're back to the causing physical harm or intimidating hostile. >> I'm not sure why we have two A's there, though. For B A students, >> sh

081I love that you actually added the second A. Like, it's not like it was already there. You added that and underlined it in both. >> It's really important. It's really important A. Um, yeah. I think that I think Cara solved it. I think maybe the only other thing I would add to that is probably if we sort of go deep into that >> from a couple of different different perspectives, it's sort of like >> um if the victim if the victim feels bullied then they are bullied and it's not it's not raising questions around what it is about. Um, and so again, I think I think that's where if you start I think if we start saying well age like age then we can start saying well like hairstyle really you know like it's sort

082of like anything that the individual that fits into this. So I I think it's I think that's also the logic is that it's not like we don't get to choose or the bully doesn't get to choose um which are the which are the appropriate characteristics that they can be bullied for is it would be sort of my interpretation >> if I'm correct hairstyle is actually specifically mentioned >> no I know no that's why I mentioned it yeah no that's why I mentioned it but that's where so like again if we sort of start picking them out and say well how could you possibly bully somebody about this >> probably I mean my point was was like it didn't say it had to have any I mean or or or was like there was no necessarily

083negative impact of saying >> I think it was just that that extra line being on the next page was easy to miss. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I think I'm good. No, but good call. I'm glad you glad you brought that up, Michelle. That's really important that we talked about that. Thank you. Uh yeah, Valerie, >> just to button it up in my mind. I'm perceiving the third point to be kind of akin to what somebody might frame for themselves as teasing another friend. Whereas the friend might feel negatively impacted. It might not be that they are physically harming or threatening. They don't meet these criteria. But >> yeah, I mean again the I mean this again the language we're using is drawn from the statute. Um, so again, we we could we could muck

084around with it and alter it. >> I'm not suggesting >> No, no. I'm just But I'm saying we we have the we just to always just so everybody's clear, we always have the right um as a school board to mess around with language and we can change language that is against statute. We can do that. We're just going to get our ass sued. Um so we can do that. Um so just to be very clear like if we don't like something we can take we can take it out or we could do that but then we would be um opening ourselves up for liability >> and there are school boards that are currently being sued >> and yeah let's not do that >> I'm just trying to figure out for myself what what could be

085>> yeah I don't I couldn't take you down that particular rabbit >> wonderful >> so I was curious about the examples you guys included those were all new ads um did those come from sample policies okay I mean a lot of them make a ton of sense, right? You know, involuntary loans, donations, extortion. Um the one that I thought um I I was wondering maybe from a principal perspective um the including but not limited to gossip, spreading rumors or social exclusion. So, I'm curious if, you know, if I could make a bullying claim for my child because someone didn't want to play with them. Like, is that is that is that what this means? Is that what principles expect to see? Am I oversimplifying? So the answer is you you could >> okay >> you'd

086have to demonstrate the effect and then just because something is labeled bullying we still have an array of options for how to attend to it. Okay. >> So, it could be as simple as, you know, when you invite everybody in your class but this one little girl to your party, your birthday party, that's exclusion. And, you know, you can offer a path to, you know, reset things or make amends or depending on the circumstance, you could have a more serious consequence. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I yeah I think that what you're speaking to there is that is it is it kicks it over to the procedure and then it's then we have these procedures to say it does just because something just because someone is accused of something does not mean it automatically is that

087thing >> um like as handed down by some uh divine entity. It's like it then it then goes through a process um or sorry it goes through a procedure uh to determine uh the n the nature of that thing. um period. >> It does equip you with language to be able to talk to kids about when you do that, when you are rumor-mongering about this one person or when you are purposefully excluding them, it's actually bullying. Yeah. >> It's even here in the definition. >> Gotcha. >> Okay. >> Other thoughts? Um, Kelly, should we circle back to your um redundancy? >> That'd be great, Colin. Thank you. >> Um, all right. Can you take Sorry, I've just been lost in I'm lost in yellow. Could you just take me to the um the I guess

088where it would appear. Well, in either >> I believe it's starting with section five, six, seven, possibly beyond that to eight. >> All right. So, uh >> so in the reporting >> reporting, responding and >> yes, >> remediation >> in both the policy and the procedure, >> right? Um, yeah, it's repeated. Um, I mean, I think what we could what we would uh >> Does it fit more in one than the other? >> I don't know. >> Or does it make sense to keep it into both >> in general? In general, my understanding from folks is that you the the policies wherever possible should uh if something's going to be more general, it will be the policy because it gives the administration more uh room. So if you if you are not trying to directly

089mandate something um goes a certain way, um you leave that out of the policy. Um, but I'm not sure how we would change that to be more general. I'm looking Cara and Chris for if they have any musings on on how we might change that. Um, again like uh uh is it elegant? No. Does it have any substantive impact on on what anybody's experience of bullying or of having to try it be of having to have it be addressed? uh got lost in that sentence. Would it have any impact on that process? No, it wouldn't. So, um I think keeping it doesn't substantively impact anyone. >> Honestly, these sections to me feel more like procedures than they do policies. Well, we're actually referencing the procedure, right? Like the form. >> Yeah. I suppos I suppose

090one thing we could do if we re if we really wanted to we could take out all of the language in all of them and it would just say five reporting refer to the reporting form gickei we could just take out all that that is like that would be a very straightforward um thing but I think then what we are saying to uh let's say Maria um uh bring is wants to it wants it goes to this page and and she wants to figure out like whether or not something has happened like we're kicking her from that into another document and so like why not tell her right here this is how reporting works would be one possible argument but I am agnostic on this matter going once going twice >> yeah I mean I

091would agree with that I think that if we can keep that in there. I I would prefer to keep it in. >> I heard a preference. I heard a preference from Cara and I like that preference. Uh let's run with that preference is what I say because we've got a lot of work to do and it's serious work. And also there's the closing roads down for some reason that I don't understand. Is it snowing? >> I think they're moving the old snow. >> They're moving the old snow. Okay. >> Um I did have one more question. >> Let's do it. >> Sorry. Uh page three under cyber bullying. um text messaging device and personal digital assistant. Do do people still have PDAs? Do we need to include this? >> Why are you you're hazing right

092now is what you were doing. >> I mean, if we're trying to update this to the current century, maybe we don't need that. But I'm fine. >> Just curious. >> I don't know, man. I don't have I don't have any I don't have a pony in that race. Uh anybody want to want to keep that or take it out? What do you think, Maria? >> No bullying people with your with your Palm Pilot? I mean, your daughter, >> do you even know what a palm pilot is, Maria? >> Also, your daughter wants a Walkman >> and a Palm Pilot. Yeah, >> we can take it. Uh, >> no, it's fine. I was just curious. We can't again if that would make everybody >> to bully because it's not saying they can't use them. It's just

