001Good evening. Oo, nice loud mics tonight. People on the playground can listen. Uh welcome to the RSU5 board of directors meeting. It is Wednesday, April 9th, 2025. We are here at the Durham Community School cafeteria. Uh we have uh Cheyenne is not with us this evening. She's traveling. And I also wanted to do a quick thank you to Candy Dipus who uh the last meeting was her last meeting and we forgot to thank her in the midst of our budget negotiations. So, uh I don't know if she's watching tonight, but thank you Candi for uh stepping up and finishing uh that year from from um the summer to to last week or two weeks ago. Uh and also wanted to welcome uh Steph Worth who is our new board member from Durham. We had the
002Durham elections last week and Steph was the winner of of her seat. So, congratulations and welcome. And uh we'll get started with the pledge of allegiance. Do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes from the March 26th meeting, 2025 as presented, barring any errors or omissions? Beth, thank you. Malik, all those in favor. Oh, you have a change. Yeah. Um, just on number 13 12, the motion was um remove one DCS and add bench sub and add 5Sc. Oh, right. So, we weren't removing the DCS and the bench sub. We were removing DCS and adding the bench sub at mass landing in the Okay. Good catch with that noted change. You guys still good with your first and second? Yeah. Okay, great. Do you have a question? Are you about to
003vote? Ready to vote. Okay. All those in favor? Great. None opposed. All right. Adjustments to the agenda. I have a couple this evening. Under number 16, we're going to make a new 16. We're going to have a 16A executive session to discuss negotiations. And we're going to have a 16B executive session to discuss a personnel [Music] matter. All right. Uh then we will move forward with good news and recognition and we will look to Moon for an update. Um hello uh well to start off um there is a program for girls um where you they can do coding this summer and the application closes um April 11th but that's a great opportunity for 9th through 11th grade girls to solve real world problems with coding. Um, and the first round is from July 7th to
004July 18th. The second from July 28th to August 8th and the third from June 30th to August 8th or our pathways. And then our main FHA math team um competed in the main state math meet and finished 8th out of 24th. And then um over the next month at the library um the Freeport Community Library is holding um the annual um student art ex exhibit um and this annual show sponsored by the Freeport Women's Club and um it's going to go all through April and the work is juried and they will select first, second, and third uh place recipients for each category of their artwork. Thank you. Thank you, Moon. All right. Uh, public comment. I think we've probably heard our public comment, but in case anyone else has anything they want to share. Okay.
005So, I'm just going to ask you to come up to the mic, give us your name, where you live, and three minutes. Hi, everyone. Uh, my name is Andrew Reagan. I'm a resident here at Durham. Um I'm here to speak about some of the uh inequities of the music program uh and arts in general uh between Durham and the Freeport schools um concerning the middle school versus uh DCS here. Um my children, my daughter's a freshman at Freeport. Um and then I have two fourth grader uh two fourth grade boys. Um they they love music, they love the arts. Um one of my sons, he does uh performances in local theaters. Uh my daughter does that too. She's singing. She made all state as a freshman in chorus this year. But we've noticed that uh
006the chorus programs are widely different between the middle school in Freeport and DCS here. It is um not even close. The amount of time spent uh the teaching, it's a way very very uh um worrisome as a father to see this. You go to the concerts and see the middle schools perform, you're like, "Wow, there's a difference." you also hear it from the music teachers, the difference in the the quality of the student and what they've learned from one school versus the other. Uh so it's just wanted to put it out there and say, hey, like can we look at this a little further? Can we discuss, you know, I've heard some issues with the difference in budget between each school. Um you know, I know there's been some other issues. My son, one of
007my sons has cerebopaly. You know, he's playing the recorder. He got put to the back of the class to play drums because he couldn't play the recorder. A little upsetting with that. That was a few years ago. Um and it's things like that that keep building. I keep hearing it from their parents uh just looking at the quality of the program versus the two schools. And so if uh someone could look into that, I'd be happy to help with anything that you know needs to be looked into, but just wanted to put it on your plate. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Any other public comments? Okay, so we will move on to item eight on the agenda. Report from the superintendent. It's always good when we have new staff members that we're hiring and support
