2025-10-08 RSU 5 Board Meeting

001[Music] we discuss. But let's get started with the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the September 24th, 2025 meeting as presented by errors or omissions? Thank you, Chris. Second. All those in favor? Wonderful. Opposed uh adjustments to the agenda. So, I think we are going to add one adjustment. We're going to add a 12B uh under unfinished business and we're going to use that opportunity to um to appoint someone to the policy committee because Danielle is going to step away from that policy committee. So, we will uh we'll make that happen uh under 12B. But we will get started first with uh good news and recognition of board representative. Oh, okay. Here we go. >> So, I'll keep it brief because our wonderful principal

002go and vice principal over here and I'm sure will share so many different things. But, um, last week we had all of our homecoming games, which all went super well, and our homecoming dance, which is always very fun. Um, the DJ was really good this year if anyone is wondering. Today in advisory, we did some anti-bullying activities which hopefully everyone saw our chains of kind messages and our posters out in the walls cuz it is bullying awareness month I believe. Um the student leadership committee went to the Root Institute for Nor Eastern and Portland to meet with other similar teams from other schools in Maine. Um, and we've kind of hit the ground running and we can't wait to share about what we have decided to focus on for this year. Playoffs are coming up

003for almost all of our sports teams. So, definitely keep updated on those. You can find the game times on the football athletics website. And finally, this week we will be having elections for the school board rep position, which I'm sad to say we made the decision to not run this year. Um, but I know that whoever will be in my spot is going to do so amazing and I'm excited to help with that transition while I'm still here in the building. But yeah, that's the go. >> See what happens. Jenny, we move her away from Colin and now she's not doing it anymore. >> Thank you, Phoebe. Uh, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we're sad that you won't be joining us, but we know you will be back here at

004least two times with the leadership committee to present to us. So, um, you will you will not be forgotten and uh, we're So, will this be your last meeting then? Oh, I think people would have changed their plans if they knew that and they all would have been here. Well, thank you for 2 years on the board. Um, you've been a wonderful addition. Your willingness to raise your hand in a room full of sometimes difficult people, I mean us, um, has been commendable and admirable and I I have no doubt you will go off to do wonderful things. I also I almost sent this to the board and maybe I still will if I can find it. Um I don't know if folks saw there was a PSA that was done that Phoebe was um

005was was a part of about u mental health and it was wonderful and thank you for that work that you do too. So I know you have a lot of things on the plate so I understand. Yeah. Well, thank you everyone. and I've learned so much and I hope I've been a good liaison from the students and I definitely totally will be back also probably sending you guys emails and doing everything. But yeah, it's I think I I am just excited to help whoever's next transition in while I'm still here cuz I have kind of as far as a high schooler goes been a bit of a grandpa here. Um, so I'm excited to see who's next and I saw the people on the ballot and it's going to be an awesome awesome year. So

006don't worry, I'm leaving you guys in good hands. Well, thank you, Phoebe. Um, I can also concur from the child at my house that the DJ was incredible. So good. And I also think I don't know if this happens often or never, but I believe last week every one of the homecoming games, every team won, which I know it's not all about winning, but that's a great week to do it. So anyway, thank you, Phoebe. And I know we'll be hearing from you again when we move on to the cell phone discussion. All right, so we will move on to public comment. If we have anyone who would like to speak, we just ask that you come up to the microphone, share your name and the town you live in, and you have three minutes

007to share. >> It it it's okay. You don't worry about it. We're going to get her name. I mean, >> not that my name is long letters, both front and first and last. Um, hi, my name is Annie Wear. I'm the ones that's been emailing you about all the tech stuff and I just want to come out of the gate saying I'm actually really judicious in what I'm sending you guys because I guess get flooded with stuff. Um because I'm part of a turn the tide coalition as well which is a group of uh community members in all over southern Maine. We've al come together to kind of just think a little bit more thoughtfully about how we're giving technology to our kids and presenting it. So tonight, since cell phones is on the agenda,

008I thought I'd talk about that. So I have two fourth graders, they're twins, and a sixth grader at Durham Community School. And as I said, I'm the co-founder of the RSU5 Alliance for Thoughtful Technology. Um, first of all, I want to thank you guys so much for putting cell phones on the agenda tonight and just this fall to begin the conversation or rather keep the conversation going across Maine and across the country at large. More districts and states are adopting what we're calling bellto bell or away for the day phone policies. Just in Maine this year we have Mount Ararat, Bath, Portland, Windham, Turner, Levit, Oxford Hills, Poland, Chevus, York, Camden, Rockport, etc., etc. going bell-to-bell and the reports are good. Why are they doing this? Because classroom only bans aren't working. When 77% of

009our teachers here at the high school here in Freeport express concern, that's a footnote. Not a footnote rather, it's a signal. A signal for help. A national poll published just yesterday polling 20,000 educators identified phone-f free policies as best practice, leading to significant academic, social, and emotional gains. And not to mention, the largest finding was higher teacher satisfaction and retention. And think about it. Many teachers, even those with up to 10 years experience, have never known a phone-free school. I taught for 10 years, but it's been 12 since I've been in the classroom. You guys do the math. Figure out my age. And let me tell you, the classrooms and the schools are kind of unrecognizable to me. It's just incredibly different. So, will there be push back from students if we do this here

010in RSU5? Of course, there's going to be resistance. But that resistance isn't proof of the policy is wrong. It's proof that devices have a powerful hold. It's a bit like taking a slot machine out of the cafeteria, right? If you remove something designed to keep people hooked, they'll protest at first. But like gambling or smoking restrictions, short-term discomfort often leads to long-term relief and healthier habits. A lot of us are parents in here and we go through this all the time and it's hard. The good news is that we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Proven models, cost-effective vendors, and clear implementation plans already exist. And I encourage you all to attend the MSMA conference later this month where two sessions focus on cell phone policy and implementation from people who are doing it now.

011It's not just vendors trying to push their product on you guys. The real question isn't if we move forward with belltoell a wave for the day phone free policy. It's when and how. The time is now to create a clear plan and timeline to make it happen thoughtfully, collaboratively, and urgently. My ask tonight as a parent who is not pushing back on you all to do this because I know sometimes that's the fear is that the parents are going to push back. There's a lot of us out there part of the RSU5 alliance. We have over 200 people and those are just the people that have actually taken the time to think about it. Um, we're asking you to keep the belltobell phone free policies on the front burner and we'd like you to launch

012a clear process this fall. Include student and teacher voices. It's important that we're all in this together and take steps towards a consistent district-wide policy. Not just the middle school, not just smart watches at one particular elementary school, but districtwide. Let's be a community. We're an RSU. This isn't about control. It's about care. It's about creating schools where attention, connection, and equity are paramount. Let's give our students the gift of presence with an away for the day phone policy. And so, I thank you guys so much for your time. Thank you, Hinnie. Amy's from Durham. I don't know if she said that at the beginning, but >> All right. I don't see anyone else rushing the microphone, but there will be another opportunity for public comment at the end. So, I encourage folks. Um, all

013right. So, we will move on to item eight on our agenda, which is the report from the superintendent. >> Good evening, everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. Well, since the last board meeting, we've had some very productive weeks. Um, I have a few updates tonight, mostly about the CDS transition process. Um, I also want to talk about our strategic planning work and the budget listening sessions that I've been engaging in in the schools. So, you will recall from our last meeting that I and Erica, Assistant Superintendent Mateo, and uh Ted Dalton, who is an early childhood administrator in another district who's been helping us out with this, presented information to you about our respons upcoming responsibility to assume um Childfind and FAPE, which is free appropriate public education for children ages 3 to five.

014and that at the latest the latest that we will have to assume this responsibility is July 1st, 2028. Um we may choose to begin that responsibility in whole or in part before that um with some support from the main department of education. So since that last meeting we have taken some steps forward and I want to appreciate what those are. So the first you will have seen a letter that went out for me to launch an an early childhood transition task force. The invitation has gone out to staff. It's gone out to community members. We are purposefully seeking a broad range of voices in this task force. There is a lot to think about with this transition because it's a it's a big responsibility. Some of those things include staffing, facilities, budgets, potential partnerships with

015local child care providers. I I could go on and on. So, in thinking of the way forward, this piece is critical. Um, that group will be put together this month. We are receiving letters of interest already. Um, this is probably a good time for me to note that one of the hopes for that committee is to have a a board of directors from the school board here from each town. I've received a letter already from Malik who's not here. She's from Powell, but we would still need someone from Durham and from Freeport and of course others from Powell can throw in their hat too if interested. Um, so we are receiving also letters from staff members and community members. So my hope is to be able to put together that that task force by October

01620th, which is when the letters are due, to have its first meeting on the end of the month. Uh and then we'll have one meeting per month right up through the beginning of January, which is when I hope that that task force will be able to present some recommendations to this body um as a way to go forward. And at that point, we will be heavily engaged in the budget process. So that's hence the timeline for this. Um I've also been in touch with a lot of people to just become as well informed as possible about what the requirements are and how it's going in other districts, how it's being approached. I've had conversations the past few weeks with many superintendents in this region, including a meeting that was attend Greater Sebago Education Alliance meeting

017just this morning that focused specifically on this topic. Um, our partner districts, our neighboring districts are all in various stages. Some are right where we are. Some are a little bit ahead. Some are a little ahead. Some are maybe even a little bit behind in the process. Um the consistent message that I have heard particularly when I've asked for feedback about the task force is that it's exactly what we should be doing. Um and another common theme that has come up is um a sense of not fully understanding how the state will um fund this going forward. Now that leads me to another point. At our last meeting, um we presented information to you which we had um which was the best advice we had been given at the time and had been run through

018the district's legal council indicating that after July 1st, 2028, the responsibility of programming costs for the children who are identified with um as having IEPs would revert to the district. Um Dr. Sandy Flack who is the person with the main DOE who is really the point person on this issue has reached out to me and has pointed out that under the law early childhood special education for ages 3 to five will be 100% state funded even after that point. Um so that was a topic that was discussed among the superintendents this morning too because that is um this is something the state is trying to make sure that we know but is not fully well fully known at this point. There seems to be a lot of um misunderstanding of this. There are still questions

019about what that looks like when the time comes. But I'll take it because it's good news. Um even though it's different from what we initially understood. uh we will continue to seek clarity about what is covered beyond the direct services. That's still a question mark for me. So in other words, what the state is saying is that for every child who is identified, they will continue to support 100% of that child's programmatic costs. But what that doesn't mean is that if we decide as a district to integrate early childhood into our district, there are systemic costs that can go along with that, not just tagged to each individual child. Those are things that we really need to consider and those costs are not being promised as covered. Um, again, this is a common question. So,

020in other news about this, we have a site visit planned for October 29th, and folks from the DOE are going to do a walkthrough of our facilities to help us envision how we could use the facilities that we already have to meet this need going forward. And that I think will be something that the task force really wants to consider what information we get from that. Before I go on, maybe it's a good time for me to take questions about the CVS process. >> Thank you so much, Tom. That's really helpful information to have. And I'm I'm really glad to hear about the 100% state funding. But I do have to say my immediate um concern or skepticism is the inadequate fun existing special education funding that we get from the state and the federal

021government and sort of the gaps there in um what they give us and what is actually needed to provide the the level of services that the kids in our district need. So um I guess I'm wondering how they'll ensure that we you know the 100% of the costs are covered. I'm not expecting you to have that answer, but I'm just wanted to say that out loud. >> I think it's a great question. Um, I do have a phone call. Well, we as a team have a call scheduled with Sandy Flack tomorrow morning. So, that's certainly a question that I'll ask. >> Yeah. I wonder is it, you know, does it fund through the ED279 where they say, "Well, this is what it costs to educate a child, which we know at least in RSU5 is

022well below what we spend to educate every child in RSU5." I do have a preliminary answer to that because just yesterday Erica and I were at a a conference for new superintendent in which the topic that we were being briefed about is the ED279. This question came up and the answer that was given was that it's a separate pot of money and so it will be a separate stream of money that had originally been allocated to CDS. >> Okay. >> So it is in the law that there's a commitment to do this. Now, laws can change. This is 2028. Um, I don't want to be fatalistic about it, and I certainly want to give due credit to the state for wanting to support this and trying to put something together that's really big. Um, but

023I it's fair to I think these questions are fair. Any other questions about that? I have a few other things. >> Carry on. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to let you know that we are continuing with the strategic planning process. Um, it is moving on with great energy. The past two weeks has seen a lot of activity around this. We've had focus groups in every town, uh, more than one here in Freeport. We also had a virtual session. Um, super cool for me to be in those virtual sessions and then encounter former students of mine who now live in Freeport and have kids in our schools. Um, that's happened more than once now and I just love it. Um, tomorrow. >> Do you recognize them or do they recognize you? >> Well, it I

024recognized them. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I also had independently of that, just as an aside, I was at Masked Landing last Friday doing the wave as kids were picked up and a former student reached out and said, "Oh my gosh, Mr. Gray, I saw you at out on the P." You know, so that's really nice. >> That is very cool. To be fair, you didn't have kindergarteners that you had to figure out what they still look like, too. So, they probably look similar in high school. That's good. Um, tomorrow the strategic planning team meets again in the afternoon and then on Friday is professional learning day. We um we have taken note I want to explain this in a way that really makes sense. We've taken note that the high school has to do

025NIA accreditation soon. So the one of the major points that we are working on with strategic planning is to develop the portrait of a graduate. Is that the correct term Erica? The vision of a learner. Well, in any case, the NEAS high school accreditation process is also predic predicated on a vision of the graduate. Yeah, >> that's the whole point really because my whole point is that however we nuance this language, it's really the same thing. And so what we're doing tomorrow uh Friday is we are merging the two processes so that the high school's NEAS work intersects directly with the strategic planning so we don't have to do it again. The high school doesn't have to do that again next year. >> That'd be great. Um, so and I have been part of NEASK

026accreditation quite a few times. Not that I seem to remember the terminology, but I remember the process. So that's um there's a lot of work happening on strategic planning right now. And I want to give a shout out to Erica Walstrom who has really um worked very hard to facilitate a lot of this work with Grace. And the last thing I wanted to say is that I have been working hard to get out to every school to hear staff members about their priorities and perspectives on the budget. I had the last of those meetings today. It was at Freeport Middle School. They've been very rich conversations. Um they've been well attended. I've met a lot of people. I've heard a lot of concerns and I've heard a lot of priorities. And I can only think

027that as we go forward that helps us um be transparent and thoughtful. So that is my update for tonight. And if there are any further questions, I'll be happy to take them. More. Thank you again. Um, I did have a question about strategic planning and I know it's pretty soon after that process of getting the input from the community and other stakeholders to reflect on this maybe, but I'm uh wondering about turnout. I know you said the turnout was good, but also how we're feeling about engagement, especially from potentially underrepresented and marginalized groups in our community and um student voices. And um I know in the past when we've done um certain um efforts to engage stakeholders that sometimes it felt like there was some pieces missing. So I was just wondering if you had

028an overall thought yet about um how the process went in terms of engaging all the all of folks. >> I think that's a great point. I don't have a a breakdown of of disagregated data on that. I can tell you a perception I have is that the folks that I encountered in the at the listening sessions did tend to be pretty well attuned to the schools parents who are are consistently engaged. I also, if I remember correctly, the bulk of the data points that we have are student data, student responses to surveys especially and the focus groups with students that happened both last spring and this fall. So, I think the student voice is well represented and it was purposeful that the staff the staff have done this in PE professional learning time. So the

029staff voice has definitely been strongly represented. >> Thank you. >> All right. So we will move on to item nine on our agenda which is administrative reports and we will start with uh the update from the Freeport High School and goal review from Jen Golko. I have to lower this a little bit. Are you projecting? >> Yes. get on here and then I'll get started. Okay, great. Good evening everybody. I'm Jen Gokle from the high school. It's great to see you all tonight. Um, I am not that tall. Let me see. I'm also really excited that I'm on the agenda twice because that means I get two cookies. Colin knows that. Um, and before I start, I just wanted to briefly say how grateful we are, Phoebe, for your work over the past two years.