093saying they can you could cyber bully with it. >> It's a fair point. >> I think you're going to get cyber bullied by it. It's going to It's going to It's going to bring someone joy. Okay, there you go. >> To encounter that, Maria's gonna find it and she and she's just gonna be like, "What is that?" and like just like discover so many interesting things. >> Okay. So, um uh are you doing the procedure separately or are we >> Oh, sorry. No, they're uh >> together. >> The procedure >> it was bundled and it flows from it. They're not any Yeah. All the same principles that I outlined of why we are changing it apply to the procedure as well as the policy. >> So this is first read. Um so you will have

094another chance in a in a month or so to look at this again. Um >> I'm definitely going to find a PDA. >> We can talk about Palm Pilots uh but all but in all seriousness this is a um I mean this is a very difficult policy. That's that's partially why we spent so long on it. Um because we really wanted to make sure that we were getting it right and we were looking at and again um kudos to Superintendent Gray for really sort of making sure that we were um understanding the most recent language but also understanding what parts uh we could keep because they were awesome. >> So all 11 requirements are now in here. >> Yes. >> Great. All right. Any other questions or comments? So, we have a first and a

095second on the floor for both the policy and the procedure. >> Yes. I believe it was Chris and Anna, right? >> Thank you. I even remembered who it was. All right. Um, all those in favor? None opposed. Thank you. All right. So we are skipping 12A and we are moving on to 12B which is the second read for the calendar. So uh do I have a motion for consideration approval for the second read of the 2627 school calendar Karen and Steph? Any changes from the last one we saw? No. Okay. I don't think we were requesting any. So, just want to make sure nothing had changed from then till now. Any comments, questions? Great. All those in favor? None opposed. All right. Now, we get down to the fun stuff. All right. I will hand

096it over to Superintendent Gray for item 13A, presentation of the superintendent's 2627 proposed budget. Take a quick minute to get set up here. What version of >> I uh one of my favorite poems by Robert H called Meditation of Laggonas. I taught it a number of years ago and the final line of the the final line of the poem uh is blackberry, blackberry, blackberry. And when I taught it at NYU, um the students were like, why is he talking about his blackberry? Cuz they that was current uh for them. I guess that means I've been teaching for a while. Uh but that really has turned that poem on its head for me. here. >> How are you? Sam, >> which screen mirroring is it? >> 238. >> I have a 248. Show more. Oh, there

097it is. Yeah. Okay. Oh, that's a weird color. Okay. >> I mean, it is what it is. All right. Well, let's try it again. >> Oh, I think that does look better. >> Yeah. Are we all here? >> Are we all here? I think >> okay, I think we're all here. >> So, let's launch in. >> I brought it up here. There's I had another one behind me, >> but thank you. Yeah, it was a little dry. Could you tell? >> That That honestly is what did it. >> Okay. Okay. Well, thank you everybody. So, >> Mr. Pitten, >> okay, so thank you everybody. I've had a little more water now, so hopefully you'll be able to hear me well. Um, a great deal of care has gone into this presentation. I'm really glad Sam

098was able to get the colors to work because as Kelly and Erica can testify, we actually had a lot of conversation about colors in a certain part of this. Um, they're very relevant to the way the information is presented. Um, so first I just want to start with the history of how we got to this moment. Um, back in November, the board gave direction that they wanted to see three tiers of a budget. And so we are presenting the budget differently from the way we have in the past. In the past, each administrator would come forward and share a presentation about their own cost center. Um my aim in doing it all together as the superintendent's budget is to give a sense that this is one district moving forward that the cost centers are not

099in competition with each other and that in fact we have talked about this as a team very thoroughly and that is a true statement. We have really approached it as a team and uh I think I can say with fairness that the whole group behind me understands this budget has thoroughly talked about it and there is strong consensus behind it. So it's got my name on it and I'm standing up here but it was definitely a group process and I'm very appreciative of that. So you're going to see three budget presentations and tonight's presentation will lay out the big picture first. So that means it will lay out the three different tiers that you have asked for which are at six, seven and 8%. But then it's going to do a deeper dive on the

100recommended level which is the level I am recommending and that is the 7% level, the middle level. And I'll do my best to explain why I'm recommending that level. So the context, as I explained at the onset of this school year, if we carry forward a status quo budget, mean meaning if we take everything we're currently funding and carry it forward, it will be an increase of just over 10% over last year. there. The cost drivers for that are the contracts that we have. We have multiple special education costs that are to meet individual student IEP needs. Um transportation and other operations and health insurance and other fixed costs. So, not everybody, if you're not a school finance wonk like some of us, um it may not be readily apparent, but just because the budget

101goes forward at 10% over last year, that is not necessarily the way it impacts taxes in each community. The taxes in each community are based on a cost sharing formula for each town. And it may mean they will not be equal. they may be substantially more depending on which town you're in. Um, so a status quo budget going forward at 10% over last year is a significantly higher increase than previous years. And I do have a slide to explain that as well. Um, but that was what I brought to you back in November and asked for direction about. Um, so you'll see more detail about how that shakes down. I wanted to start by saying that we do have some additions to the budget beyond the status quo budget that are included tonight. I've broken

102those into necessary additions and recommended additions. Necessary additions are those that basically the board has already voted to approve. So, for example, we have special ed needs for a full-time speech language pathologist, a half-time teacher of the deaf, and other costs for out of district placements for kids who have that indicated in their IEPs. Um, we are currently paying for some of that right now for those kids out of reserve money, but we need to put that in the budget for next year. reserve money is something to use on a one-time only basis. Um, we also have energy audit and vehicle replacement uh plans already that are phasing in important like energy efficiencies for our buildings and keeping our vehicle fleets updated so that if we had a bus breakdown or uh a bus come

103to the end of its life dramatically just because it gets old and worn out, then we aren't all of a sudden having to immediately tax our way out of that problem. we have a way to level out the tax impact of that over time. Um, there were are also included in the budget funds for a board approved sbatical leave that you all approved recently. So, those are necessary because you've already voted for those. The recommended additions are things you have not voted for yet, but I'm hoping that you will. Most of these come out as a wash in the budget, but I wanted to include them anyway for transparency. So, first is summer school at Mor Street School. Um, this is a very small amount of money. It's $7,000 basically. And last year it was

104in title one. We are not able, we don't know what will happen with title money right now. And if title money goes through in the way that we hope it will, we won't even have an answer for that until April. So given the small amount of money and given the necessity really to have summer school at all of our schools, um it's important that we put this amount in the budget. I'm also requesting uh that we add a stipen for middle school swimming which is about $2,400 which I would call in the overall context of a $40 million budget a very small amount to serve about I think Eric you said it was about 50 kids who are currently doing this through community programs but are there's strong demand for this. It's a lifetime sport.

