001Wednesday September 13 2013 and we are here in the Freeport High School cafeteria the full board is in attendance this this evening welcome back welcome back Tegan hope you had a great summer we will get started with the Pledge of Allegiance okay so uh just because we had a few more folks that just came in and I'm not sure they heard the um the update on public comment if you wish to speak a public comment this evening we have a sign up sheet we actually have two of them one right here when you came in and one down through that back door there uh if you if you're interested in speaking this evening we just ask that you sign that sheet and we'll go down that sheet when we get to public comment so case
002anyone hadn't heard that yet and we will move on to number four on the agenda consideration of minutes do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes of the August 23rd 2023 as presented barring any heirs or omissions Susanna candy thank you all those in favor great and unopposed adjustments to the agenda I have just won this evening under the superintendent's report um A2 I have an additional summer resin two additional summer resignations to announce and that's all this evening all right so we will move on to six good news and recognition report from Tegan hello okay so starting off this year academic wise there's been a new habits of work system that's been put in place don't ask me to explain it it's been explained to me but I do not
003understand so I just plan on doing all my homework for athletics the girls varsity team soccer loss to Cape Elizabeth last night two to one but our boards were able to come back from a 2-0 loss and tie it up which ended up going into double overtime but we don't do PKS so then it just ended for Visual and Performing Arts this year's fall musical I believe is The Adams Family which I'm pretty excited for for community events last night was the open house here at FHS and today at school was picture day which many of our seniors took this opportunity to wear colorful wigs and glasses and goggles um senior parent college night is next Tuesday night as well for other news um homecoming is coming up the Saturday after next which means spirit
004week as well I believe there's a free part colors day a barberheimer day which if you're unaware is like Barbie and Oppenheimer movies there's a Met Gala day anything but a backpack day and a class colors day and lastly uh this year's pep Rally's been canceled which has had a lot of feedback from the class body um including seniors who are unhappy about that and that's pretty much all [Music] right thank you Tegan I'm looking forward to seeing my seniors pictures now uh all right so uh public comments so we do have a list oh good there's um certainly be able to get to everyone in order for the board to fully consider and discuss the issues on our agenda this evening we are setting aside 20 minutes that should be plenty for who we
005have signed up um for public input in order that we can hear from the largest number of different voices each speaker will be limited to three minutes for their comments for those who have not participated in our meetings before I wanted to just go over a few rules ahead of time to ensure the public comment process goes smoothly and there are no surprises first at the outset we asked for speakers to identify themselves with their name and town of residence we ask for folks to try to be brief and not repeat yourself we know discussions of school-related issues can get emotional but please remember that our children are watching and that we are neighbors so please be civil we will not permit profanity or shouting at one another or comments that disparage or attack individuals
006or groups of individuals speakers should direct all comments to the board this is an opportunity for the board to listen to the opinions of the public that relate to school and education matters it is not a public debate or a conversation so no questions should be directed to the board and the board will not be responding to any questions or comments if asked we're here to listen the board will not permit complaints or allegations against staff members there if these are Personnel issues which the board is not permitted to hear in public if there are complaints against the staff these can be handled appropriately through our complaint policy Keb and if you're interested in a two-way conversation on the RSU 5 website individual emails phone numbers are available for board members as well as the
007superintendent so thank you for your patience as we read through this introduction and I I hope with confidence that your participation will be helpful and constructive to the board and so we will start with um Anthony Pringle so I'll go back and forth because I'm not sure when people signed up so we'll start with Anthony and Alan sarvinas you'll be up after him so if you want to queue up uh up to the uh to the podium with the mic please good evening working you got me a little quiet good a Little Closer good there we go all right I'll Lean Forward on this uh good evening Anthony Pringle of Durham uh two young children in the rsu-5 community I hope everybody had a nice summer break earlier this summer I spoke to the sport
008on multiple occasions bringing your attention to example upon example upon example of sexual assaults and even rapes occurring amongst children pop student populations where policies were implemented that allowed children of either biological sex to freely and privately co-mingle and implored the board at that time in those times to carefully consider these consequences and whether you wanted to not only be complicit in their occurrence but to subject our children to them knowingly it seems you've chosen to proceed unabated now because of the very real world risk of sexual assault of our children including transgender victims in many instances that has occurred in districts other districts is being heightened due to your disregard for the realities I've previously brought to your attention I'd like to bring your attention to another example of what can and will happen
009here when districts like ours and board members like you choose to put all of our children at risk here's an article that headlines mom wins one hundred thousand dollar payout from school over socially transitioned daughter a California school district has reportedly settled a lawsuit brought by a mother who said her daughter was socially transitioned without her permission for one hundred thousand dollars Jessica to Conan sued the Spreckels Union School District claiming teachers at Buena Vista Middle School had secretly encouraged her daughter Alicia then 11 to change her gender identity the school quote fostered her identification as a boy gave her articles how to conceal her new gender identity from her family and put her on a quote gender support plan that instructed School staff to refer to her by male name and male pronouns according
010to the Center for American Liberty the legal group that represented Conan according to court documents Conan said that her daughter began returning to her quote old self when schools returned to return to remote learning during the covid-19 pandemic imagine that I came to you at the end of last school year pleading for you to consider not only the safety of transgender students but equitably all students this policy in its proposed format adequately adequately protects neither what's worse it imparts danger where less currently exists now based on recent developments this policy not only puts the entire student population at risk but also strips parents of their inherent right to protect our children from these dangers in favor of developing secret relationships between policy makers and students under the guise of protecting students at the subjective discretion
011of school officials we've begun to cross the line in the sand this board will not subject our sons and daughters to increase risks of sexual assault nor will they administratively strip parents of their right to protect our children to grossly misguided policies like these please do not allow our district to become yet another example of the worst consequences that policies like these practically Ensure thank you Anthony so Ellen cervinus and then after Allen will be Hugh Bowen I think does that sound right good evening chairwoman Richardson and directors of the closer hello hello good evening chairwoman Richardson and red directors of the RSU 5 school board my name is Alan sarvinas representing parents rights and education I'm here tonight to request the policy committee would you mind just telling us the town you live in