030I have been so fortunate to work with Phoebe all four years. We've got a lot of work to do together this year, but I think you've done an outstanding job. We've had lots of different school reps who uh schoolboard reps who have done a great job. I think you've done an outstanding job and have taken it seriously and um for those of you who don't know, Phoebe has done a phenomenal job of communicating back out to the um student leadership committee of what the board is talking about and really just having a sense of connecting us uh our school to the board. So, appreciate it very much, Phoebe. I could say more, but I'll stop. Um so I am here tonight to talk a little bit about the progress that we made on our schoolwide

031goals last year and then talk about the goals that we have um for the year that uh this current year. So as most of you have heard me say in years past, we are really proud of the work that we have done over the past 10 years. This is our 11th year at Freeport High School of having our own strategic plan here. Um this was developed by our faculty leadership teams starting the very first plan that we made was in 2015 and every year we have developed action steps that tie directly to these five overall goals and those action steps guide our work for the year and the action steps that we make each year are based on faculty feedback. They have input into the entire faculty has input into what they think uh where

032we have made progress and what they think we should focus on for the coming school year. And then we have our faculty leaders both our leadership team and our department chairs weigh in on the action plan for the current year. And so those have been the goals, one of the goals that I have presented to the board each year to talk about which um action steps have been the things that we focused on the most where we feel most proud of the work that we have done and things that we really need to prioritize and push forward into the current year that need continual work or more work. Um so the this is actually the last year of this strategic plan. So, it's good timing as the district strategic plan comes into play and it's

033always that our plan falls under the umbrella of the district plan. Um, but it's really guiding our work. Uh, and so these were the goal. This was the first goal last year was that it was just an overview for the board of the five categories and the action steps. These are very paired down. You have um in your packet a little bit more detail. And then we have our full strategic plan that has um much more detailed information about these action steps. So I'll just kind of quickly talk through these pieces that we um focused on last year. Um engaging instruction, the action steps that we set last year. Um one of the things that we focused on that's continuing into this year is really looking at executive functioning skills amongst our students. It's something

034that we have seen a drastic decline since COVID in students um ability to manage and um engage with their learning um due to some of these pieces of executive functioning, time management, organization, task initiation, um all sorts of things. And so we started focusing on that last year as a whole faculty and it's continued into this year. You'll see that um in the goals that um that I present for for the current year. We established a group that's we call FHACK and yes we have FPAC and F hack. We both might need a new name for that but that's the freshman horizontal alignment committee and that's our ninth grade teachers a selection of them who teach predominantly nth graders and they are starting to align common practices in classrooms. And so you might have heard

035some other schools where they have a freshman seminar. We don't have a a course like that. And what we're trying to do is align practices amongst teachers. So that process for keeping track of assignments, process for writing down homework, for organizing papers in classrooms, that they're going from room to room and seeing that seems like that should be something that's fairly simple, but usually there's a ton of autonomy in classrooms, which can be really great and ties to a teacher's own style. Um, but there's also a lot of power in commonality and it doesn't mean it looks exactly the same, but that it's predictable for students and that they're building these skills so that as they move into especially junior and senior year, these are things that they're doing on their own. Um, and so

036that has been a a real focus and will continue to be. We revised our habits of work system last year. We shifted to a one to three scoring. We did a lot of research on that. There was something I had presented to the board and felt that our teachers were struggling with defining a four and what did it look like where we are we have two categories for habits of work um preparedness and engagement. It's basically what you do to be ready for class and what you're doing in class. Um this is paired down from the lower grades where prek to 8 have a different set of criteria and a different scoring. Um overall the feedback has been that that that has gone well. There's still challenges with habits of work at the high school

037level for sure. We made a decision to take habits of work temporarily out of our co-curricular eligibility as we examine that process and the feedback from that was overwhelmingly positive from both staff and students. Doesn't mean that it won't get back in as we have a committee working on that. Um, but that's something that um we we saw positive feedback from last year. Purposeful assessment. You'll see that u for those of you who have heard me present in years past, these are things that we're constantly working on. Summitive assessments, strong summitive assessments um that are common for teachers of the same course. Um and this year we or excuse me, last year and going into this year, uh we've made a a stronger focus on data analysis. We made so much progress over the years

038of teachers having common assessments that now really what we're prioritizing is them sitting down looking at the results of those assessments and analyzing how students are doing. Is there adjustments to instruction? Is there adjustments needed to the assessment itself? Is there individual support for um some of the kids that are in that course? So that has been a big piece of the work um and is an ongoing uh process for our our teachers. uh year-long plans is something that we work on. Our goal is for every course to have uh written curriculum of an outline of the standards in the units um that are used in that course. And again, we've made a lot of progress. We're very fortunate that um we support teachers to do a lot of that work in the summertime and

039they're able to collaborate and really focus on reflecting on the year before and then planning for the year that's coming. Um, for our equity and inclusion action steps, I would say the place we made the most progress was the middle bullet of the equity team's work. We have a subgroup of our leadership team that was uh established 5 years ago. There are um four faculty members that are on that team and their focus has been for the past two years identifying financial potential financial barriers for any of our students and working to reduce or eliminate those barriers. And so they've done a lot of investigating of where are these hidden costs either in courses or in co-curriculars. Uh so for example, what does it cost to go to the model UN conference? What does it

040cost to buy cleats to um participate in a sport? What does it cost if you are um participating in the musical? Does it cost anything? And then finding out can we reduce or eliminate those barriers. And so that has been something that they've been combing through all different areas and they will continue with that work. uh addressing microaggressions is something that we have um decided to continue and shift the language a little bit for the um for the goal for this year and it's something that we're constantly working on. I had presented a couple of years ago that we were trying to have an outside organization come in and do some skill building with our staff. Um we've done some internal skill building about how to identify and address microaggressions headon. Um, and it's even

041um that that term is one that is a little bit outdated um that it's it's more that um a more common phrase is acts of exclusion or subtle acts of exclusion people say and so addressing how are we as adults in the building working to recognize that. Um but that's ongoing work. the co-curricular eligibility process. Um you'll hear Eric Hall speak about this when when he addresses the board with his goals. Uh and that is currently in progress right now. It started last spring by um surveying students, surveying parents, asking for people who wanted to be a part of the committee work and so that is moving forward as well. um the community outreach action steps. One of the um big pieces of work that we are trying to do is make more concrete connections

042between our curriculum and the community and then share that out with the community. One logistical barrier that became bigger than we thought, but we are addressing it this year is students not having um permission from families for us to share their photos. So, we made these amazing community newsletters and then couldn't send them out because not everybody had photo permission. So, we're working on that right now. We know that not all families are comfortable with that, but we're trying to get as many families as we possibly can find out who just didn't have permission and then we'll be able to if the numbers small enough, we would be able to identify students and take them out of that community newsletter. But we had just um an amazing outpouring of support from the community to come

043in and bring resources here. Probably one of the most powerful ones was having veterans um from as recent as five years ago that they had served in um one of the branches of the armed forces to we had um one of the old um few World War II veterans who I think he was 95 years old who was here speaking to the students in the library and they had the opportunity to engage and ask questions. So the more that we can um promote that work and expand upon that, that's what we are um excited to do. As well as our outreach coordinator, we're so fortunate to have that position who expands on ELLO's, extended learning opportunities, which are creditbearing experiences outside of the building. And that's something that you hear about in high schools across

044the state of Maine right now that all schools are looking at how do we get more kids involved in that? Um, and then support for learning and growth. This is our third year of a three-year partnership with the Jed Foundation. Um, as I've shared before, we received a grant to partner with the Jed Foundation. And they are a national organization that supports mental health um, awareness and resources. And so they helped us make a different strategic plan. We need a different name for it, but our mental health action steps. And it's really about incre increasing resources and awareness. Um things like our active minds club that um Phoebe is one of the leaders of and has spoken about just trying to really have um more resources readily available for students. And so we meet with

045the Jed team. We have our own representatives. So that's ongoing work. Um and we have two faculty members who who lead that team here. We are constantly working on advisory. um we prioritize uh academic support and last year we expanded the number of callback days because feedback was that's where both students and staff really want us spending time in advisory. Um and we also expanded the opportunity for movement breaks um that we have open track and open gym available this year. The goal is to do it have it available almost every day um where it was much more limited in the past. And you will hear lots about cell phones um when we get there of what our current process or what our process was last year and um how we implemented that uh in

046order to um manage our students using their cell phones and also increase their engagement and and um reduce distractions in classes. So we'll come back to that and talk a lot about that. Um and so there's a couple of pieces of data. I I know that some data was presented last uh board meeting as well and there will be an upcoming meeting where the scorecard is shared with all of the data from um all of our our standardized testing. But I'm just sharing two pieces of data because our theory is vacuction is if we as a staff are working on all of those things, engaging instruction and purposeful assessment and um supporting the whole student that we will see gains in all of our data sources. This is one of our proudest sources of data

047um is that we work incredibly hard and Phoebe can tell you that at the beginning of the year when we hold assemblies with every grade I ask them what do you think the goal is and the kids shout back 100%. And I've said 100%. That is our goal to reach for 100% to be standing up on on those stairs at the Merrill and we've gotten close 98.8% uh we were down a little bit last year 96.6% 6% but we are really proud of those numbers. Uh but 100% is the goal and every student in this school is aware of that. Uh but this is another source of data that we were really proud to see last year. Uh in terms it's just one source of data but in terms of uh the AP scores you

048can see that 91.8% of our students who took an AP test scored a three or higher. um which we are incredibly proud of that and you can see that the number of testers up at the top is similar to the number of testers in 2021 when we were around 69% of our students. So we've made major gains from 2021 incrementally each year. Um, we have added, the superintendent asked this. Um, we have added some AP classes and there's also opportunity, more opportunities for students to take online AP classes that we don't offer. So, that has increased some of the offerings. Um, but you see that the the numbers are similar. um and the success that kids are having on those. Our AP teachers are just doing an outstanding job um helping our students have a

049really meaningful learning experience and do well on the test. So, we're really proud of that data. So, the other second so that's the strategic um plan and our action step side of the goal. The second goal that we had last year was based on our main three-year uh testing scores. And so the goal uh if you remember we no longer test nth graders. Uh we only test 10th graders and we test them both in the fall and um in the spring. We made it our mission last year to get as close to 100% of kids testing. Um feeling like that would help us feel really confident in the data. And um I was uh a little bit like a uh relentless with this and we had 148 out of 149 kids take the test last

050year which we were really really proud of that. And so our goal was um 65% of students to meet or exceed the achievement target um for math and 78% in reading. The challenge which you've heard me talk about the other administrators and Cindy Alexander talked about this last year is that in that shift from using the NWA test to going to main through year it's a little bit like uh it's not quite apples and oranges but it might be like red and green apples that um the sources of data and the way that they measure things are slightly different. And so when we look at main three-year testing, they have four categories of how either meet, exceed, below, well below. But when you look at NWA testing, which I have presented to you for the

051last 10 years and the other principles have as well, NWA has five categories that they do. So the images that I shared with you, what I was trying to um show you is that these are the categories that NWA breaks down our testing. And you can see that typically what I have shared with you in the past is the the yellow, the green, and the blue, which is any student who has has scored at the 41st percentile or higher. That's what NWA uses at the as the number. And you've heard some of the principles, I know Emily Grim has said this, that we felt like 41% was low. We felt like that for years to say that that's the mark that we're going for. The state of Maine talks about 50th percentile. So what I

052did was you can see both. I calculated what 50% would be if we are using that as the number uh to say um how our students did in terms of our goals. And so you'll see down uh at the bottom for the math testing, oh, sorry, this is for reading um for the reading testing in the fall that we were at 77.4% of students who scored at the 50th um achievement level or higher. And then um in the spring we were at 78 um let me see I need my glasses. Uh 78.4%. And so we exceeded our goal just by a tiny smidge, but it still exceed. Yeah. Cara, >> what is the 66th in the green? What's the number in the green? >> That is like the median score of all of the students

053um that took the test. That that would be the median place where they would fall in the 66th percentile. Um but so overall we had 78.4% at 50th uh achieve percentile achievement level or higher. Um and then for math you can see that um in the fall we were at 74.7% the goal was at 65. Uh we dipped a little bit there uh and went down in the spring to 67.1% but um still exceeded that goal of 65%. So we were very pleased with that and as I said before the hope is that the work that we have done on our instruction and in our classroom leads to improved outcomes in lots of different places graduation AP and um throughear testing. Um so that is um the sum of the um the report of the

054goals for last year. Is there any questions about that before I move on to our current goals? Okay, great. Um so for the 2025 goals 2026 you'll see what I did was again this is these are a very short synopsis um bulleted list of the action steps that we have prioritized for the coming year and you'll see that some of them are repeated common summitive assessments is something we are constantly constantly working on. Um, one thing you'll see in equity and inclusion is that I was super fortunate this summer I received a scholarship to go to a 5-day workshop in Washington DC that was about promoting civil discourse, which we know in the world right now is incredibly important. Um, I was the only person from Maine there and the only um, high school principal

055who was there. There were schools across the country that were about 250 people that were attending. Five days was a lot, but it was awesome. And so that is um where we've shifted the language of really focusing on microaggressions. What we want to do is talk about how do we promote respectful discourse and interactions in and out of the classroom. So it's a slightly different take on that. Um and the workshop is um is run by an organization called Sphere. They're a nationwide organization that supports high schools um and middle schools in implementing uh concrete strategies to help do this in classroom. How do you set up classroom discussions? How do you start talking as a schoolwide culture about respectful discourse? So, we're excited about that. We haven't even touched on that yet, but that

056will be um something that we're working on. I highlighted the two because those are the two things that we are really going to focus on for the goals this year. Um, one is about professional development for executive functioning and the expectation is that every teacher will implement at least one strategy um and that every teacher is participating in a book study that is um actually started this week that is about executive functioning strategies through our um PLC's our professional learning communities. Um so that's the first part of the goal and the second part is professional development uh to support differentiated instruction and assessment. This is also something that we worked on last year. We did some faculty-wide workshops during faculty meetings and it's something that we had very positive feedback that those workshops were led

057by our own teachers and giving really concrete strategies about how do you differentiate your instruction for a wide range of learners in the same classroom and the feedback was that people wanted more of that and so that will be another piece that we're focused on and again the expectation is that teachers are implementing at least one strategy some who are already working on this as well. So, um I just instead of going through all of these uh um bullet points, I'm happy to share any information on uh any of them, but those are the two things that we're going to track um and that I will um share data on on what that has looked like this year, how we focused on that, and how we're measuring that in all of our classrooms. And then