105It's good for kids. $2,400 seemed like a reasonable thing to add. Um there are some additions for facilities maintenance, painting, and carpet replacements. Although you will see later that we have um scaled back the original ask in terms of the overall context of this budget. We do want to carry forward with some of that because we don't want our facilities to get too far behind. Um, we are recommending some replacements for devices, technology devices and audiovisisual replacements. Although, as you will see later, we're significantly scaling back the ask on that and thinking about uh punting that to another year basically given what we are up against in the overall picture of the budget. Um, I'm asking for money for a facilities study, which is to really examine a long-term plan to make sure that we

106are going forward sustainably. There will be a lot more about what that plan would be on February 11th, two weeks from now. Um, the cost of that study we're including in the budget, what we're going to offset it by recommending that it come out of capital reserve because it is a one-time expense. So that would be a net zero impact on the budget right now. Um and we are also looking at providing some what I would call desperately needed support to the transportation department which is a half-time administrative assistant to Jeremy. Um however we're going to offset that in central office by the reduction of a halftime bookkeeper. This is basically assigning staff new roles. So it shows up in the budget as an addition and a reduction that are equal. And for transparency, we

107want to show that. So it's budget neutral. So the necessary additions in the top add up to $87,000 roughly. The recommended additions add up to $154,818. And between the two of them, that is roughly 2% of the budget. In the $40 million budget, each percentage point is $400,000 roughly. I want to talk a little bit about how we have approached this and I hope that some of this will jog memory because I've tried to be very purposeful in communicating about our approach to the budget this year. started out early by acquainting all the stakeholders I could think of with what the overall picture of the budget was. Um then very deliberately asked staff for their feedback in listening sessions and also with a survey. We took the results of that listening sessions and survey and

108considered them strongly as an administrative team. We met extremely frequently as administrative team. As I mentioned earlier in my remarks, we've more than doubled the amount of time that we have met to consider the budget. Um, and I came to you for guidance in November, um, when it was clear that we needed to have consensus around this and a way to go forward. A reminder of that what that direction was. You asked to see three tiers, an 8%, a 7%, and a 6%. The tiers I'm giving you are actually each slightly under those respective numbers. So the 8% tier is 7 point something. The six the 7% is 6 point something. The 6% is 5 point something. The reason for that is that we don't know yet what the state subsidy is going to be.

109Um, the big picture is that if we went all the way to the deepest level, that is $1.8 million roughly. And if you're kind of doing some math in your head, if the status quo budget is just over 10%. And we wanted to go to even the least disruptive tier, which is 8%. Well, that's about half of $1.8 million. So that's about a million dollars just to get to the top tier. And it's not in the slideshow, but I will remind you of a just a statistic from earlier presentations that the the budget the amount of the overall budget that is represented by staffing and Kelly correct me if I'm wrong on this. It's roughly 80ish% of the budget. So to bring in a budget at those tiers there really is we have uh I

110will emphasize we looked at non-staffing areas first and we did a lot of work on that and you will see that show up but you can't get to that level of decrease without touching the 80% of the budget that is staffing. So all three tiers do indicate staffing reductions. So here, this is a summary of what we did before we looked at staffing to try to minimize that. We asked all schools and departments to hold their budgets to essential levels. And I've got to tell you, they really did. Jen just shared a spreadsheet with me today about what her departments did, she and her departments did to bring down their non-staffing costs, supplies, etc. They came the the difference from previous years is stark. They really really paid attention to this in every building. We

111looked at our facilities and maintenance costs. I it would not be smart to just decide as I have seen school districts do in the past to just completely not attend to ongoing maintenance. that is setting us up to have real problems later. But we did look at what do we have to do and what do we not have to do right now and we have made reductions where we don't have to do things right now. Those are mo mostly co cosmetic things like paint and carpets. Um we have referred defer we have deferred technology updates. Part of the reason that it makes sense to do that now is that ideally we would love to get our devices on a replacement cycle similar to our bus fleet. Um but the truth is at this very moment

112we just don't have to do that and Apple is giving us an option to continue leasing at 0% interest. So that is what makes the most sense for us to do right now. We're also able to make a pretty significant reduction to our school nutrition contribution um without at all compromising the quality of the meals that we're offering to kids. And you'll see more about that in a separate presentation. But the biggest reason for this is that we are the state gives us an amount that we can't exceed um for school nutrition and we have been consistently over the amount that we have sitting in our school nutrition bank account and we've been finding creative ways to spend that money because the state has been telling us to. So we can reduce the amount that

113we as a district are contributing to school nutrition right now and still not impact the what kids are getting to eat. Um and as I mentioned before, I am suggesting that we move a facility study, which we really do need to do, to capital reserve because that's a one-time expense or at least it's a once a once a generation expense hopefully. So, as I mentioned, I'm presenting three tiers. The tier that I'm recommending is the middle tier, what I'm calling tier 2. It comes in at roughly 7% increase over last year. And the reason that I'm recommending that tier is because I think our work in approaching this budget is to position the district to be able to make good long-term decisions. Some of those long-term decisions are about early childhood. Some of them are

114about um the way the way our facilities are planned as we go forward. Some of them are about programming that we may need in the future. We need to be able to address those in a responsible and um and a deaf way. So tier 2 makes real reductions now, but they are reductions that keep intact our core program core programming that honor our existing class- size policy across the board and ensure that we are still providing a rust robust education. Um and tier 2 does importantly avoid deferring decisions that if they don't get made now will come back later at another point. So now I'd like to talk about enrollment for a little bit. So this is next year's projected enrollment broken down by grade level and you have it in front of you in

115paper obviously as well. This is a slight decrease from this year. While we're not projecting massive decreases in enrollment in the immediate future, neither are we predicting increases in enrollment. So this is the historical enrollment just so that you have some context. In 2023, we were at 284 students. In 2024, that was reduced by almost 100 students to 1997. 2025, that's this year, we lost 20 more. Next year, is predicted to be about the same. But the general trend for this area is slight down ticks. So this is where we get down to the brass tax. So, this is the overview of reductions that I would recommend if we were to go to tier one, which is the least amount of reducing right now. That's at 8%. I'm sure I don't need to read them

116out to you, but I want to sort of point out some of the patterns and some of the major decision points. One thing that may stand out to you right away is that the ele there are the fewest reductions in the elementary schools. The reasons for that is that the elementary schools honestly have the least amount of room for reduction right now. Bringing those uh those three positions put our elementary class sizes at the upper upper end of our guidance for class sizes and I wouldn't want to go beyond that. where there is more availability to reduce and be well within class size limits is at the middle and high school level. Uh particularly at Freeport Middle School. Um, at Freeport Middle School, Pam and Bill have done a really great job at looking how