008staff. We welcome Jesse Adamo as a food service assistant and Heather Meyer as our high school office secretary. In your packets, the purple sheet um this time every year we put together what our migration of students um looks like. Um and some little bit of analysis I did on this data this year. Um the percentage of students attending other schools went from 1627 last year to 17.88% this year. But I'll note that we had a if you recall we have a decrease in our overall all enrollment of 87% of 87 students. So that's part of that that um percentage different that you see. Uh there are 18 additional students attending other schools but that also includes superintendent agreements. We have 13 fewer homeschooled students this year. Uh there were 10 last year. Uh so we're
009really seeing that you know continued return from a lot of homeschool families during COVID. And you say why why are these things happening? Well, it's really hard to say because families have personal reasons for making that determination. for superintendence agreements. We know that um the reason has to be approved by both superintendent that the sending and receiving district. Um and for charter private or private religious schools, we don't know why they why families opt for that. We only know why the superintendent agreements um occur going both ways. And sometimes it's something as simple as uh we may have a um a parent that teaches in Yarmouth and they like their children to go to school in Yarmouth. We also have parents that live in other districts and they like their their children to come to
010school with us. So those are some of the reasons for that, but not not a huge difference from last year. Comments on the migration data. Gan, in regards to the um I had questions about the superintendent requests. Um you answered part of it. I guess my other question was is this an annual asks? Like so every year they have to come and ask. Yes, every every year there's a new request and there are things we look at um as well is it still needed? We also look at um is that student do they have good attendance? Are are they attending every day? we're looking at, you know, are they a contributing member to their school and not perhaps a behavior um issue? Um are they performing well before we sign that again? But it's every
011year and parents have to um provide their own transportation. And and then is there fees involved with that? No, but they would be picked up on you know numbers get picked up on your student count. Right. So when both when both superintendents sign it, they become a one of our students for reimbursement purposes on our 8279 even though they live somewhere else. So that's one of the reasons some superintendents may not want to send kids other places because it reduces their counts. Um there are some contracts with teachers in other districts regardless if the sending school will sign it, they will take the kids. So basically they'll say we'll we'll take the the student even though we can't count them in our counts. um that's built into some contracts. Um I was I was interested
012to see um the number of kids at St. Dom's and I know we don't have this broken down by kids uh by age of the kids and it looks like there's only one. So with I don't know if everybody's seen that, but they're scheduled to close their high school at the end of this year. So I wasn't sure if that was going to uh create some more kids coming back to us or maybe they would pick a different school, but looks like there's only one. Um, and we're not sure the grade. So, yeah. Well, that was my question is if it if you have the data broken down by grade, if you can if that's something that we could see at some point. I don't think it is broken down by grade. So, just so
013you guys know, because when we first started collecting this data, one of my questions was is like, well, how do we match up to other districts? Are we more? Are we less? Um, you know, I always want to see what it's relative to. And this is an extremely manual process. Jenny literally calls these schools and gets this data like long form by calling all these different schools. So other districts don't have this data. Um it's um so it's it's it's a completely manual process. So I don't think um I'm not sure we have any more detail than what is in front of you. Does the count start from kindergarten or prek? Uh the kindergarten or prek? I don't think we would even know to look for prek kids uh because it's not required to go.