058um shifting to an attendance goal, you'll hear from all of the principles that we are continuing to work on attendance um as a district in all of our schools. Uh our goal at the high school is to reduce chronic absenteeism by 5% to be below 12%. Which you can see from the 2022 23 school year that would be a massive decline which we're hoping for um when we were at 21.5%. uh we've stayed static for the last two years and are feeling that if we're implementing some new strategies and resources um that we are um hoping it's it's a lofty goal to get below 12% um and we're going to work hard to get there. And so if you see on the right hand side um we are going to pump information out to families

059and to students. Why is it important to be here? Um how can we support your attendance? What are ways that the more connected a student is to school and research has shown over and over again um that they're more likely to attend and their overall attendance and um performance is improved. Um we have attendance alerts that will continue to go out to parents. Um we are very fortunate that we're a small enough high school that we track every student every period of the day. and a parent gets a phone call anytime that a student is not sitting in class um or text message like I got this morning when I forgot to call about a doctor's appointment. >> That's right, Michelle. Um we're so happy to be using Reach My Teach. This is something I

060have um children in Portland schools, so I've been on the parent side of it. Um and we are really excited to use this. It's just much more user friendly. You'll see like as Michelle said, it's quick text messages. parents can text back, which we know is a much faster way to reach parents. Um, and so that is a part of the strategies. Um, we're working on professional development for administrators. All of the assistant principles went to an attendance workshop already. Uh, and we'll be implementing some of the strategies um, from that workshop. And then just a constant reminder of our procedures and expectations which have gotten tighter um as I've shared with the board about um really reviewing absences that are um not what we would deem excusable and seeing if they're excusable and also

061um we've reduced the period absences um by requiring notification for when a student is being dismissed. Uh and so feeling like all of these things plus our new action steps uh our hope is to get to below 12% because we know the more that kids are in school um the more that we're able to support them. So >> do you have off the top of your head, sorry I didn't ask this ahead of time um just a sort of baseline precoid number like were we below 12 ever or is 16 and more? >> Uh that's a great question. I don't think we've ever been below 12. Um but we were not at 20. That was like right postco that was the highest that we've been. I'd have to look back and see what the um

062rates are that we could definitely get that number. Just curious >> and that's it. Um questions about our goals. I the only question I had Thank you. This is as always very um expansive. So thank you for all of this info. I was curious how long our partnership with the Jud Foundation lasts. >> So the partnership is three years. Um but after that um part of their um support for us is that you are forever considered a Jed school and we are the first Jed school in Maine. So we were really proud u to to uh be a part of their organization. And what that means for the end of our third year, we started by having a student in a staff survey uh in year one and we will end this year. That's a

063big part of their support is that they do all of the data management uh for they create the survey, we administer the survey, they code all of the data and give it back to us to see our students more aware of the mental health resources that we have. have we put action steps in place that have helped to promote um mental health and mental wellness and so we'll see that through the survey that will be at the end of this year. >> I'm I'd be curious to see sort of the the I don't know if they separate it by grade but it'd be interesting to see the seniors data because they were here before Jed. They're probably the only class that was here before Jed and at the end of the three years. So it'll

064be interesting to see the data. It >> definitely and I think some of the Jed um support has been really helpful and what we have found is that some of the Jed support um by listening to other schools present it was for schools that had no mental health resources in place. We are so fortunate here that we had some of the things in place already, but our hope is that we've expanded um especially uh in the minds of students that they are more aware of of um where they can access resources. >> Thank you, Laura. >> Thank you so much, Jen. Um I just was wondering if you had any additional reflection on the Sorry, this is going back to the goals from last year, but on the math through your data and that dip

065and if that's something that typically happens or if that's sort of an anomaly and if that's you know you have reflections on or any discussions on that. >> Um it's I think one of the things that we're looking at is there are some challenges with the test. I think you'll hear that um about you know how um students perform in the fall versus the spring. what the actual bank of questions is. My understanding is that it's I need to like dig into this more, but my understanding is that the bank of questions in the fall is different than the bank of questions in the spring and how it's adjusting for levels. Um, but I think that it it it depends on so many different factors, but that is typically a bigger jump than we would

066see from the fall coming in um to the spring. But again it adjusts based on um the students answer and so what they have answered and then the next question is either adjusting higher or adjusting lower and so so many different factors can go into it. We also give this test at a time of year um you know they're a little bit we're giving NWBA testing right now it's a little bit fresher in the year um and so sometimes that can even though they've had more math content by the spring it certainly can be sometimes Phoe's nodding her head sometimes it can be the factors of everything else that's happening at that time too so I can't say exactly why we've had that dip uh we're happy that it's still at the goal that we

067had set But it's certainly something for us to look into and we can break into the specific skills. This data is broken down into for each student it would show Jen Gulo and then how I've done on four discrete skills in math. And so we can look at patterns across kids too where they're scoring higher. One um example of that is it measures statistics and probability which almost always comes at the very tail end of the curriculum and so we spend less time on that and so that's a conversation for us to have is that something that we need to adjust in our pacing and time. >> Thank you. Thanks for this, Jim. Um, a question about the common common summitive assessments for any course taught by multiple teachers. Can you share a little bit

068more about what that has looked like before and what you're hoping that will look like with this goal? >> Sure. I think that so this has been something that we've been working on for years. And so if we have three algebra 1 teachers in the past um there was at in some courses some departments the teachers might have been very much aligned and they were doing almost lock step of the same units at the same time and then giving the same assessment. That wasn't necessarily the case everywhere. could be, for example, we inherit a teacher from another school who's come in who's taught this course for a long time. They have their assessment set. Um, and so, uh, it could be that Jen Gulko and Charlie Melon are teaching the same class and we're close

069aligned, but at the end we're giving a different assessment. And so, we have really pulled that apart to say my style can be very different than Mr. Melon style. You can imagine it's a little different than Mr. Melon style. Um, and so there's there's value in that, but in the end, we should be using the same tool to measure those skills. And so that we've spent a ton of time in our PLC's, in our departments, in our summer work to give the exact same assessment. It might be um that my assessment if my students went further, it could be that I have some additional questions on there, but that the bulk and the heart of what we're measuring is the same if we're teaching the same course. And so that's the goal that we're constantly

070working on. Um particularly it could be for example, we used to have um in a particular science class, we used to have only one teacher. So that teacher never had to align with another teacher. Now we have two teachers teaching that and then they have to come together with their practices and compromise and and collaborate on what that assessment looks like and our teachers have done an absolutely outstanding job of working on that. >> Um Google Classroom for students have they not had access to Google Classroom or like what what's been used in the past? >> Yeah, >> that's a great question. So, I I should have made that a little bit more specific. So, um Mr. Melon and I created a um Google Classroom for staff and it's one location where a staff can

071find anything, handbooks, agendas, and so we made a general one for all students. That's where they can find the calendar and the bell schedules, things that impact the whole school are in Google Classroom because the students have said that that's a a valuable tool for them. they're using it for each of their individual classes. Um, and so we have out of our 580 kids, we have 300 I think we're at like around 350 who have joined that Google classroom. So now we can put things in there to say this is the advisory calendar for the month. This is um you don't have school on Friday and then everybody gets that message at the same time. So it's just again one of those executive functioning things. We heard from kids it would be helpful and so

072we created that this year. >> It's a it's a maybe a potential alternative to sending out emails that they don't open. >> Yes. Okay. Yes. What do you mean, Michelle? They open all their emails. >> Every email they open, right? >> Every email. >> Yes. >> Except when they hit delete all. I've watched that. That is just like painful to my heart. >> Colin, um, thanks so much for this, Jen. I'm um curious about the um it's awesome what you got to go to the promoting civil discourse that sounds like such a wonderful opportunity and the goal of um shifting attention to promoting respectful discourse interaction sounds wonderful. I guess I have two questions on that. is um I guess and without getting too much into the weeds is I guess one is like how

073is that goal going to be activated in the classroom setting and are there particular um classes I guess sort of as a as an English teacher myself I sort of think about how that would um uh how respectful discourse and interaction would would work in the context of um you know analyzing a text or discussing um something in history class. And I guess my other question is is how either are um teachers being supported in any of that work through PD or is there are there any plans to support them in that work? >> That's a great question. So um some of the strategies that uh we learned about and and observed in the summer workshop that I participated in. Um we're so fortunate that some of our teachers are already using that. So, an

074example would be um a really specific lesson to set up norms for your classroom of what's an acceptable way to engage in um a debate or a discussion on a particular topic. It could be in any uh content area. So, some of our teachers are already doing that. For some, that might be more uh new where they're engaging in different kinds of conversations that they have or a topic that wasn't controversial. um maybe if you're talking about students view versus adults view on cell phones and how do we do that in a respectful way that might be new for some teachers. And so it's giving really specific strategies of how you set that lesson up, how you monitor that and facilitate that as the adult um when and how you step into a conversation when

075you feel like um it's not um respectful discourse and how do you cut that off? And so some of our teachers, like I said, have been engaging in that. Some will need this real specific PD about that. The organization that I worked with this summer actually provides it's I don't totally know where all their money comes from, but they provide free professional development. And so it's not something right at this moment that we have prioritized. Um, and because they're a nationwide group, it would be something that we would have to set with them way far in advance. But I spoke to them specifically this summer when I was in DC about that. Would you come to Maine? And they were like, "Yeah, we'd come to Maine." And so, um, that, you know, a possibility that

076I spoke to them about is I have my principal group that I value so much and in the, um, you might now call it Sebago, Greater Sebago for our principles, um, because Cumberland isn't, um, capturing everyone, but we've talked about it could potentially be representatives from all of our schools. um participating in some sort of professional development. So hopefully that that's in the works. I came back with a suitcase of books, too. >> Wow. >> It was wonderful. Yeah. >> I'm so interested why you were the only high school person there. Like >> from Maine. From Maine, high school principal. It was teachers. >> Oh, >> it was really interesting. They were they were asking me the same thing like what are you doing here? Um but uh administrators could go. there were a handful

077um of assistant principles or um curriculum directors that were from all over the country, but I'm not sure why it wasn't um there were very few from New England at all. Um so it was predominantly um in the South or in the Midwest. >> Wonderful. Other questions for Jen? We'll give her a quick break and a cookie. and a cookie. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> All right. So, uh our next uh presentation is Peter Wagner for community programs. >> Are you using the >> No. >> Okay. >> Nope. No. I'll just be going off of my pad here. >> You are taller, so you can move it. All right. Great. Um, hi everyone. Um, so I'll take a look back at um at last year's goals and give

078you a couple of updates on those. Um the first was um a relatively ambitious project at um really diving into adult enrichment programming based on the premise that we had really taken a nose dive and not recovering uh post pandemic. And um so the um the update on that goal is that we started down that road but abandoned it ultimately. Um finding generally that our adult enrichment program anecdotally was maybe never quite as robust as we thought it was or I thought it was and that our fall-off maybe had not been all that dramatic compared to other adult ed offices um in our Cumberland County hub. Um so we um we did have some engaging conversations about that with some partners um in the hub. Um we uh we did revive some programs that we

079had done in the past and brought back for our August 2025 catalog and some other new programs. um one of our uh one of our our newest staff member actually on the team, Kathy Deg Grand Prix, um has taken uh it it upon herself to um to really be plugging in with the community and find community partners who can who can uh add to our enrichment programming. So, we have a lot of those new programs in the book this time around. So, we've we've made a nice rebound there, I think. And then um as a part of our annual um reporting uh took a look back at at the number of people that we had involved in our adult education programs all all the way across the board. So that's English learners, it's high set

080learners, but then it's also adult enrichment and um so I've updated that in the document that you have there. But in in 2020, fiscal year 2020, which I guess includes the the first couple of months of the pandemic, our total number was 780. In fiscal year 21, the first full year of the pandemic, that number dropped to 97. Um so that was that was truly the the low point. But the numbers since then 20 20 uh 22 through 25 um 435 586 595 and then this past year 794. So um so thi this year was the first year that we rebounded actually beyond the the number of people um that were in the program prior to the pandemic. And that number does not include the significant bump that we received uh I guess probably fiscal

081year 22 and 23 when uh the asylum seekers were in the hotels here in town and we had we were counting so many of those folks in our English learning programs. So, um, so generally speaking, I'm I'm quite pleased, I think, with where what we learned where our adult ed program is, uh, in in regard to enrichment right now, and it's just really exciting to see that number, um, finally be above where we were in 2020. So, I feel like we're back on solid footing, even if last year's goal was not uh, uh, explicitly completed as as written. Um, any any questions or anything we'd like to talk about with that one before I move on to the next one? >> I'll just say congratulations. That's incredible. >> Yeah, thanks. No, that feels that feels

082really good to to see those numbers. Um, the second goal um last year was uh to launch at least one new program aimed at marginalized and/or underserved populations. And um we were able to get a unified soccer program for our wreck uh wreck aged participants off the ground last year. Um we had 18 um participants in that particular part of our program. Um and we have similar numbers so far in 2025. So we launched it last year. We've had a reboot for this year. Things are going well. And um actually as I was looking through this documentation and and thinking about an update for um for you all um I got in touch with with Bill Ridge who uh we had been in some conversations with last year about um uh about a unified basketball

083team at the middle school level which they were able to launch and get that going and it was it was wonderful and a big success. But something he had said last year um sorry pardon me um made me want to dig a little bit deeper. And so uh Bill and I met just last week and we're looking at um community programs is looking at supporting a yearround unified club at Freeport Middle School which would be athletics and other activities one day a week from October right on through June. So, um, so that will be that will be, um, specifically a middle school club project, um, but a nice collaboration. We'll be able to, um, to jump in there and support them and and help with planning and, um, and management and staffing. So, excited to

084to be able to, um, to have that additional element to to our programming. Um the goals for this year um if there's a theme for this year I think it is reconnecting and uh and plugging in. Um certainly looking back at my own interactions and places I was spending my time and collaboration that I was doing. Um I I I attribute it to the 2020 2021 year, but there's probably more to it than that even. Um uh things have fallen off a little bit. And so, uh, so the first goal that I that I have that I really want to get back to, and I think it's going to, um, be great for our office and hopefully also good for the for the students and staff at each of the schools, is to reestablish regular

085meetings with building administrators to create um, regular opportunities to collect their feedback and ideas that are specific to each school's population. Um so as you can imagine the sorts of things that we do whether it's recreation or enrichment um for the uh for the kids um it's very different from school to school um and it's different uh the the K through2 needs in Poundell are different than the K through2 needs in Freeport or Durham. Um so getting really granular with um with the principles about that and hearing from them about what they're seeing on the ground, what sorts of things maybe we're missing, things that we could do um that would uh that would really enhance um life for the for the families and and uh for the communities in those schools. We'd like to

086do that. So um so I'm going to get back into those meetings. I have um the first round of those scheduled for next week with all six principles. So, I'm really looking forward to to getting that going again and and and doing better for each of the schools. All right. And um very much uh with the same theme, um I think there's a lot for us to learn from uh from more direct and targeted collaboration with our partners in uh recreation departments um in the area and also at Aldic offices. So we have opportunities each year uh to get together at at conferences and um you know regularly monthly scheduled meetings where there are a lot of adult ed directors or rec directors on the on the phone or on Zoom. Um, and there's always