012uh I live in Topsham okay thank you I'm here tonight to request the policy committee for me one more time meet for one more committee meeting this request is based upon the incredibly important policy ACAA and due to new legal questions that have recently came to the school board we're working with many of your constituents to fully comprehend policy ACAA so they may participate as equal informed residents I am not here as opposition I am not here to judge appoint fingers but to contribute to a civil dialogue which will always produce the best outcomes policy ACAA is the most critical policy to hit school boards in decades but the sample policy provided to you creates and empowers behaviors that are Way Beyond the authority of school board policy making we have shown in the packet
013provided to families stakeholders and board members the current working draft set for read on September 1st September 27th severts parents inherent fundamental rights and is severely discrepit with federal and state law this is represented in the recent brand in Isaacson libel memo which is a well-known and established Maine Law Firm by the and by the costly litigation underway for Maine's Great Bay School District this sample policy is cited in the case because it has greatly contributes to unlawful behaviors there is a path to protect kids families and taxpayers while establishing concise guidelines for the district but it will need to be revised by the policy committee at least one more time there's not time for me to address the substantive changes that required that will align this policy with the brands of Science and memo
014or the Yarmouth policy but those key revisions are based upon our inherent right to Due Process over A Century of parents rights recognized as fundamental rights and the application of equal protection all three illegal Bedrock of this town County State and Country but are currently not addressed by this policy I respectfully but strongly request the three policy committee members have at least one more meeting to address this new information and to allow constituents to have more of an informed voice in the process thank you for allowing me to speak tonight and your time is greatly appreciated thank you Mr cervenas uh Hugh Bowen's up next and then after Hugh looks like Adam Stone hi there my name is Hugh Bowen I'm a lifelong Freeport resident commercial fisherman and father of two boys in the high
015school I thought a fitting to speak as I know some people are unable due to potential backlash schools their administrations and Boards have become increasingly liberal across our country in the last several decades General thoughts opinions decisions discussions views become perceived as middle of the road but in reality far left of center and not representative of the general populace it is my understanding and belief that people with sexuality differences or confusion only want to be understood accepted treated fairly and with respect let's do our best to reinforce this within our schools let's not make exceptions for them over students with similar levels of mental health distress I believe there's a I believe there's a sizable portion of our rsu-5 community that would agree with some of the following kind of my version of a proposal
016pronouns let me know what name you would like to be addressed by no pronouns bathrooms if you were born with it use that bathroom or a private one Sports once again if you have a penis you play with the boys guidance if it is a significant mental health issue it is divulged to parents and Guardians not potentially coached or nurtured Behind the Walls of a publicly funded Institution the fact this proposal includes all ages of students in RSU 5 is mind-boggling I wonder if a guidance counselor was even consulted I'm sure they were I have to believe there's a sizable portion of our community of America afraid to voice their opinion for fear of labeling for fear of repercussions within Social Circles the community their workplace it could cost a small business owner thousands of
017dollars let's have some understanding acceptance and respect for the more conservative ways of life that exist in our community with this proposal you are dividing us lastly the definition of indoctrination my iPhone brings up reads as follows the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically this is what I feel is happening here and we are the Sheep the brevity of this comment period as published tells me one of two things either you're railroading this proposal or you had no clue about the significance and here's the definition of railroading that I found to force something to be officially approved or accepted without much discussion or thought thank you for your time and I'm sorry I couldn't look at you while I was reading but anyway I appreciate all you
018do thank you Hugh Adam Stone and then after Adam is uh Jessica Conley please good evening guys good evening everybody I'm Adam Stone um I don't have no big speech do you mind just telling us which town you're from Durham thank you uh I can't say much more than the gentleman before me my kid is my own you guys don't make decisions for him me and my wife do nobody else that's it period there's no no discussion beyond that that's all there is to it you know what you guys want to do in your home that's on you I can accept that my home my decisions my family my decisions my wife's decisions you know that's it I you know I can accept you guys for who you are please accept our family thank you
019Adam so after Jessica will be uh Jacqueline Priestley hi I'm Jessica I'm from Durham community school region and I have two kids at the school as a parent it is my job to ensure to the best of my ability that my children are safe happy and healthy The Proposal before us raises many red flags for me the school also has a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of all students under its roof I understand the angle this proposal comes from and why it is under consideration but I feel it is missing key elements to make this enforceable and safe how will this policy be monitored to ensure the protection of the children in bathrooms and locker rooms all children have a right to feel safe and have privacy in the restrooms at the last
020board meeting I attended a gentleman presented many cases throughout the country where the Safety and Security was robbed from the children being attacked by someone claiming to be transgender or simply a male slipping into a female bathroom without anyone batting an eye because of policies like this I repeat my job as a mother is to protect my children from harm to minimize the risks and to keep them safe what will this school do to regulate and police these policies how will you protect these children I ask you to pump the brakes on this and think of a different way think of other ways to make them feel included and safe but not ignore the Safety and Security that everyone else is entitled to thank you for your time thank you Jets thank you Jessica so
021after uh Jaclyn is Samantha miles good evening my name is Jackie Priestley I'm from Freeport I also don't have a really amazing speech prepared but I came here hoping to just observe and see what was going to happen but I I really couldn't go home tonight without saying a few words and so I know that it's not necessarily up for discussion at this point tonight but I know that you will be considering it this transgender policy over the next meeting and so you know I wanted to come here and say a few words about it here here we're told well first of all there's so many things that can be said but in three minutes I can't say at all so I'm gonna pick two um and and first you know we're here we're being
022told that this policy is designed to create a safe and welcoming environment for all of our children yet in order to make a transgender child feel comfortable it's at the expense of our biological children in the bathrooms and in the locker rooms little girls who want to go and change in the locker rooms it's already difficult growing up changing in front of other females and then to be in a locker room with a transgender girl who has the parts of a biological male it's really intimidating is not even a strong enough word to give you an example I actually my children don't go to Moore Street because of this very issue I mean sorry they don't go to St John's they don't go to more Street they go to St John's because of this very
