2025-09-10 RSU 5 Board Meeting

001We will get >> what? I >> I think you guys forget how 90% of our meetings go. This is it. Why is this mic on? >> Good evening. Oh, is my coming through the sounds. >> Perfect. Great. Thank you. Uh, good evening. Welcome to the RSU 5 board of directors meeting. It is Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. We are here in the Freeport High School Library. Uh just wanted to give a quick welcome to two board new board members since we finished last year. Valerie Williams and Chris Saviano. So uh we had our board retreat so they are well uh immersed into the group but for folks watching at home they are new members. So welcome. Um Anna and Mora are both uh not with us this evening and Steph uh is running a little bit

002behind so she will be joining us shortly. Uh Phoebe is still our student rep uh until elections when she will, I'm sure, have a landslide uh victory again. But uh so welcome back, Phoebe. Welcome to senior year. And we will get started with the pledge of allegiance. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from August 27th, 2025 as presented, barring any errors or omissions? Kelly and Valerie. Thank you. All those in favor? Great. None opposed. uh adjustments? None. Great. All right. So, we will move right into good news and recognition and start with our report from Phoebe, our board student rep. So, I'm a senior now, so I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. Um, but week and a half into school, uh, people are so excited. Like,

003the energy in the hallways is awesome. Um, we have our amazing upper classmen paired with their freshman and transfer mentees. Um, we've already done some really fun activities including on the Tuesday that school started where it was just freshman and their mentees, they were able to walk through all their classes, learn the ropes without all the scary sophomores there. Um, we also have club meetings all started this week. Um, we have at least one new club. Um, but I'm sure there'll be more like as the school year goes on. Um, lots of club recruiting is happening too, especially active minds. And sports are starting. I think all teams have had their home openers except for football which is on Friday. Um, and oh, we had open house last night. um which families got to come

004and meet teachers and um get a little peek into the high school. So yeah, not too much to report, but things are going well and it's been good week and a half. Thank you. All right. Um public comment. This is where we look at the empty audience in case someone comes flying around the corner. All right, we will carry on. Uh, item eight, report from the superintendent. >> Good evening, everybody. Is this picking my voice up? Okay, my first one of these. Um, so I'd like to just share some updates with you since the start of school. Um, I'll talk a bit about the strategic plan, um, about how we're thinking about going forward with the budget process this year. Um there's some enrollment data to look at and talking about some longer range planning

005on some critical issues. So um several board members were um able to attend the staff opening day, the PLLD day. Um we took pains this year to make sure that event was really inclusive. We know that we have a number of staff for whom English is not the first language. And I really need to point out that Erica back there really worked hard to make sure that we had translation available for those SER folks so that they could feel and be fully included. I think that was really important. Um it was a great day. The the district here does a fantastic job making that meaningful. Not every district that I have worked in actually has the entire district come together in person to open the school year. and everything that happened in the cafeteria, everything

006that happened in the auditorium, the longevity awards, I it was a I thought it said a really good note. It was a privilege to be there and I spoke I shared a little bit about myself and my journey and my values and um I have been making it a priority as school has started to be as visible in the schools as I can be. Um I put some of those in my weekly update to you and I don't need to rehash them all, but I'm going to continue to do that. Serving lunch at the high school was particularly cool. I don't know if I served you lunch, but I served lots of people lunch. Was fun. >> It was the the sticks and marinos sticks. >> Yeah, I definitely like >> And honestly, I think

007they knew that it was me and they're like, they should make we should make it easy for this guy. Two sticks. It was fun. Um, the whole team has really administrative team has worked hard to make school open. And I don't know if you noticed, but I noticed school opened pretty darn seamlessly across the whole district. Um, some people who really deserve shoutouts. Sam Rigby had a huge lift this summer with lots of tech updates and most of those have come to fruition. Some of them will have to be spaced out as the school year goes along during times when kids are not in school, but um Sam's really worked hard and his team have done a great job. Glenn Reynolds and the facilities crew and the custodial crew have had a ton of updates

008across the district and those have been in place so that school could open efficiently. Really, really good work there. Um, I didn't get a single call about bus problems when school opened, which is a huge thing. >> Thank you, Jeremy. >> Jeremy did a fantastic job. And this seems like an opportune time to point out that he is, even though we had anticipated, I say we, but I wasn't here yet. there. The district had anticipated that we would need more drivers and more vehicles and got an extra van and replaced an old van. We've still had to push a van that has 200,000 miles back into service and we are using every driver we have and we are fully maxed out and Jeremy has made that work seamlessly. So, a lot of credit to Jeremy.

009Um, so again I could go on and on but it's been an auspicious start to the year and you should know that a little bit about the strategic plan. So we have obviously you know that work began on that last winter and spring. We are continuing to work on that now. And in fact, just today I participated in one of the focus groups at the middle school where we had kids in small groups and they were asked a series of questions that were largely about what are your hopes and aspirations for this district. What do we do well? What do we need to improve? And not surprisingly, kids are really candid. And so we got a lot of good feedback from those uh that those conversations that we will carry forward in figuring out the

010plan. I also want to point out that this is for the whole community. We have focus groups scheduled for the end of this month that are really important. Um the dates and times of these are on our website, but I'll announce them here now, too. On Monday, Monday, September 22nd at 6 o'clock, we have a focus group at Powell Elementary School. Thursday the 25th at 6th at Durham, Saturday, September 27th at 10:00 a.m. at the Freeport Community Library, and Tuesday, September 30th at 6:00 here at the high school. So, those are opportunities for any community member to join in a conversation about what our district should look like and how it should continue to grow. >> And you don't have to attend the one like where your kids go, right? So, if a Saturday one

011works better for you, you're welcome to come to any of the >> Right. Yes, absolutely. And those are not the only opportunities to weigh in, but those are important ones. There will be other there will be surveys, there will be other community input events. So, please engage in the process because these are your schools and it's their future. Um, we have also we've tried to push the word out for this as much as we can. We have a newsletter. We've done a media push. We've done that through the towns. We've done that through the schools. We've done that through social media. We've had a banner put up on our website that like literally every page on the website you click through this banner comes up. So there are no excuses for missing these dates. Um

012again the strategic planning process itself whatever whatever plan we come up with the process is really important. So I would ask people to engage in it. So budget um one of the priorities that I remembered and took to heart from the board retreat was that the voice of the staff is very important to the board and rightly so in identifying priorities for the budget. So, I've been thinking about that and talking with our team about how to develop some procedures that give the staff meaningful opportunities to weigh in on what the priorities that should frame the budget from their point of view should be. So, one of the things that I feel I need to emphasize as I talk about this is that we are actually not starting from scratch with this because our administrators

013and directors already do have and have had mechanisms to get input from their staff. Um, and one of the steps that I've asked those folks to do to start us off is to codify those for me. In other words, to write down, okay, how is it that you what is your standing practice of getting your staff's input and then we'll take a look at that and see where we might be able to do better, but we'll also be able to inform the board about what those practices are. We're also planning to add a few other steps. So later this month we're going to be scheduling voluntary listening sessions at each school where the staff from the school can this would be after school not included in regular staff meeting time. um the staff can come

014to provide their perspective about budget priorities and I've framed a series of questions four questions that are very broad that would frame those conversations and the questions are in a nutshell what strengths do we need to maintain what challenges do we face where should we grow and where could we find efficiency and the staff will have an opportunity to weigh in on that and then we will also have a survey. Um part of that however is that we need to acquaint everyone from the board to the community to the staff about the pressures we face with the budget and we talked a little bit about that at our board retreat. So I have a little information to share now about that and more will be coming but it's important for us all to know that

015this year the budget is appro the overall district budget is approximately $44.5 million and the by far the largest part of the budget is wages and benefits. They're more well more than half the budget. That's true in every school district. That's just the nature of education. So, our negotiated contracts for wages and benefits that we already have are going to go up by 8.6% next year. And because wages and benefits are by far the biggest part of the budget, that means when wages and benefits go up 8.6%. The overall budget goes up 7.1%. That's without figuring anything else in. And some of the other things that we will likely have to think about are we have not yet negotiated a contract for our support staff. Everybody out there's talking about anticipating that health care costs,

016health insurance costs are going to go up again. Um the price of everything going up again. And given what we went through earlier this year with federal funding, which thankfully all came out fine in the wash, we don't know what's going to happen with that this year. So there are unknowns. So that's just I think an important piece for everyone to know going into it. Those are factors that we know about that should not stop us from being aspirational. It shouldn't stop us from thinking about new things that we might want to do, but it's a big part of the puzzle. So um I'll pause for a minute if anybody would like to ask a quick question about that. hearing none. So again, the intent here is to make sure that there's transparency in this

017process and we're all working with common information and then everyone's voice can be heard in a meaningful way. Um, another part of that puzzle that I forgot to mention, but I should, is where when I say the overall budget would go up 7.1%, where does that fit in historically? So if we were to go back 10 years in time and look at how the budget has increased over time, what we find is an inverted bell curve. And if I go back to before COVID, let's say the mid20s, budget increases were going down. In other words, the percentage that the budget went up each year was going down each year. Then we got to COVID and it bottomed out because we had a bunch of federal grant money, COVID relief money that was temporary that came

018along and then over a few years got spent and that happened to coincide as we all know who have lived in this country with inflation. So the co money was going away, inflation was going up and budgets in schools, not just here but everywhere started to increase again and the rate of the increase started to accelerate. So to put that in perspective, last year and the year before were the two biggest years of budget increase. So last year it was a 6.48% increase. The year before that it was a 6.83% increase. And of course, how much of that you felt as an individual individual taxpayer depended upon which town you were in and how that computed to your individual town's share of the budget. So we are already looking at the moment at a 7.1%

019increase without all the factors being weighed. So another factor that we consider in this is the enrollment. And basically, um, one of the things that I've uncovered that this district experienced in recent memory was an influx of, um, was a spike in enrollment, but that spike then went down. Um, that was largely due, as I understand it, to an influx of new mayors who moved into the community, but many of those folks, not all, but many have moved out. So if we keep that in mind, the enrollment has basically been flat with very minor fluctuations. And the best guess we have right now is it's going to continue to be flat for the next handful of years like, you know, a fraction of a percentage point off here and there. So um enrollment also determines

020state funding and it determines how much how big our classes are. It it drives a lot of decisions. So these are some factors that we will be considering as we look at the budget. Um so there's a lot going on as I transition into this role. Um these are some of the new things I want to emphasize again the strategic planning process is very important to the district and I hope people buy in. And I'll stop there. Any questions on what we've heard so far? Kelly, I just wanted to thank you for being forthright about all this early on so that we have a lot of time to think about it ahead of time. I know this is going to be probably one of our biggest challenges this year. And so I I just appreciate

021you being very honest and open about it. >> All right. Um, yeah, I feel like once I have some time to digest some of these uh uh enrollment numbers, I might have some questions specifically around like prek, what's happening there, because that's an interesting that seems to be the biggest shift from what we thought to what we got. And I know that's always a hard guess. >> That's the hardest one to guess >> because we don't know them yet, right? They haven't been here yet. Um, >> but that's um interesting. Yeah. >> The good news is you mentioned prek. >> So the good news is that our enrollment for prek is is solid in that we have decent class sizes. I mean at Mass Landing we have an average class size of 13.75. At Pound

022it's 8. At Durham it's 11.7. The maximum class size for a prek classroom is 16. >> And that's a teacher and an edtech. >> It's and you have to have two adults in there. You have to have one adult per eight students. So, we're doing fine in terms of enrollment with prek. >> Great. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh do you want to go through the resignations and hires? Sure. I know that was in our packets. >> It is. So, I don't know if it's been past practice to read out all the names. Um, but you have in your packet on a green piece of paper a list of summer staff hires. And for those who are new, it's the practice in this district that when over the summer months when the board is not

023meeting that the superintendent is empowered to do hires without the board. Um, so for most of the summer that was Jean Scarappa and since August 18th that's been me. So, you have a list here of the people that have been hired over the summer and a list of resignations. >> And maybe this isn't fair to to throw at you, and I know Kelly's not here, who usually keeps the running list, but uh in terms of openings, how are we feeling about do we have a are we pretty well staffed for our openings? Are there still spots? >> There are there are some still some spots, but all things considered, we're not we're pretty good. Um, the hardest area we've been having is edte. Um, and you know, we have several positions and and don't ask

024me to get too specific about it without digging into my laptop, but you know, we have several positions for which like there are postings for one or two edte in a school, but we actually have maybe three vacancies and it's not worth posting the third one because we have two postings out there that, you know, we don't have any candidates for. Um, but we continue to search for people. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, we do not have any uh we're easing everybody back into our regular board meetings here. We don't have any administrator reports. We don't have any board reports or committee reports because most committees haven't met yet. We don't have a policy review yet. Um, so we will move on to unfinished business. Um and the first thing we are going

025to undertake is the work plan. Uh this was originally on our retreat uh agenda but as uh usual we sometimes struggle to get to that item because we spend lots of time talking about um other things in that in that retreat. So in an effort to give it the um the time it deserves, I will tell you I think Jenny originally had this on the agenda for 10 minutes. I laughed at her. Um I was like, "Do you know us? What are you talking about? So, um yeah, so in your packets is um the draft work plan. Um and what this includes so far is um kind of the standing items um that we that we talk about every year. So, you know, we try to get uh an update from each of the school