117to make the schedule more efficient, and they have a plan for how to do that, which enables not only some efficiencies, but also some real, I think, opportunities for improved instruction. For example, we can by adjusting that schedule, we can make sure that all kids there are getting social studies as a core class, which they're getting um in a rotation right now. We can also make sure that all kids get all kids get a world language by adjusting that schedule. There are some trade-offs. And one of the trade-offs that's up there that we really thought long and hard about was the uh proposed reduction of the French position at Freeport Middle School. The reasoning behind that is that we knew that in order to do reductions there, we needed to look at the unified arts

118um the specials and to think about the ways that we could approach that with the least impact. So if we reduce the French position there, it creates congruence with what is offered at Durham, which is Spanish. And another way that it creates congruence with what's offered at Durham is that at Durham, yes, there's only one choice for language, but every kid is getting it. It's required. And at Freeport Middle School, that is not the case. um languages are offered there as uh choices for unified arts as well as JMG and what else Pam? >> Yes. Okay. So by con concentrating on just Spanish we can make sure that every kid gets exposure to world language. at the high school. Um, you see reductions up there that are driven by the least impact to students based

119on numbers. The department at the high school that has the most opportunity to reduce and be in line with where other departments are for class sizes is math. And in addition at the high school in the world language department we currently offer Spanish, French and Latin. We have one Spanish teacher. We have one French teacher who also teaches some Spanish. And we have two Latin teachers. And by reducing one Latin teacher, we can still maintain all three languages. And in addition to that, we have a printing clerk position which is part-time which we can absorb. And we have a full-time community outreach coordinator who does fantastic work, but we can reduce that position to halftime and still have a robust community outreach program. And then districtwide, we have three ESOL teachers. English is a second

120language teacher. Our numbers of students who are multilingual have dropped over the past few years and the need for three teachers is just not congruent with the number of students we have who need the service and the amount of service that they need. And in addition to that, at this tier, I'm also recommending some s significant non-staff reductions, uh, deferring painting and carpets, um, cutting the school nutrition contribution by half, and reducing $125,000 of device replacements. and before I go on to the next tier, I want to come back to a point I made um in my opening remarks. This is the moment where it's very easy to look and natural to look at where we're proposing where I'm proposing to reduce the background for every single one of those is okay what do we

121need to keep what is not written up there but what does reducing here mean we can maintain and to me the things I kept coming back to are in the elementary schools the class sizes were already high. We can reduce a little there, but we can't reduce a lot without really compromising class sizes. And that's a perspective that we've kept coming back to. And we also really need to keep providing for special education because the needs in special education are just continuing to increase. So when viewed that way, this proposal does not mean it truly does not mean we don't value having that additional math teacher at the high school. It doesn't mean we don't value having a French program at Freeport Middle School. It means that when viewed against all of the things we

122feel we need to m maintain, these are where we feel we can find an efficiency to maintain really important things. Moving on to the next tier. This is the tier that I recommend. And what you see in blue are additional items that would be added on to what's in red to get to this level. So if you look at the top at the elementary and middle level, you see five edtech positions. The good news is that we currently have five and a half open edtech positions in the district. The open edtech positions we have are in special ed. So the individuals who are currently in those positions, we can offer another position to that is that's currently vacant. Additionally, at that level, I am recommending that we reduce to two um instructional strategists at the

123K to5 level. We presently have three. And then last, you'll see under non-staff next to device replacement a little blue times two. This means that at this level, I'm recommending that we completely defer the device replacement. Um that together that's a quarter of a million dollars. So now I'm going to go on to tier three. And I want to make it really clear when I go on to tier three that it's in red for a reason. and that there are big words in capitals at the top, not recommended. This is what we would have to do to get this deep. We really had to think outside of the box. Now, one of the schools that you have not seen mentioned until tier three is Powell. And that's simply because the size Pel is, it makes

124it very hard to reduce a whole position. If you're talking about like you're going to have to have a first grade classroom, it's not like Mass Landing where there are several third grade classrooms and you can sort of spread the impact in a small school. Those those impacts are magnified. So we have a few positions at Powell that we could reduce if we need to, but I don't recommend it. We have two edtech positions. One is an RTIA edtech at 0.9. The other is an RTIB edtech at 0 4. Those odd 0.9 and point 4 are because those individuals actually fill their time doing some other things. Uh the 0.9 person spend some time in the in the kitchen. The point four person Kelly reminds me >> bus driver. So um those are the impacts

125of those are more difficult to deal with. We did some creative thinking and realized that at Pel next year there are supposed to be 18 fifth graders. Well, Mass Landing could absorb 15 eighth graders and spread it out over the classrooms there and still be within the class size policy. We could send the pal fifth graders to masked landing. I don't recommend it for any number of reasons. one is what it implies for the pel school and second there's a whole transportation pro puzzle there that we honestly don't have the answer to right now we would figure it out somehow but it involves start times and having a driver and lots of stuff and could we do it well if we have to we can but it it's a puzzle um at the middle level

126to go this far we could reduce another unified arts position at Freeport Middle School and it would be possible to reduce the health position and embed the health standards in other schools in other disciplines like PE, social studies, science. Um, at Durham they have a wellness position that's K to8 and they have um they have embedded those standards in other subjects in the past. But it's much better to have that position. And then last at the high school um we could reduce a half social work position. That position is serving such a need and students mental health is of such concern right now. Um that is all I can say is I don't recommend doing that. But if the board wanted to go to that level, this is how we would get there. So again,

127I'm going to come back to tier two and and explain why I think this is the best way forward. The first bullet is really the most important. If we defer hard decisions now, it means harder decisions later. There's also a legitimate question out out there about what level of budget increase the community will support. I don't I'm not from here. I don't have a crystal ball to that. All I can tell you, and we do have information about this, is that the past two years in a row, you had budget increases of roughly 6%. Going to 10% is a huge leap and going back before that, the budget increases were much lower than 6%. Um, we all know we're living in a time of really increasing cost of living. people in the community are feeling

128that we have people whose tax bills are rapidly increasing. We have to consider that and I I need to make a good faith recommendation to you about what I'm confident the community will support and which positions us again to really be in a a strong place going forward for the decisions that come next year, the year beyond, etc. So some of the key impacts at tier 2 again the fewest reductions at the elementary level and that's where the individual student needs are the greatest. It maintains core programming at all the elementary schools. at the middle level there. That's the biggest change. Um, but Pam and Bill and I I really feel that the new schedule actually is an opportunity that it will enhance the program there. Um, we certainly had rich discussion about unified arts,

129French and health and how to approach those. And another aspect of that that I will mention that doesn't have a budgetary impact but has um an impact on school culture is bringing in library as uh a special which it currently is not and really using that as a place to teach about digital citizenship, cell phone use, etc. Um, and we do have the opportunity at the middle level at Freeport Middle School to reduce the office staff at a level that's consistent with other schools. Right now, we have two full-time office staff at Freeport Middle School. Freeport Middle School has the same number of kids roughly as Mass Landing. Mass Landing has one full-time assistant and I think 0.15 that drops in from is not always there. Um, so it seems to make sense to bring

130that in line at the secondary level. I mean, I was a high school teacher for a long time. Those are really hard to think about. But when I think about the reduction in math, which will be very deeply felt, but it brings that department in line with other departments, and I can't in good faith, if I look at where else we go, I'm looking at elementary schools. I can't in good faith bring forward a proposal that creates that kind of imbalance. So with these proposals at the high school, the math department can be in line with other departments. Um we can still maintain offerings in all three existing world languages. um and choosing the printing clerk position and the community outreach position for reduction um allows us to maintain core academic programming in other places.