023issue I would love to have them come here but they do take dance at Moore Street and my daughter went into the bathroom during dance practice after school and there was a gentleman using the bathrooms and it's because there are no signs or there were no signs on the doors at the time I don't go there so I haven't seen and I asked the gentleman why he was in there and he said well there were no signs he didn't know which ones and I feel like we're just opening the door for for these things to happen often and like parents before me said um this to happen under the guise of of transgender Conformity here so um you know we're making these accommodations for transgender children but we're not making any accommodations for the uncomfortable
024nature that we're creating for these biological children who are in these uh in these bathrooms in these locker rooms and in these situations so I really feel like we are opening ourselves up for sexual discrimination suits um you know this is happening all over um already and the second part is that this policy suggests that information be kept from a parent for the safety of this child it claims that students quote have a constitutional right not to have intimate facts about their life disclosed without their consent yet this is not a quote from the Constitution right the constitution in fact protects parents under due process clause of the 14th Amendment it says we have the right to direct the care the upbringing and the education of our children so again another illegal suggestion inside of
025a school policy so I really suggest that you guys look back at what's written before our first read next the next board meeting and consider you know whether or not this you you know is illegal and what you know the effects that it's going to have on all of our children thank you thank you Jackie Samantha miles [Applause] and after Samantha will be Ben Jensen great my name is Samantha miles and I'm a Freeport resident with five children in the school department and I actually didn't as well as the other woman behind me intend to say anything this evening I just figured I would come and listen but I did want to share something that happened in our family today my nine-year-old daughter woke up this morning and started her period for the first time
026nervous scared wanted to take the day off from school and I'm like oh of course we've all been there and she spent the day stressing about telling her brothers whether her brothers were going to find out she was on her menstrual cycle whether other kids at school specifically the male students were going to know and what they were going to say it really caused her distress for the day and I got to thinking she's worried about it if she had to be in a bathroom or a locker room with young men that would know she was on her menstrual cycle it would cause her a lot of Anguish a lot of grief and that's and how that would feel to have men young men older men anybody sharing those private spaces with them so I
027just encourage you to think about that how our young ladies would feel our young men too I haven't experienced you know that type of situation with my young men yet but that happened this morning with my daughter and it's been a difficult day for her and I would encourage you guys to think about what our young ladies would feel in these situations sharing restrooms and locker rooms with young men thank you thank you Samantha Ben Ben Jensen oh there we go hi Ben Jensen Freeport have two kids in Mass Landing I wanted to speak in support of The Proposal thank the board for supporting sorry can you hear me I want to thank I want to speak in support of the proposal and thank the board for supporting all kids equally and putting in place
028policies that allow and encourage kids to be comfortable with who they are and feel safe at school thank you for not implementing policies that make trans kids feel like they are somehow a danger or problem to other students just by existing thank you to the board thank you Ben [Applause] all right so that is uh that is our list for for public comment for this evening we do have another public comment at the end of our did we do one two three four five eight minutes yeah okay yep we'll just uh we still had a few minutes of what we've allocated so thank you uh chair Richardson Michelle I'm Joe miliacro Freeport I and I totally was ignorant of the need to sign up for OS to exercise this is the first time we've implemented
029it oh really good I'm not thank you uh all I would ask is a quick question when you go into discussing of this issue is I am trying to catch up I'm very confused as to how this is congruent with generally long-standing uh USA public school policy that requires and maybe this has changed since my kids went here but I used to have to give a note or get a doctor note before um my child could get uh either mental health or medical pill Administration in the schools is that still the policy that you got the schools can't hand out medicine or give accommodating Mental Health you know practice Administration if so um I'm just going to jump in and I'll pause your time for a sec um Michelle you don't need to answer Sorry
030Miss chair you don't need to answer now okay I'd like to hear it yeah so if you have a question that you want to you want an answer to like that if you just follow up with Cynthia we moved her sorry um she can get your contact info when we get it to you because one of the other things we talked about at the beginning was where we're not answering questions but if you uh if you need it whether it's tonight or tomorrow or three weeks from now I would just ask that before you vote in the net the public comment that night that we you just explain in the context of current policy that I understand requires parent consent doctor consent to give out medicines to administer mental health care or put in place
031uh accommodation plans for either mental or physical health development if that's the case then all I see I don't the rest of the policy look fine whatever deal with it but why would you not strike the Clause that treats parent notification and requirement the same way before you put that plan into place that's that's all I'd ask if you guys could put that in context thank you so much I appreciate it thank you Joe I might have cut you off so Joe is from Freeport yep um so uh Jennifer Curran Jennifer Curran from Falmouth in 2014 Maine's highest court weighed in and ruled that transgender students have the right to use School restrooms and locker rooms that are consistent with their gender identity the court concluded that denying these rights violates the main Civil Rights
032Act the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that transgender and non-binary teens have a greater risk of sexual assault when their school restricts the restroom or locker room they can use again what's being stated here is trans and non-binary students are at much elevated risk of harm if they are discriminated against and forced to use a bathroom or locker room that does not align with their gender identity what does this mean children who identify as trans and non-binary feel more supported and can experience less trauma and physical harm when they are supported in their school by staff and by policies in Tulsa Oklahoma 2022 at Memorial Middle School eight students beat a transgender boy sending them to the hospital at Kalama High School in Washington state 2022 students testified that another student kicked a transgender boy
033with a steel toe boot sending them to the hospital the transgender student had been on the ground begging for them to stop Willow andring a student at Armstrong Junior Senior High School at Kittanning Pennsylvania 2022. Willow faced regular harassment in her school constant racist and homophobic slurs until things escalated another stool School excuse me another student attacked and beat her the incident captured on camera sending her to the hospital with a concussion these are numerous examples of transgender students being harmed in 2020 the CDC released data that showed lbgtqia at youth are more likely to be bullied than their straight cisgender youth the data shows that 43 of trans youth have been bullied on school property in June 2022 Maine public published an article the journey to be me the Heartbreak hope and courage of
034a main transgender child in this article a Penobscot fifth grader who is transgender boy breaks down every few days and few days of his week his peers call him gross stupid and perverted according to this article the 2009-2019 Maine integrated youth Health survey reports that trans youth are twice as likely to be bullied four times to have been threatened or injured with a weapon half of these youth had considered suicide compared to 15 percent of their non-trans peers and what this exemplifies and they are biological to us is that protecting members of the lgbtqia community is important it's important for safety inclusion authenticity and if you truly want to help all it's important to all thanks thank you Jennifer uh Cara Carolyn Caroline sorry Jensen he'll tell us [Music] hi there my name is Carolyn