026administrators and each of the um each of the directors uh around their goals for the year. Um usually the the school administrators will tell us like how their beginning of school has gone, those types of things. Those are all in here. Um we do have a few other items um already kind of plugged in in terms of the of the work plan. Um, as we mentioned, the cell phone usage is on there for the next meeting in September. Um, I also noticed the multilingual learner update is in here in October. Um, there was some discussions um, I think Erica had mentioned something about um, uh, providing a a presentation to the board. Now I'm trying to remember exactly what it was relative to. I believe it was a a curriculum as does anybody remember from

027the retreat? It was a great idea. >> Chapter 104 which is gate. >> Oh, I was like what? Okay. So, uh yeah. So, the practices in the in the um in the district around around our gate programming obviously the strategic plan uh is in here in a variety of places as well as the budget process so far. Um so you know one of the things that we try to do is um provide information to the board around um you know things that are happening in within the district that we might not see at a surface level um you know some more detailed information. We have had um presentations about uh social emotional supports that are in the schools. You know, talking about the social workers, the the counselors, the all of you know, what do

028we have that's available? What are you know, what are kids accessing? Those types of things. Um we've had program, we've had presentations on um pretty much anything you can think of. Um, and we want to make sure that the board feels informed about what's happening in the district, all the great work that's happening. Um, these these presentations also can provide an opportunity to highlight maybe something that we'd like to be doing better and to give the board sort of that initial look to say like, hey, this is what we're doing now. Um, this is some gaps we're seeing. So just be prepared when we come back usually around budget time uh with how we're going to propose filling those gaps or things like that. Um I think maybe the other thing we had talked about

029was um the review of of um was it around sort of consistency of of programming across the different towns and districts and schools and not districts but um towns and schools to um to make sure that we're looking at sort of the the equity piece. We talked about that a lot during the budget process. Um I feel like maybe that was something that Erica had mentioned. Um what did you say? >> MTSS. >> Yes, MTSS. Right. So multi-tered uh systems of supports. Um the replacement for RTI for folks at home who may have just figured out what RTI means. Now we're moving on to MTSS. So um >> it's always a new >> Yes. Yes. Um, one other thing that we should I would strongly recommend we consider in the work plan probably early is

030that we need to um talk about the requirement from CDS that school districts assume um responsibility for providing FAPE free and appropriate public education to preschool age children. >> Right. So, right. So, that I don't think is picked up anywhere yet in here. Right. Um, but that is one that I think one it's new um and it's not it's not effective yet but it's coming pretty quickly we have to plan for >> right so um but it is something that I think we will see in in budget cycles in the you know if not this year soon after that um so understanding what does that mean what is it what are the implications what are I mean not that we have to have it all figured out and solved yet because I think that might

031be a bit of a a um herculean task at this point without more information but at least to get get it on everybody's radar um so that we're ready for those conversations when they when they do require us to take action. Um okay. So, so CDS >> Mhm. >> Um I think I think this draft work plan has most of the requests for for presentations that we have heard over the last year, but maybe not. Okay, which what was another one? Um, what about student leadership? I think we've talked about that in the past. I mean, Phoebe's a good person to ask that, but I enjoyed their presentation. And she's leaving. >> She's leaving. Bye-bye, Phoebe. Um, >> I I think it's good to hear from the students. And I think that would be great

032if the, you know, we get the high schoolers to definitely do it. Maybe once, maybe twice would be nice, I think. But how about some of the other schools, too? Does, you know, can the middle school kids present something? Do they have that ability? I'm trying to think if they have any kind of groups that I mean they don't even well I guess I don't know this for the middle school but I don't believe Durham does even like >> student council I don't do they at FMS >> I don't think so >> I I know that Mass Landing definitely does >> so that could be an option at least for that school >> I don't know that FMS does not >> does not okay and yeah and I don't think Durham does either Um, for

033the middle school component, um, I definitely think, you know, some sort of involvement or presentation from that leadership team here at the high school is a great idea. I'm going to say that I think we're going to definitely be pulling them into the the cell phone usage um, debacle. I don't know, is that the right word? >> Let's be optimistic. Rich discussion. >> That was optimistic. I was going to say that was the best word I could come up with. Thank you. Um because I think you know one thing um I forget I think it was actually the the the group uh in the community for the responsible use for techn I forget their full name but um the folks that reach out to us about the use of technologies in our schools those types

034of things. Uh, one of the things they provided us um had some great links to how other districts kind of their process and learnings and um what went well, what didn't. Um, and it does seem like the the inclusion of the um of the student body particularly at the high school level um is key to successful implementation regardless of which way you go. Um, so I think I hope that our process will include that um as a as a part a key part of the of the process. So yes, on that note, I was wondering if it would make sense to have the cell phone usage discussion be the following meeting when the middle school and the high school are here to give updates and goal reviews. >> That's not a bad idea since they'll

035already be here. Yeah, >> it might that might be a good place if we move cell phones to talk about CDS, >> right? While we have more street. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Is that provide enough time to put together a pre because that's the other thing I I'm trying to be respectful of is the time it takes to put together these presentations. you know, we we sit and listen for 20 minutes or so and ask questions for, you know, another 20 minutes or so, but I know that a ton of work goes into the background to prepare those presentations. So, um, does does that provide enough time? I mean, not that it has to be the most in-depth presentation we've ever seen, but is that enough to get us >> It is. >> Okay. >>

036Yeah. >> All right. So, we think CDS here on the 24th and then Yeah, the cell phone. I I guess I just want to I would advocate for um having kind of a having a designated uh presentation for the student leadership that isn't connected to cell phone usage like yeah that would that'll be great to have them involved on that. But I would rather have it give them an opportunity to say all right like in terms of student leadership what do you want to what do you want to talk about? What do we need to know? What does the district need to know? um rather than just have it. >> No, I 100% agree with that. Yeah, because I know that I mean in prior years they've had sort of like groups within the group

037that have focused on a variety of different things. I don't know what those things maybe you guys don't know what those things are yet this year. Um >> I off the top of my head I feel that like the December first meeting in the only meeting in December. >> I was say there's only one in December. >> Yeah. Um that might be a a good fit >> a good spot there. And does that give the I'm looking at Phoebe because she's on this group. Um does that give you guys enough time to one figure out your your goals and plans for the year and two come up with something you could present to us? >> Yeah. So I I don't want to speak for my whole team here but um I will um yeah December

038wait December 10th I think would be a good time. So, our typical trajectory is um in the December time we are kind of in the middle of our conversation recordings. Um so, we're like really like hosting um all these different conversations about whatever we choose. We don't have that topic yet. Our first meeting is tomorrow. Um, so we can give you like a midyear update during that time. I think in the spring we could give like a whole year update, but we are our work is usually cutting pretty close to the last day of school. Um, >> when do you have a spirit week or anything like that? >> We do homecoming. >> Yeah. >> First week of this October. >> Yes. And I think we do one. No. Oh yeah, that's it. >> I

039think there might be one in the spring. >> Yeah, maybe depending on if we do a spring dance. That isn't prom. >> Um, >> is homecoming really Friday this year? >> Yes. Um, so yeah, but I honestly think our team like can put together whatever we can at the time. if you pencil us in, I think it actually might be helpful to like have something we're like working towards and like we have to get to this spot by this time. So, wherever you feel like you can put us, I think it has in the past been very valuable for the team to um come here and present because we feel like, you know, we're being listened to. It helps us get our work out to like the broader community. Um, so if you are willing

040to have us, I think um the team would be very excited to present. So maybe um May 6th. So that's after we've adopted the budget. So all of the budget sort of deliberations are done. Um we have our Q&A, but then um there there's not a a a huge agenda of items on the sixth. Does that work? Because that's that's kind of you don't want to do it at the annual budget meeting. And then the last two tend to get a little busier at the very end. So what's that? >> Is it? >> Yes, >> it is. It is around AP exam time, but in the past it's kind of been like yes, we will be um prepping during our meetings for this presentation, but in terms of like the actual presentation, I feel like

041it's been like less than 20 minutes before um I feel confident that they will like prioritize it. Um >> okay. Yeah, I >> Why don't we put it in and then, you know, if you guys are getting to that point when everyone's hair is on fire and you're like, "We can't do this," then let's talk about it. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Um, they're going to be really happy to hear. >> Okay. So, December 10th and May 6th and you will share that with your team. >> Oh, wait. Both. So, the December 10th is home or >> No, December 10th. That was like sort of your midyear one or you're saying that you prefer to just do it in May. You think? >> Maybe. >> Why don't you go talk to them tomorrow and see

042how they're feeling and let us know? Perfect. >> We would love to hear from you twice, but we know you guys have very full plates. So, okay. This is I think more of a question, but I'm just I just I'm just thinking about the work plan and thinking about past years and kind of how the I guess kind of the arc of kind of like what we work on or what we learn about. And I guess I'm I'm wondering especially this year where we um we don't have a um we're sort of out of strategic plan like we don't we're not there's nothing we're executing in terms of a strategic plan that we established you know we that we finished that cycle. So we're a little limboy um on that but yet we're moving toward

043or we're we're in the process of developing um the next strategic plan. I guess I'm just wondering um I guess kind of like what the goal reviews will really be at a kind of macro level like kind of what they're going to be about. Um because I would think in a in a I'm sort of thinking back in a in a in uh in a year where we we we're in the midst of a strategic plan. I think there'd be some sense that the the goals are like how are we doing toward that or kind of like um and I guess so I guess that's just sort of a general question and I guess the other question is just is there a way that we could make use of those without giving um extra labor

044to the um admin staff to use those sort of as part of the strategic planning process for the board. In other words, sort of a way of kind of understanding like these are the things we're thinking about. Like these are the things we're we're currently like here's a snapshot of what we're working on and these are the things that are important to us. We're not quite sure where this is going to go, but this I don't know if um either those things make sense. The way that kind of sits with me at the moment is that as we're shaping the new plan and we're detached from the outcome and we don't know what that will be yet, I I do think we're in this limbo area where the the building's goals that come forward are

045somewhat free floating. Um but my hope and expectation would be that next year once we have the plan that building goals would have a clear link to the overall strategic plan and I say that they're free floating. I would be highly surprised if the goals that come forward from the schools are just completely out in left field. I've seen the high school's goals. They are all their own strategic plan. They they do which came out of a which is an interesting configuration but Jen explained how that came about to me the other day. Um and you know they're going after good things that we would all agree are make sense. Um I haven't heard from the other principles yet about their specific goals but I will be over the course of the next month or

046two. So I I think you know my recommendation at the moment would be to as as the principles come forward and share their school goals to ask good questions about how they may have aligned with the strategic plan in the past and you know they will know that in the future we have to make explicit connections >> and I I mean I don't I guess to your point of being detached from the outcome I would be surprised um if our next strategic plan was completely divergent from the one >> we've been working on working through for the past several years. I imagine it's an extension and an expansion of that. So >> one would hope. >> Yes, we're going completely in a different direction. Um I just pulled up um the email that Anna had

047sent and then also Kelly had sent some uh some additional ones around ideas. Some of these I think we have captured um the CDS kind of prek piece um the um I think Kelly mentioned um major curriculum changes from the equity lens. I think that's a good one. I think I think that's what I was recollecting from from our from our retreat. Um, so I don't I don't know where um where folks are feeling about that one, if that's one that we want to um to find a place for. Um, and then the other two that jumped out at me um is sort of the AI technology piece. >> Um, as well as PD. That was the other um the other item that popped up in in some of those emails. So, um, >> yeah,

048and I was wondering if some of these could be captured within the building goal reviews, for example, when our building administrators come up, they can talk about what kind of PD they're they're doing inside their building, so we don't necessarily need a separate, >> right? Yeah. >> Session, >> right? That's a Yeah. way to capture kind of because I I know in the past some um you know we had for example we had a year where um every every goal update we got from a build administrator we didn't have a specific presentation for all the districts but each one we said what is your everyone was dealing with attendance in some form or fashion so how were how are they how were they dealing with that what was their approach um so maybe something similar

049to that same with um DEI, right? We were like, what what are each of the schools, regardless of the grade span of the school doing uh within their schools around that student voice is another one. We said, hey, sort of a prompt that we gave every administrator when they presented their goals um was make sure you key in on that. So maybe PD could be kind of the prompt we look for from them this year. How does that feel to people? That sound works for you? Absolutely. >> Okay. Um, so I think we have CD CDS baked in. We have cell phones. Uh, I imagine cell phones is probably going to be more than one meeting, but we'll build it in there first. >> Yeah. I guess just just on that, maybe if we just

050linger for a second to say like what we like what we mean when we talk about cell phone, like when we put that on the work plan, like what do we mean by that? like are we saying um at that meeting which we moved it up right or back where did we move >> October 8th yeah >> October 8th right um I mean that seems sort of early enough to kind of I don't know be kind of like um laying out a plan like talking about whether a plan is needed because I think I just I I want to just make sure we kind of continue on from our conversation last spring where one of the things that we kind of came to was um um with the understanding that yes, it's very important to

051have engagement from all of the different stakeholders. Um there's at least some opinion on the board that there's not a whole lot new to be learned um about what the options are. Um so I guess I just want to make sure when we're saying like this is part of the work plan, like what does that mean? And I know that the um we're required uh to by the state to have a a policy about cell phones. So that's slated in. Um >> I think you could say that's maybe the genesis. >> Yeah. I mean that's kind of to put this on. We have to have a policy by July 1st, >> right? And that I mean I think we can start working on that as a we can start working on that I guess slightly