087something to be learned there, but I want to drill down a little bit further and schedule an hour or two or like a, you know, a half day um, to spend with with colleagues who do the same work that we do to find out um, uh, the places where they're successful, the places they struggle, the things we have in common, look for best practices, and just look for some good new ideas that will better serve our community. So, I'm really looking forward to both of these goals for the coming year and just really getting plugged back in with the people who uh can help us be better. >> Questions for Peter? >> I don't have a question, but I just wanted to say thank you for this, Peter. I appreciate it. I think that it

088sounds great this learning that you're going to seek to do. And also um wanted to say what a joy it is to drive by the laugh and learn when I go to pick my son up from MLS every day and now that that's there and all the hard work that you and your team put into that just it's very lovely and the playground looks beautiful and thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thanks so much. Yeah, that's that has been as you all know you've been hearing me talk about that Laugh and Learn Center for more than three years now. Um, and this was kind of the crowning piece of that project, finally getting a playground of our own. Um, if you haven't seen it yet, it's a natural playground. Um, and uh, right there

089at the entrance to Mass Landing School, so please swing by and take a look. Uh, it's it's really just everything we hoped it could be. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Peter. >> Okay. Thank you. And the Yankees are losing, just so you know. >> Even better. [Laughter] Okay. So, uh administrator. Okay. So, that's it for what we have for administrator reports. We don't have board comments and committee reports uh for today. We don't have a policy review. Um so, we will move on to unfinished business. And uh the first of those uh is the cell phone usage. Um I think you're going to kick us off. >> Sure. So we have with the understanding that the board's purpose tonight is to be in a listening mode. Um I know our student rep Phoebe has

090collected student data and the principles of Freeport High School, um the assistant principal of Freeport Middle School and principal of Durham Community School are all here. they have surveyed their staff. Um the results of those surve they're going to discuss the results of those surveys. Uh although the raw results of them had some in the comments information that was probably just best kept summarized by the principles rather than distributed wholesale. Um sometimes people would would mention things that work for kind of in school consumption only. So, Phoebe, I wonder if I could put you on the spot and we could hear first about the student perspective. >> Uh, for sure. So, I have some information that a couple of my peers and I put together. So, I'd love to pop it up on the projector

091if that's possible. Um, this library. Um, so actually in the spring of last year, the student leadership team um began to try to get some information um from students and we sent out a survey and we actually got 205 responses, which might not seem like a lot, but Miss Goko can attest to this. for a survey that was sent out in emails only. That's a pretty good number. Uh we got all four grades. We got a lot of perspectives. So, um we would love to try to do more of that. It was really towards the end of the year last year, like it was finals week, and so this is how passionate kids were to take their time um during finals week to fill this out. But we could definitely get many many more responses

092um if the board and the community wants that. But for a snapshot um we talked about the current policy that's in place um and whether or not that's working, not working. And we see a lot of students. >> Any chance you can make it bigger? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> We have old eyes, baby. >> Sorry. Okay. How's that? Oh, wait. That's too big. >> Okay. >> Yeah. What's the scale? >> So, five is Hold on. Let me find the question again. Okay. This was the first question. So, in your classes, how much is the cell phone tree, which is like kind of the shoe rack, which is kind of our current policy? How much is that enforced? So five is teachers always have our make us always put our phones up and check

093each student's phone is up and one is not that and so then this is oh crap um okay >> you're good >> summary okay this is the distribution of that so a lot of people are landing here at like they're I like I see this as they're asking us. They're reminding us to put it up, but they're not necessarily like checking. Okay, this student's phone is up. This student's phone is up. Um, question two is, how often are you asked to keep your phone like out of view? So, this is more like off and away type of thing, which is not our building's current policy. So this would be something that's like a little bit away from what most are doing, but we see that a lot of students are kind of experiencing that. So

094that's more a matter of like it's not just that this current policy of the phone trees isn't working, it's also that it's not exactly being enforced. um which I think kind of shows that it is really difficult to enforce. Um so the rest of the questions are scaled basically like that. So five is like I agree, one is like I strongly disagree. So we asked about um the consequences which I think our current policy is that if a teacher sees a phone out they have the discretion to send it to the office to be picked up at the end of the day. And I think one detention is >> okay. A detention is given after multiple infractions. And this was when we asked how much you see kids on their phone in class. And so

095five is let me check that. >> Let's check. Oh my gosh, that's so helpful. You're so nice. Thank you. Um, okay. Wait. So, I'm going to go back. Never mind. Um, okay. How much do you see your kids on their phones during class? Five is multiple kids are on their phone during the class period. One is no one is able to and no one is using their phone during class. So, this is like Yeah, pretty solid. 99 kids said in that two range. And then here we have communal places, hallways, bathrooms, pretty spread out. Five here is going to be the I've seen multiple people at a time in communal spaces and one is I never see anyone >> and these communal spaces are allowed. Yes, this is >> during passing periods. I think this

096question it's not as clear but I believe most kids were answering this question as during class. So kids students leaving class and being in the hallway or being in the bathroom. Phones currently are allowed in the hallway and bathroom during passing periods. So that's something we can get back to you on. Um cafeteria. Yes, that's allowed during lunchtime. Great. Yes. Um, staff enforcement five here is they enforce it quite a bit and one is they don't. So, we're seeing like pretty good amount there. And then this is fairness of the current policy which is the again the phone tree one. Um, five is they're a good balance. the rules are fair and one is they're absolutely not. This is when kids start getting passionate. Um, all right. And then we've got some pie charts. Rules

097should get less there should be less regulation. Um, more regulation. That orange again that is orange is they should be less strict. Blue is they should be more strict and red is they're fair as they are. Um, and then this is where we we talked about the pouches specifically. So, this is >> Can you scroll up just a little so we can see the question? >> Yeah. So, it's Yonder pouches. Those are again the locked ones. This is the brand that we just had in the survey, which I did not make this, by the way. I don't want to take credit for it. Um, a peer of mine on the student leadership team made it. I can't see the questions now. Oh, wait. Can I go in here? Nope. What? Oh. Um, okay. So, when

098we asked about the yonder pouches, >> so one is absolutely not. >> Yeah, one is absolutely not. Five is it's good idea. So, >> right there. >> Yeah. >> So, that's a hard no on the pouches from the student. >> Correct. But then we got a we asked a question about what about using yonder pouches as kind of a form of punishment if students were not following the policy like our current policy is like if you have multiple infractions then you get the yonder bag just one student. Um and this is the breakdown of that. And the blue is that that seems like a good idea. The red is that everyone should get the pouches. And the yellow is Oh, wait. I'm confused. >> Blue and orange are both fair choices, >> I guess. So,

099yeah. Sorry about that. Um, and then Hazel made kind of a summary. So, I can and I can send this to everyone. Um, here's some like quotes pulled out. We also had like open-ended questions about the current policy, potential other policies. Um, so a lot of students said they're not consistently enforced. Um, and then in terms of the yonder pouches specifically, people worry about uh safety. People worry about fairness. Um, they want to be trusted by teachers. This is super small. I'm sorry. Um, so yeah, I can send this out or if people want to look, I can print it out. But that were that was our findings. And then the general summary is many feel that the current enforcement is too inconsistent teacher by teacher. Some are too strict. Some and a lot of

100people want more fair and clear enforcement. And the resistance to the poaches is pretty widespread. But um there is support for that kind of middle ground with the pouches. And yeah, so thanks to Hazel who could not make it for making this and she worked on form. Um, but if anyone has questions or wants to look at this more clearly, I can answer those. Although I'm not 1,000% have this memorized. Any questions, thoughts? Yeah, right. I know this. And then now we go. Um, couple of questions. First of all, thank you to you and the leadership team for uh for putting this together. I think you know more than a third of the student body is a pretty good turnout for a survey, right? Anything over 25% is any survey is is good returns, right?

101So that's that's great. Um, as as Cynthia used to say, it does create some wonderings for me. I wonder if there was a a difference in the perspective from freshman to seniors, right? Freshmen who came out of a uh no cell phones in middle school, so they weren't as used to having them as opposed to seniors who've had four years of, you know, it's gotten tighter over those four years, but basically four years of freedom with their phones. Um so that for me that's a wondering. Also curious um if when you guys had your leadership summit with other leadership teams if you um had any opportunity to talk to potentially schools that have instituted similar policies with sort of a a a way for the day policy um and what what the student assessment was.

102>> Yeah. Yeah. So, the schools we were with um that day were Portland High School, which does, I believe, have a bell-to-bell policy, and Bangor High School. Um, and I don't remember specifically having that conversation with them, but that's a network of schools that we're in that we can utilize if um the board or administrators want to have students asking students from other schools. I know we've brought in um testimony from from administrators and maybe some teachers at other districts who have implemented this, but I do think student input from those same schools would be beneficial. And I think that's something we can um try to find. And to your question about like grade differentiation, that's not data that we took in the survey because we really wanted to emphasize the anonymity of it. Um,

103which is something that we um try really hard to emphasize on student leadership. Um but gathering more information, we can surely get um more like more specific information about the grades and more specific experiences for sure. Yeah, I think you know we've seen a lot of we've seen a lot of articles um we've seen a lot of studies um you know and and they seem to be very positive and the take is that students are on board with it too but anecdotally when I have been out at things with kids in different districts I one of the first questions I always ask them is what's the cell phone policy at your school how is it going how did you you know how was it implemented was it good was it bad um you know the

104general consensus is probably in line with what you put up there. Um, I would be interested in hearing from I mean Portland is very new, right? So, they're going through the the initial pains of of transition. Um, it would be really interesting to hear about a school that had, you know, that's done it for a year or two, right? and to actually talk to the students that may have been there before and through the transition and like have they seen sort of a settling of I mean any change is difficult and it's a challenge and I fully uh understand that and it's not a reason not to make change just because it's going to be hard. Um but I'd be interested to hear kind of down the road a bit if um if we can

105get any student um insights into that. I I would find that helpful. I don't know if others would, but so >> yeah. So the listening schools network, which I'm not exactly sure how many schools are in there, but it's a good amount. And um I can reach out to our facilitator there and ask her to connect me with um reps from other teams and see if they would be willing to share some thoughts from that. And I can email it to you guys or send it along with Moon if that works. Other questions on the student survey piece before we move on to Yeah. >> Yeah. Phoebe, thank you so much and and Hazel uh Hazel. Yes. Um for doing this is so so awesome. Thank you so much for doing this. Um I'm just

106curious what uh like that word punishment and like punishing keeps popping up in this. What did you all intend that to mean or what do you think that means when the word punishment is being used? >> Um I think I don't know if that was the best word to use. I think her intention when our intention when thinking of that maybe more of like a consequence because it is directly related to the infraction, right? like you're misusing your phone and then you're getting that like direct consequence of not having it during the day. Um, but I think there's a pretty a lot of students feel like, oh, it's just these few students who can't manage their phones. Because it's true, a lot of students are able to manage it during the school day. A lot

107of students are not. Um, and I think some students feel like, well, I've never been sent to the office for being on my phone in class. I've never broken the current policy or been caught breaking the current policy, so why does the whole district need pouches or whatever? So, I think that was kind of the idea with that word, but I don't think it's not it's not exactly punishment. maybe more like a I think when they think of punishment for like um starting a policy, they're just maybe a little angry. >> No. And I and I think that's a that's a perfect that's a perfectly uh reasonable or um understandable reaction. I just I think it just sort of jumped out at me because I think it um I guess maybe it probably will come

108up later in our conversation, but I think that um I don't think uh I don't think ever in the in the board's conversation about this there's been any um uh sense that like that this is meant as a p this is meant as a punishment or even meant as or even meant as a consequence. Um, and so I think that that's just an interesting I, you know, to use your word, like wondering, right? Like the sort of the data point of like, um, it just seems to reveal that there's just a, um, a kind of a divide in kind of how people even just conceptualize what we're even talking about. And that's not a pro, that's not bad, that's just interesting. >> Yeah, for sure. And I think it kind of comes down to a

109I think a lot of students are misinformed about what the board does or a lot of times the reasonings for policies at a district level or a school level. So whatever does come out come from these conversations we're having about uh possible like district-wide policy or what will become one. um communication to high school students about the why and the data to back it up which we did have that um from Miss Gulman and Mr. Melon last year when the um phone hotel policy was started we had students were presented with that information but um I don't know if they forgot that part or if it wasn't clear enough but I do think that um the why and the information is important when it comes to um the roll out of whatever comes from these

110discussions. Yeah, that's super helpful. I guess my other question is just um uh and I'm not sure whether you sort of we saw a little bit of this, but I'm curious whether there anything kind of between the lines or anything in the in the comments about why teachers don't enforce it. Um in terms of the student perspective on that, I'm not asking for like, you know, the actual um the actual reason, but like but what is it? What is the perspective on why the teachers are not consistently enforcing it or why um some teachers I think to use your language some teachers are very strict about it and some teachers don't care. I think that was the language that that was used. Do you have any sense of that? >> I think some students feel

111like it's a matter of like the like how much of an issue it is but they're not seeing all of the the struggles with it. Um, and I think some students do realize that it's a whole another layer of classroom management that teachers don't have like the training on or the like specific knowledge about cuz it's totally foreign to um a lot of classrooms like having to enforce this policy and spend the first, you know, five minutes of class, everyone put your phone up in the tree or whatever. And so I think a lot of students do recognize that, but I think others also wonder about like our teachers having a hard time enforcing it because they don't feel like it's a problem. And um yeah, still wondering if it even is, which I think

112is another reason of like more information, more education about, you know, coming cuz I think at this point it's more fact than opinion that the phones are not amazing. >> Yeah. I think the idea of sort of pairing separating that it's you know oh I can manage myself and you know and more you shouldn't have to right you should be free to be in the classrooms learning and and you know this is a this is a whether you can manage I'm sure you can most people can but is it best practice is it you know and are we giving you the best chance to fully immerse in the in the education if it's in your hand And um and you know those a lot of those answers feel kind of punitive, right? Like I feel

113like they're they're punishing us. They're making it stricter like um so I think if you know if we move forward with something um you know bell to bell whatever we want to call it um I think sort of changing that language is going to be key. So who do we have next? Thanks, Phoebe. Uh, I think I would like to ask Principal Gulo to go next. >> And assistant principal Melon. Okay, thank you everybody. Thank you. It's nice to see you all. Uh, I'm going to start uh and then Jen's gonna jump in. Um, so I'm just going to talk a little bit about a little uh history, I guess, and just kind of I was here last spring talking to you guys about uh our cell phone policy, how it was going, some of

114the challenges we we were having. Um, which you know kind of were summarized pretty seamlessly in uh in Phoe's presentation, too. Um, and and I just wanted to remind you like about what our policy currently is uh and why it is that way and some of the other other things we've been talking about and then Jen will talk more about some specific feedback we've received uh from teachers. Um so this year we started our uh year with the same policy we had last year uh which means that students are not allowed to have phones in any academic setting uh and that includes advisories study halls here in the library uh any academic uh setting and the expectation is that when they go into a classroom they're going to be putting their phones into you know