035I'm from Freeport as well I wasn't going to say anything but I just wanted to put my voice out there tonight hearing um the first few things that were spoken about um I have been sexually assaulted multiple times by some people that lived in this town um I have a non-binary child and I have a I have a daughter too they're twins they're amazing a lot of people know them I'm sure actually you do they're pretty awesome um when the Asylum Seekers got swept out of the homeless shelters and then the main campus got swept in Portland I have one of them living in my house right now and he's actually working at the farm down the street he got his work permit um he's filling a spot where they desperately needed help and so
036I am one of the people that lives on the edge of this and I deal with this every day and I just actually read this morning the email from Gene about the swastika on Moore Street School I am Nash kanaziju most of my family that came from Austria and Poland was murdered in the gas Chambers in the Holocaust it's hitting a little bit of a personal nerve and so the way that we deal with this is through education really good open basic education that allows everyone's input especially the people at the margins we're good people we're just people doing the best we can and trying to make the world a good place for everyone we really appreciate the policies you guys have put in place we really appreciate the support um and I would really
037like to just have this be a more open conversation it doesn't need to be tense but it's really hurtful thank you Carolyn all right we made it through our first public comment with the new uh the new system I think it worked pretty well we'll smooth it out as we continue using it I'm sure so thank you all for for your patience as we work through that and thank you to everyone who got up and spoke this evening thank you all right so we will move on to item 8 report from the superintendent [Music] hey number one is the opening of schools we're already several weeks in now we kicked off the school year for staff on the 22nd of August believe it or not with an all-district breakfast and a meeting at our f-pac
038I expressed my gratitude for the work our staff did throughout the summer we had an opportunity to welcome many new staff members who are hired over the summer as well as celebrating many many years of service in my remarks to staff I challenge them to be brave and think differently about their practice be bold and believe they they can and will make a difference because they are talented enough to do so and also to remember to be kind not only to others but to themselves our morning concluded with a performance by our District Administrative team and I want to thank my team for modeling How To Be Brave and Bold and we have this few board members there that saw our our performance I think I I uh after the morning kickoff staff members returned
039to the schools and departments for site-based professional development and then that kickoff day was followed by two additional days of professional development on Monday the 28th we welcome back to our pre-k9 students for the school year the full Pre-K 12 student body returned the following day on the 29th and I had the opportunity to visit the schools and there were certainly lots of smiles for both students and staff and they seemed genuinely happy to be back and today we've just completed day 11 believe it or not for student enrollment it's a yellow sheet that's labeled 8a1 so our enrollment is still in the process of settling the current enrollment is 2107 students and I looked at last year at this time when we reported out our enrollment was 2100 however if you remember at the
040end of last year our enrollment was was 2031 because we have a lot we had lost many many students so that's increase of 76 students we are pretty close in our projected enrollment during budgeting because it was 2087. so it's about 20 more than we actually budgeted for so we're pretty pretty close to that looking at class size uh we I did share that at the retreat that we had some concerns particularly in grade five at Mass Landing we have advertised for but have not yet hired a class size reduction teacher and I know um Connor and his team are looking at we have some applications coming in and they're looking at those applications multilingual Learners in June our June count of multilingual Learners was 67 that were enrolled in the district currently we have
041126. 50 of those students are resident and 76 of those those children are homeless we know we do have multilingual Learners in all our schools across the district but the majority of those children attend schools in Freeport this is with some challenges that we've we've encountered uh Staffing as a child as a challenge as you recall we took a vote to hire another teacher of English for speakers of other languages and also an ad tech for multilingual Learners and to date we have not been able to secure those positions Transportation has been a real challenge for us um as as you know we collapse the route in Pownal this year we had collapsed one in Freeport and Durham previously due to lack of drivers so the brutes we have are really full what we've noticed
042is an increase not just because there are fewer buses but also there has been an increase of of children who were having other Transportation who are now actually taking the bus so that's been difficult so what we've done is we've reached out to several businesses to see if we can get some support and transportation and we had a couple things fall through we have something that's promising right now we're still waiting to hear from information from from three other companies so financially as you know we received a multilingual learner Grant of 176 377 dollars that money expires on September 30th so we're certainly leveraging all those funds that we can we've we've expended a lot of them all already through the course of the year for things like additional devices we needed for kids we've
043spent on interpreters and also on some transportation that we spent last year and we will receive a hundred and nine thousand four hundred and sixty eight dollars in October from the multilingual hardship Grant from the state I do have a couple of upcoming meetings tomorrow I'm going to meet with Town Council leadership in Freeport as well as Freeport Community Services to discuss the impact on the schools and in addition you may know the governor's office on policy and Innovation and future is developing a plan to create an office of new Americans in Maine state government with the overarching goal of incorporating immigrants into the works force and communities to strengthen the economy I along with superintendents from Portland South Portland Westbrook Yarmouth Biddeford Brunswick and Lewiston have been invited to be part of the stakeholder
044group to provide input and we'll have that meeting in in October before I go on to the next part I'll say there's anything on opening of schools any questions I can answer from anybody for anybody okay looking at summer hires you have an orange sheet we did a lot of hiring over the summer but I do have want to announce that we've received two more resignations one was for Teresa Ward PES laugh and learn and Katie Goodall who's DCS School nutrition program they're not they're not on the orange sheet that you have in addition to those I'd like to just talk about what what we have for vacancies what's still floating out there in terms of teaching we have that grade five class size reduction teacher that I mentioned earlier as well as the teacher
045um and the ad tech for a multilingual learners panel has a Grade Three opening and we also have a instructional strategist opening uh that we are all accepting applications and I know there are some of those uh positions that they're getting ready to have some interviews for and special education in our budget we asked for a bcba last year we have no candidates at all we're still advertising still looking but as of today Dr Seller said we have we have promise promise for our contracted services that looks that's looking promising speech language we're Contracting out if we don't have a candidate but we're still advertising as well as our school psychologists we also have a position for a tutor for a home Brown instruction um and then in special in terms of educational technicians for