014So, yeah. Did you have another question here? And I guess looking at, you know, I'm kind of reading into the question a little bit. Do I feel like there's a mass exodus because people are unhappy with RSU 5? No, I don't. It's this is comp, you would see if you looked at data, if I looked at other districts, I bet it would be comparable for that. So that's helpful to understand the process of how we get this information. So it's not that a parent is saying, "Oh, I'm withdrawing my student uh my child and sending them to Brunswick or I'm withdrawing." It's Jenny's calling every school and asking them. No. So if you're talking super we'll we'll we'll put them in different buckets. Let's talk about superintendent agreement. So, um, going both ways, a parent
015has to file, um, a request for a superintendent's agreement, and they have to explain why. And both superintendents have to agree. And sometimes I'll look at it and I'll say, "No, I believe we can educate your child at Freeport Middle School." Let's say it's a middle school kid, so I'll deny it. Um, or depending on what the reason is, I may say, "Yes, I will approve this student at Freeport Middle to go to Brunswick Junior High School." But the the receiving superintendent would have to agree to that and it's the same way kids coming for us because we have lots of kids that come to us as well. So that's where like those are every year. We actually we have those trickier sometimes are some of those private schools. That's where that's where you know
016Michelle was refing that gets a little trickier because sometimes we don't know. um or homeschoolers. Homeschoolers are are tough because we we do try to chase them down as much we as much as we can because for homeschool students they have to with the state they have to register every every year saying that they intend to homeschool and they have to provide data to the state on what they what their student did while they were homeschooled. But those I think the homeschoolers are are even trickier than some of these other ones. Um but superintendent agreeing we have and there are some every year they're the same. We know the same. I've already seen some come in that they're their um their parent works in another district and they've gone there for the for you know
017for the last six years and they'd like to continue other comments or questions on that. Okay. Is that the end of your Okay. So we will move on to um administrator reports. Well, good evening. Um I noticed the agenda is pretty short tonight, so I've prepared about a 45 minute update for you. That's right. Although I did make that joke and Gene was like absolutely not five minutes. Andrew, I'm more happy to reach out to you and follow up on your question. Um, part of that is this uh there is some music reference in this update. Also, as you all know from the work of the last couple of months, it's time of year when we start to look ahead to next year whilst also finishing this year strong. Um, we recently completed prek screening.
018Uh, it was exciting to meet the class of 2039, which feels daunting when you put it like that, I know. Um, we also just hosted an eighth grade parent night uh on Monday of this week to sort of preview some of the exciting opportunities coming up for the eighth graders. And it's hard to think it's such a late April break, but there's only seven and a half weeks for a number of children who have been here for 10 years. So, it's it's that sort of odd piece there ready for that transition for them, too. So, we uh working on both ends of the spectrum. Um relative to some of the music, this is also the time of year when um concerts start up. Last week we had our first and second grade concert. Um last
019night in fact was prekk concert and um children have done a great job and it's been a lot of fun to celebrate them full house each time um in the gym. Um and then the week after vacation is the 34 concert. Also last week we were delighted to welcome back the uh main symphonic band from the University of Maine. um when they do their um they take their their student band on sort of tours to different schools. We're always very fortunate to host because the band director grew up in Durham and um so it's kind of it's always rather fun. Not all his students are aware of that either. So each time they come, we have to kind of correct the number of years. But um he started uh at Durham Elementary School um as
020a first grader. There was no kindergarten then in 1973. and um his his family was very involved in the school. His mom was a librarian for us. His father when he retired then drove a bus for us. And uh so it's great to be able to welcome him back and kind of make this connection to our students that we sort of say much to the strugg. But um you know 53 years ago a first grader just like you um came to school here and was like hm I think I'm into music. But so they were great. they did a wonderful performance and that was for the whole school. Um, also then just a quick update on some of the science. I know there's been some conversation about that recently. Uh, you've heard from Cynthia Alexander
021the third through sixth grade teachers across the district have been continuing their professional development work with the May math and science alliance. um the um which so in for us we've seen the effects of that right now in the sense that all those teachers were doing professional development in March around new units for this spring um which have been great to get going. Um the work uh is supporting the teaching of new science units that align with the state curriculum and next generation science standards. examples of the work um across the classrooms is really around um asking questions that are driven by real world phenomena putting into context. So that gives opportunity to dig into genuine unknowns. Uh results in students developing question boards, data collection, lab meetings that push the students to sort of