131So my belief and I I believe the team behind me strongly supports this is that when we look at it through equity among the schools, this is the way forward that meets that CR that checks that box box the best. So if we look at class sizes and what they would be projected at at the recommended level, this is what it looks like. So there are a few places where it's up above 20, but by and large it's below 20. Those are those are healthy class sizes. So, just a few things about what this proposal does not include. Early childhood still a big question mark. Um, next week I will be bringing forward something to you with an answer about how we would step into that if we would step into that without impacting the

132local taxpayers. I don't feel that it's the right I I'll just go on record now. I don't feel it's the right time to impact the local taxpayers with that expense given the overall gestalt of what we're doing here. And there are certain programs that are they have a different funding structure and so they will be presented separately. They are included in the amount that I've shown you. But in terms of showing you how those programs work, we have I haven't gotten into the specifics. And those are community programs, school nutrition, and region 10. And if you look at my recommended budget by article, this is these are how the increases go forward. You can see the biggest is in special education and that's because of those special situations that I mentioned. Um the the others

133are well all well below the overall budget increase trend that we have seen. And these are the rest. So this is the level that we're calling a 7% increase. It's really as of right now it's at 6.46 to leave some wiggle room for the state subsidy which may not be what it was last year. So next week I will talk more about the highest and lowest tiers. You have that information in front of you to think about the staff who had would be affected by all of the tiers have been um have been talked to. Um, next week we'll present community programs and school nutrition. And I am determined we will talk about early childhood cohort three finally. And then on February 11th, you have asked for a concept for longer term sustainability and that

134um we do have a concept to share. It is it is a concept. It's not it's not fully fleshed out. It's an idea. Um, and we will have an update about strategic planning. That process has been moving forward and we'll have plenty of time for questions and discussion. So, as I close, um, I said a couple months ago, this is hard work, but it's good work. It's hard conversations and hard decisions, but that's that is good work to be doing as long as it's done with transparency and integrity. Um, I cannot emphasize enough how impressive the people behind me have been. um particularly as a new superintendent, they've been extremely helpful and the staff have been gracious and patient and the staff have at at all points when we've been communicating, staff have been respectful

135of what we're dealing with. And now I have a lot of empathy for everyone who is going to now for a period of time, weeks, await decisions. It's hard to sit with discomfort. Thank you. If there are questions, I'll I'll go up there to take them. Thank you. Um, clearly a ton of work goes into this presentation every year. Um, and pretty sure I can speak for the whole board when I say we appreciate the thoughtful process you guys undertook this year. Um, and I certainly don't mean to um downplay the work that's been done in prior years because I do believe that has always been presented as a as a superintendent's budget with the support of the full administrative team. Um, but there are certainly some new components to the to the process this

136year, including the the staff surveys and listening sessions and all key to getting a kind of a full view of of impact. And um I really appreciated um and while I'm I'm sure this was always at the heart of of these hard decisions in the past, but really coming back to not just, you know, what are we looking to to potentially eliminate, but what are we protecting and saving? Um and what, you know, at our core do we want to make sure we we we keep. Um so I appreciate that that perspective um that runs through the whole presentation. Um, I know you've have a different model for how we're presenting this going forward. Historically, this first sort of top view of of everything um is is a lot of information and the board usually

137will take some time to process that and come back with questions. Um, we don't typically have a a ton of discussion after this first one. It's more taking it, going back, thinking on it. Um, I guess my question is, um, while we have the full administrative team here, uh, is the expectation that they will be at the all of our budget meetings going forward. So, if we have specific questions, we will have access to those answers. >> They are on the hook. >> Sorry, guys. Um, okay. Um, I guess I will open it up to board members at this point to just, you know, any clarifying questions um that people feel like they need before they can even really dive in and start digging through the information we have from tonight. Chris, >> so this

138was something we talked about in the finance meeting beforehand, but could you kind of just walk us through, especially because I didn't know this before we talked about this, but when when you propose, as an example, a a DCS grade one position, it is not necessarily a teacher that happens to be currently residing in that in that position. >> That's correct. So the the shorter answer is that the person who's in the positions that are listed may very well not be the person who is ultimately uh who loses a job. And the reason for that is the way that the contract is laid out. And um if I try to summarize that I'll summarize it for for teachers basically there are two uh lists in order of of like seniority. The first list is a

139probationary list and if a position is to be reduced you looked at the probationary list first. Probationary people are in their first or second year and then if well I need to back up. It's also broken down by impact area. So for example, high school, secondary social studies is an impact area. Secondary math is an impact area. K to5 teaching is an impact area. So for example, the there's a a math teacher, there's a secondary math teacher, the position is suggested to be reduced. The way that we have to find who the individual is that that would directly affect is first look at the probationary list. Is there anyone in that impact area who is on the probationary list? And if there's more than one person on the probationary list, the contract establishes a system

140of points that we have to use to determine that. And the factors that go into the points are your date of hire, um how many certifications you have, how many degrees you have, and your evaluations. And so that's true on the probationary list, and it's then true on the seniority list. Once you go through your first two years, you move off the probationary list onto the continuing contract list, which is called the seniority list. And it's based on points as laid out by the contract. And if there's a tie in points between two individuals, then that you go to the next criterion, which is in the contract, and that's the date of hire. And so what that means is if we reduce a an elementary teaching position in any of the schools, that's the biggest

141impact area. So you are first looking at the probationary list to see which elementary teachers districtwide are on the probationary list. And then if there were was nobody on the probationary list, you'd look at the other list, the continuing contract list. But it's not necessarily the person who's in the position you're suggesting to reduce. It's the person who is has the fewest points in that impact area. >> And I'll also point out that um in any year there is a a typical number of turnover in positions in teaching as well. We have retirements, we have people that move, we have people that switch districts. So, it's also fair to say that it doesn't necessarily mean that the the number of FTEEs that we're looking at here, all of those would result in having to go

142to those lists and and physically um you know, a reduction in force per the contract, right? >> That's correct. I mean, we already know, for example, we at an earlier meeting, I think it was December, we announced a a retirement of a first grade teacher at Mor Street School. So that's a position that will be available, >> right? So that would be one less person of those three elementary teachers that are on tier 2. >> That doesn't necessarily mean that the first grade position would be available. It means that that one person in that impact area has already made a retirement decision. >> So another position within that impact area could be >> could be available >> available. >> Right. care. >> I also want to thank you for your transparency throughout this whole process