052agnostically in terms of saying well this if we had to write a plan about what you know this is what we or what's our policy currently we can articulate that and put that on paper. Um but yeah I guess like what do we mean when we say we're going to talk about cell phones in October. >> Yeah I mean I think uh our was it our last meeting? No it was our I think our second to last meeting um in June. I went back and rewatched that meeting. Um to refresh my memory on our conversation there, uh I think there was a couple things. There was uh there was some folks that were going to do some work around finding out costs of of options if we chose to go Yep. >> or alternatives alternatives

053to those. Um just so we know what those look like. Um I think uh Anna's point in her email was a good one. Um, I don't think we had full feedback from the staff around their their preference um of of next steps. I think that's key. Um, you know, maybe Phoebe can throw something else on their agenda tomorrow for the student leadership team to to start you guys brainstorming around, you know, collecting feedback or or thoughts or, you know, procedurally how we might go move forward. Um, >> yeah. like are you wanting us to like go forward with like hosting conversations or like provide like the kind of templates we go by that like students know already or >> Yeah, I mean I I think I think maybe uh you guys can just start be

054pre preparing for the fact that we're probably going to be tapping you to to solicit um whether it's feedback from the students or whether it's your um you know your thoughts on the best way for us to share information with the students about a change like this. Um you know kind of kind of a I would envision a two-way conversation there right? Um I think I think we have a pretty to Colin's point I think we have a pretty good uh idea of what the general feedback is going to be when we say hey what do you think? Um but maybe you know some thoughts around you know what what might a communication program look like to to you know share the wise the you know I think that was the other piece we talked

055about in June was it sounded like there was some potentially some really good speakers that might be good to start the process with around like why is this important right um so I I would love to hear more about that on October 8th right is that feasible is it you know 50 grand to get the person here and that's not, you know, yeah, >> it it seems to me just having I I mean I I wasn't here for the previous parts of this conversation, but it seems to me that October 8th, you probably want to decide as a board whether you're still in listening mode or whether you're in talking mode. Are you at the point where you're still seeking information to inform how you feel or have you had have do you have enough?

056And I think I heard Colin say at a certain point, you've learned a lot already. Don't know how much more there is to learn. And I think that that one question, are you still listening or are you talking will help you decide what you want to do on that day. >> So I did not watch this previous conversation, so I'm coming in fully blind. Um, >> the date of that meeting with the link so folks that didn't see >> that would be wonderful. Um, >> and the time hacks, you don't have to watch the whole thing. >> That said, do we have a way to reach out to districts who have already implemented solutions to see how that's going for them? >> Yeah. I mean, you know, we know who they are, so it could

057and and I think there's been some sharing of information. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean I would just say on that that um I mean part I think part of the impetus for even having this conversation is be is that uh the vice principal at the high school was like we talked to Bath and it's working really well not having cell phones in the high school. Um and so I think we I think that is a that is I would say that's a large data point. Um that's not the only one that we could we could look at or should look at. Um, but I think it's just important to acknowledge that I think that is that was one of the precipitating um uh uh pieces of information >> and I wonder if they have a

058counterpart to our leadership group that our leaders might just to get because I would imagine that the teachers and the administration are happy with that. But we also want to make sure that we are and and not to say that it would necessarily say, "Oh geez, the kids are, you know, unhappy that they can't use their phones during the day." So we we should just scrap the whole idea. It we do have to make a decision at some point, but it might help help us understand like is there a better way to implement it? Is there a better way to message it? Um or is it just a you know prepare? Yeah. I I don't know if Phoe's hands up or she's Yeah. And then I'll go to Steph. Um, I would say, um, like

059to Superintendent Gray's question of like, listen, are we done listening? I would feel pretty strongly that I think there's still some more information to be gotten. Um, not necessarily about like our phones bad. I think we're feeling pretty like solidly there. Um, but in terms of like the hows and the who's and the wins. Um, I think getting student feedback is going to help. Even if you don't even take any of it, showing students in any situation, like showing students you're listening and you want to know, I think it's going to help with the buy in. Um, but I wouldn't like discount like what the high school and even the middle school students would have to say because I from the conversations I hear in class and in the hallways and in the lunchroom like

060people have a lot of different opinions. Um, and I don't think they're all like like a punk like high school kid. Like I do think that people like we know but I think you could get a lot of good information. And then I also think um that communication with other schools and maybe getting some like actual like other than just hearing like PATH is doing great. Um hearing some like either some like real data points or like um testimony from teachers cuz we know that is like the a big thing is we don't really in terms of like the bags like teachers don't want to be like having to enforce other policies. So, like hearing from teachers at in districts who have had other policies that don't require as much like teacher enforcement, hearing from

061them, maybe hearing from some students. Um, yeah, I think there is some some still some more information to be gotten. >> Yeah, and I think that that's a great point. Thank you, Phoebe. Um, you know, just like what are the concerns around it, right? and maybe there's ways to meet those needs. Um, but if we don't even know that it's a concern or a need, then how do we address it? So, thanks for that. Seth, I attended the MSBA um regional meeting last night and two um representatives from other districts, Raymond Windham and York, just implemented policies as well. And there was talk that MSBA is going to put together like draft sample policies of like varying kinds and they'll be made available. So I think that that could be another resource to consider. Um

062and some of those folks from those schools were willing to share what they've done and information. So it seems that like there's dialogue that's starting to be shared amongst districts as well. That might be helpful. >> Yeah, those MSBA regional meetings might be a really good because the um I don't know if you found it to be helpful, but I have in the past. I I wasn't able to join last night, but um people I mean they're just other board members. Um and people are really happy to share, you know, what's working for them, what's not working for them. Um and York and uh Windham Raymond were those full bell-to-bell bands. >> Bel bands for both of them. Interesting. >> Yeah. That they started when school started this fall. So they they both, you know,

063schoolboard members, not students. um they both reported that it was reported as successful in the you know two weeks that we've been back but um yeah so car >> yeah I agree that we're still in listening mode for a bit and would love to hear more from students here and from students in other schools and from um the teachers in the other schools as well. So, that's information that I would like to continue to receive and that if there's a way that we could make that happen on the 8th, I think that would be helpful. >> Um, I know that's um the policy committee will be looking at our work plan on tomorrow and I don't recall where the cell phone piece falls on that if or if it's there yet, but >> yeah. and

064and so that committee will be looking at a variety of policies in that process, but I think it's would be really helpful to hear how those policies are being implemented and how it's working. >> Yeah. And um not that I want to make him come to another meeting, but it might be helpful to have Will also what for that conversation if our plan is to have Pam and Jen from the high school and FMS. Um because I do think it's important that you know obviously there's a variety of schools this impacts. Not so much the the younger younger grades although maybe it does I don't know but um certainly the middle schools and the high school. Yeah. No, I was just thinking in terms of the actual work plan if it would make sense since

065it sounds like we do have a lot of information we could still yet gather if we used that October 8th meeting as sort of the the listening piece and then we schedule another session somewhere later in our work plan >> for the >> for Yeah. the talking piece >> or preparing for the talking piece. >> Yeah. As we think about policies and procedures. >> Yeah. And I think I mean I want to I want to thank you Phoebe for for articulating the importance of that and and I think I uh I I stand kind of I want to say sort of morally corrected on the sort of importance of the importance of that and I didn't mean to suggest that um there's we don't need to hear more voices. We do I think so I

066think we are still in listening mode. I think probably what I what I'm realizing I meant was that I think the board knows why we are talking about it like that we kind of know that what we are concerned about is um the the social and emotional well-being of of our students and um the quality of the education the educational experience that they are receiving. So I think that um again I'm perhaps I'm assuming too much um but I think that I think that is I think that is where at least I'm coming from. So I think that um if that's true I think that that maybe is an important thing for us to talk about at that October 8th. It's sort of like well why are we even having this conversation and sort of

067being able to say to the community but also to be able to say to the students this these are our concerns and this is why we are considering a bell-to-bell ban right and sort of it's not because like um how did you put it Phoebe that cell phones are bad um like yeah they are but like that's not that's not the reason like that's not the reason we're we're we're doing it um or that's not the reason we're exploring it we're exploring it because we care about these particular um the impact acts of them on the students in a in a couple ways. So again, I don't know who is the appropriate person to articulate that or kind of to like share that. I don't know if that's I don't know if that's you, Superintendent

068Gray. I don't know if that's one of the guest, you know, the possible guest speakers that we spoke about. Um, but I don't know. I think that should be something that is that is voiced by someone who can can really speak to the uh importance of that and why we're even talking about it. I think it's probably me with input from the team. Okay, >> baby. Sorry, I know it's kind of dragging this one point out, but um I kind of >> I got us 45 minutes on the agenda. We can use it. >> Um I kind of have an idea for the whole um cell phone like conversation. Um, I think maybe I could be a liaison to the high school at least. And I'm curious if I were to organize a group of

069high school students. Um, maybe they could, you know, just keep it in their mind, start thinking about it. Um, maybe meet together, have a informal conversation, and then come to the October 8th meeting. Maybe they'll share at public comment to start or maybe they'll listen to y'all's conversation, choose to share. Maybe at the end, maybe not. Just like a group, like a kind of focused group of students. Um, you know, it could be the student leadership team. But I think um in from what I've seen with the polarization of this topic, especially with high schoolers, um I think I would be able to find a lot of different types of students who'd be willing to um help with this work and like have a say in it. Um, so I'm curious if that's something people

070would be interested in like just getting a group of high school students like starting to think and maybe it could form up a little more later on once we start talking more formally about it. >> I love that idea. >> Phoebe, >> good thing I accidentally got a Canva premium account so I can make some posters >> accidentally. I'm gonna I might hit you up because I I need to get better at Canva. So, >> well, I have it till next month. So, >> so bearing in mind Kelly's comment, might I suggest for the November 5th meeting we put in the followup? >> Yeah. >> Um I wouldn't want to let it >> linger too long. And um the other thing I was thinking about and maybe this is just sort of a a standing

071thing that we can put, you know, maybe it doesn't need to be on the work plan, but um the the strategic plan doesn't pop into here until June 3rd, >> right? Um, I think we probably maybe want some kind of intervening updates. >> Sure. >> So, I I don't know if it needs to be in here or it can be just sort of >> we could certainly put it in here. I can also promise you it will be in my updates to you >> and a number of folks are participating in that. >> Yeah. and and um which I think is is super great and valuable and I appreciate everybody who's spending their time doing that. But I also think it's important for community members to kind of hear that update and they don't I

072mean while they could look at those the weekly updates we get >> um I think we get surprisingly get a lot of people that watch these meetings. >> Don't be fooled by the empty seats. They're watching from home on the couch with popcorn. Did he mean his updates in the beginning of the meeting? >> Well, I meant I will my weekly updates to you, but also my superintendence reports. >> Yeah. So, maybe we just sort of make it a, you know, like a standing item once a month on the superintendence update just for where we are with the strategic plan and >> absolutely can do. >> Yeah. Great. >> Anything else that's jumping out at folks? I I would like to visit um AI conversation at least once and and to Colin's point of about

073the cell phone item on the agenda, what would that look like? Would we be having would we be in learning mode or would we be in talking mode? What would that look like? We might need to have that on here more than once. >> Yeah. I mean, I don't know about everybody else on the board, but I would certainly be still in learning mode. I don't feel like I know nearly enough to to weigh in on on where I think we need to go with that. Um yeah, maybe that's a good one for uh for Sam. >> Oh, for sure. Yeah. >> Um you know, I don't want him to feel neglected on the work plan here at all. >> Absolutely not. >> Um >> so February 25th is a budget review. Technology is part

074of that. >> December 10th. Yep. Michelle, I almost feel like that's a curriculum issue, too. Um, so maybe that would be one that he might want to share with our assistant superintendent. >> Yeah. Yeah. How they come together. >> He's also on December 10th. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah, I was I was going to say I was going to say the same thing, Kelly, that I think that that's I think I think again I think what I'm primarily interested in on that is understanding um how is AI impacting the schools currently >> like how what are the different schools um >> how are they addressing it? How are they making use how are they using it? I think that would be um helpful to know just kind of like a state of the state of

075the state and then a little bit of a sense from again from a curricular perspective and maybe a little bit more broadly beyond or maybe well beyond the district of sort of like how are people talking about this like I mean I have read my own collection of of things about um AI and education but to really understand from a um from within the school um what kind of things are are are we are we thinking about and should we be aware of so that um uh when it pops up on the strategic plan which it will do >> uh >> detach from the outcome >> detached from yeah we know I don't know the answer uh but like that when it pops up we sort of have some context for sort of like where

076where is that coming where's that coming from and what are we trying to achieve with it and you know that sort of thing. >> Yep. Um, so, >> so on December 10th, I could ask Erica and Sam to collaborate on presentation around AI. >> Yeah. And then the only other one that we haven't really talked about that um was the the curriculum kind of overview um that Erica had mentioned as she's sort of digging into all of the different curriculums that we're doing across the district with the idea around sort of equity and what does that look like across the district. Um I don't know if that is too much to lump in with the technology and AI piece or that is a separate day. kind of feels like it's a separate day to >>