046special education we are in much much much better shape than we were at this time last year if you remember we talked about it for several weeks and Dr sellers came in and spoke with the board at Moore Street we have two openings and one is soon to be higher we're just waiting for paperwork and at Freeport High School 2.5 in other areas we have a computer technician opening we have one General Ed Tech opening at the high school we're still looking for food service assistance and a field maintenance worker and van drivers for bus drivers I will tell you currently we have four eight hour school year only positions in one six six hour school year positions that we're down five bus drivers today we have promise I spoke with Jeremy and we have
047a candidate that we're very close to hirings we're excited about filling one of those positions and for custodians we have five full-time positions and a six hour position that's opening that we're trying to fill and no no additional applications at this time for substitute teachers I checked with Ashley this morning and we're starting the year with approximately the same number that we had last year which is is good news but we really um hope that if there are folks that would like to sub for us we would love to have you join our team and be a guest teacher or um certainly we're looking for folks to substitute custodians substitute bus drivers every every area and that's the end of my report but I'm happy if there are any questions for the board to answer
048them any questions for Gene okay thank you so we don't have any administrative reports yet so we will move on to board comments and committee reports and we will start with finance committee Beth all right um well we had a meeting uh well actually the minutes that we are in your packet or from our meeting in May um that just basically tidying up the end of the year things and moving uh with transferring funds between the Articles where they one was a little short and one others were over um and then we had our first meeting of the year today with Kelly our new Finance director so that was great um and we just basically put together some meeting dates and topics that we're going to talk about for the year so anybody has any
049questions I can take them thanks all right uh strategic Communications committee candy is that you yes basically you've got minutes here we've spent the last three meetings going over analyzing preparing a report for you all about the workplace satisfaction survey that was handled excuse me handed out last May and our intent is to try to bring it to you by the end of the month I think it's on the work plan for the first meeting in October is that right yeah so close first meeting in October yeah questions for candy I guess I have a quick one um so do we generally alternate the um the the surveys between the workplace satisfaction survey and then like the one we send out to parents and everybody is that like every other year so generally yeah yeah
050okay thank you all right uh policy committee Colin [Music] thanks Michelle um so tonight I'm going to report out on the policy committee's work over the last 12 months to draft a policy to ensure and protect the rights of transgender and gender expanse to students in RSU 5. this is going to be a long report out I have a lot before you jump in I'm just going to remind folks so the first read will be at the next meeting so this is really just background information to prepare people to have the conversation at the next May we're not we're not getting into a conversation tonight about it it's just to prepare in the effort to come as prepared as we can you just looked at my next sentence so well done um so uh I
051have a lot of info but so you can prepare for our first read with an understanding of how and why we are presenting the board with this policy uh to be clear this is not a discussion um and to be clear this is a report of this committee and that reflects our work I do not speak for the board tonight but only for our committee so first I'm going to lay out some general principles that informed our work then I'm going to give the board an overview of the steps we took and the process we used to consider draft and evaluate the draft policy of AC Triple A that we've included in your packets and the policy committee is recommending that the board pass at first read okay I'm going to stop you one more
052time I'm not going to do this the whole time I promise but the packets it was not in the original it was not in the original agenda packet so if people looked on the website it is available here um over on the table that's a different packet you're holding oh it is yep so just let me get through and I promise you it'll all make sense um finally I'm going to provide a framework for thinking about the content of the policy broken down into two primary categories first what Maine state law requires us to ensure the rights of trans and non-binary students to be free from discrimination and persecution in our schools and second aspects of policy that we believe while not required by law best serve the needs of students in our community so
053first these fundamental principles as we work to create this policy three principles became omnipresent as we clarified the objectives and substance of this policy first we as a board work from Our obligation to create policy that best serves the students in RSU number five we remind ourselves that we are by State Statute a governing body and serve our school system and our students not the electorate or Our member towns we remind ourselves this sometimes challenging position to find ourselves in but that this is the law we understand that any policy we create will not please or meet the desires of everyone in our community however we must Endeavor to create the best policy that we can to serve the needs of our school system and our students second the committee recognizes that the goal of
054our policy is to ensure the rights of transgender and gender expansive kids in our district regardless of where those individual young people may be in their process of social or medical transition and regardless of whether or not they have chosen to share their transgender identity with anyone else many of the example policies that we looked at as well as policies that have been passed elsewhere in the state of Maine are implicitly written to address questions surrounding how a school system meets the needs of a student's social transition the very personal and individualized process that a person may go through to make changes to live in their gender identity we believe our policy must also more fundamentally ensure the rights of trans students no matter where they are on their journey of achieving gender congruence and
055no matter how public or private this process has been here we also recognize the sobering statistics around the experience of transgender kids a 2021 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics that found the transgender adolescents experience higher rates of psychological abuse physical abuse and sexual abuse than cisgender adolescence a 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that when subject to restroom or locker room restrictions 25.9 percent of transgender or gender non-binary students reported being a victim of sexual assault and a 2022 study found data to indicate that 82 percent of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40 percent have attempted suicide suicidality the study found is highest among transgender youth finally we recognize the kids count Data Book shows that in 2020 Maine's rate of child maltreatment abuse and neglect was the
056highest in the United States at a rate of 19 per 1000 individuals we took these sobering findings very seriously finally we acknowledge that we live in a transphobic Society we've all grown up in a culture with binary gender Norms growing up in this culture there is a fear and unease around what is excuse me we're not calling out that this is this is the board meeting now the public committee is is the public comment is ended so we just need people to to keep excuse me excuse me nope this is this is our board meeting it's a public meeting it is not a discussion so we need the the folks in the audience to keep quiet thank you thanks growing up with this culture there's a fear and unease around what is perceived as different