143and how thorough the presentations have been all along the way. So, thank you and thank all of you for your time on this. And like Michelle said, doesn't mean that we don't think you put that time in last time last years, but it's been really helpful to fully understand it. Uh, and I'm wondering if you could walk us through the state subsidy uh, process and if you have a sense if there's any way you have a sense if that might come through higher than we think or lower than we think. >> I may I may tap Kelly for this, but I don't predict it will be higher just because our enrollment is a little lower and the state subsidy is based on um the number of kids that we have. And then it's also based

144on some of those kids are weighted more heavily depending upon whether they're special education, an English language learner, and several other categories. But the state has a matrix that they use that then determines what our subsidy would be. And in addition to that, you may recall that um the governor has made a promise that the state will fund 55% of public education. But that doesn't mean 55% of public education in each district. It means statewide. And so districts that have basically fewer resources are getting more. And we're a district that has relatively ample resources. So we're getting less. And then the other aspect of that, just I think everybody probably here knows that, but most districts out there feel that the amount that the state says it requires to educate a student is dramatically insufficient,

145which is why we're, you know, talking about going to our local taxpayers for more money than what the state allocates. >> Yeah. And just sort of in terms of the cycle of the the biionial process and Kelly will jump up if I say anything completely out of left field. Um but this is the the first year of the new budget, right? So last year we kind of had a sense because they had passed the two-year budget, so we kind of knew what we didn't know the very specifics, but um yes, for the state, sorry. Um I I don't think we're going to know that anytime soon. Um, so we don't know what will actually like what the total pot of available money is, never mind how much would then come to us. >> Superintendent were

146talking about this yesterday. Yeah. >> Um, you know, everybody's awaiting this information with baited breath. Part of what is holding it up, I believe, is that there are some districts who have gosh, for whatever reason, not made their decision about whether to enter cohort three. and entering cohort three affects your subsidy because of will your prek kids be in one pot of money or in another pot of money. So >> yeah, which is sort of counter to what they had originally said anyway, that this was separate from the EB279 um which is the the document that tracks what the >> the EPSO essential programs and services that that's where they say like you know a kiddo in you know each kiddo in this age bracket is worth you know needs this much teachers and this

147much administrative support and supplies and you know special ed gets a little bit more and um ESOL students Um, but basically all of those add up to what they say it costs to educate the 1,971 kids in our district. Um, that's the EPS piece, right? And then the subsidy is actually, okay, this is how much they say it costs. I would agree that it's woefully less. You know, there's no there's no sports, there's no extracurriculars, there's, you know, art and music not required. Um, but so anyway, so but essential what they consider essential programs and services. And then so that's the that's one number and then your subsidy is actually that number minus how much the state says you have to put into the pot um based on your valuation that the state sets for

148all three towns and states and sets for all towns in in the state. So um the the difference between those numbers is what we actually get in subsidy. So there's a ton of numbers that go into that. Um, you know, usually we don't have subsidy numbers. I think in a good year until sometime in February. Um, in a bad year, I I mean, April, I mean, maybe even later, I don't know, before I mean, they have to they have to approve the state budget. Um, and because they need to know how much of for education is there because they don't want to, you know, tell you how much you're going to get if they don't know how much they're going to raise. So, um I don't I I mean we don't have growing numbers um

149in terms of students. I think that has saved this district and this board from some of these really hard conversations in the past several years. We had COVID money that came in that helped sort of, you know, mask some of that. Um and then we had years where we had large bumps in in um in student counts and that, you know, masked it a little bit further. um all of those things have sort of gone away and now we're faced with these difficult conversations that we haven't had to have that but other districts have um already had to have. So um I don't I mean it'd be great if our subsidy came in higher but I would be surprised because we are in a rising valuation market. So if we have the same number of

150kids and they say we need to pay more because we have higher values than we did um relative to other parts of the state all of that equals less subsidy. >> That's my personal opinion. So though our special education increase is significant, would could that impact the weighted? It might >> maybe if they I mean if they were >> might we get more in subsidy for the special education needs >> eventually it but because it lags behind right so when you think of the E279 that they're creating for the 26 27 expenditures they're actually looking at 2425s numbers that they're then putting a multiplication factor on for you. So it will take a little while for that to catch up with us and actually be shown through subsidy. Steph um yeah just I can feel

151and appreciate the care that's gone into all of this and it's really helpful when we're making a what feels like a terrible choice. Um so just knowing that that that care and respect is here is really helpful. Um, and then my question is, can you explain to me the nutrition piece and how we don't cut nutrition by not contributing to nutrition? Again, for me, >> I may tap Kelly and Erica Riley again, but basically school nutrition, the short answer, flag me if I'm getting this wrong. Um, school nutrition is mostly funded by state and federal sources. And so we also have a contribution that we've been making, but there are also rules about how much money we can keep in like a sep. We have a bank account. We have an account for school nutrition

152and we're only allowed to keep a certain amount and we've been consistently over that amount. So we've been getting letters from the state this year that I've had to sign off on saying you got to spend money. So like we've been spending the money. Um I forget what we're spending it on. like I don't know probably Skittles but you know kidding >> I was g caviar Skittles >> um but we Kelly >> well well you know you did a great job with that Tom um what we have been spending it on is Erica has been updating equipment um within the buildings um there's and then certain pieces of equipment sometime require a little extra ventilation or an electrical you know like an electrical upgrade those types of things the nutrition part department has been taking

153care of those. Um, as you remember last year we did we did a reduction to this the amount we were contributing to school nutrition. Um, we're we're continuing that reduction because even with reducing our contribution last year, we're still anticipating that um carryover balance being too high. I believe Eric it was three months expenses that you can have in so basically they're taking a formula. they're they're doing you like your three highest months of expenditures and that's what you can legally um have in your um undesated fund balance or carryover. Um so that's that's kind of where we're at. What we looked at when we were um going through the process is how much money actually got basically the amount of our appropriation to the school nutrition account is what was left over at the

154end of the year and actually increased the fund balance by um if you were just straight straight up look at revenues toward against expenditures what we were contributing as a district was over and above and was adding to it instead of allowing it to spend down. So that's why we didn't completely go to zero and I will be completely honest with that because we it it is very easy to take something out of a budget. It's harder to get something back in, right? And one of the things that that's happening this year is we're negotiating the support staff contract. Um, and Erica is not sitting at the table with the superintendent and ultimately the board, right, when those negotiations are happening. Um, of course, we build a budget and we put some anticipated expenditures in