077Yeah, I think it's a separate day. That's a big It's a lot. >> So, and I don't know how much time that one takes for her to, you know, >> I I know she's >> she dove in deep starting on July 1st. >> It might not be bad to put that >> 12:01 a.m. But >> January 14th. Okay. >> So, we have, >> you know, progress on district goals, the district scorecard, the high school program of studies. It might be a good fit. >> Yep. >> Yeah. actually the with the district scorecard. That's that's probably a a great spot to put that. And that just reminds me of something else that we have seen. I'm trying to remember if it was on this year's um board eval or not, but we've certainly seen it in

078prior years. Sort of this thought that we only get sort of that district update once a year. Um, and I don't know what's a better way to to accomplish that, how we get more frequent updates or if you know if the data is so massive that really once a year is the best we're going to get, right? Because it's there's lagging and, you know, those sort of things. But, um, and tell me if if I'm completely off base and we've never heard that in the feedback, but I feel like we have. Um, yeah. I wonder if Erica has any ideas actually on how to present that information. >> I know she's >> she's over by the cookies. She's keeping track of how many cookies we all eat. >> Hi. So, Erica Mateo, assistant superintendent. Um,

079>> welcome Erica. Also, you're and I didn't I welcomed our new board members but not our new superintendent and assistant superintendent. So, welcome to everyone. Thank you. Um, so the question specifically is with regard to what beyond the sort of curriculum study, is there something else that you're looking for? >> Um, one of the things we've heard is just sort of a more maybe frequent, but I don't know what the right frequency is, just kind of overview of where we are. So, we have this right now in our in our work plan. We have this district scorecard that we look at once a year. Yeah. >> And we all have to remind ourselves like what do these mean? What is growth? What you know all those things. I don't know if there is a >>

080different more holistic. >> Yeah. >> Maybe not so data driven. I don't know. >> Yeah. Um so growth data versus achievement data versus some sorts some sort of social emotional indicators or climate and culture pieces. Um not everything is a thing we're currently studying or following or measuring. So some of it might be we'd like to learn more about these areas or have some more universal or standard measures. Um my recommendation would be that we do a beginning and endofear data debrief so that you know what is the growth looking like where is the starting place and then where is the delivery at the end of the year. So as we set about our summer work and our planning for the year to come like how we have you know how we've delivered in the

081year prior and how we are establishing those goals and priorities based on the data and areas we see as identified needs or opportunities for growth. Um yeah and all of that will fall into that broader context of MTSS structures and our cut scores and all the pieces. So, some of it's soft with our um climate and culture pieces and some of it's a little bit more traditional academic achievement and so-called growth. And I can get into the whole growth indicator thing in more depth at some other point. >> We'll need a refresher. I do every year, so I'll apologize up front. You have to tell me every year. >> There's a lot to it. But yeah, like the climate and culture one, I don't think that's ever anything we've ever gotten in the past. So,

082um, you know, I think everything you said sounds great. Uh, I don't necessarily think it's fair to throw a beginning of year one at you. >> I could probably give you something pretty surface level for beginning of year if that's of interest. Just tell me when. >> Okay. >> And then, um, we'll be looking at recommendations for other pieces, I'm sure. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, I mean, I think we're throwing Yeah. Yeah, just just on that while you're still up there, Erica, I think like I would um I'd love that idea of having something at the beginning and something at the end both because that I mean I just like that arc, but I also I think um I'm realizing I would love to have as many moments this year when we can have a

083an integration between an understanding of where are we right now um and um as we're moving toward both the budget for next year and we're also moving toward the strategic plan to have a little bit more of a sense of um how do those pieces fit together because I think I think honestly I think I don't often have a feeling going into budget season that I really understand kind of the link between um um sort of some of the educational indicators or sort of or that and and where where the budget has again not that the budget was only in relation to that but I think as as many points as we could kind of integrate those things or have sort of um connections would be would be excellent. >> Supporting each other. >> Yes.

084Support each other. >> Next meeting might be a good opportunity for just surface level. >> Y it feels important. Yeah. >> So that's also where we put CDS is that because I feel like that's going to be you two, right? That's both of you guys together on that one. So um we're not trying to drive anybody, you know, off the edge too early in the year. Yeah. >> So, if Yeah, welcome. Here you go. Um, yeah, if you guys think that that that's doable for the 24th, great. Um, if not, we'll we'll figure out a spot for it. >> I think it works >> next meeting. >> Okay. Um, anything else that we Yeah, >> I wanted to revisit the conversation about the strategic communications committee and it's like role of what I I understood

085it to be board to public communication or district to public communication, but it doesn't seem like that's what it's been historically. Um, yeah. Uh and so that kind of comes from like my own surprise at that and also just in kind of going through the budget process at the tail end last year for the first time. Um how and this is more like you know hearing in the community stuff of folks that I know that are really engaged with the school who still were experiencing confusion. Um, and so to me that tells me that we could maybe communicate better if the folks that really want to support us and like be here and come to the votes and all of those things are and they're still confused. Um, so I just kind of wanted to

086bring that up as a topic and maybe it's through the strategic comm communications committee or something else. Um, but especially hearing Tom's budget updates and knowing where we're going and I think that that's like a really and all these policies that are very contentious um sometimes. Uh, I think that that's like a piece that could really help us have a smoother path for the year. um if it's an option to consider or look at. >> I'm chuckling because you've basically channeled the person who you replaced on the board. Like Candi soapbox was like communicate, communicate, communicate. Like we need to tell people more things. So I love that. Uh I'm glad that that is not lost with her departure from the board. So thank you. Um where did we come down on that committee? I

087felt like we decided it wasn't meeting and because of the strategic plan that we decided when we Oh yeah, >> that's what I remember. >> I was thinking my recollection, which is always uh fuzzy. >> This is the problem when we don't have video. >> Uh were you going to email us a suggested meeting date? >> Kelly's nodding her head. >> I think I think where we left off was that we were going to defer to Tom and he was going to have a little self brainstorm session with himself >> about what >> that what that meant was with Jenny. >> Yeah. or Jenny and kind of determine what role and goals that committee might take this year. >> I did actually now that you say that. So I did go back the next day

088and talk with Jenny about it and she had a lot to say about communication that's already happening. Um so I will revisit that with Jenny. Yeah, I think I mean I'm not on the committee so I don't want to obligate people to time but um I do think it's important um and I do think the conversation the communication does go both ways with that committee. It's probably in the last few years been well the outward communication has mostly been the budget brochure um which um rightly or wrongly that's that's what it has been to make sure we've been getting that out every year and then the information in has been the various surveys whether it's the parent survey or the staff survey and the alternating years. So, um I do think there are kind of

089it is a a two-way conversation vehicle. Um but it can always be better. Um and I do think your your thought process around sort of thinking ahead to wanting to make sure that you know people who want to engage with us have the information they need to do it uh and are there better ways to do it. I I do sometimes think we get a little bit of, you know, overcommunication fatigue like, well, every meeting is public, every meeting is videoed, we send stuff to everybody's email, we send stuff to their house. And um, you know, there's short of knocking on people's doors. Um, you like what else can we do? But, um, that's not the right way to think about it. There are always other ways. Um, so yeah, I would be really supportive

090of that committee meeting. um even if it's just to brainstorm about other ways to communicate >> care. And then I'll go to Kelly. >> Yeah, I I don't recall what questions are on the survey or are planned for the focus group right now for strategic planning. >> Um but I'm hopeful that this topic will bubble up and that we'll hear feedback from the community about how effective all these communication channels are. Um, and it might even be helpful to have that list from Jenny of what what is happening, what are we doing already, >> but the question really is, is it effective? Right? That's what we want to know. And if that, you know, if we can have a >> um surface level data um conversation at in a the strategic communications um committee that

091might be helpful. No, I was just going to mention um I'm not really sure if we need a separate agenda item for this just because normally throughout the course of the year we do have committees report out regularly. So if if we define what the role of this committee is and we actually have some work to do, we'll be reporting that out throughout the year. >> That's a Yes, thank you for that. And that's a good that prompted something else to pop into my brain around um wanting to ask folks that are on subcommittees. Policy, finance, and facilities always have sort of a designated spot in those board committee updates. Um but I think we have committees that we don't hear from. Um, do people on other committees would it be helpful if we scheduled

092maybe not every month but maybe twice a year like region 10 or um DEI or the curriculum committee um to to report out. Okay, it's a little bit more challenging I think for the ones that don't meet regularly because we don't know where to put them on the on the calendar. So maybe we can get together and try and figure out when they are and then we can slate them to make sure that they have a designated spot on on the agenda. And I will uh try to do my best to remind folks that are on those committees that they're coming up for a report so we don't surprise anybody in the meeting. Valerie, >> I recently started following the town of Freeport on Instagram, and they literally are just disseminating information about the town,

093like nothing. Just like, "Hey, don't forget there's a three-way stop happening soon. Hey, don't forget we're having the town council meeting tonight." I'm wondering if it could be something like that, leveraging a informational not asking for opinions, this is what's happening, don't forget this >> kind of um social media presence. Not >> I mean, not that feedback isn't welcome, but maybe that's not the forum for it. Yeah. Well, and on social media, it's actually pretty this is this is my opinion, but it's also like other people's opinion. Um, on social media, you don't want it to be two-way communication because bad things can come in, you know. So, >> yeah. And if you I mean, if it is sort of a push out of information, I mean, we do have a social media like we

094do have a Facebook page. I don't know if we have a Instagram page. It would be very simple to tie them together. So, it posts to both because I know not everybody has both. Um, >> and so, you know, there are >> I don't know who's responsible for that. I don't know who posts to it. >> Jenny. Okay. Um, Jenny has a pretty full plate, so let's we'll we'll think on that. Maybe maybe we can get her some support in that. Are you volunteering, Colin? >> No. >> Okay. >> I was going to volunteer you. Uh, two points. One is >> Canva premium for a month. So, >> uh, well, yeah. Well, Well, that's what I was that's why I wanted to give you an opportunity because you are I because you're probably not on

095camera currently so people can't see that you're working out a dance routine during the uh schoolboard meeting and I just I just wanted to make sure that you know you felt like you had time to share that later. But second, um, perhaps this is a statement of bloody obvious and everybody else knows this or knows that it is is currently happening, but I guess I'm just realizing I don't know whether part of strategic communications remit is an is an analysis of effectively every communication that happens across the school between any part of the school and the public. Um because I think when I think about strategic communications, that's what I think about is basically sort of like how do the letters that are being sent out from mass landing um connect to um later things

096that are sent out by Tom by Superintendent Gray? How and how does that connect to to like sort of what is the what's our overall strategy for how we're communicating with the public? um and that the budget is then one piece of that but it's not so I I guess in my mind I don't think we need to do as you say I like we're doing a lot on the budget I don't think that's the for me I don't think that's the particular issue I think it's sort of a sort of a larger question of just like how are we communicating and how could we do that perhaps in a more integrated way and a more effective way >> I guess I just wanted to add where my I wanted to narrow my comment to

097like what where I see where I'm confused is like bored communication to the public >> right and that that's I think something that we all have or that has felt like even though the information is out there that sometimes it's not landing and the way that we would hope or that we would expect or that we would like and so maybe there's something that could be done there um and I don't know if that's within the scope of the committee um but um >> we can make the scope of the committee >> right exactly and then it comes back to the philosophical question of like the fact what should we be communicating to the public like what is our role right I mean we certainly want people engaged in the budget process because that is

098their role to play in that is the vote right and that's why we want to make sure people are informed and have the information they need to make an informed vote um but then you know is it our is it our job to to reach out and share other things right like where we want their feedback around say something like the strategic plan it is right? Because that we run that process and we solicit the feedback. Um, yeah, that's an interesting question. >> There there is an argument to be made that it it strengthens the district for the public to know more broadly what's happening in the schools. >> And you know what what a number of districts that I have known have have turned to is actually somebody who's taking this on as a

099primary role, not just doing it off the side of their desk. And as the world of communication becomes more complex um you know there there are arguments to make that investment but that's an investment to think about in the context of every other investment you want to make >> um with you know going up 7.1%. Right. I mean that when I when I think of this, what makes me want to pursue that more as a board member is when I hear us talking about why we want the high school students and other students to have buy in with the cell phone policy is because then it feels like we're collaborate collaboratively making a policy choice. And as we're heading into places where we're going to continue to see budget increases, having a greater collaboration with

100our communities feels like it would be useful to us as a board and as a district. >> Yeah, it certainly doesn't hurt, right? the more people know about what we're doing that you know when all they hear when all they see is 7.1 and they know nothing other than that well that's >> there are amazing things happening in the schools and and you know most people doesn't cross their radar >> yeah and just and just to be clear that I think that's also part of what kind of what I meant about the strategic communication as I'm sort of thinking about it is like yes what what does the board communicate about because it's not being communicated elsewhere or what is the board communicating about because we really want to amplify something and then what's not

101our lane because that is being handled by the superintendent's office or that is being handled by the high school or like so just again to understand kind of like the full picture of that to sort of know oh this is when these communications are going out here's how they're integrated here how they reinforce each other or here's how they contrast I think like having an understanding of that would be really helpful >> I mean all I'm saying any posters Instagram Instagram graphics. I got all of the gifts. Like, I'm ready. But only until next month when they charge her again. >> We got to get those done before October. >> Isn't there a bus we can sell to like get her the account? Like, >> we may have >> Did we sell Did we sell