057as a deviation from this binary this atmosphere of transphobia of fear of something other than a binary it was important for us to acknowledge as we crafted the policy we worked to remember that being transphobic is not a matter of hatred or violence against trans folks though such does sadly exist but it is rather another Norm that we needed to confront in working to protect the needs of trans youth in our school system second section our process so what was our process for creating this draft the committee began meeting monthly with some extra meetings in September 2022 in public Zoom sessions to review draft and discuss this draft I don't like that there's two drafts there but what are you going to do we worked from a draft policy provided by the law firm Drummond
058woodsome but also looked at language from policies from Maine and around the U.S in these meetings we invited School staff and administrators to share their perspective and input on the drafting process we also considered the feedback and ideas given at full board meeting public comment periods and via email at full board meetings we periodically reported on our continued drafting process in early 2023 we shared our working draft policy with a diversity equity and inclusion Committee of rsu-5 and considered feedback and thoughts from participating students community and staff in the spring we then shared our near final draft with the di committee where we received enthusiastic support in June 2023 the committee shared our working draft with our Attorneys at Drummond woodsum the outgoing and incoming chairs of the committee spoke with the attorney on the
059phone and received the following verbal feedback about the draft I'm going to share these bullet points with you as we wrote them down one the reference made to Title IX was not needed in the context of this policy two keep the references to Maine human rights act mhra as written three the language about annual staff training is important for staff to know who to reach out to four the support plan is student driven but may include reference to 504 or IEPs as needed five 2014 Maine Supreme Judicial Court case doe versus clinchy also known as John Doe at all versus Regional School unit 26 provides guidance on policy and law around bathroom usage end of comments we then met as a committee to discuss how to incorporate this feedback into our draft and the draft
060we'll be discussing at our next meeting reflects this verbal feedback the final step of the process is of course that the committee brings this policy before you with your with our recommendation that you pass it we will meet on September 27th as a board for our first read where you will discuss the policy and determine whether to pass it based on your best judgment note we have provided to inform this process five policies and this was the exciting packet that Michelle was referring to five policies from other main school districts to provide context and comparison and contrast to show how each Community made their own determination on how best to meet the needs of the students in their communities and those are available over there and will be available on our website as well so
061finally three between now and our first read we encourage you to read the policy carefully and prepare questions please share these questions ahead of time with the committee assistant superintendent Alexander and superintendent scarappa the committee would like to provide you with the following framework for thinking about the content of the policy first we'll lay out some of the elements of what is required but by us by law second we'll outline elements that we believe best serve the needs of children in RSU 5. what is required of us by law The Lion's Share are of our obligations flow from the main Human Rights Act the mhra prohibits discrimination bullying and harassment against students because they are transgender transgender folks are a protected class under the mhra we relied on the mhra for some of our core
062definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity the 2014 case I mentioned earlier doe versus RSU number 26 makes clear some of our fundamental legal obligations the case surrounds a situation where a well-meaning school administration made a decision to deny a transgender girl the right to use the shared girls bathroom facility and require her to use a single occupancy staff bathroom the Maine Judicial Court found that the RSU unlawfully discriminated against the young person by denying her access to the communal girls bathroom our legal counsel believes that the policy is written brings us into alignment with the MHC mhra and further supports and is further supported by the Maine judicial Court's ruling the committee understands that the main Human Rights Act protects the rights of trans and gender expanse to students without a diagnosis or registration
063of this identity with the school now let's look at aspects of the policy that are not required by law but serve the needs of our students first we want to note that this policy largely follows the processes already in use in rsu-5 regarding how to support the needs of trans students and protect them from harassment discrimination and bullying our administrators and staff have been working to meet the needs of transgender and gender expansive students for many years as part of their overall obligation to serve our students so our policy codifies processes and approaches that we are already using and that we know have worked well to meet the needs of our kids and our schools AC Triple A outlines the process for enabling students to ask for a support plan if they feel that they
064need one to improve their health and well-being at school we believe as this policy states that gender identity is a personal decision and does not require public affirmation therefore support plans should be student driven or driven by parents representing the wishes of their child though there may be situations where the administration will deem such a plan as necessary such as in relation to a 504 or an IEP to be clear a transgender student doesn't need to have a plan in place with the school in order to access the rights and privileges of being an RSU number five student or to protect them from discrimination we believe that the information available to us regarding rates of abuse maltreatment violence and suicidal ideation and attempts that the administrators should trust the student to determine when and if
065to involve their parents in the creation of this plan we have structured the policy to reflect this while also respecting the importance of encouraging open dialogue with parents and family around these important life decisions to be clear the creation of a support plan is not required per se by law nor does current law specifically dictate the parameters of such a plan and the meetings related to it however from the experiences of our students and staff at RSU 5 we know that these plans are important and serve them to meet the social and emotional Wellness of the students which in turn supports their overall education thank you for listening to our committee report we have done our work as a committee and now the policy is in your hands we recommend that you pass it at
066first read on September 27th after careful thought and deliberation thank you Colin um just a quick reminder for our newer board members and and for folks in the in the audience if they're not familiar with how policy approval works so there is a first read of the of the policy if the general consensus of the board is supportive of the policy as written there might be a few minor changes but it will it'll get passed at first read the committee will go back make any of those minor changes as necessary it will then come back for a second read upon approval at second read it becomes it becomes policy of the district so that is that's the process so it will there will be at least two conversations about this about this policy so stay
067tuned there's always a second read yeah I don't know if that's required by law I'm going to look to Cynthia for that or is that just how we do it that's law right yeah okay so all right um I will say that if there's you know huge huge changes recommended from The Proposal it might get pulled from a first read vote to get adjusted and then come back for a new first read so which we have done in the past okay so we will move on to item 11 on our agenda which is no we don't have one tonight uh that will be at the next meeting so 12 unfision finished business the board's work plan for 23.24 and as we discussed at The Retreat there's not a lot of significant changes here we did