155there, but we as the district make the decision as to what those people are making. And so we felt that the contribution that we that is is remaining within school nutrition would be able to absorb some necessary changes in salaries um for the for the for the u staff >> to be and nutrition and and community programs. Um they're both what we call enterprise funds. So they kind of sit outside of the normal if you call it the profit and loss of the district. Um, so, uh, Kelly and I both remember times when the nutrition program was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Um, and the school had to essentially subsidize that and and make a transfer, which is what created what we have in the budget now. And we have reduced that

156over time. Um, some of that is because, you know, during COVID they changed the funding and how we get money for reimbursed meals and the fact that now all kids are getting breakfast and lunch funded through the state and through the threat of our programs. All of those have sort of increased and I will say our nutrition program has done a great job to increase um participation, right? So, the more kids that we get to take the meals, the more we get reimbured for the meals and um it's kind it's a win-win scenario. So it, you know, nutrition has become, as Kelly said, essentially a break even um proposition, right? So um we don't have to put as much in there because right now it's it's covering its own expenses because it has different revenue

157sources. Other questions, other information that you would like Tom or administrators to come with next time? Valerie, I want to start by echoing how everybody started with acknowledging and appreciating the amount of work that's been done and the the difference in the way it's presented this year over previous years. I'm not saying one is better than the other. This is just more in my lane of understanding. Um it's easier for me to comprehend what's being recommended and why. Um, so I really appreciate different methods of teaching are different and sometimes it's easier to understand and this one's good for me, I guess, is the right answer. Um, but my question is, um, as Kelly just alluded, um, we do have a pending, um, contract negotiation, and I'm wondering if we anticipate any changes to these

158tiers after the negotiations, and if so, how significant those might be. >> The the negotiations could impact the overall figure. Uh, one of the reasons that again why we came in under six, seven, and eight is to allow some some wiggle room for that. >> Yeah. Again, I'll just echo appreciation for all of the hard work and really uh difficult work and uh and yeah, there's some difficult very difficult choices uh ahead of us. I think one um whatever information could be presented about what we know about coming years um in terms of um in other words um I know we won't know everything about staffing uh for next year and the year after that um but We can I can assume we could make some estimates of like if we maintain current staffing with

159our with the um uh how that would play out. Um because I think that the emphasis on again very much appreciate the emphasis on sustainability and sort of structural questions. But um I think it would be helpful for me to have a little bit of a sense of like um are we doing this again next year? Um, are we are we effectively doing the same sorts of cuts because of the same sorts of issues? Um, I think that would just be helpful for us to be able to to to know that uh so that we can make some honest decisions about that. Does that make sense, Tom? >> It does. And we we can definitely supply that. I I can't remember at what point it was. Maybe it was in November, but I remember asking

160Kelly to to look at project not just next year, but the year after that. And Kelly did run those numbers, and I think we brought them up. Maybe it was like really early on, but we we can we can bring that for sure. And that may dovetail with some of the, you know, the strategic updates and the concept of a plan. I hate to say that. Sorry. um >> um that we're going to hear about on the 11th. Um you know to kind >> I I don't want to overpromise on that particular concept. The concept I mean I also I want to wait until to fully explain what the the idea is. There would be some savings with that. I it's not going to be a silver bullet to solve inflation. I mean I I

161do feel like I need to name that right now. fund actually for our staff. I really want to name that. Um I had intended to make a point in my opening remarks about sustainability. Paying our staff well is an investment in our sustainability. Allowing space in the budget to really give our staff the compensation they deserve is an investment in our district that attracts and keeps good people and keeps us robust. It's just that there are trade-offs to that that we're sort of now reckoning with. Um the idea that we have talked about is about in part um financial efficiency, but it's in even greater part it's about really maximizing the way we use our resources for better outcomes for kids. Anna Thank you, Tom, and everyone. Um, my question is when we're thinking about

162these tiers, you know, I think my mind goes to, oh, well, if Tom's recommending, you know, for the technology device replacement to put that off for another two years, what if we did that in tier one and then we saved some money that way? Would you recommend not looking at it? Like that's just one example, but like yeah, just moving different pieces or just for our sake as a board. >> I would what I would recommend is that you you have the right to to do that as a board. You have the right to give whatever direction feels best to you. All I can say is that the expertise about what that really means is it isn't even so much with me. It's right out there and it has been discussed from every angle. And

163um I the other thing that the horse trading does is that it it ends up and I think I wasn't here last year but I think it ended up when it played out in public I think it created a sense of some some schools or people were winning and some were losing and that was not intended but that's just the way that these moments are so high stakes for people. It can feel that way. And what I um I want to come back to a point that I just kept making earlier, but all of the we could get to six, seven, and eight in any number of ways. These are the ways that we feel are the least do the best by kids. And and um I I definitely don't want to be cavalier to

164say that there's no impact. There is there is an impact for sure, but we will still have robust schools with a reduction at the the middle level. In some ways, I think we'll actually see improvements for kids, especially at the middle school because not all improvements are about the number of positions you have. It's in large part how you use the positions. Other questions? >> Will we be hearing more about um the reduction in the middle school of French? I know that when we toured um Principal Crosby had indicated that students had a choice of language or JMG, which struck me as not great. This is probably a good time to talk about that since I did want to focus on the recommended tier right now. Um, and I may just call Pam and Bill

165up. Why don't you come on down Pam and Bill? Just come to the podium. So the just because they can speak to the specific impact of this better than I can, but the the big picture is that when we really looked at this, there were some um ways that we really wanted to improve what students got through the schedule. One of them is social studies. The current schedule has social studies on a rotation. And how often are they getting social studies now? >> They're on a rotation with STEM and science. every three days, >> two out of three days. >> Um, and just in the world, I mean, I was a high school social studies teacher, so I definitely have a bias, but I I just feel like social studies is like an everyday subject

166in in middle school. Um, and when we looked at the unified arts, the French position really fits more into, okay, bigger picture, we know we need to look at the specials. So, where can we find efficiencies with the specials? Well, what we can do with the new schedule they're recommending is make sure that world language is not a a choice. It's a >> it's a must. You get it every day. >> And we can accomplish that by focusing on one world language. And can you talk a little bit more about how the choices with JMG work? Now, >> maybe Bill can help a little bit with this just because he's used to the schedule a little bit more. But, you know, depending on the recommendations from the board, you know, certainly the schedule is something

167we've been thinking about um through this whole year. Um, you know, it's different for me coming to a school too where we have that rotation schedule. So, that that took a little bit for me to get used to, but we want to make sure that the kids are seeing each teacher every single day and that they're recommended that foreign language every single day. So, that's going to be taking a deeper dive into the schedule. Um, it's still a work in progress there. I'm interested to um because I think it's only been a few years, but I believe Durham previously had the option of JMG or Spanish. It sounds like now they have the model that that FMS is looking to go to where you get both and everybody gets both. Um I'm interested to hear