102that bus already? >> We may have been talking about selling a Gator today. I'm like, maybe we can get Phoebe to buy that. Stay tuned. >> And then I have one more question. With the sheet that's like all of the committees and the times that they meet and who's on them, will that be updated so that um >> I'm sure it already has. Um I'm guessing once we all changed who was on what, she probably did. Uh and as >> I'm pretty sure she did. >> Yeah. Uh she's she's pretty speedy on that. Um where it lives is a great question other than in on Jenny's computer. So, uh, maybe we can ask her to share that >> website. >> I don't know if it is. >> Okay. >> Um, cuz it's really kind of

103a tool we built to make sure. >> I got confused at one point like what do we have to have? What is a choice that we have? Um, we color coded them based on like like the amount of time effort, you know, like the Freeport cable TV one was green and then negotiations for the teacher contract was, you know, bright red, you know, just in terms of time and stuff like that. So, um, anyway, uh, so how do people feel about the work plan? I think we picked up student leadership once, maybe twice. Uh, we picked up CDS at the meeting on the 24th. Um, AI and technology, we're going to tag that on for SAM in December 10th. Uh, curriculum with sort of the equity lens is going to be a part of the

104district scorecard on January 14th. uh we'll capture the um PD offerings when the administrators are doing their um their updates/goals when we hear from them in the fall. Um cell phone uh we put on twice, once on October 8th and then again on November 5th for a follow-up. Did I miss anything? >> Yeah. Um well, a couple of things. um the AI and technology one. Would that make sense to also ask the administrators to add to their reports or is that too much since we were talking about how it'd be nice to know how each >> I don't know if they're all equipped to really give a lot on that right now. >> And I think it could be something that Sam gathers as a part of what he's presenting kind of how we're using

105it. >> What's that? >> And Erica. >> Yes. And Erica. Yeah. >> Okay. And I think Erica had also mentioned gate earlier. Is there something? >> Oh, yes. >> Chapter 104 >> and the M. >> You're just filling your own plate here, Erica. >> Yeah. Um, we could It is a It is a specific program um written into statute, so I don't know if you want it bundled with MTSS or if you'd like to do it separately. Does it in my head they're different but does it make sense to bundle them together? >> Um so multilingual uh programming is separated. Um I would say keep it as two separate items but potentially on the same night if that makes sense. But >> okay. Yeah. >> Um so multilingual learners we have on October 22nd. Um,

106and then did we say the MTSS piece would be part of that curriculum overview or is that a separate? >> I can do that at any point. Um, deeper in the year a little bit would offer maybe some more direction. >> So March 11th >> is sort of a a budget deliberation. So that's the only thing we have on that meeting. Not that we won't fill all that all those moments with exciting budget talk, but maybe it'd be good for us to have something else to think about. >> Does that is that enough time into the year? You think >> it is? And then what about the the chapter 104 at that point or at some other point? >> Does it make sense to keep those two together on the 11th? >> Yeah. >> Okay.

107So March 11th. So MTSS and GATE. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh, Danielle, do I see your hand? Are you good? >> Have we bitten off more than we can chew? >> It's a lot. We We'll give you one out when you two get out of this meeting in the next couple days and you look at this and you're like, "Oh my god, why did we agree to all that?" We we we can revisit if we need to, but we'll put this we this seems like a great work plan in the meantime. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to give everyone an update on my tiny group that I'm making. It's going to be called um the scoop special committee on our phones and I'll lure them with ice cream. So they will be here. >>

108O U P S C O U P O O O >> I can't spell scoop. Okay. Um All right. So now that we've done all of this uh the work plan, we are to the um the district goal which I think it's in our folder, isn't it? >> Oh, it's literally on the >> is it? >> Yeah, >> it's it's on the agenda, but yeah, I think it's the same thing that's on that page. >> Yeah. to engage stakeholders in the community of RSU5 in a comprehensive and inclusive process to collaborative collaboratively develop the five-year strategic plan. I think Colin's previous concerns about sort of the lack of teeth of of that being the whole district's goal for the year are um are uh understandable. Um but I will turn back to our work plan

109of lots of great work that will be done this year. >> Um that while we may not have a shiny, you know, four goal bucket to like tag each one of these things to yet, progress will be made. I think my I I have a a rewarding suggestion for this for this one because I feel like >> we're doing the board is responsible for more than engaging the stakeholders in this. I think >> and I guess my question is is is the goal ultimately to develop or approve a strategic plan this year? >> It is >> and rather than just engaging the stakeholders. So I would propose saying that our goal is to collaboratively develop or approve, whatever word we want to go with, a five-year strategic plan through a comprehensive and inclusive process that

110engages stakeholders in the RSU5 communities. I'm not adding too many words there. I'm really just >> just re reordering them. Yeah. >> Um but with the focus being on developing it and approving it, but also making it comprehensive and inclusive. Nothing mind chattering. >> I really like that. >> Say that again. Yeah. Uh to collaboratively develop. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval for the RSU5 district goal for 2526 to >> here's where you say it >> to collaboratively develop or approve whichever word we all agree on a five-year strategic plan through a comprehensive and inclusive process that engages stakeholders in the ROS5 communities >> develop and approve. >> I would >> I like that. Yeah, I think I like >> you're gonna want to approve it. >> Y >> are you making

111that motion? >> Thank you. Second from Malik. So motion from Kelly, second from Malik. >> Any other comments other than Thank you for the rewarding, Cara. I like that. >> Yeah, I really like it. I think it really better defines what the goal actually is. It puts it front and center. >> Thank you, Cara. >> My other note is, do we all like the word stakeholders or do we want to change that to just people? That could be a whole conversation, but does anyone have >> Carrie? Have you ever considered joining the policy committee? >> I don't like I like I like to reword I you don't like stakeholders. >> I think everybody is a stakeholder in our district, right? >> Some may not see themselves as such, but >> do we want to change

112it to something like community members? >> It's more than members though. Yeah, it's more than staff. >> It's a huge range of people and I think stakeholders. >> I like stakeholders. I think it kind of gets everyone. >> You think it's put offish or something? >> Okay. Very much for >> Is it too corporate? >> We're looking at the stakeholder policy tomorrow. It's first first on our >> She's preparing. >> No, we're not. Um but yeah, I think that's fantastic. And also I think you know to your to your um to your point about the work plan and also your sort of gesture to Superintendent Gray to sort of be like is this too much? I think like I think actually at the end of the day I think the evaluation of like does the

113work plan serve that is the determination of is the work plan right? Um so I think like based on the conversation I think the work plan does serve that end um from a variety of different angles. Um so I think again that would be the only thing I'd be wary of pulling anything out that we've talked about on the work plan. um sort of just check it against that first before we chuck it. >> Okay. >> You you can call me Tom. >> I mean it's up to you. >> We don't have a policy on that yet. >> I always tell people in our new board member orientation. We are only like quasi formal. There will be no like I agree with the former speaker. But we do raise our hands because you know it

114is a school board after all. Uh, all right. So, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Any other comments, questions? All those in favor? Great. Thank you. All right. So, new business. Uh, budget timeline, pink paper in your in your uh packets. Um, this should look pretty familiar at this point. Um I don't think we have um we have changed anything on here other than we did add the date for the uh leadership meeting with the towns uh in December um December 3rd. We extended that invitation to uh the chairs of the select boards and the town councils and the administrators from each town. Um, I don't know if they've RSVPd yet, but it's always a great great conversation. Um, and this is that's probably the only change from the last time

115you saw this, comments, questions, Steph, what happens at that? What is that? So that um that was uh born out of kind of some to your point confusion around like what's happening, what are we seeing for budgets, what are they seeing for budgets, um other things that are happening across the um the communities that maybe we could collaborate on. Um we ended up with a um position for a person who is a uh fields person for us in the summer and is a driver for plow trucks for the town of Freeport in the winter. So we don't both have to find somebody. We share that position. Um we I'm just giving you some examples of things that have come out of those meetings in the past. We have done some shared purchasing for like paving

116those sort of oh we're doing a big project so are we like you know you get cheaper when you buy in bulk. Um and we just you know kind of throw out things that are happening in the individual towns or in the district because you know we have our own budget that we're responsible for but it's not in a vacuum. you know, each town is doing something. Each, you know, the the the town of Durham is moving to a July 1 fiscal year this year, right? So, everyone in Durham just got an 18month tax bill that blew everybody's mind, right? So, um which is fine because it's 18 months. It's not your taxes didn't go up 50% for anybody who's watching and hasn't figured that out yet. Um but just different things that are happening

117so that we can kind of plan you know just having all of the information I guess. So it was just a way of to share information and see if we could find efficiencies. Any other comments, questions? Yeah, >> I think just a comment and it's I don't think it's anything to add to the or any that would need to be reflected in the document, but just as I was thinking about last year's budget process um and where we might have been able to do better in terms of communication [Music] uh with within the board, but also between the board and um the superintendent is sort of I maybe I kind of um of identifying for oursel sort of where in the process um if we are asking the superintendent to go back and adjust something

118like when is that moment kind of when is that um again because my sense is that's a little bit where things maybe got a little ary um is that it sort of it that maybe didn't happen early enough or did it sort of or which I guess would mean too Right. Um but I'm just sort of wondering whether like um that kind of March 11 um date is sort of like something where we can kind of again not not to have anything like set in stone but just to say like all right coming into that meeting um can we as a board um be thinking about you know if uh if we're thinking about adjustments or if things are looking if if there's a sense that things are not um the report is not looking

119like it is going to support the proposed budget to sort of just have a moment where we could all kind of say, you know, let's let's look at let's look at that moment. Um, again, nothing set in stone, but um that we all might kind of know that that would be um part of the conversation there like before we leave that night. It's sort of like are we more or less going in the direction of supporting the budget or are we really saying this is not what the board wishes to pursue? If if you're asking me, I I mean I I think it's it's somewhere there in March >> since we adopt it in March. >> Yeah, >> it's got to happen sometime. >> It's not it's not going to be later. I think probably

120that March 18th date is a good is a sort of a good make or break date. >> Yeah, I would say I I mean my only hesitation like I understand the concept and the idea around it and I agree um in in reality how it plays out. I would say usually that March 11th date is that date that we're kind of you're like, "Hey, we'd love to see, you know, if you were going to do this, like what might that look like?" And they come back with some options for the next one. Because if you guys recall, generally how it works is that coming out of that 18th meeting, we have basically decided um because we tried to know that number of what we're going to adopt the following week so that the papers are

121all ready for us to go. Now, we can we don't have to and this year we didn't. we, you know, we were spreadsheeting on the fly there, uh, up until the very last moment. Um, but absent this year, I would say typically that March 11th date you've identified is usually where there would be some questions around, you know, oh my gosh, this is too high. We need to see something, you know, how might you address this and and not have it this big or, oh gez, this is way too low. Um, >> well, and at that point, you you'll have actually seen it six weeks before, >> right? we've seen all the presentations because really that's the key, right? Is the presentations is where we hear the why behind like because the first one is

122sort of the overview and we can we'll get the bottom line number usually around you know the budget increase. Um but you know really the the rubber meets the road if you will when we talk when we hear from each of the administrators and the directors around like this is their recommendations and this is why. Um, so you know, I I think that March 11th date is a is a good one to be shooting for. And I think that's historically kind of that point in the in the process where we do that. Just didn't happen this year. Kelly. >> Yeah. But that does bring up a good point that when we get those budget presentations from the various buildings and departments that we should be a little bit maybe a little bit more proactive about

123raising those questions in those meetings >> While they're there. Yeah. so that we can sort of get people thinking about our our input a little bit earlier in the process if possible. >> Yeah, it's it's it's tough, right? Because part of it is I don't want to make a decision in a bubble, right? I want to look at the whole the whole story, which is I want to hear from everybody. Um because I think one of the one of the things our district does do well is the collaboration amongst the admin team. It's not like siloed budgets. It's like they have come together and said, you know, for the good of the district, this is where we really need to prioritize this in this school and I'm willing to I'm willing to sort of sit

124back on something maybe I'd love to have this year because we really want to do that for them. Um, so it's hard to kind of pick individual ones out of the but yeah, we can certainly be asking more questions in those. Yeah. And I think again I think the spirit of my comments are not to adjust the timeline, but also I think it's to just for us to be having this conversation honestly just so we as a board are thinking about this ahead of time. And I guess it even uh makes I mean maybe just the only thing I might I don't know maybe it's not appropriate but I was thinking of like if we we get we'll get the present we'll get the budget on the 28th and then the week later is when

125we first start getting presentations. I wonder if if I'm remembering the process correctly, there's no moment basically until March 11 where we actually have a conversation about anything. Um, so I wonder whether it might not be a bad idea to build into like February 4th sort of initial >> gut check, >> like gut check. Yeah. Sort of like, you know, what are people thinking about coming out of that? like what are the things that have kind of risen to the surface? Um and you know maybe even have that before the before those presentations. >> Oh, I think we'd have to, right? Because otherwise that wouldn't really be fair. >> No, it would not. No. Yeah. No, that was I was trying to set that up that logic. Um but yeah, just to sort of to