115what Phoebe referred to as the phone three. Um, they are allowed to have their phones in between classes. They're allowed to have their phones at lunch. Uh, and that's pretty much it. Um, and we, our leadership team struggled over the summer trying to figure out what we should do, if we should continue this policy. Uh, you know, as I said last spring, it was definitely better last year. It by no means perfect, though. Uh, and it kind of got worse as the year went on. I think it we started strong. Uh but you know as as um Phoebe said and like or as her data kind of indicated um you know it it becomes a struggle for our educators uh to to kind of uh fight this battle every day uh when they're when you

116know getting kids to put their phone in the phone tree uh and and and they they make choices based on the time they have and what they what they want to do with the time they have when they're in front of the the kids and so sometimes that falls to the wayside. Uh and so, you know, as the year went on, it kind of fell apart. Um not totally, not totally at all. And it was definitely better than it was the year before. Uh and so that's kind of what we talked about last spring here with the board. Uh this year, you know, it's it's it's started strong. It's started it's starting strong, I should say. Um there's definitely issues though already for sure. even today, yesterday, every day, uh, something comes up with with

117phones. Uh, we have kids who are, you know, who are getting now detentions because there's been multiple times. We have kids who who are now forced to leave their phone in the office for the day for a period of time because it's gone beyond the detentions. So, we've had the detentions that then it continues to happen. We've had parent meetings, which is the next step after the detentions. Uh and then it's leave your phone in the office for the day uh for those kids. Uh and we have a few kids who are already on that plan. Um and usually those kids are on that plan for like a month or a couple weeks. um the so so you know it's it's it's it's an ongoing thing that's that's definitely um you know consuming a lot

118of a lot of our energy which is fine and we're we're working on it but it's it's uh and and I would say though that you know it's the beginning of the year and things are overall pretty good with the phones. I also want to point out the other thing we talked about last year was and came up tonight already too is the importance of you know education in in you know combination with whatever we're doing um and you know we're still thinking about that talking about that last year with Annie Annie's group and the RC RC5 technology group we tried to get project reboot here uh and we're hoping to maybe do that again too uh I was with assistant principles from other schools who are also interested. Um, and and basically that's that

119group that can come in. It's a it's a guy who comes in and does an assembly and has some follow-up materials about not not saying don't be on your phone. It's much more of a here's what it's doing. It's raising awareness. It's about, you know, empowering kids, get just giving them knowledge to to help them make good decisions around their phones. And so we're we're trying to get him in and if we can get other schools in the area to also have these assemblies, it's much cheaper. He comes from California. So So we're uh so we're we're we're also continuing to discuss like how we can, you know, have this education piece in addition to the the policies and the rules and the procedures and things like that. Um, so that's a kind of overview

120of of kind of where we've been, where we're at today, and kind of a little bit where we want to go. And now Jen's going to tell a little bit more about the uh staff perspective. >> Thanks, Charlie. Um, and I I I think that before I share um we just have one um piece of data that we're going to share from our staff. Uh I think that a big challenge is going to be that it has been a priority at the high school for us to elevate student voices and have them have a seat at the table and be a part of decision-m and I think something that is going to I can foresee as a challenge because it's already been a challenge is it feels like we're standing on opposite shores. Um and

121it so one of the things that um Mr. Melon and I did was we also coded all the student data from the survey. And one of the things that um a wonderful AI helped us do was it will determine the tone of um it not doesn't just summarize but it also tells you the tone. You can imagine the tone. It was like ranges from emotional and angry to frustrated. But one of the things that came out is it said um that students are feeling unheard or dismissed by the administration which I think we never want that to be the case. We're working really hard to improve communication and this is one of those places where um it's certainly top of our of mind of you're going to see how different the staff feedback is from

122the student survey. And I think it's just something um that we're trying to figure out how do we work together when we really are coming from very different perspectives. I have seen students who can absolutely manage their phone. It's in their bag. It never comes out in class to another student who's in class receives a notification which most of us flip our phones over or look at our watch. I'm guilty of that. Um and whatever they received I might be observing the class and I'm in the back. whatever message they received just like dismantled that lesson and that child has checked out. Um, and the fewer times that we're seeing phones in class, the fewer times that we're seeing that happen. Um, a unique perspective I have is I am the parent of two Portland

123public schools children who both have yonder bags. One is a middle schooler who has said very very little of it about it. uh one is a high schooler who has a lot to say who got to speak to Michelle this weekend and share her perspective. And so I've also had the chance to talk to Portland um uh administrators and teachers about how different that perspective is. Um and so I do think it's a great idea. Morse High School is in their second year and they are somebody we've communicated with about going to visit and so that might be a place where we see because we're watching Portland in their growing pains and I hear about that um from your principal and also uh at home at the dinner table and so um I think it's

124just important to bring that up that we have worked really hard to collaborate with students um and and the viewpoints right now I think um are uh they feel divided right now. Um we did not craft a survey for the um staff that was meant to come to the board. This was a survey that we gave in the spring. Um as I shared with my goals that we were getting feedback from our staff about our action steps and what the leadership team uh wanted to do. And so we certainly can solicit way more specific u feedback. I think anecdotally uh a lot of what Charlie said um a lot of what Phoebe said resonates too. Some of the feedback is the same is that there is this um feeling of some teachers of exhaustion of

125fighting this fight of they have planned this outstanding lesson and they don't want to start the first five minutes of arguing with students about did you did you not really not bring your phone? You don't have a phone. Why is your phone not here? Where's your phone? that that is definitely um something that some teachers have said they got to march and they had done it every day every class um and that started to they started to just dive right into their lesson and hope that phones were away. Um but so um one piece of feedback um that will um show a little bit. We had uh we had 37 teachers complete this and um we going to do this. So remind me how many that's out of. Uh we had 37 teachers is uh

126that is out of um 52 who could have taken this and um so it's 81% of our respondents for this one if funding was not an issue. Would you support FHS exploring the use of yonder bags? 78.4% said yes. Um, and if you combine the yes with like I'd like to hear more from other schools, we need more info on this. Sure. I don't know who wrote that one. Um, that 81% of our respondents uh were in favor of exploring this. 8% want more information and 11% said that they don't want it. Um and so but the total number of uh 71% of our teachers who answered this survey um the rest of our survey was really asking specifically about advisory. Advisory is the place where we struggle the most. Um, and some students have

127said that's not instructional time, but as I've shared, we have shifted our advisory to about 85% of the time is dedicated to callbacks, which is instructional support, reteing, working on um specific tasks for a lesson. So, it's very much instructionally focused. And that is the most difficult time to manage phones uh according to the teachers uh and trying to figure out how um we move forward with that. we came to the decision of um staying status quo that there are not supposed to be any phones in advisory um that we use the phone trees for those as well. Um and so uh we also teachers you can see this had a lot to say like that uh and so um as superintendent gray said some of it is identifying with names and things like that.

128So um encoding the data these are just uh some of the key things that came up. They also feel uh teachers also feel that inconsistent enforcement of our current policy is a major issue. They feel overburdened by having to constantly remind students to put their phones away. Um the current system with the classroom holders is seen as better than previous efforts but still very difficult to manage. Students often bypass the rules by quote forgetting their phone, hiding their phone, or using them in hallways or bathrooms. Um, uh, staff are concerned about funding and logistics of yonder bags. They still have a lot of questions about that. Um some staff believe that teaching responsible phone use is more important than removing the phones completely but the majority felt um that removing the phones would be a

129major factor in reducing uh the distraction. um they feel that the support for yonder bags would reduce uh um excuse me that they're strongly in favor um as I said 81% of our respondents they feel that it would reduce distractions increase instructional time and eliminate power struggles um they believe that um that it would remove the burden of phone management from individual teachers and lead to more consistent enforcement if we were using the uh yonderback bags. Um some of their comments had um stated that um staff from Morris High School had shared uh that they had had positive results um from using the yonder bag. Um they had questions about fundraising. Um and um some did say that they were open to continuing our current system. Um but that we really need to figure out

130how um to manage more consistent enforcement. Um and some express the need for more data or research before fully committing to a change. Um such as the the yonder bags. Um, but the last uh bullet was there's a strong desire to prioritize teaching and student connection over the phone usage um and phone discipline on a daily basis and feeling like the majority felt like the yonder bag would be a tool that would remove that if it was schoolwide. So, those are some of the uh pieces. again. Um, as Phoebe said, we could certainly tailor uh a a survey if we're looking for real um specific information such as your question of like why are um why are teachers not enforcing it? Um, and I think same with the anonymity helps for people to be honest

131to say um, why are are they feeling like that they can't enforce it or for that 11% that's not in favor of exploring the yonder booth um at bags? Does has that changed now that we see so many schools are using them? Um, how does that impact the number and what questions do they have um about it? So, any questions about that? Questions for Jen? Yeah, >> I remember hearing a concern that phones were being used often or teachers were asking students to pull their phones out to use them for photography purposes or calculators or a few other examples that I'm curious if that's still happening and how that's going or if it's not if they're not asking them to do that more and if everything is okay as a result of not doing that.

132So, I think some teachers have made a major change with that. Like, um there's certain things like um there's a math app that you can use where you're doing like quick data polls and you get the information, you scan a QR code and it comes to your phone or math teachers aren't using that anymore. There's ways that you can do that on the laptop instead or you can use an iPad to do that. our um visual art classes met uh those teachers met with Charlie and with me and we have an actual agreement that students sign um that they are able to use their phone to photograph their work and then upload it to the website that we use called Artson Sonia. Uh but that's an example of that was one of my first questions

133when I went to open house at Portland. um one of their art teachers used to work here at the high school and they said, "What are you doing?" And so they talked about the challenge of that. They've had to invest in cameras um but they've uh had workarounds because when you have a phone in the yonder bag, you don't take it out to um to do something like an activity for class. So we see that that's pretty rare, I would say. Um what what I do see students use uh their phones for when they're using it responsibly is it is a tool where they're they have a notepad on there. They might be tracking assignments. They're using the calendar that's on there. Um you know a counter to that is we're so fortunate to have

134these devices um that we have these laptops that the laptops can do a lot of what students use their phone. Clearly it's convenient because that's with them all the time. Um, but there's a lot of the features that students use on a phone that you can use on a laptop. At Portland, a big difference is they have Chromebooks. They don't use um MacBooks. And so our students have access to a lot more on their MacBooks, which are similar to so many kids who have uh a smartphone than it is on a Chromebook. A Chromebook's pretty limited. And some of the the apps and things like that. >> So um you mentioned the the laptops. Um, does putting away the phone, however you do it, just make it out of sight, put it in a bag,

135don't bring it, whatever. Um, are you just are they just I mean, you can text on your computer. Like all the stuff we don't want them doing on their phone, they can do on the computer, right? So, I mean, is there ways to to manage that? >> Well, one decision that we decided to do this year is we no longer use Google Chat. um that has not been used at the younger grades and it was used here um and we were seeing that um a a highest percentage of students who were using some students don't use Google chat at all. Some a few classrooms use Google chat as a part of their lessons um which is a great part of that but the majority of kids who are using Google chat were using it to

136message all throughout the day. They were basically text messaging each other throughout the day. um we did a lot of back and forth of whether we thought that um we should limit it and we decided that um to not have Google chat. There's other ways that students students are brilliant about how they can message one another. I mean it's like the the form of passing a note in an electronic form. Um but um Google chat it was so quick because we do so much on Google Classroom and with email that Google chat was right below it. Um, and so you could quickly uh do that. We saw some students that had like 80 80 different conversations of that's just like the groups that they were in of sending messages. And so the hope is by

137removing that um that that has really helped um for for some students to be more focused. But there's other ways that they can definitely find ways to chat with one another. Danielle, >> I I get the idea that it's hard for a teacher to manage the phone, putting it in the phone tree, but I'm struggling with how does the yonder bag become something that the teachers are also still not enforcing. I mean, it's still going to be a policy and I'm trying to imagine so all the kids are coming in. >> Someone has to be standing there watching them put it in the bag, right? And then we have to hope that they keep it in the bag throughout the day. um and that they're not unlocking it because a quick Google search of yonder

138bag, the first thing that popped up was the magnet that you can buy at for9.99 on Amazon. Um so I I guess I'm just struggling with that. I don't know that it takes away 100% of the of the teachers responsibility. So are they going to be willing to still, you know, be enforcing that they're using the bags? because I can't imagine every kid's not some kid's gonna try to take it out of the bag and and use it at some point in time. >> So, so I have I can't speak for our teachers because we haven't gotten into that level of detail yet. This was this question of like are we just exploring that right now? Um I can tell you from the student perspective from um and the teacher perspective at Portland. Um so

139it is a system. It looks you know the yonder bag is small. It looks almost like if you were to have a dry bag and you were putting your phone in there to go kayaking. That's about the size of it. Every single student who walks in the building has to touch, they have people at the doors. There's two doors where you can come in. They're much larger school than us. They're about a thousand students. Um, every student has to touch their bag to the magnet when they walk in. And so when they walk out to go for open campus or to leave at the end of the day, they then also um touch the magnet. So you can imagine they have a traffic jam. I hear about that at home every day. Um and so

140it's gotten better is what I've heard. They have multiple magnets. So you just and it it is literally like you touch it to it and it magnets. There are ways that um the kids can open them. What I have heard from the teachers though is that the expectation is that your phone is in this bag and so the teachers are faster to say there are no exceptions to this. Um, and even some students who are opening their bag are not taking it out because those kids can't use it in the bathroom. They can't use it in the lunch time. They can't except that they have open campus there. Um, and so they even if they have the pouch is opened um that they're not taking it out in class because the expectation is that no

141one will have a phone out. That's anecdotal from the the Portland staff and from the students. The other thing is they're responsible for that bag in the way that our kids are responsible for their device. So if you try to undo the magnet, it often damages it and then the student has to pay for that yonder bag. Um, and so that's something that I guess the schools that I've heard that are using it are really trying to talk to the students about that about if you like somehow force this bag open likely it's going to break. there's a pin in it that holds it together with the magnet and that pin bends and then the whole thing is broken. So I think there is still some management what I have heard from the teachers because

142it's all the schools in Portland Dearing and Casco Bay are using it as well. Um I just happen to have a Portland high schooler and what the teachers have said is that it is much more rare that they're seeing phones out at all. Um, and when they do, they are feeling like this is this constant a consistent schoolwide policy and they are more apt to then send a student to the office or send the student's phone to the office. But I don't know about our students. So there's definitely still no matter what there's classroom management um in it. But I think um the percentage of that versus a teacher has um you know three classes in a day plus advisory and so you're doing that every single day at the beginning of every single class

143saying put your phone up, put your phone up, put your phone and there's no profile for kids who will do it willingly or argue. There's kids all the all different kids across both ends of the spectrum um of how they are attached to their phone or not. And some kids have no problem with it and put it right in before the teacher even asks. and some kids it's a fight every day. >> I I wonder if if the um I mean what one thing we saw in both was sort of the inconsistent application of the policy. And I wonder if that's because their phones are available to them in their bags and whatever. Um or if it's because you can have it, you can't have it. You can have it. You can have it between