168um how that went and if it was kind of what prompt I mean for you guys it's a scheduling issue that's why you did it. I think as a parent I appreciate that they don't have to choose and they can do both because I think both of my kids would have would have benefited from being able to take both. Um but I mean that is a shift that happened there and I don't think it was a SK was it a scheduling suggestion that or driven then or >> don't go far. >> Yeah. >> Uh so it's a little bit of both. And um last year um the it started with last year's seventh graders all taking Spanish and that was a good a positive shift. Um and um the um for this year and for

169next it is that all seventh and eighth graders get Spanish and they get um JMG. It gets a little complicated with all the different schedules because we actually do have to have an al alternating day schedule like a high school right now just because of the numbers and the number of teachers that cover all those classes. Um, but I would say to you that um our uh specifically in Spanish, the Spanish teacher was like a little unsure about how that was going to work um with all kiddos coming in with some different levels of background, but has now found it to be super positive and um is um we're happy for exactly what you said, Michelle. And I actually remember the the wrestling back and forth there, right? Um, so it's great to be able

170to have the um broader experiences that JMG provide, but also to be getting that foundation in another language. And I would say we're fortunate that that JMG has supported us with that because they've been pretty flexible with some of their um requirements to to um help facilitate it. >> Good. That's that's what I was hoping you were going to say because it sounds I mean it's it's great when we can take something that's worked well in one spot and shift it over. I mean obviously it was makes a lot of sense with the with the schedule change that you guys are recommending at FMS but um I think you you can get some benefits from the schedule and you can also get some benefits from the impact on kids which I mean that's that sounds

171great. Yeah, I think um I think as much clarity and and uh uh as much granularity as would be possible in terms of understanding this shift at the middle school in terms of schedule um would be extremely helpful. Um I think that um one I think just one thing if one reviewed the tape uh from last year um I think I think we spent way too long in a gray area around understanding um schedules and impacts particularly at the middle school um actually just at the middle school um so I think that uh as m as early as possible in the process it would just be really helpful to understand exactly what we're talking about. Um, if we need lots of handouts and uh and PowerPoint presentations, like that's fine. But I think like I

172think we just really need to understand it because um I don't think for a variety of reasons we uh we were able to get that. And again, I'm not there's no uh blame placed on that. It just it was not able to happen. Um, and I think that for us to I think in good faith um uh con consider the the the recommendations that are being made particularly for Freeport Middle. I think we would really need to understand um uh exactly what is happening and why that is beneficial and how it is beneficial. And that's certainly Bill and I's goal here and we'll be very clear um and certainly putting what's best for kids and putting together a product that is we really feel confident that's going to be a great product to present um

173and roll out for the kids next year. And I know uh Tommy you had already kind of given gratitude but I do I do want to give a shout out to the Freeport Middle School staff members that I sat and met with individually yesterday. They were really hard conversations. they did a really nice job listening and receiving the feedback and they were respectful conversations um and they were hard and I just want to um just give a shout out to my team on on that. So, >> thank you. And I think similarly um you know as um just in terms for me additional information I'd want to hear um I would I would be looking for and it doesn't have to be tonight Jen don't worry. Um you know what is one less math teacher

174mean? Does that mean we have less math classes offered? Does that mean the classes are slightly larger but we still have the same offerings? um you know the the impact of these changes um definitely the middle school schedule because I I think you're right Colin there was just a lot of ambiguity like it might be it's this or maybe it's that or we don't know maybe they only go on Tuesdays we don't know um >> so >> yeah and just to be clear for and for not again no no no no shade on the yeah on the folks they were they were they were trying to respond to diff really difficult questions and in a in a time in a time frame that >> um was untenable. So again, I just I want to just

175say with all respect that that was a really difficult um time, but that's what I'm wanting to avoid, >> right? And that made what we were trying to decide even more challenging. So um Kelly, >> yeah, similarly um I think it'd be really helpful since we had a really in-depth conversation last year around the ESOL program and how many instructors would be ideal for that program. I think it would be just really good to make sure we get a really thorough explanation as to why this reduction is is good for us. >> And and how it plays out. >> Yes. And how it plays out across the district with the students that we anticipate we're going to have next year. >> Yeah. >> I can come up tonight because if I do, it means I

176get a second cookie. >> That's what happens. So, um, I will share I I also just want to say, excuse me, that our Freeport High School staff has just been outstanding in this really challenging process um, in terms of wrestling with the difficulties and understanding the position that we're in in these conversations that we've had with individual people and with staff. So, similar to what Pam shared, I just wanted to share that. Um, one of the things that I shared with staff today to make sure uh I was with faculty uh after school at our meeting today was in terms of the math position because I shared all of these um positions that we are looking at uh for the proposed cuts and shared that in the 2122 school year I came to the board

177and requested for the addition of a math teacher. We had a full-time uh teacher added that year. That was when our enrollment was at 595 and we knew that it was growing. It says on there that the project that the enrollment that year was 632. That was the time when we measured it that year we at the highest we ever got to was 645. And so now for next year as we're projected to be 554 it's 91 students fewer. And I actually just did the numbers. We go down in 2728. We go down again in 2829 and then slightly back up um to 555 in 2030 which is our incoming freshman class next year. um just to give a little insight for the math classes and this is just some you know we're proud of

178the the wide range of math classes that we offer. But as we had that addition in 2021 and have now reduced the number of students that are in school um our algebra 1 classes right now the average class size is 14.8. Honors is 12.5. Uh geometry is an average of 16.6. Honors is 19.5. Algebra 2 is an average of 15.4 students. Honors is 15.3. And honors pre-calculus is an example of a class that's larger. Those that class size average is 22. And so I believe that um while it will be a loss for our school and for our students, I believe that we're still able to maintain um our strong math program. We are continuing to work on our math skills and our math scores and I still think that we can do that um

179if we are reducing this position that these numbers will increase the average class size. Um but I think that they will still be manageable. It's also something to remember that with the wackiness of our schedule, sometimes you have a class of 11 and sometimes you have a class of 19. It's just the way that the schedule works. But I do think that those averages will stay um at a reasonable number. Thank you. >> Enjoy your cookie. >> Your second cookie. >> All right, everybody's brain full of numbers and budget for tonight's. Um I would suggest to folks um as we are all going home and digesting a lot of information um if you think of questions that would be helpful uh ahead of time typically we ask for you know Monday afternoon. So uh Superintendent

180Gray has two days to try and pull together the information or delegate uh to get that information for us. Um, not to say you can't ask questions on the fly. I I know I do it all the time. Um, but if if you know it ahead of time, please share it. Um, because we can be more efficient with people's time that way. Okay. All right. Uh, so we have no personnel issues this evening. We are back to public comments. I don't think we had a large influx of community members. Um, so then I would uh take a motion to adjurnn. Thank you, Cara and Kelly. All those in favor.