068go back and add a couple of things that you requested which was an update on multilingual Learners we've added that added that for October and then we've also um we've we're also looking at you need to decide about the annual budget meeting is it May 15th or May 22nd so that's on there as well I'm sorry there's one other uh we did as well the other thing you asked us is about the the uh what those social emotional supports are and Dr sellers is going to be going to provide an update on that on January 24th that was the other thing you asked us to come back and those are now added to your work plan uh the only other thing I was thinking of is when we met yesterday for the region 10 update
069um is that one that we need to include on here is that when we can when we can work out something I know that I when we get to the board um the board evaluation later on there were some comments about the vocational updates and things like that so and they've graciously offered to present to us if we're if the board is interested so I don't know if that's something that the board would like to see on the work plan and we also have a learning opportunity of the board will now is that we have a learning I um spoke with Mr Chabot and we have a learning opportunity that's been added to to for the board's opportunities just like when we visit the schools we'll be able to go to region 10 as well
070that's planned so yes highly encourage encourage that one we don't have a date on yet that yet though right I do but not with me I don't believe it's it's one of our first ones okay and while we're talking about the uh the list of learning opportunities has been in the weekly update so hopefully folks have been able to put those on their calendars I will point out that I think the panel one overlaps with the msma conference oh I'll double I will adjust that okay thank you we don't want people to have to decide between PDS adjust that okay um Danielle I thought one of them too was on maybe November 9th isn't that a day off of school so is that just a teacher Workshop day that we'd be going to I will
071double check that but the principal selected those dates so I will double check that though I could have misread it but I'll double check the November date too it is so it's in the morning it was a morning visitation then oh so it's a half day that day so we could [Music] I'll tell you so we'll adjust the date the teacher the the principal selected it that's a good catch you go there might be no one there Connor picked it because uh Emily will be back he's like whatever yeah that was yeah we bumped to November so Emily could be bad okay any other comments questions on the work plan all right moving along and may I ask the what we're going to do with the annual budget oh yes the annuals that's right we
072did need to decide on that um I'm gonna I'm gonna throw my suggestion is that we move it to the 15th um you know we've adopted the budget by that point we have the um you know it'll keep us super tight to our printing schedule for the uh the annual brochures but I feel like most folks have them uh have them by then um you know we try to get them in people's hands in time to come to those earlier meetings in the in the three towns so they should all have those um the reason for this just for a reminder for folks is um because before we um the annual budget meeting is what dictates what the final budget that goes to referendum is and uh the referendum budget excuse me the referendum date
073is the 11th of June and so for absentee ballots they would like to get us as close as possible to 30 days because that is how long you're supposed to have for absentee ballots so if we can move it back to the 15th then we're only we're only a couple days off that 30 days and that was that's something that the Freeport town office has been asking us generally every year but they usually ask us in the spring when we can't really change it yet whereas at this point we haven't advertised it necessarily all that much yet so I would be I would be supportive of moving it to the 15th if folks are okay with that [Music] anyone have any any issues or concerns with that all right let's make it the 15th and
074would the board like me to see if we could have a presentation from region 10 in addition to the learning opportunity am I hearing that that you'd like that or I'm just checking if possible they've offered we should take them up on it I know sometimes it's difficult for folks during the day to get away and get to the learning opportunities they're fantastic if people can do them but I know it's not always an option so if he can also come and present I think that would be great thank you more [Music] of spring or are they just all going to be in the fall this year yes I had heard feedback from the board first you warned him early and but you'd also like spring ones so we got the four fall one in
075and we'll plan some more in the in the spring okay if we can if we can manage that with our principals okay thank you not not expecting that just wondering for planning purposes if I miss it if we can pull it off okay okay and I appreciate them not all being the same week that's good because that was difficult last time you kind of had to pick Maddie I'm just curious if region 10 is still considering a new facility um and if if so then I would recommend the workshop because that's a lot for this board to consider uh yes yep they're still working on their feasibility study around a comprehensive four-year High School um that was one of the things that they um we met about yesterday they invited the superintendents and board chairs
076to uh to a initial review of that feasibility study so I think they'll be coming out with more on that in the next month or two um so you know we could make it Dual Purpose kind of General region 10 as it works because I think the idea around the Comprehensive High School would be many years out right so we would have a long time before you know to continue with the way we're doing it today even if that did come to fruition so all right [Music] um the fy25 budget timeline first meeting of the Year we're already talking about the budget you're welcome uh what color is it it's white okay the 726 23 draft okay um so I think this essentially aligns with how we've historically done it the end of January the
077superintendent will present their recommended budget we'll take the next um basically March excuse me February and March to review all the individual asks by departments and consider the full budget with an adoption scheduled for March 27th we then have our three q and A's in all three towns followed by our annual budget meeting which we've now decided will be on May 15th this year we'll be back at FHS last year it was a Durham this year will be FHS and just a quick reminder we don't rotate it through panel just because of size constraints um if if there was a large turnout that might be a that might be difficult in the panel gym so we've historically done it back and forth between Freeport and Durham followed by the budget referendum on June 11th and
078then hopefully an approval computation of the votes on the 12th so no major changes to the budget process from the past several years other than moving up that annual budget meeting by a week everyone all right with that all right Maddie yes is call sharing on the work plan this year sorry uh yeah actually we just talked about it at Finance I didn't mention it yeah is right for a presentation um yeah it's not on there yet because we didn't know where it would fall based on because we've got to follow up and get some information from the spreadsheets and I think we might actually have it we just might need to follow up with Suzanne on that and pull together some um what the board I actually rewatched that board meeting today around that
079discussion and what we would bring back to the board so it will be but I don't think we have it on we don't have it on a date yet because we're not sure when that would be ready because the the decision around that will impact uh budget computations and discussions so important to keep that in mind so under the better yep all right Michelle just quickly on that I think that uh I mean from our conversation last spring winter about the um cost sharing I don't think my understanding is that we weren't going to be making any recommendations that would be for a change that would be implemented immediately um so I just just to to Maddie's point I don't my my understanding was not we were going to make any decision decisions that would
080kick in necessarily the um immediately the following year is that still true or is that still on the table I think I think it's probably going to depend on what the recommendation is if it's if it's um if it's more procedural and less impactful in terms of what the outcome is I feel like you don't need to step it in over quite as long of a period but I think there will be some Logistics around like the language in the in in the um the RPC and and um you know we're going to have to work with the accountants and the attorneys and you know once we kind of conceptually come up with what we're trying to accomplish like how do we actually get it done um you know my my thought process is is