144classes, but you can't have it in class. You can have it at lunch, but you can't have it in advisory. like the the switching back and forth. I wonder if that creates more issues that um you know I I'm struggling with the yonder bags a bit. I know we're not talking we're just asking questions, but I'm curious of schools that have done a bell to bell without the bags and it's it's still a policy. There's no phones out. If we see a phone, it's gone. Um whether it's at lunch, whether it's in anywhere. um you eliminate the logistics of the bags. You eliminate the sort of perceived taking of control from the kids, which we saw in in the theory. You eliminate the need for the trees, which is clearly a pain point for everybody

145to manage. Um and it's just we don't see phones in the building. If if you want to leave it in your car, great. If you want to leave it in the bottom of your bag and I don't see it, fine, too. Um, I wonder if there are schools that have taken that approach and if they have better or worse results than the bags. >> Well, so I could just speak to that for a second. Is Windom High School doing that policy this year? They just they just started that uh off and away basically is what they call it. Um, and it's there's no bags. Uh, and I was in this assistant principles group with them down at Wendom and they say it's going surprisingly well. I was kind of skeptical like really they're just doing

146it but they said it's going surprisingly well but it's still very early and you know they need more information but I know they have that basically that's their policy went went to my school this year off and away they call it. >> Yeah. Um and you know maybe to Phoe's point there's a stack on hand for folks that might need a little extra support. You know you have some of the bags if if people need them. So, one of the um one of the examples that we recently received from the concerned citizens group was about Camden where I spent most of my career and was there until pretty recently. So, I actually had a phone conversation with the assistant principal at Camden Hills High School who is a my colleague down the hall for a

147long time and also a friend. Um her insight was that they have gone with the yonder bags this year. um it has gone surprisingly well um in terms of the implementation and the push back from students. She said that many kids have defaulted to arriving at school and saying they don't have their phone, but maybe it's in their bag. Um but regardless, they're not seeing the phones. They've largely reserved the yonder bags which they purchased for special cases of repeat offenders who just won't comply. Um, you know, they're obviously not going to search kids backpacks if they say, "I don't have my phone." They're not going they're going to take them at their word unless there's reason to believe otherwise. Um, she did mention a few other insights that they have gained and they're only

148what six weeks into this. Um, she said that kids crave interaction and attention and when they don't have their act their phones available, they're seeking interaction and attention. There's a lot more horseplay. There's a lot more, you know, things that people of my generation might have seen um in the hallways, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. She also said um in uh they had had a fight in the hallway not too long ago and it was a pretty serious fight and she was amazed that not a single kid took their phone out to put the fight on social media before administration could even get down the hall to respond to the fight. Um, so that's just some anecdotal evidence from one of the schools that has been cited as a as a model. >>

149I think if we were going to um survey our staff, that would be a great question. Um, would would they be in favor of doing something that was a a bell-to-bell ban with no device to support that, like a no yonder bag, or would they feel like the way um to do that would be that they would need a device um that they would need some sort of equipment to help with the bell-to-bell ban? I can't answer that for staff, but I think if we were tailoring a survey, that would be a question that I would love to ask. >> Maybe it's the first step, right? I mean, I think it's the free step, which I I like. Um, you know, and to see if is it enough? And maybe it's not. And, you know,

150there's nothing that says you can't be like, "All right, well, step two is everybody gets a yonder bag." Um, because we're not seeing the results we would hope to see out of it. And maybe the middle school can speak about this. I know that in Portland in the middle schools, they felt like it wasn't enough and that's why they have the yonder bags because it was a bell-to-bell ban. Um it was supposed to be watches um um watches, phones, and headphones. And obviously, you know, some like especially sixth and seventh graders fewer in Portland have um a device. Um, but they still felt I I was like my rule following daughter if she ever watches this would be so upset with me. But she is a innate rule follower and I don't think she ever

151took her watch off that she had a watch and um I think they found it hard to manage and and they have shifted to those bags. I you know I can't speak for their administrative team but as a parent that's what I was watching. Um but I do know that it's much more common in a middle school to have that bell-to-bell ban. uh where it's just like you can't have them, we don't see them. Um which is similar to our schools and um you know um >> are you teeing them up? I you know what >> I'm >> Well, I was just gonna say like and I'm not an expert, but I wouldn't be shy of like like scaring them like being like we are considering these pouches like if if the policies aren't being

152followed whatever policy comes out of these discussions Like we've seen it happen last year. Our like student section at sports games got very very very regulated because it was super disrespectful and it wasn't a good environment. And this year there was a couple situations where that was it was starting to go in that direction. and our athletic director like said to students, reminded students of the rules in the student section and asked a couple of leaders like make sure that it's being respectful and it turned around really fast. So like I think that tactic like can work to be like this is a real possibility and if students aren't falling into line like your phone's getting locked away. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, it it I think it gives some respect to the kids,

153right, that say they can manage. Great. Let's see you manage and believe until, you know, trust but verify. I will say because this was a question that came up last year was some um I can't remember who on the board was asking when students do have the opportunity to have their phone, are we seeing just like 580 faces on their phone? And we're not. That's not what lunch looks like. There's lots of banter at lunch. Sometimes we're like maybe just sit down and look at your phone and be quiet. Um but that's not what we want them to do. But um but I think that is not what we've seen. Um I think it depends studentto student. There's some students that we can identify who every second that they can get at their phone then

154they want it in their hand and there's other students who are still engaging when they have the opportunity. So there is that balance that we see. But that was a question that came up last year. It's not that we're seeing every student headbent at lunch or breakfast on their phones. That's not what it looks like. >> Colin, >> um yeah, thanks so much for this, Jenna. I this question is I mean it's this is borderline um I guess philos too philosophical question, but I guess I keep writing down try to like write down variations on this question and I keep going back to the same thing. And I guess this is also for Phoebe as well, but it's like how shared is the understanding of why you're in school? >> Okay, that's pretty philosophical for

155>> but I don't I don't but I don't but I don't mean it I don't mean it in like a super philosophical naval gazy way. I I I guess I'm just I'm just thinking about how like there is a goal to the thing. like there's a goal to being in school and there's a reason why we're doing it and the and uh both the teachers and the students are part of that are part of that contract. Arguably the students uh have less choice um about whether or not they've sort of um of of being there or not while the teachers have all chosen to be teachers and therefore they have chosen to be part of that like achieving that goal. But I don't know. I guess I just sort of wonder whether like has that

156come up at all or is that something that could perhaps be a point of conversation to to sort of say like um like what are we supposed to be doing during these during this period? Like it's is it it's not about trust or lack of trust or it's not about like agency or lack of agency um or punishment or reward, but it's about like what are we actually trying to accomplish? >> Well, there's there's two sides to that. So when I was a first year teacher, a veteran teacher said to me, "The sooner that you realize you're just in their way than of hanging out with their friends, the better off you'll be." I was like, "Okay." And she's like, "You you have to get them in somehow because they're showing up to be a

157part of this community." Now, there's lots of kids who are incredibly driven and that's why they're here. What we tried to do last year that Phoebe was talking about was right at the beginning of the year kind of our our statement that we were saying is like you need a break from your phone. That was the first thing we were saying and then we shared this data sheet with all the teachers and all the students that was concrete data facts about how many students had now they were the these were research studies from all over the country. we were kind of pulling in resources. Um, and it said, you know, the percentage of students who had increased their overall GPA when they were using phones less, when they were more focused in class, that they

158were um they were ultimately more successful in school. And so, I think we definitely tried to message that of like this this is about you taking a break and being able to better focus on what you're doing. Um I think different students have different goals. Um but we certainly have messaged that to all of them. Um but we know that the social element of high school is a a critical part. We want kids to feel connected. We want them to feel connected to each other and um and and to staff. And so, um, I think that, um, that trying to get them to understand that this could potentially be something that is very helpful according to research that has been uh, conducted is that you are less distracted when you don't have your phone and

159you're in a class. That's what the research has overwhelmingly shown. Um, I have two different questions that are um, what one of them is something I hear from the students kind of consistently when we talk about a possible ban is that they feel less safe with that um, because they don't have their phone with them in whatever case might happen. Have you heard that at all from the teachers? any any sort of of semblance of feeling less safe or is that pretty much solely only coming from the students? >> Uh you mean have the teachers get we haven't asked that question. That's a great question. Like we haven't asked the teachers if they are concerned about students safety, but I think the protocols that we practice here and that we teach our staff, they don't

160have anything to do with students having cell phones. And so I'm sure they've thought about it, especially um if they are a parent, if they're a guardian, if they have that perspective as well. Um and they might feel very differently. I've certainly heard in in my personal life, I've heard people on both sides feeling like it's a safety concern. No, it's not a safety concern because the school has protocols to keep you safe and to react um to if there was an emergency. But I I've certainly heard students say that and we saw that in the feedback, but not specifically from from teachers. It didn't come up in the survey. >> Okay. And my other question was, have we thought about kind of incorporating a more consistent more kind of constant um teaching on phone

161like responsible phone usage in like a wellness curriculum? I mean over and above kind of just having a an assembly or a um kind of a single time um speaker come in to speak to the kids. So that's what Charlie had mentioned. That was that organization that we looked into and are still potentially looking into that it's a different perspective that's talking about and um you know Charlie has done a lot more research on this than I have. Um but it's talking about the mindset towards your phone and teaching that and um and we haven't had a lot of conversations. You know Phoebe can talk about this of if it's happened in classrooms. we haven't had as much of conversation talking specifically right with the seniors and the juniors to say, you know, there are

162times when you're in a career that you cannot have your phone. Um the region 10 kids have experienced that because there's lots of their programs where they cannot have a phone. it's locked in a box because it's not safe to have your phone when you're welding and you're using or you're using power tools or you're in early childhood and you're working with small children, you don't have your phone. Our kids who go over to More Street, they don't take their phone. Um, and so I think like those conversations certainly can happen more. I don't know, Phoebe if you've had those conversations in classrooms or not. It's not something that we've done in an assembly. we've looked into bringing this person in, but we've done more about like your academics. >> Yeah. Was your question more

163like was it about like built into curriculum or like a specific class or just like kind of assembly type of thing? >> Yeah. My question was if we've looked into kind of teaching responsible phone usage as like part of a wellness curriculum as a whole and having it kind of be a constant thing that we we teach kids, not just a a once or once or twice thing. >> So I mean I think that we've connected it. It's um you know a lot of the research is about how social media impacts your mental wellness and so all of our students take a health class predominantly our 10th graders do but they only take it for a semester. Um and so there's a lot of focus in that class about mental health. And so but um

164you know that the surgeon general's warning that came out when he did that uh study was specifically about social media more than saying cell phones. And so I I do know that that is a topic that comes up in that class, but more about like responsible um cell phone use. I don't know that that's a big part of their curriculum right now. It's not to say that we couldn't um but I certainly know that it's connected to mental health. I do think it's a part of the middle school curriculum, right? Like the what was library turns into like multimedia. And I think they talk about it there. >> Now Michelle's teing them up. >> Michelle's doing that. Michelle will >> I got a plane to catch. >> Any other questions? >> I was I'm happy

165to bring up Will Pitten. >> Oh, Cara. >> Yeah. And Bill Ridge. >> Yeah. So, if Bill and Will want to come up and start getting ready, uh Cara has a question for Jen first. >> I might have three, but I'm going to I will make it quick. I just wanted to echo the curriculum point that I feel like every class probably has an opportunity to speak about digital citizenship and um and so I would really like I would really encourage that exploration for each for each class each year for so that it is something that's talked about more than just the beginning of the year or uh in a workshop format. So I I appreciate you bringing that up. Um, and then as far as the safety question too, I would love to hear

166what the teachers think about that because I think like you said, there are two sides to that. And I wonder how many teachers would be concerned that if there was an emergency and all the students are on their phones messaging people instead of following the drills that they've been or well not a drill but following the rules that the teachers are um trying to um enforce in terms of in terms of the safety drill. That's what I'm >> Okay. And I still have one more thing but if this related to that go for it. >> Okay. I I can't speak to how the teachers here feel about it. I don't know. Um I do feel somewhat compelled to share my perspective as an administrator in responding to emergency situations where cell phones are part of

167the mix. And I understand the question about safety is primarily geared toward a a highly traumatic violent event in a school like a shooter coming into a school. And you know the times in which we live we all think about these things. I have found myself in much more common types of situations like a fake bomb threat in a school or a a chemical from a science lab leaks in a school and we have to go into a lockdown. These these are much more common things. And this the kids with easy access to their phones have in my this is my view have really diminished the safety of the situations because what we have found is kids on their phones in classrooms texting their parents not knowing what's going on putting on social media inaccurate

168statements about what's going on provoking a public furer causing maybe a stream of concerned parents to arrive at the school while the administrators are still trying to figure out what's happening. And so I think with a broad view of the way that cell phones in the hands of kids in a high stress situation speaks to safety as a whole. My experience has been that it it has been a complicating factor. Um, and my my third question, something I'd be curious to hear from other districts who have implemented a bell-to-bell policy is if it has had any impact on attendance and I'm curious what your thoughts are on that if if it would have a negative impact on attendance. Would would kids not come to school or would they if they know that they can't have

169their phones throughout the day? >> That's a great question. I don't I don't know that I can project that because I think um I'm hoping that our goal work is going to be so awesome that they're all going to come to school whether they have their phone or not. Uh that's a great question. I don't know that um that we've had any schools near us that have had this in place long enough where we could see some examples of what has impacted attendance or not. I I think you could project that there are some students that are so upset by this policy that they um decide that they're not coming to school. I'm not sure that I would prioritize that as if if I was just being asked my opinion. I don't know that that

170would be the biggest impact on attendance. I think that we have other factors that really significantly impact attendance for some of our students. But it would be interesting to see because um schools around us who are implementing this right now will have clear attendance data and see are they seeing a correlation or as Phoebe was saying if we did another survey, you know, it could be something that we could ask. Um but they might say I'm not coming. Yeah, I'm not coming. Yeah. And so that might be a hard one to to project. Um I'm I'm hoping that there are enough other things that would draw them here. I feel like we are focused on the challenges that will happen when they are here more than their phone making them not come to school at

171all. But but it's a it's a it's a great question. a wondering one other quick wonder. If we asked them if they wanted to have to take math or ELA, I wonder what they would say. If we gave them the choice, >> I can't offend our math teachers. >> I gave an alter of ELA because some kids are going to really love math and want to go to math and some kids really want to go to ELA, but some kids really don't want to do those things. And kind of to Colin's point, like there's a reason why we're here to and why those classes are required. >> I do know that that a teacher from another school said to me like, "My kid would eat candy and chicken fingers all the time if they could

172if I didn't say this is what I think is healthy for you and good for you." And at what point did they make that choice for themselves and do we make for them? I think that that's a challenge for us to to determine. I'm happy to answer more questions, but they look excited to >> Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna get them up and see what they have to >> those ready. >> Good evening. Uh, thanks for having us. I'm Bill Ridge for those of you that don't me know me. Uh, assistant principal at the middle school. I'm a little bit bigger than Jen. Uh I just wanted to start by kind of reviewing quickly what our current policy is so you just have that reference. Uh as it's written uh the phone there's excuse me

173there's a phone in the office for students when they need to call home. Students cell phones or personal electronic devices are all allowed are not allowed excuse me uh to be used in the school 7:30 to 220 which is our operating hours. Uh cell phones and other personal electronic devices must be stored in the student's backpack or locker. And if the cell phone or other technology is observed is turned into the main office on a second offense, uh administration will contact parents and create a phone plan. Um so you know the phone plan what that might look like. Uh depending on if it's the second or third or fourth offense, uh a designated amount of days that that phone would be checked into the office to start the day, checked out at the end of

174the day. um in that would be done in tandem with and I know that this isn't speaking directly to the point of more education on this uh we have access to seven mindsets base for those of you that are FMS parents you may have heard of that uh it's a basically it's a comprehensive mindset based learning module uh one of the lessons or one of the modules uh specifically targets responsible technology use so um we go through those modules with guidance counselor uh and so forth in response respon to it. Uh, phone offenses. We gave a similar um survey to all of our staff. I'm just going to review that pretty quickly. I'm going to kind of like summarize as best I can. Um, like Jen, there was an opportunity for more of a narrative.