126say like all right, like Yeah. So again, um we have a marker. We love it. Everything looks everything's great. Great. Great job, Tom. Like you and your team, you know, like you nailed it or like, oh wait, it's way too high. you know, like just we have a little bit of a thing like, oh, okay, so that's kind of where we're going. And then um the uh administrators and and directors know what they're presenting to. Um and we also have a little bit of a sense of kind of what our compass is going forward. Again, nothing nothing final on that, but again, just sort of uh >> I think it would be helpful if that gut check could be framed in terms of what you're curious about. >> Yeah. Right. And maybe it's actually on

127the 28th because generally we get the on the 28th and we ask no questions other than like clarifying questions. Um, and we don't really weigh in on and I think I think that's intentional. >> I agree with that >> because I I don't want to I don't want to give a gut check before, you know, Julie gets up and she's like, "Oh, Jesus, that's not that's not what I would have said if I'd known this was what they were thinking five minutes before." Right? So, um I my only hesitation is it's hard. I don't know. I think I think we are um open-minded enough as a board to not, you know, not drop the hammer on the 28th before having all the information in front of us, right, without hearing all the presentations. But I

128do think it's fair to maybe just give a a sort of a superficial perspective on what we've heard around sort of the full proposed budget. Um because maybe that will then help the presentations target what some of our questions are earlier. >> Right. I I agree with that. as long as like you said they're they're really more like the questions really not not like oh we we don't like this because it's not below 8% that's too but >> so yeah just kind of >> thinking about it very with very broad brush strokes coming in not >> having heard any of the information from the presentations yet I would be very >> cautious about drawing conclusions >> right >> the gut check conclusions >> right because we you know we could I'm trying to think back

129of what we would have seen on that that meeting in January last year where we could have said like, okay, I want to know how they're going to meet these needs based on eliminating this teacher, right? Like I I'd love to hear more about that when they're presenting to us, that kind of thing. >> Yeah, I think that would be really helpful because I I feel like I remember leaving that meeting with where it was presented and then kind of no context beyond just that and wishing that we had had more. or >> had been able to have some sort of discussion. >> Yeah, it's I mean I think it was uh specifically designed that way to just okay here's the top and then we're going to give you all of the information you need

130as opposed to like just starting with a specific school or a specific line item or um you know it's sort of like as a district this is this is what we're tackling and this is how we're kind of tackling it as a group and then we'll hear all the details over the upcoming six weeks. Um, so I I can see the benefits of both approaches. Um, but obviously last year's how it rolled out showed up on the con side of that is that we ended up very much at the end with a lot of moving parts. So I'm not sure how it would have been different had we done it this way, but maybe it would have. So we're happy to try it. I think it absolutely would have been different because I think we

131would have said in that meeting why is this why are we aiming for this percentage nobody asked for this percentage >> and so why are you making these cuts and then the then the the presentation could have been made um oh because it will improve these learning outcomes and then we would have proceeded from there. >> Yeah. >> So I think I mean I guess that's where I would only disagree a little bit Kelly. I think that is the moment where we where we say like woo that's like again not to say like go back and change the number but just to say like this doesn't like this feels low or this feels this feels just again or I'm I'm trying to figure out how to I curious I'm curious I'm curious about this number

132I'm curious about how where this number came from right and um not to say sort of directed but to say before we start hearing any of the building administrator presentations on really where this is coming from >> um >> what's the board thinking about I think I don't know I think that's a um I don't think we need to get into the minutia but I think like a little bit at that level because honestly I think that would have saved us a lot of headache. >> I think it would also be fair in the interim for you to sit with it and then email questions in writing that you hope may come up and be answered in the presentations. Um you know speaking as an administrator who has been through that >> ringer as they

133call it. Um I mean well one of the reasons I feel really good working I you will I know you will be fair and kind and it is it's not easy to you know be in the spotlight that way and especially if there are controversial things to be discussed or proposed. Um and you know our administrators are human beings and um any kind of lead time that we or they can get to be able to anticipate and get good answers will be helpful. Okay. So, that was a FYI in your folders. Um, oh, sorry. Yeah. >> Um, if this is a this is a public facing document, correct? Like this is on our website for the public. I wonder if uh I'm not sure what the two lines are on this document, but I'm wondering

134>> Yeah, I don't either. If we if this would be if that second line would be a good place to say when the budget brochures go out if we added something saying that at this point you would expect to receive >> Yeah. I mean it definitely happens at that line because they have it before the Q&As's. >> We might not know the exact date but if we >> you might want to add something there. >> What was that? >> The budget brochure. Uh >> um to add on to that point too this I'm uh airing my ignorance of town meetings and voting in town meeting forum. Um to me the annual budget meeting does not tell me that I as a public a member of the public would vote at that meeting and also the

135validation referendum like I think explicit these are votes where the public um engagement really matters is important to explicitly state if possible. Yeah. I mean it could even be I mean because the Q&As are too right. So, you know, maybe it's uh well, we have public input, so we could put, you know, an asterisk and then, you know, asterisk is where, you know, this is this is your part to play, >> Michelle. >> Mhm. I mean just on that again going to the kind of strategic communications piece of saying like is there a is there a moment where somebody whether it's um Tom's office or us sends out a narrative version of this >> um as an email to the whole community and says >> of the timeline and says like you know we're we're

136starting this process >> here's what these things mean like this like during this chunk of time we're going to be we're presented the board deliberates and and here's things then these are your opportunities to come there's a half hour like narrating it. Um because I think to Stephanie's >> point that's not necessarily obvious. Um and I think it's probably only if you go looking for it. >> I'll I'll check with Jenny about that. Now, one of the things she was just telling me this morning is that she was, you know, explaining all of the different ways that we do communicate about this. And I know one of them was a brochure that goes out to people's mailboxes, like a snail mail brochure. >> That's the budget brochure. That's That's this. Okay. So, >> and that's

137that's another place where I I think explicit statements that you can vote as a town. >> Yeah, exactly. This is where you come. This is where you can vote and etc. >> But also like last year's budget, we didn't send it out in the mail because it was >> too late. >> protracted. >> Uh >> yeah. Yeah. We um we posted it. We had it at every town we had printed copies at every town office. We just let people know where they could find it because we couldn't get it to print because because we didn't have the the date here and we changed it here. We weren't able to print it because it's a pretty tight timeline. Yeah. >> And we find a new printer. It seems to me like last year or maybe the

138year before, maybe she does it every year, but Jean did such a thing like a narrative in the forecaster and maybe somewhere else too, but just >> Yeah, >> I'm pretty sure that that did happen on some platform. >> And I also call everybody's house and tell them to vote. >> I do that. >> I ruined everyone's dinner. one. >> Yeah, one back. >> I will say that I'm not sure that's going to be as effective this year. I don't know if anybody else is getting robocalls from the IRS, >> but I am. >> You should call them back. >> Multiple a day. They leave a 30 secondond voicemail. It is >> like I don't answer my phone anymore. Like regardless of who's calling. >> The good news is it does say RSU5 when I

139call. So generally people will pick it up. >> Say RSU IRS. All right. Are we good with our Are we good with that one? Okay. So, the next item we have and had I thought this through, we probably would have done this on a day where Mora is here and not not here. Um, so I don't know if we want to. I went to the meeting on Monday, so I have a little bit of info on this, right? Yeah. >> Um, so this this is a bigger packet than we usually get of information. Um, but this is the MSBA uh delegate um delegate assembly. We talked a little bit about this at the retreat. Um this is the body that basically um develops the plan of the work plan if you will for the um

140the MSBA lobbying arm. Um and uh up at up in Augusta. Um and so each year they uh undertake a slate of resolutions. Sometimes they um adjust others uh previous ones. Sometimes they have fully new ones. Um, this one it looks like they've done a fair amount of rewrites for previous ones um and and some new ones um and some for deletion. So that's interesting. Um so what we have done historically is kind of talk through the resolutions as a board um and given some uh instruction indication to the delegate which is Steph this year and Mora is the um is the backup because she'll be there anyway because she's on the MSBA board um around how we would like folks to vote on these. Um, so, um, that's kind of the that's kind of

141the overview of of what we're we're looking at. Um, and then I'll ask Steph what she learned. >> There's also, um, we can suggest modifications until like the start of October if there's something that we didn't like or we wanted different language on. That's also something that some other districts did at the meeting that I was at and we can still do via email. I think it's until like October 8th or something, >> October 10th, maybe. Yeah, something like that. Anyway, early October. Um, okay. So, um, and then I can the there there's like the new ones, uh, the deletions. They gave me a little bit more information about what the deletions are around and why they were deleted. Okay. >> And then some folks asked questions. We didn't get into all the um edits

142are like not substantially changing the the meaning of something. It's just more like language or grammar or consistency. Um and then rewrites there is more substantial um reasoning and and it's changing more substantively uh what the resolution is. Um and so those were there's a lot more of those but those were gone over more high level. So, if anyone had any specific questions, I could maybe ask answer some of them or um yeah, I'll pause there. >> Okay. Um have they is this the most upto-date? >> There's one other version that um had one small edit, but this is otherwise the most up to date. The edit is on the first page um in the bottom rationale section. uh second line, regardless of immigration status instead of regardless of education status. That's the only edit

143that I was made aware of. >> Okay. >> Just if we really just wanted to be um pedantic, we also could suggest that at the top of the title spells proposed correctly. >> Pursed is fine. That may have been uh updated too, but I didn't catch it either. That's not even close to spelled right. That's not even a word, is it? >> It's what happens when you use all caps. It doesn't pick it up as a misspelled word. Okay. So, um so proposed resolutions. The first is the role of the US Department of Education. And so the main the MSBA fundamentally supports the original mission of the US uh department of education to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. MSBA opposes any effort that reduces

144federal funding to main schools. Any such change would disproportionately hurt or excuse me harm rural students, those with disabilities and children from economically disadvantaged communities. Um so uh and then they provide the rationale um talking about certain uh federal funds have already been withheld creating budget challenges in many districts. Other proposals from the federal government would effectively restructure many federal funding streams and reduce funding from current levels. These grants serve a valuable purpose helping to fund uh positions such as math and reading coaches, interventionists, guidance counselors, and before and after school activities. any cuts would result in the loss of programming and or increases in the local school budgets. Um so sometimes their their um their proposed uh resolutions are kind of philosophical um which I is the category I kind of put this one

145like they're just like what do we stand for kind of of statements. Um, do we do we have any concern with with a yes vote on this proposal or do we have any recommendations to make it even more strong? One recommendation that another board suggested is the last sentence of the resolution is any such change would harm all students disproportionately rural, those with disabilities and children from economically disadvantaged communities. So they thought it was important to say that it would um negatively impact all students as well, not just the ones specifically named. So I could be on board with either of those. >> So yes on one. >> I would just say yes on one and and for stuff no on anything watering it down. >> Yeah. Um, so this level or I guess up

146>> stronger. >> Um, >> yep. Okay. Uh, two is a tax policy. The main school boards association believes revenue sources to fund public schools should be raised in a fair and equitable manner based on a taxpayers's ability to pay. Um, so that's the resolution. The rationale is the main legislator is considering several proposers proposals that would impact the EPS funding formula. So for our new board members, the EPS funding formula is the essential programs and services. That is what the DOE uses to determine um how much they would say it costs to educate a student. Um and that is what is used to determine um subsidy. So that formula um is uh currently under under review. So multiple bills call for the creation of a new state funding streams to fund K12 public education. More

147state funding for schools is badly needed. Local property taxpayers already face substantial burdens. Yet school districts face growing expenses such as rising special education costs and the maintenance and upkeep of aging school infrastructures. This resolution would provide more guidance to the MSBA's legislative committee as it evaluates legislative proposals affecting main school funding. I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm not a no vote on this. I don't think it says anything particularly interesting. Um, I mean, fair and equitable manner based on a taxpayer's ability to pay. I mean that's always the question is is what is a taxpayers's ability to pay based off of. So I mean this is a obviously a deeply complex issue around the EPS formula and and how funding in for education is is determined. Um I'm not sure how this

148resolution helps guide anyone's decision- making. I think it was meant to be more for the legislative process that's currently um underway or those who are advocating for different legislation, right? So maybe some of the bills out there are completely unfair and unequitable. And so this I guess comes down on the side of we think it should be at least fair and equitable. I mean I'm I'm not a no on this. I'm just not sure how helpful it is. Other thoughts on this one? I guess I just have a I would I have a question that maybe I don't know Steph if they went over this or but maybe and maybe Mara could Mara if you're watching this video um get back to us next meeting um of just whether whether the MSBA has uh has

149issued any further uh has has made any further statements about these new um uh potential um revenue sources or um or proposals, right? Because if this is the only one, I find that a little curious if if sort of the only thing that the MSBA is saying is like make sure that taxes are fair and equitable and not saying anything further about effectively what's in the rationale, right? Like what's in the rationale is much more substantive in terms of it seems like what we're or what a body could be saying, right? is that like um this is needed um and it needs to be shifted or not uh additional support needs to be given um beyond uh what the state is currently providing. >> Okay. >> I don't have any other information to >> on

150that one. Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh number three for newly proposed resolutions immigrants do. Yeah. >> Do we have a do I have a proposed vote on that or are we were we we're waiting for Mara on that? >> I mean, I don't see us voting no on that. I mean, >> I'm not sure what the recommendation could change to that would switch your vote from a yes to a no. Um I mean, if somebody made the motion that, you know, RSU 5 should pick up the bill for all the surrounding towns, that's a definite no vote from you. Um but yeah. >> Yeah. I guess um one question I I have about how it's worded that might more that might better capture the rationale is it says more state funding for schools is badly