022defend their arguments with evidence um articulate how and why they know what they think. So, it's so interesting to see the different level of engagement and questioning that comes as a result of that. Um, and then as that pulls together, as we get more into then the why and what the science is, there's a different connection to it. Um, you know, inquiry we think is the most useful when it comes to discovering when they're authentic. Uh, for the in for inquiry to really be meaningful, it can make learning a messy process. Um but it makes the big connections that much more impactful. The I think we've shared before a good example of that when we get up into seventh grade is the um intertitled crab units which is very much research starting with the citizen
023science field work and the data that comes. It's a work that also happens across Freeport Middle School. Um and then they build their own experiments with the crab populations and then looking at the broader ecosystem and developing that understanding through it. uh seventh graders uh wrote research articles and then were invited to present their research in person at the Gul of Main Research Institute student research symposium and did a fantastic job. Um recently we also uh were excited to host the main mobile biolab which um we've not had here before but um it was incredible. I mean, they said they were going to park a trailer in the parking lot for the week, and I wasn't quite sure. And they said, "Oh, some of it pulls out." And when we looked at it, we're like,
024"It seems a little odd. Almost like you're going to put the children into like the back of an 18-wheeler." But when you went into there, it was transformative. It was incredible the facility they have. And all the workstations were set up um with a lot of technology. the um lab technicians running the program um were incredibly um skilled and also did a super job of bringing that along. So the some of the different pieces that our fifth or eighth graders got to do, they didn't get to do all of them, different grades chose different things. Uh there was four different focus areas. Um, one for example was looking into lactose um, which had students exploring enzyme spec specificity and enzyme activity um, through an investigation into lactose intolerance and its symptoms which has an interesting
025context not only for the science of it but also just from the perspective of having classmates who may have different, you know, um, food allergies or intolerances and actually seeing that through a scientific lens as opposed to like I don't even know what it is type of Um there was one called All Inside Your Head. Um which delves into sort of Newton's laws of motion and having students investigate concussions and um the idea the investigated like the mechanism of concussions and explore sort of material testing and like product design around um avoiding concussions and why that would happen. There's one on water quality um looking at the parameters including temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates to determine which are the most important in determining whether water is safe. And again, in a community where everybody's on
026a well and the school is on a well, you know, these things become more meaningful as they become relevant to the lives the children lead. Um and then there's this microp pipet challenge where they have these like incredibly expensive microp pipets and they have to go through sort of they they work on doing very accurate settings and numbers and ensuring there's no air in it to know the importance of when you are actually testing different materials how important accuracy is. So they had some amazing opportunities with that and um earlier this year 17th grade also uh on um main bioscience day had great hands-on experience. A number of working scientists came in to sort of like co-e and co-work with the students. So um a lot of interesting things going on with that too. And
027I think that just gets in under the wire. Jean, I forgot to tell you. So, I live right next to the school and we saw the biolab in the parking lot and my daughter was like, "Does he need an intern? Can you call him and tell him I'll be a free intern if he needs help?" I was like, "I don't even know what that's for." He's like, "I'm sure. It's cool." Yeah. She'd be more than welcome anytime. All right. Thank you. Anybody have questions for Will? Since he was so quick, we have time for questions. Everyone's so fearful of that. All right. Thank you. All right. Um, so we have no committee reports. We have no policy review. We're making up for all the time we spent in our last meetings. I hope Steph doesn't
028think this is how fast all the meetings go. Uh, yeah. It's es and flows. Um, okay. So, we're on item 12, unfinished business. So, uh, do I have a motion? Um, what? I moved. Well, I guess do I have a motion that states the vote entitled call to vote, excuse me, vote to call and approve the warrants for the budget meeting and the budget validation referendum and to authorize the notices of amounts adopted be approved in the form presented at this meeting and that a copy of said vote be included with the meeting with the minutes of this meeting. Thank you, Kelly Danielle. So basically what this is saying is that we're going to sign all these papers which we already did and now we will post them and Okay, great. Uh any questions on
029that? All those in favor since we all signed them. Everyone's in favor. Great. Um we have no new business. Uh we have no personnel items on here. We're back to public comment if you'd like to speak again. You did a great job. We're just not usually back to it this quickly. Great. Okay. Well, uh then I would uh do I have a motion for consideration and approval to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA section 4056D for the purpose of uh discussing the educator and educational support pres uh professional negotiations. Kelly and Beth. Thank you. All those in favor? Great. None opposed. Where are we going? Yeah. So, we'll come out. Yep. And then we'll go back in. Yep. Because I think