175Um, which I will try to do my best to to give you a a snapshot of what the feelings were. Uh the first question that was asked was what is the perceived impact of cell phone use uh on learning? Uh 36% of our staff that um completed the survey said no, it's not a problem. It's not a big problem. Uh that left the rest of it 64% in some fashion to say yes, it is an it's an area of need or or concern. uh that ranged from 29% saying maybe once a week it becomes a problem for me, once a day at 18% or multiple times uh per day was 18% as well. The one thing I would point out in all of this is the responses responses varied oftent times depending on the role

176within the building. Okay? So, for example, um if you took our school guidance counselor for instance, she might report that cell phone use is a major concern because what she's dealing with oftentimes is the fallout of a social conflict that stemmed from technology, social media, so forth. Um whereas you might check in with a classroom teacher who would report that the day-to-day um there's not much of an an impact on the student learning. So, um I just, you know, I take all of that data with a grain of salt because I think it is very it really depends on um who's reporting. The second question we asked was specifically about the yonder bags. Interestingly enough, in my opinion, uh where we had only where we had 36% of um staff saying that it was not

177a problem, uh 54% of staff said that they would support the use of a yonder bag. Uh 18% said that they would not support that or they would not be in support of that. And there was 28% that had some sort of mixed reaction or or conditional statement that was placed along with it. Um, some of the themes that came out of the yonder bag question that were pro- yonder bag was that it uh teachers that were in support of it were citing that there would be an improved focus. They imagined that there would be a reduced temptation uh and better social engagement. Colin asked about the punishment earlier. We're going to phrase that a little differently. We called it conditional support. Okay. Um, this is for our highfrequency offenders um that our staff was

178saying, you know, there was a group of staff that said, you know, maybe it's more of like a high school need or maybe it's a need for in response to a student that just cannot get over that temptation. Um, you know, right now that would be drop it in the office. Um, so that was just kind of a similar use to the yonder bag whereas right now we put it in the office. Um either way that would be part of a planned response from those teachers perspective. Uh those teachers that were skeptical of it or opposed it most of the questions came from whether the impact was significant enough at the middle middle school level to justify the cost logistics um the inconvenience of it. Uh some of the broader themes that came out of

179the discussions that we had were that while the majority of teachers recognize that yeah there's probably an impact that most of the issues seem to arise outside of the direct instruction time. Uh so that would be like for example uh I heard I've heard a lot of you talk about bathroom use. Um free periods aren't necessarily an option at the middle school but maybe like transition times would be a better example. Uh or downtime. uh not necessarily like it's not being seen as this in-class defiance necessarily. Um the other area that we talked a lot about was that many teachers had commented or noted that when expectations are clear uh the students really are doing generally a good job of kind of going with that flow and following those expectations. Um, we also talked a

180lot, I think this was just getting touched on at the end, uh, quite a bit, but that there was a really common emphasis from all teachers that middle schoolers are very much in in um, a a period of time where they're learning to be responsible with phone use. And the suggestion was made often from teachers that there should be an import an emphasis placed on teaching digital responsibility, not just restricting the access to it. Um and then the final thought that was kind of a broader theme was uh with regard to the yonder bags um teachers did actually bring up at the middle school level concerns about um during an emergency situation um the cost of them uh implementing uh the logistics of them. Um, so yeah, so the big picture, what we kind of

181said at FMS at least was that we all largely uh recognized that cell phones can be a distraction that we um we think that they can be manageable with some clear expectations and planned responses uh to repeat offenders. And then that with moderate support um even though there's uh moderate support for the yonder bags, the overall sentiment seemed to be that more like context specific uh developmentally appropriate type approaches rather than like a one-sizefits-all for the whole middle school population would be more appropriate. So um yeah, I think it's a lot of repeating if I keep going on. So I'll take any questions. Yeah, >> just a quick one. When was this survey given? >> This fall. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Uh middle September. >> And I will say uh one comment from the

182teachers was that if this survey was given um last year, it would have had a different feel. Um and that was um largely it it felt like a different population of kids that we had last year um in a lot of ways. So, um, that's credit, I think, to the students that we have at the middle school right now and that they're respecting the rule and they're kind of finding that finding that line. So, >> so you're saying Jen's freshman class. >> Just I mean, just doing the math there, Bill. >> I did not say that. Actually, >> they're not here anymore. I don't know where they went. >> You said that, Michelle. Not me. >> Of course, they're awesome. >> Yeah. >> Uh, so I'm curious. So, Obviously a bell-to-bell, you know, policy in

183place now. >> Yeah. >> Um I guess I'm surprised to see that 65% still see it as an area of Oh, I guess my first question is how many people did the survey? >> 28 >> out of >> roughly 50 edte and teaching staff were invited to ser uh the survey. >> Okay, so 28. So a little over 50%. >> Okay, thank you. um that 18% have an issue daily. Now when I guess so maybe it's how you interpret the question, right? Like impacting learning to your your example of the the guidance counselor where something may have happened off school grounds but it was related to cyber something. um she might say yes or he might say yes that's that's impacting learning but it wasn't like their phone was they they took their phone out

184in class. So um >> yeah and to be fair um really technically 36% would say at least once a day because we had 18 at once a day and we had 18% also at multiple times per day. >> Oh okay. >> So um >> so a third of the people are saying they're dealing with they're seeing a phone once a day. >> That's five people in each category. Um yeah, I think that you would see a lot of um like related service uh guidance type staff with that multiple times would be my guess without looking directly at it. Um and then the other area that we would have more occurrences would be uh staff that's doing um maybe like lunch recess duties. I think that's an area where we could be stronger. Um so >>

185so they're not allowed but they're taking them out anyway. >> Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Ken. >> Um, thank you so much for for that. I think um I I guess my question is it's probably not related to the data specifically, but I'm just curious whether um there's any sense or you just have any sort of gut sense of if there was a bell-to-bell policy in the high school whether that would make things easier downstream. In other words, um knowing that uh uh there there's no cell phones in the in their in their academic future for the next couple of years. Um whether that I don't know in any way kind of impacts the way in which uh I don't know the way in which sort of students would understand

186that or the way in which the enforcement would look. >> Are you asking like a policy such as ours where it's just written that it's a bell to bell off in a way or are you asking if there was a yonder bag? Oh, that's a good Yeah, I guess I I guess either. >> So, I I don't know on the yanderbag. Um, and for the policy, I would say it would be unfair for me to make that call. Um, there's too many factors, I think, when you compare the high school to a middle school setting that just don't relate. Um, for instance, you have, you know, a a seventh grader at Freeport Middle School has his or her five teachers and they're in their wing, right, for the day. Um whereas a high schooler is

187traveling throughout the building, sees their teacher once for 75 minutes every other day. Um yeah, I just don't know that that'd be fair for me to compare. >> I'm just going to say I really appreciate you pushing back on that question and saying I'm not going to answer it because that would not be appropriate. I appreciate that. >> Well, I know I know >> No, no. Again, no, I just I think that's that's great. That's awesome. Thank you, >> Anna. Do you find that you're seeing cell phones appear more in times of like socializing like free time, recess or lunch or where they're outside of the academic classroom where it's easier maybe to pull out your phone like there isn't a teacher who can catch them. Yeah, I would say that I'm not seeing it

188that in that way, but I would say that there's more suspicion of it in those settings like the bathroom use, I think, is where most teachers are have their biggest concern. Um, we're not patting kids down when they go to the bathroom, right? So, it's very likely that students can go to the bathroom and bring their cell phone with them at this time. Um, I think that's where if if you were asking me where the major concern is, that would be it. um in in passing time in the hallway, I don't see it as a concern. Um in lunch and recess, it it's minimal. Um so, no, I don't think, you know, I think that there are areas that um I I think there are times of our day that are less structured that would

189lend itself to them uh taking out those cell phones. But I am not personally observing that to a much higher degree than you know if I were to observe a classroom and a kid slides it out. Right. So >> thank you. And then one other question. Um you had mentioned that teachers had raised cost as a concern for like the yonder bags as one thing that they were worried about. Did any did they get any information about the cost the potential cost for yonder bags? >> I think Tom has that. He got it from I think Tom has that from Sam. But they the teachers didn't >> No, I think that was speculation. Yeah. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. I thought you were asking if we had it for

190him to share with you. >> Well, I' I'd love to hear that. >> Yeah. >> I can tell I'm noting the irony. >> Yeah. >> Excuses, excuses, time. Wonderful 50%. >> And do we know how long they last? I don't know the answer to that. >> Oh, I realize I'm not on here. Um, I don't know the answer to that. I know that there are problems with them breaking. Uh, I've heard anecdotally that sometimes you put the phone in and it it's the phone is the bag is small and if it's a large phone and you're trying to put a phone and a watch in, that could be problematic. But we charge for them the way it was mentioned. You know, we do with our technology items. All right, Will, you're up. >> You show

191up late, you go last. That's the rule. >> I was told I was last. Whatever. >> But I appreciate the sentiment. So, um, good. I'm Will Pen, principal at D Community School. The um there a number of questions have been sort of fired around. So I'll just start by perhaps speaking to a couple of those things. Um we do teach digital citizenship um in middle grades as Michelle said. Um the program that is lent on is from Common Sense Media. That has been the one that has been in place for a number of years. I would say to you that is not specific about phones. It's specific about digital citizenship. So it really ranges from what is your digital footprint? How do you are you aware of and uh know how to respond to different

192um challenges or dangers that come with online um presence etc etc. So they do about cyber bullying, they do about information and media literacy, they do about digital footprint, privacy and safety in terms of big data and that gets woven in over um over the years um that we use through multimedia which is taught through library class. Um just a quick um heads up I would say that student feedback is they feel their parents are more addicted to phones than they are. So, and I think that is a big reminder to all of us that it's one thing to um be looking at this from one through one lens. And I know that our lens is very much about distractions in school, don't get me wrong, but um it might be interesting too if teachers

193had their phones in yonder bags and parents had their phones in yonder bags in restaurants and everything else. Um in response to um couple of questions that have bounced around about using a small selection of yonder bags for those students who really struggle um we had actually contacted them a couple of years ago with that very question um and they had said that is not something they support um they are full at that time at least they were full implementation or zero implementation they wanted to make a they being yonder I don't mean like down the road but um the company. Their emphasis they said was that they view their product as a preventative support for children, not as a consequence. I think they also view it as a business model. Um slightly cynically, but

194um we said we'd be happy to pilot we said we'd be happy to pilot 10 of them and see what we think of them, but it was um not an option. So whether that has changed, I don't know. Um and I do think there's a certain alert to that opportunity. And um before I just share the data, one thing I would just push out for thinking um and I want to stress this is at the middle school level. I don't I'm not saying that middle school should impact or be a reflection of what happens in high school. Developmentally the kids are in a very different place. Um, I would say again going to your question a moment ago, Colin, um, the prospect of a middle schooler knowing that they would not have access to a

195phone in high school, would that limit them in investing in their use in a middle school? I think that was your question. I'd say to you that I don't think so. I mean, we also know that math's going to get harder in high school, so we should invest in our middle school math right now. And um, surprisingly, that leverage is limited. Um but um wishful thinking um the um I would just also state that you know we have the phone usage is not a big problem for us um the um and I would stress that we have a variety of rules in school and um that they aren't always followed um that they do require reminders and they do require followthrough um and we have some individuals for whom it requires additional teaching um reminders

196and yes consequences um as part of a you know comprehensive approach to helping somebody um develop better habits or or be responsive to the expectations and norms of a school or of society. Um so we sort of view the phone usage is now in that same kind of um ballpark if you like around sort of expectations and norms of what it means to be a school citizen. Um, would it be nice if we had no phones at all? Absolutely. I've taught long enough to know exactly what that was like and um, it was certainly advantageous. Um, I think the biggest challenges we have at school actually do involve parents on phones and that is parents texting their child um, with things that in the past they didn't need to. They just, you know, we've always

197maintained you can call the school if you need to speak to your child or convey a message to them. about little things that might be as simple as um what time is practice or where was the game tonight or you know where you know did you put the dog out. I mean these sort of things that if some of this could be appeased if if you know and again it's a small number but for some parents were so used to instant connection with their children that that's filling a different need and a different bucket. Um so I think there's a number of factors at play in this whole conversation. Again, I want to keep stressing at the middle school level. I do think it's a different thing um at the high school level. So, we

198did ask um when this question was added to the um uh board agenda for a conversation, we had reached out to the staff, our staff who work with middle schoolers. It's certainly not something we see in our lower grades. Um and um so that is uh let's see would be 17 total educators were asked uh of which 12 responded um question you found cell phone usage by students to cause distractions in learning 75% so no it's not a big problem uh 25% so you know three people said maybe once a day um the said students students tend to be um good at abiding by the expectation. Our expectations, by the way, I should have said, very similar to FMS as Bill said. Um the expectation is students may have a phone with them, but they

199cannot be out. Um they're they're expected to not to be out in school if they need to utilize it or they're they ask a teacher and they're very good about that. So it might be that weather has made the sports cancelled and they're like can I call my home to let them know that I'm going on the bus or you know that practice has been cancelled and um or they might say something like I've forgotten this may I call my parent a lot of the times we put them onto the school phone to do so but other times if if they need to um if a if a teacher was there and they give them permission. Um would you support RS5 students in grades 6 through 12 being required to use yonder bags? And this

200was interesting. Um 50% were like yes, even though it's not necessarily an issue. Um and um 25% were no. And then there's a couple of people like yes for high school but not really for middle school or not for DCS. I mean that's obviously their lens. Um the I want to know how it's going to be implemented. And part of that I think is the sense of like if we can um remove a temptation or remove a cause of stress or worry from students lives, we'd love to be able to do so. So I also think if there was a yonder bag for anxiety, we'd be all over buying that. Um, so you know, I think that's a big factor for some of the teachers who said, "I don't see phone use as a problem,

201but I know how in the world it seems to be a problem." And if this removes that issue for kids, then we'd be certainly interested in learning about what that means. Um, most issues with phones that manifest at school were not generated at school. There'll be out of school hours, weekends, evenings, things like that. um those factors do come into the school world. We are at times expected to then resolve those challenges um which is tricky but that is nothing that um removing you know a yonder bag is going to solve for us because this has happened outside of those settings. Um I'm not sure if there's anything else you'd like to hear or if you have questions. >> Questions for Will Chris? >> Sorry. Uh, this isn't so much a question for you, but