151needing needed but the the actual resolution doesn't address if we're asking for more than we are already asking for or if we're just going to change formulas somehow so that you know what I'm saying are we saying that are trying to support bills that will increase state taxes in a way that they I I I guess I'm just wondering how does the more get addressed? >> Yeah. Well, I think the implication is that um more from the state is fair based on taxpayers ability to pay, right? So there are districts where the the local taxpayer ability to pay is very different than other parts of the state. So if it's if it's too reliant on local taxes, those students are at a disadvantage. Um so revenue sources to fund it should be raised in a

152fair and equitable manner. I don't think it's saying that more money needs to be raised. It's just how like where it's coming from. >> But that's what the rational says, >> right? Well, more state, right? So there I think the implication when I read that is is that it should be less local taxpayer funded more state funded and how do you how do you capture that? Um I mean part of what the EPS formula does is it says like you know this is how much it should cost to educate a student and some of those numbers are significantly lower than it actually costs to educate a student. So if if those numbers or those formulas were more inclusive, it it would flow through that you would get more subsidy, right? Because they would say it

153costs more to educate these students. This is the total bucket we think it costs to educate them. Your how much you're required to pay through the local uh requirement um would would not necessarily change. So the difference is your subsidy. So that would that would leave less to be paid through additional local monies if that makes sense. I I I I see what you're saying. Um >> yeah, I guess it just goes back to the vagory that you mentioned in the beginning. I guess it doesn't really say a lot about what this means. I wonder if it would if they should consider adding that the third sentence in the rationale to the actual resolution. >> More state funding for schools is badly needed >> or some version of that. >> They do seem to be

154I mean I think the title right tax policy I think is kind of >> vague >> is is both vague but also I think they're I think they're actually trying to be specific. They're sort of like this is the only thing we're commenting on. We're only commenting on like whatever tax policy gets created. Um it's not like the title of it is not um uh need need for new revenue sources, right? It's sort of just saying like whatever the tax whatever tax policy the state has regarding education, this should be true. I agree with you. It it means not it doesn't mean nothing, but like it doesn't really mean anything. It's like yes, because if you take the opposite of it, it's a ridiculous statement. Right. >> Um >> I think it should be unfair

155and inequitable. >> Right. >> There's another um edit later about school construction where it's like the last the last one in this packet where it's like very clearly they're taking a position that the funding should come from other sources besides property tax particularly for school construction. Um and so there's sort of like some language there as well. So there's other places where I guess their rationale is reinforced >> a little more specifically >> in in specific ways. Yeah. >> For what that's worth. All right. Are we good with a yes on two then? >> I'm sorry. Um, I'm just wondering if it makes sense to actually insert that more or suggest that as an edit between believes and revenue just to put believes more revenue sources to fund should be raised in a fair and

156equitable manner since that's in their rationale. I'm not sure. I mean because they're not saying believes revenue sources to fund public schools. So that's all revenue sources. That's the state, that's local, that's all the things. I'm not saying I'm not sure what they're saying is that more revenue needs to be generated. I think they're saying it how it's like where those different buckets comes from needs to be fair and equitable. But maybe I'm misreading it. Yeah. To me, it sounds like they're trying to say we need to be we should be less reliant on local taxes if it's less equitable to do that. Meaning, if the if the local, I don't know, community can't support the basics of education, where else are we going to get get that money? Because we still need to support

157that education, >> right? So, >> that's what's the crux of it seems to be. >> I think so. I think that's exact. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think they're they're taking a stand on like how much is spent on education. I think they're taking a stand on how the revenue is raised. >> But it's talking about revenue sources. We're talking about more revenue sources, not necessarily the total pot. So, >> right. Exactly. Yeah. >> I I agree with that. >> That would be the wording change. >> Say it again. >> More revenue sources, not necessarily more revenue. Oh, I see. Yep. Believes more revenue sources to fund should be. >> I think that changes the rest of the sentence. >> Yeah, I think the raised makes it weird. >> Yeah, >> I could ask for clarity.

158>> Yeah. And and maybe that's the question is is like, you know, what what are we trying to get at here? Is there a way to be more clear in what we're trying to accomplish? You know, maybe that third sentence belongs in some form or fashion moved up to be to be more clear. Okay. Um, immigrant students. The main schoolboard association is committed to maintaining a safe and secure learning environment for all students, sta staff, and visitors and believes that regardless of their immigration status, no student should be denied a free public education. Uh rationale, the 1982 Supreme Court case, Pier V. Do declared that all US children have a constitutional right to a public education regardless of immigration status. In Maine, schools have seen a growing number of immigrant students in recent years. in

159the midst of changing policies at the local, state, and national levels. This resolution affirms a commitment to providing an education to all students in Maine and aligns with the MSBA's core mission of enhancing the education of all students in Maine's public schools. >> Concern. Yeah, Chris. >> Um, my only thought on that would be it's it's a negative statement at the end. Instead of it being a negative, have it be a positive. As in, instead of saying no student should be denied a free public education, say something to the effect of >> every student should have access to a free public education. >> Something like that. >> I like that. Any other thoughts on that one? I think we are firmly a yes on this. Yes, >> that feels like a yes or plus, right?

160Definitely nothing watering that one down. Yeah. >> Yeah. Great. >> Okay. Um, I don't think I'm going to read through all the deletions. Um, yeah, >> I do have a question about the rationale for 2A1A. Did they talk about that one at all? Was the first one on the >> 281? Yes. So, um, it's now required by statute. So, they no longer need to have a policy on it, a resolution on it. >> Um, and then the others essentially is the same. It's either like there was a statute or it happened at the federal level or there's another policy that's replacing it or adding more um emphasis to it in another modification later in the document. Um or in the second one uh parenting education you can see is last amended in 99 the shift

161has been to parental involvement. So there's like rationale for all or it's being addressed in another way for all the removals. It does make you wonder why nobody's thought to get rid of this in the last 26 years. But >> I guess it's only fair we probably have a fair number of policies too that we're we're working our way through. So um okay. So we then have edits which don't substantially change the intent or meaning. Um, any concerns on any of those >> Michelle? I had a question. >> Yep. >> So, the one uh it's 2A 3F on the business employment of students. >> Yep. >> Who's regulating that? like who's are we keeping a list of who's working and if they're not they actually are working too many hours and if they have bad

162grades and can't be working those hours like how is that >> well this one is not a law this is just their resolution right >> yeah but so what does that mean though like >> so the main school board association reminds reminds >> don't forget uh local school boards of the statute so there is a statute regarding employment of students during the school year as well as limits to work permits for students with inappropriate attendance or grades. Uh >> we do we would I haven't dug into this yet, but if we're like any other district, we do keep a record of when we issue a work permit. >> Yeah. And that I mean you would only have a work permit if they're under 16, right? So there's no how would you govern a 16year-old who

163doesn't come to you for a work permit? You would have no idea if they had a job or not. >> Yeah. >> Right. And you could go to the town technically for a work permit because my daughter did that because school was out. So >> interesting. Um yeah, >> I do think there is a law though that you can only work up to I want to say it's like 30 hours if you're an act. Is it 20? >> Yeah, it depends on how old you are. So, >> and this is more for if the student works for the >> Well, that's what I was wondering because I mean we do have some students that like work in Laugh and Learn and the FAC >> on the FP pack. Right. So, um it's an interesting question

164if particularly if we are their employer. Is there any tracking of their grades or attendance to ensure that they are compliant? >> Right. Maybe we could get clarity on what this is trying to what type of employment this is trying to get at. Is it all is it by the district? >> Yeah, I'll just I'll just note too that this is um this is a an edit which means that this is already in place and so the modifications that there's the only thing that they're asking us to approve as modifications is the red language. >> Yeah. So I think it's more of a question of like I wonder if we're doing this. >> Yeah, totally. My question, are we doing this? And who's doing this? >> Sorry. >> So maybe that's a question for Kelly

165and and uh the folks in HR. >> Yeah. >> Around employee. I mean, I don't think I'm not sure there is any possible way if they don't work for us that we could ever track it or should be expected to track it. But I mean, I wonder what the statute they're referring to says >> because it doesn't reference the statute. I suppose that could be one recommendation is that they include what statute. >> Yeah. So we know to look it up and see if we're good. >> The boards uh school boards of statute blank that >> certainly find out the statute for everyone. >> I also just want to give you something to do because it's fun to kind of raise your hand and be like >> I do need more to do. So thank

166you in the meeting. He means >> yeah no in the meeting. >> Not just in general in your life. I mean, it does say businesses and potential employers. So, I think maybe it is the entire community. >> Well, I mean, we can certainly control it when they come to us for a permit to say, "No, you don't come to school. We're not going to issue you a permit. We don't think you should have a job." Um, your job is to come to school. But like once it's issued, I don't know how we would ever track it. You can't revoke it. I don't believe can you? >> I don't know. How about as a business owner owner? I'm pretty sure no one's ever asked us about kids grades or how much they're working, >> right? >>

167Yeah. >> Or that family loophole when you work for your family. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. The rules don't apply. They can work you as much as they want. You should see how much Danielle works for kids. I see rich more than I see the kids. All right. So, AI. The next one, um, I looked at that one just because, you know, we were talking about AI and this one was new. This was a new one last year, um, that got put in place. Um, and it looks like the only change is, you know, adding, uh, awareness of potential dangers. So, okay. Um, there was talk about this one, too. Um, another district suggested that at the end it end with AI is not a substitute for school work period and that they remove the

168that requires original thought uh from it. >> Yeah. Uh, and then they also said that they'll likely be revisiting this policy quite frequently for a while. So it will keep >> this one will will morph through the years. Yeah. What if could we propose AI is not a substitute for school work semicolon school work requires original thought. >> I'm happy to send that email >> and adding schoolwork again. Okay. Um so then we have a few more a few more adjustments. Um >> yeah, air tapes. >> Um >> on the what is it 2A2E advertising in the schools? Did they give you any justification on that edit? Cuz for me it substantially changes the meaning of that. I mean before they said that they're encouraging us to prohibit advertisements and now they're saying you should

169adopt a policy which is a very different meeting in my mind and a meeting that I don't think I would approve of. Like I liked the prohibition, so I would vote no on that edit. >> Yeah, I didn't get any additional info on that one. Yeah, >> it's Yeah, I wonder >> what's the underline of the one they then crossed out. I'm confused. >> It looks like that the prohibition was on certain products, not uni, it wasn't a universal prohibition. So instead, I think it it sounds like they want people to be more thoughtful and have more local control over that in instead of just a broad prohibition on these certain minimum nutritional products. >> Right. Right. Yeah. Because that's what I said before, right? Adopt policies on advertising in schools, including a prohibition on

170advertisements for products that do not meet the minimum nutrition standards or which are otherwise incompatible with educational mission of schools. So no no smoking, no booze. My curiosity around that one is whether the dis I wasn't there but this is just what comes to me. Did that discussion intersect with anything going on with the department of health and human services federally right now? >> I can understand that justification. For me though I I see it and I liked it before the edit better. Um, so, >> so now it would say adopt policies on advertising especially for products that do not meet the nutritional standards incompatible. Yeah, I'm pretty sure their sample policy u that we I think reviewed a year or two ago um speaks about pro prohibiting ad um advertising. >> Yeah. So it

171is it is you you are right. It's a we it is a little weird because it is it is it is pulling back because it was like so for example if like if that had been the language >> before we adopted our policy we might you see what I mean like we might have been like oh okay like we're just going to make sure like we're going to allow some advertise you know or whatever it is but >> which we do but the prohibition >> yeah I don't know it's I I agree I think it's an odd I think it's an odd pullback back. >> Yeah. >> Make you wonder about the rationale like is there a situation where you would allow >> right >> this kind of advertising in our schools? I mean, I

172guess I can give you an example that I'm pretty sure is out on our track right now is like when we have our sports teams that um have like a a a sponsor banner and Main Beer Company likes to donate to things in the community. I mean, would that should be prohibited or >> I think me and Beer Company has a self-proc. Um but but that's an example of you know like a community member you know um >> or Pepsi or Coca-Cola with your sports signs your um >> Right. So that I mean that one actually was an actual uh event here when we need to replace in the gym we replace the scoreboard um and those companies will donate the scoreboard if you have some like a name on it. So, I think ours

173says Power Aid instead of Coke because we have a policy. >> I I just I wonder if you mentioned local control and I I I wonder if >> because they added that to >> if this revision was keeping in mind what local communities might be inclined to do if minimum nutrition standards nationally change. if the definition of that changes in a dramatic way. But I mean the also thing to thing to remember is these are just the resolutions, right? I mean these are not rules. These are not things we live by or we're required to or policies we have to adopt. I mean this is just kind of what the MSBA uses as their guidelines. Yeah, I might I might make a a rare um uh suggestion that we suggest that we no that just

174that I think we're talking about this a little long. >> Um and again, just so that's on the record, I have said that >> once in his life. >> Um again, I think it is important, but I think we're I think the issues we're getting into here are like I think we're really talking about like how how do we feel about it in terms of how it impacts our district, and that's not really what this is about. >> Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I mean I I don't think >> I can still ask right like the rationale it would be useful for us. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um any other comments on the edits? Okay. The wreath rights are more substantial. Um did they have any kind of highlights on that section? So there was