202you did bring up that the the kids say that their parents are more addicted than their than they are. Um, and so I think that something that as a board we should really consider is to tie with this policy that we're we're talking about this education piece for the for these kids. And not just on social media, not just digital literacy, but I mean literally phone usage. We we talk about it multiple times. I've heard the the word addiction in response to the phone usage here. So, um I think that would be a very good way for us to kind of incorporate the student kind of buyin in that in we're not just doing this as a punishment. We're doing this and this is why. >> Yeah. I mean, just expand the education piece to

203whole family education, not just the kids, right? And I do think that technology goes with that through every as facet, right? So whether it be social media, the age of these children, a lot of it might be Minecraft. Um so there's a range, right, from Minecraft through Tik Tok to whatever else they might stumble into. Um but um the um yeah, there's definitely a role across every facet of it. >> Thank you all. I meant to ask this also for Freeport Middle School. Um, could you talk a little bit about your laptop policy and if there's been any major challenges like Jen had mentioned Google chats and having to stop that? >> Yeah, I think she referenced to we've not had Google chat for a number of years. I mean, I think the first time

204it came available within like a month we're like, okay, this isn't going to work. Um, but as she also referenced that um early adolescence will find a way, right? I mean, the most important thing for them is to feel like they belong. If there's a way of belonging and especially if they have tight restrictions at home on technology or they may be someone who doesn't have a phone then they're going to try to belong in some other way. Um that's just developmental. Um so you know when we took away chat then initially what started to pop up was kids creating a shared Google doc and then just using that as a platform to chat right. Um, >> baby's like, "Why are you outing us?" >> I mean, it's no different than the notes we used

205to fold in very intricate ways like, "Do you want to go out?" Yes. No. Check the box. I mean, it's the same idea. You just create a survey. >> I think the note may have been in your pocket for longer, though, to find that moment. It's not just like sand, sand, sand. So, so anyway, >> it kind of Yeah, that's right. Now you can break up with multiple people simultaneously. Um, I think the um so there is a facet to technology that um there are some distractions. I think there are distractions even if we're using it to do a you know a search. I think back to when, again, this sort of dates me if my hairstyle didn't, but um when technology first became available in schools, you know, like 30 years ago, the um

206everything was on discs, right? It was very restricted. When the internet first became available, people were like really nervous about it. And so everything was everything that students were working on were in quote unquote basically web quests that the teacher had um curated and you know I think increasingly um and understandably why society has come to say there's all these amazing things we can't keep up with trying to say okay it becomes restrictive it becomes censorship pretty quickly. I mean, I was just looking at the amazing books uh bookshelf display over here that the librarians put together about censored books and you know the vast majority of the internet would be on that shelf. And so it was it has moved over the last 25 years of really being quite tightly restricted to being like

207how does society kind of um interface with this constantly evolving um tool. And so, you know, I think everyone's already talked about it, but it's that sense about um, you know, what are healthy habits, what are an awareness of what are realistic temptations, whether it be from removing sodas from school vending machines to like having healthy lunches, whether what does that look like on a technology front. Um, so it is a challenge and this is not to dismiss for the kiddos for home. They are really attached to their phone. That is the factor. is going to the bathroom for like 15 minutes because they're going to check out their phone. They can't do it in sight of anyone without it being taken. So, and then those particular situations require particular plans. Much different at the

208middle school than the high school. >> Other questions for Will? There's benefits to going last. We've asked all the questions we have already. >> Yeah, but I still came back and answered that. >> You did? Yeah. We appreciate that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um so I think we have heard from everyone who um who had prepared remarks for us tonight. Uh we've got the information on some cost information. Um is yonder the only option? Do we know? >> I'm looking at you, Tom. >> I They're the only one that has that commitment to preventative, not uh punitive. Uh everybody else, all the competitors are are more punitive. >> I don't know of others. >> Okay. >> I thought I heard about a used option or something like that. That >> they come

209broken. Great. >> I don't know if that's a good option. >> They come broken. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think waiting a long time. So, um Colin has something to say. It's big intake of breath. >> I do have something to say. I have a question for Phoebe um and maybe for any of the um administrators and teachers out there. I guess I'm curious. Is there uh Jen, I think you you put it that we're standing on a like opposite shores or there's a sense of the teachers, the administrators, and the and the students standing at opposite shores um on this. Um, and I asked that question, I guess, about sort of goals or kind of like what you kind of want out of the want out of the the t school. And I appreciate Jen

210you talking about that that real like social that social need. I guess I'm just curious if there's like is there something that I don't want to say like that we could package uh with the cell phone policy, but if is there is there anything that that is there anything else that you feel Phoebe that the administration or the teachers like um aren't hearing the students on that doesn't have to do with cell phones that would kind of like um I don't know help the student body feel heard um in a way um I don't know like is is this the most important thing like is this is this is are cell phones the most important thing that would like and this would totally if if a policy was introduced it would like completely ruin the

211experience or is there something else that like that the student body wants uh that would sort of improve uh the student experience of high school that we could kind of think about as a way to again I don't I don't mean to like say like tit for tat or kind of like but like I don't know I'm just curious does anything come to mind on that one. >> Um well now that the chocolate milk is back >> I was totally going to say the chocolate milk took away our >> the chocolate milk would have been a really good one but they brought it back. Um, I don't know. Miss Skoka and Mr. Melanie, can you think of anything that's like an I think the phones are like a really a a big deal on in

212everyone's brains. >> I don't know if everybody knows that we got chocolate milk back when we introduced the cell phone tree. It was like kind of magical last year. Um, I mean the only thing that I would add, Phoebe, is that when we were just at um at the Rue Institute with the student leadership because I was there with the kids and there was a visualization activity that we did of like closing your eyes and what does your school look like when you walked in and universally with all of the kids, it was about like comforting spaces, places where kids could be together, which um we We have that in here. We have this beautiful space in here, but this is a quiet space where um kids are usually focused and working in here. Um,

213but it is one of the things I don't know if you want to talk about that because that was a big piece of something that we don't have here is that and I guess what I'm hearing you say Colin is like if you didn't have your phones but you did have more areas where you could be together um is that is that some sort of solution that would tie to the conversation that we had at at the at Northeastern. >> Right. So I guess solution, but also just that that it like would would enable you to feel heard because I think that's the other piece is I think it's the sort of sense of I don't I don't want to I don't want this conversation to be about like not listening to the student voice

214as you as you as you put it. >> Yeah. I think honestly a lot of times um when it comes to things like this students do really feel heard. this district and the high school has put a lot of work into making sure that's the case. And from my position here and being on the student leadership team, we are trying really hard to make sure that is true. I think the phone situation is a unique one where it is just like it is a really big divide. Um, but most other issues there's a lot more common ground. And I think there is common ground here. It just might take a little bit of work and communication and education to make that common ground like bigger. Yeah, I think that's I appreciate that Pho because um

215it's not just kids, right, that we hear from that they don't feel heard, right? So, I wonder uh at Jen's um congratulations on winning the scholarship, by the way, to that civil discourse, but there is a difference between not acquiescing and not hearing someone, right? We hear a lot of feedback um you know particularly on highly contentious issues which this this very well could fall into um and when we don't take the position of whoever the speaker might be they say you're not hearing me and I don't know how we approach the the discussion about how to have a discussion that just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I didn't hear you >> um and I don't respect you and I don't respect your opinion. Um, so you know, maybe that's something to

216come back into the conversation, too, cuz you know, when you hear that, you know, on on almost everything, we feel heard and we feel like it's a it's a collaboration together, like that's what we're going for. Um, but, you know, maybe to Cara's point of like if we just said, well, just take whichever classes you want. If you don't want math, don't take math. I mean, we can't go that far, right? And I think that's I mean and that seems obvious to most people, maybe not to everybody, but um you know there has to be a point where we have to make the take the position. So um maybe I'm getting philosophical now that it's 10:00 at night, but um just that idea of how to have that conversation and you know not be on

217opposite shores. >> Yeah. In that vein, Michelle, I guess I would say I'm I would be interested in it being an opportunity for civil discourse that the students could engage in with the administrators at the high school and navigating and identifying solutions together in partnership. I know this isn't a deliberation, but I'm just this is my chance, so I'm gonna say my um um in partnership together. But I also think like Phoebe said, this is a this is really unique because there's a behavioral component to this, right? And if we were looking at any other and it's different because you can remove the thing that's like driving the behavior. But if we were looking at any other behavior in the classroom or in school that was negatively impacting instruction, we would be like, okay, what

218support does the kid need to change this behavior? How are we going to support them? What are we going to do? What resources do they need? And I'm so concerned about kids not having that education component and that piece because and I'm making assumption I guess Phoebe that the divide is between some kids like you said some kids are able to manage it and some kids really aren't able to and that that is driven by underlying issues like whatever's happening at home or maybe um how their brain works or you know how all of us interact with technology differently like I don't know what's driving that and that difference between these some kids who don't have no problem with it and some um who do. And to me that's getting under to the bottom of

219that is just so it's part of our duty as as looking after our kids and making sure they're properly educated. We're doing so much social emotional support and helping them grow in these important ways to be in society that I think we're like in a transition period where this is not yet part of that and it's going to be one day once we learn how to navigate it. But it right now it feels and I totally as a parent it feels so hard. It really does. Um and I look forward to I hope when it when it maybe doesn't feels hard. >> That's such a good point Mora. Thank you. Because when I was I think every time I heard about, well, for the kids who can't manage it, they're going to the bathroom and

220they're in there for like 15 minutes or, you know, they just they're they're so highly addicted to their phone. Those are the kids that I'm really concerned and I feel like are the most vulnerable children. So, whatever we do, it feels like um education around technology needs to be introduced. Um, but yeah, I I hear you and I think that thank you for bringing that up. >> I I was going to say that I appreciate the comments. I I want to navigate my role in this carefully. I have fairly strong views on on on this topic. Um, with that said, I'll certainly support whatever the board wants to do, but I appreciate the fact that in this conversation several times, several parties have mentioned the addictive nature of what's happening with phones. And these are

221devices that are truly wired to interact with our brains and produce certain chemistry. And when I consider how we educate kids about the dangers of addictive substances, we prevent them from having access to the substances and educate or we restrict the access. There are varying levels of that restriction that happen in homes and we see the impact of that in schools and I hear that vein of the conversation tonight too that there are varying levels of restriction of access and modeling of behaviors in homes um that impact the way kids bring or or interact with cell phones in schools. I just think that's an important I'm glad that that is coming out in the conversation. Uh it's an important angle to look at it. We educate and part of the way we often support kids

222is that we as adults make decisions that they're not yet equipped to make. Okay. So, um the one of the questions we received prior to the board meeting was, you know, is there is there um an action step tonight? Um and when we set up these two uh spots on the agendas for tonight and um just under a month from now, the first meeting in November, uh the the idea was that tonight was sort of the um the listening session. We wanted more feedback from staff. So, thank you to all the folks from the high school, the middle school, and Durham. Um we wanted to hear from the students. So, thank you, Phoebe, for that. Uh we we it was great to hear from public comment. Um so I I think the the plan uh

223that we had set up was the November date would be there will be a spot on that where the board actually deliberates on what steps do we want to take. Um and based on that the policy committee will then begin to craft a policy. Um just from a timing perspective you know policies take a fair amount of time to craft when there isn't one. And there's also a two-reed proc two read process to get it approved. Um, but that does not in any way limit our ability to take additional steps in the meantime if we wanted to, right? We don't currently have a policy that says every kid can have a phone and then if we said no, you can't have a phone, we would be defying our own policy. There isn't one. They're at

224the school level. The schools could make changes if if that were sort of the will of the group. Um so I just I just kind of want to separate obviously we have to have a policy that is the law. Um at some point before July um and I feel like this board wants to make progress on you know where where are we coming down on this in schools. Um they will be parallel but they don't have to be in lock step with each other just from a procedural standpoint. So I want folks to know that. Um and uh so so I I guess I would say um you know I didn't hear from from board members the desire to go back and really do a full survey again of staff. Um and correct me if

225I'm wrong. Um, you know, I I think I think as we move forward, we're going to want to, you know, pull in folks to to get some feedback, but I don't think we need a full survey between now and November 8th or 5th or whatever it is. I think it's 5th. Um, so I guess my question for board members is, um, do you know of information that you would want to have prior to that meeting to feel equipped? Um, or do you feel like once you've processed all of the information, thank you for all the information, um, you'll be ready to come to that conversation. care. >> I think I would like to still hear from other districts on implementation, how they are implementing, how it's going, and also to hear from the students on

226how on their impact because the news articles we've read, it sounds we're hearing from the administrators saying it's going well. U so I would be curious to hear from the the students perspective. >> Y that's a good one. >> Yeah. And I think and again I'm I'm I'm aware that the the period of time in which most of the uh our neighbor districts have been doing this is uh very small but I think like anything that they've observed on specifically kind of um academic improvement sort of social impact and then like mental health um I think that would be really helpful to just have um anything that they're gathering on that. Um I think the other thing that I would be curious um again I don't think it would it would it would um influence

227my decision or how I would how I would argue for it at the next meeting but I think I think having a sense um uh going up to the the larger scale knowing that we're entering we're entering a very challenging budget um season um I think having perhaps a sense of um how much interest in the um or enthusiasm um or leadership there might be in the community um for fundraising around um this not necessarily just for the yonder bags um but for perhaps some of the educational um initiatives um because I think we've seen some wonderful you know the um uh the uh initiative that was driven by the community to create the to redo the um middle school um uh basketball courts. I can't remember how much money that was, but it was

228like it was at least $100,000. >> Yeah, it was it was close to 125. Yeah. >> And so I think that um so I think that just sort of that and um and uh no shade on on the importance of playing basketball. Um but like $125,000 for to have some basketball courts and then $125,000 or some some amount of money um that was uh um contributed or fundraised for by the community uh to support this kind of initiative. I don't know. I think that could that would also just be a really um that might just be a helpful thing to kind of have a sense a little bit of a sense of not to say like a promisory note or anything but just sort of a sense of like is that something that's interesting or

229if it's or if the community sort of like we would love you all to do this uh but go fund it and also don't raise our taxes. Yes. Okay. I'm just looking at my clock here. 9:43 we are before 10. Um yes, we do have another public comment period. We will get there. Uh we just have to do one quick vote um on a committee and then we will have a a another opportunity for public comment. Um so I'm just going to wrap up the discussion on cell phones. Everyone feel okay with that? Okay. So, uh, the other thing that we added as, um, as an adjustment to the agenda is, um, a a motion to, um, to replace Danielle on the policy committee. Um, I will throw it out there. I know Chris is

230interested in it. I don't know if others are interested in uh, joining the policy committee. I think Thursdays, is it Thursdays? 4:45 to 4:15 to 5:45 uh via Zoom. I think you might be the only one. Okay. So, do I have a motion to appoint uh Chris to the policy committee um for the remainder of this year? Okay. Anna and Mara, any questions? All those in favor? Great. None opposed. Welcome to the committee >> and thank you for your work on it, Danielle. Um, okay. So, we have no new business. We have no personnel. So, now we're at public comment and everybody just left. So, I guess that tells us how long we went. Um, so who said we weren't going to fill 90 minutes? Come on now. >> Oh, she did. She did. Um,

231all right. So, I would take a motion to adjurnn. All right, Mora and Cara. All those in favor? All right. Thank you, guys.