175one discussion that happened on these um maybe more. Um so the first the one that there was something else added. Folks asked questions about 2B1i on the bottom of page five. Um, I'll just give you a minute to read it. Um, >> it is actually. >> Yeah, >> let's talk about that for like an hour. That's my new proposal. >> Yeah, that one's super interesting. That's a that's a really >> Yeah, they provided just additional information that So, the question was like why did you why did you delete the last sentence? Um, and they thought there was ambiguity around which documents and who are they to say like which values which documents. So it was meant to give some suggestions but also allow free like suggest freedom of choice for what those identifying your own

176values. >> Yeah. US foundation documents. I'm not sure what that means. Is that like the declaration of independence or >> that's essentially why it was deleted. >> Okay. >> Y >> because my first thought was like foundations that do work around this like do they have documents? But >> yeah. >> So like our foundational documents as a country. I see. Yeah, cuz like is the bill of rights is that values? Like those are rights, not >> but they come from what we feel is >> valuable. Yeah. I don't know. >> I like it. I think it's cool. Let's keep those in there. Guess it pulled out that and added some more specific ones like respect, compassion. So, not necessarily Okay. >> Yeah. essentially like US Foundation documents could be interpreted a lot of ways to

177a lot of people and so um it's clear which values they're suggesting. >> Well, I have a quick question. Sorry, Colin. >> No, no. I just just some clarification because I think you can read into it a couple different ways, but two 2 A4 is that an O I guess 4 the email stuff. >> I mean it says schoolboard business may not be conducted via email. >> So >> how how specific is that? Right. So I can't say thanks Tom for the update. I have an additional question I want you to look into. You can do that, but what what you can't there is kind of a concrete limit. If you get enough board members chiming in on a conversation that you reach a quarum, then you've had a meeting outside the meeting. So, you

178you just have to be mindful of that. >> It's just a weird sentence in my opinion because it's so vague. I mean, it is vague, but I think it's specifically um yeah, I I think once you're having conversation, like back and forth conversation with multiple people weighing in on opinions about things that probably should be done in public. It's one thing to say like, "Hey, found this interesting article. Thought the board might appreciate it." That's not a conversation. That's just providing some information. But if you're like, "Yeah, you know what I thought was really interesting was the fourth paragraph." You're like, "No, no, no. that was that's you know that's when you start getting into a conversation and that's conducting business outside of a meeting. Um and I I try to make sure that we

179don't do that. >> You're very good at doing that. Michelle >> very mean. I know that's not what I said. Uh I have a question about uh the first one. It's actually um and my previous comment still stands. I don't want to talk about this forever, but I just I just don't I just don't understand that one from a I mean, I understand what the words say, but um >> the board teacher relations one. >> Yeah. Like fully supports the statuto meet and consult requirements contained within teacher contracts regarding proposed education policy changes uh while like while maintaining board authority to make changes to education policy. I don't know. I guess I understand it. I just I don't understand why that's a issue or like why is it Um, I think it's probably I it's

180a good question. Um, my guess is they were consolidating two specific resolutions into one. Um, and uh because it's completely eliminating because that first one exists, right? And they're just adding to it but eliminating the next one. Um, you know, one of the one of the things that we're always trying to be cognizant of when we're um reviewing and negotiating new contract is to make sure we're not adding educational policy to contracts because it doesn't belong there. Educational policy is the is the um the purview of the board and the administration, not the not the union. Um so um but certain things um dictate us to have this meet and consult, right? That is a you'll find that in our contract several places like um we're happy to have a conversation with the union and

181explain why we're doing what we're doing but this is if it is educational policy it is not grievable. It is not something that can be you know brought to the brought to the board to say like we disagree with this um that is the board's um the board's right. So I think this is just sort of confirming like yes we we are fully supportive of the meet and consult requirements um while still understanding that we maintain >> uh let's see we talked about emails facilities so this is another one that looks like it's it's not well is it really replacing that I don't even Know I'm confused when it says it's replacing one with the same numbers as what it says, but it's not all new. >> Do you know how that works? >> Yeah.

182>> And then the new one if it's not in red was a part of the previous one. >> Okay. Okay. So instead of like underlining capital, they're just saying they're just restating it but highlighting the changes. >> Okay. Okay. Administrator. Okay. Yeah. Um on 2B 5B learning support, the last sentence is funding should be provided to support implementation. And I'm wondering where that funding is coming from or what they're recommending if it's if the DOE is to provide that funding or if the district should be providing that funding. >> Usually the recommendation is not the district. >> Um so yeah the previous sentence is the DOE needs to identify existing resources um appropriate measurement tools and share effective interventions. funding should be provided to support implementation. So my assumption is that DOE provides the funding.

183>> Yeah. So there's a common thread through a lot of their resolutions of avoiding unfunded mandates, right? So the state will say you have to do this and you're like, well, you're going to help us pay for that. No, we're not. So like trying to avoid those things. >> Yeah. So the previous policy, the last sentence was consider consideration of appropriate funding provided by the main department of education is also recommended. So it's a change to funding funding should be provided to support implementation from that. >> Not sure what that >> which is funny because it's actually even more vague like before at least it said it was coming from the DOE or like they would consider it. I guess that it's part of it is vague, right? Like so appropriate consideration of appropriate is

184recommended like they should at least think about giving us the money. Uh now they're saying they should give us the money but not telling us who they is. So maybe that's a recommended change like the department of it should be providing funds to support implementation. It's fun to try and read what this was before. So, MSBA continues to oppose mandatory merging of school administrative units. Did that mean it previously said MSBA mandatory merging? I don't understand. Maybe just the continues uh technology. >> Yep. um 3B 2C talking about on page eight, maximizing federal and state assistance through economically disadvantaged rates. Um they talk about continuing to use best available poverty data. Um and accurate identification through available and acceptable methods is essential. I'm just wondering if if this is about relying on other data than

185the free and reduced lunch forms that parents no longer have to fill out. >> Yeah, I think that's why this is being considered. >> Okay. And I guess I'm just curious what the other data >> they're talking about. Okay. >> They just don't refer to th those forms at all. Or do they? But I'm not understand. >> Okay. Just want to make sure I was understanding that. But if you have more >> my guess is that's why they're trying to capture that because they don't have to fill out those forms anymore. >> I'm itching back there because they don't fund MTSS to begin with. That was a couple items back. So that was I was like um so the SCES forms have now um it's gone to an identification of household income as opposed to

186the former system of having like requesting that access to free andor reduced lunch depending on the number of children in the household and the and the economics of the household. Um so we've had to do that. we've we defer to the SCES like that baseline indicator but the state has been exploring other ways to capture that information without any of the ask um and it's a very tricky path for them to try to navigate an alternative because the information is not readily available so they I my understanding is they haven't made any progress that's what I know about that I I logged in today to power school just, you know, for fun. And um cuz I like to torture my son. But anyways, um it did ask it popped up right away and it asked

187if we met it outlined um incomes above and asked if my son met any of those and it was a simple yes or no. >> Um I mean obviously I hit no, but so I guess that's another way to track some of that data, right? If people are actually filling that out. >> Yeah. That's how we track it right now. Um, we happen to believe we're not properly capturing the need. >> Yeah, I think that, you know, I imagine that is well, I don't imagine. I know um that that even with the forms, >> I think most districts under >> under count >> because people don't fill it out. >> Yeah. So, um, while free food in schools I think is absolutely fantastic, that is sort of one of those unintended consequences that I'm not

188sure people thought about ahead of time as to what it might mean without having to capture that data anymore. So um so are we okay on um no questions on that one then from the board? >> Yeah I think so. I uh I appreciate the change in that next one around vouchers and you know diluting the power of public education in the 3B 3G. So um the probationary period one did they talk about that? Yeah, they're they know that the stat the current statute says two, but they're um suggesting that they their opinion is that it should go back to three. They didn't give any additional information other than >> that. Yeah. And >> I would say that's a good move. >> Yeah. >> Interesting. Um, professional development to support student achievements. Move to section

189four. Are there different sections of the resolution? Is that I'm just trying to figure out why that one's in blue around the charter school one. It's just like their their little directory of like moving to different categories. >> Okay. Um did they talk about the charter school one at all around what drove that? >> No. I mean, it seems like the last time it was touched was before the charter schools were in place, so it would make sense that they would have some updates, but that's interesting. Uh, unfunded retirement costs, not a surprise. um the superintendent agreement one. >> Yeah. The intention there they shared was that they support and suggest superintendents decide on it annually so that it's not just a oneanddone decision that they're revisiting it every every year. >> Well, it already

190has to be done every year. I wonder if uh I I I wonder if the intention of this is to remove the state's role in the appeal process even more. >> Yeah, >> this is 4.8. >> Yes. >> Sorry. Page 11. >> I was wondering if there was ever a legislative review or commission to create the criteria. Did that that's what they're >> I'm not sure. or I mean really the the criteria that's in statute to the best of my memory is that it's just supposed to be what is demonstrated to be in the child's best interest. Um with with that said, you know, either superintendent can put the cabage on it, >> but then they bring it to the department, the main DOE, and they can override, >> right? >> Which they often do.

191>> Yes. So, basically they're just saying it should rest with the two superintendents making the decision. >> That's the way I'm reading it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then, >> yeah, >> there was some stuff around the construction one. >> Yeah. Well, I just reread um quote unquote, "We support superintendent deciding on this." So yes, Tom, to your point, >> um yeah, so this one, this one I just um it to me it it puts um our the proposed regulation about taxes. I think that they it gives you a little bit more transparency into their thought process around school funding. Um, yeah. I mean, the current, what's it called? The thing where you send them pictures of how bad your school is and you get on the get in the lottery. >> Oh, yeah. It's

192the lot. The lottery. >> It's basically what it is, right? >> It literally that is what it is. Yeah. I mean, I think um this seems different though, right? Like what they're replacing seems like a different thing that they're than they're talking about in the new one. >> Yeah, it's different. But I I to me it um my point of connecting it is that uh it gives you language around where funding for some of these projects should come from. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Where they where they think the source of funding needs to be coming from. >> What I find interesting is the second bullet. Alter the project approval process so that smaller projects can move forward as well as massive building replacements. the the trap that schools can districts can fall into is that you

193let's say you have this you know ailing building and you're far down the list. So that leaves you with this impossible choice of well if we put money into this building to refer to repair something that or upgrade it in some way that we really need we're then shooting ourselves in the foot because we're going to go down the list. >> So that that seems to be a remedy for that. Except then the last bullet is to incentivize districts to to put money into the building so that you don't have to get replaced. It's just kind of >> what are you going to give? Can we get some money for that? >> Right. Right. >> I mean what's interesting to me is like this is I don't I don't know this is about the major

194capital school construction program. Right. Mhm. >> Um I mean I understand the dilemma of you know do we just chip away at this in big chunks and replace the whole big schools that need it or you know what we replaced was basically a fund what the recommendation for a fund of to fund small projects across across the state. I don't know. Clearly that one didn't work. So we're going to move on to this one. but improve transparency and predictability in the funding process by extricating construction funding from the EPS formula. >> Yeah, because it I mean it is in there now, right? So we the state funded school in Durham that's a whole separate item in in our EPS >> uh ED279. I mean, just on that one, I I wonder whether there is um

195matching legislation to this one because it's so specific. >> Yeah, maybe. >> Um >> like it seems it seems pretty granular, you know, to be like these very particular things which maybe might want to meet you might want to have in the bill. Like it seems like I don't know, >> right? >> Seems like somebody's got a plan. >> Yeah. To Steph's point, that first one was like we want fair tax policy. And what do we mean by that? We mean a main Yeah. this one. >> Exactly. There's So, there's two bills that they're expecting will have um more resolution. I guess I'm bad with terms um about the EPS formula and then also the school construction. So, they're considering bills in the legislature now about those two things. >> So, I think that's where

196this this one came from. Yeah. >> Okay. So, so I I I'm I'm hearing that we didn't have any we were a hard no to. We had a couple of maybe clarification or recommendations or maybe even strengthening a few, but none that we've felt strongly you should oppose. Is that a fair assessment of our conversation? That according to Colin went way too long. >> Okay. Do you have what you need, Steph? >> Yes. and I'll try to get answers for some of the other ones for our own continued conversation. >> Um, anything about the change in the bylaws we should think about cuz I saw that was in here too. >> Those are mostly like consistency. Okay. >> Um, or clarification. And then there was a few on like what they can do in an

197emergency situation with replacing members or with needing an emergency vote on a policy. >> Emails. I see that. >> Yeah. So that was that was it. It was all mostly like consistency. >> Okay. And then this is just the minutes of last year's meeting. Okay. >> That's the current copy of the resolutions as they as they stand. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any other comments around the MSBA delegate assembly other than big thanks to Steph for doing it? >> All right, Colin. Colin, it was very interesting. So, your suggestion was correct. >> All right, so we don't have any personnel items. Oh, look, we're back to public comment. Anyone arrive? No. All right. So then I would take a motion for consideration and approval to enter into executive session as outlined in one

198MRSA section 4056A for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's evaluation. Cara and Colin. Thank you. All those in favor? Great. No one opposed. So we will take a quick break um so that they can break down and go. Um did they tell you where they wanted us to go? Yeah. Across the hall. >> Across the hall. Okay, great. >> Yeah.