081it seemed like the the intention of of of the board on the May 10th meeting anyway was not to seriously change the allocation by town but just make it a little easier to understand and and variable as things change over time in which case even if it ended up being you know we agreed to it but based on the timing we couldn't get all of those logistical pieces in place it wouldn't be a huge Financial impact if it didn't go into effect until the following year but obviously the the sooner we can get it wrapped up the better I would like to get it behind us I I will tell a quick a quick story that our Director of Finance who we are welcomed back from uh from being gone she left in the 2015-2016
082year she brought her finance committee topics meeting topics committee meeting topics to the meeting tonight to see if we wanted to include any of those in the work plan and right at the bottom cost sharing I was like yep still doing it eight years ago so 2015 yep so it's been a it's been a long road but you know we'll get there we'll get there yeah I might throw a small party all right so uh in general folks okay with that budget timeline all right we'll get um we'll get those changes adjusted to the 15th and make sure everything that we have posted on the website is up to date and accurate all right so now we are back to 12C which is consideration and approval to add delete consolidate committee or make annual appointments
083so this is the committee the committee horse Trading meeting um I will I will remind folks that some some committees must have people on them and by must I mean finance and region 10 we have to have those filled um and then the other ones generally we don't have too much trouble filling but um but just just want to put that in in people's people's forefoot there um do you want to start with sort of the committee changes yes so I gathered the some of the feedback you had at your retreat and you'll notice this is now there's a color code change on here with some suggestions so looking at Blue committee board committee standing committees right now we have Finance negotiations policy and strategic Communications those are your current um your your current standing
084committees I'm recommending that the stipend Review Committee be a standing committee as well because when you go you have to have it when you're negotiating some districts fold that under the responsibilities um sometimes a finance committee but we have a separate group of folks that work on it and then in addition um I've recommended that facilities and operation committee be a standing committee I spoke again with Glenn Reynolds our new facilities director and he's you know very much behind this committee to help him do his work we really need the input for the for um for folks on on that and he and for example he's going to develop a new articulated facilities plan for us in a capital plan if you look at there's a couple of green boxes those are others because they're
085not they're not a standing committee of the board and they're not an advisory committee because those are the ones that go away like the track committee for example they're for a purpose for a short period of time so those are others and one of those new ones again is curriculumin program development is a new committee that's proposed and the yellow across the bottom those are ones that are just required for example we are required to have a Dropout prevention committee we received monies through Freeport cable TV so we're required to have a board member there also um region 10 and also Wellness committee where that's something we're required by policy to have so that's why they're in the yellow band and then at the very bottom are the things that we're recommending not having those
086committees because we are folding them into other board committees um for example the and I know Matty asked me to check the Freeport Performing Arts Center committee and I looked and got some information from Jenny who is certainly The Keeper of the historical background for us as well and there's a regulation About Management overview but it's just a regulations not policy and actually there's things like for example that needs to be we need to look at that because it says the fpac school coordinator and we don't even have that position anymore so yes we could we could certainly fold that into facilities in operation certainly I know even speaking with Sean McEwen like we really need to look at that fpac facility because things as beautiful as it is things wear and tear over time
087and if you look at one of those lights they're hugely expensive as well as speaking with Community programs with Peter um Peter Wagner when he has a need to gather some folks in to help him make decisions for example when he was looking to get a new library program up and running they were key people that he pulled in to ask for that support so it's really not necessary it's really a committee that doesn't function Safety Committee that is um will certainly they'll be part of facilities and operation when you're looking at the the safe operation of our facilities but also there are things where we're looking at looking at our plans or working with our administrative team to do that and the last committee sustainability is that the proposal is to have the issues
088of sustainability certainly go through facilities and operation for example the energy audit that Glenn is working on right now is an example of that but also through the lens of curriculum that Cynthia would be working with folks on as well so not to have these committees just as standalones but the have them certainly um folded into other committees and we certainly for all committees they'll say I know we have a lot of community support we certainly appreciate all the support for committees for for the community for the work that we do so those are the proposals on the table first of all Gene it's a little hard to hear you I don't know if your mic is just soft but um every I'm I'm losing every sort of fifth word just uh thoughts um we've
089heard from the community a lot about involvement in sustainability um and our communities have um individually on their own the towns have have made a lot of progress on sustainability efforts as well um I I think I'm concerned and I don't remember what our discussion was in our last meeting I'm sorry so refresh my memory if we already decided this but um I'm concerned about removing Community involvement in our sustainability efforts because there is such great there are such great efforts happening in our communities and I think it's really important wherever we do have Community engagement in the schools I think we need to keep that and we we wish there was more in in many cases and this is one area where we've got it so if I'm concerned that if facilities and operations
090becomes a standing committee and then there's the safety element in there that makes that close to community members how do we then continue to engage community members around sustainability efforts in both facilities and operations and curriculum I think there are times certainly for facilities and operations that there are some people are certainly um I'll almost say experts in the field because they have such a great can you hear me better now Maddie I'm waiting my heads are not children I'm sorry I apologize um that they can certainly be part of some of that like yes sort of pulling like we're having this topic on let's say I'll give the example because we talk a lot about composting is a really that's a good example I know the sustainability committee talked about it but if that's
091really going to take hold it really needs to be a facilities conversation so there may be times that they're say for example talk about composting there are folks that know a lot more about composting certainly than I do I used to have a little bucket at home but that's that's that I will say that that's my limited knowledge but there are folks in the community that do have that knowledge base so there would be opportunities for people certainly at times to to for us to gather information or they may even be you know let me say hey I really need someone expert in the field to come in and have conversations about so there would be those those opportunities for that my only worry about the again this is just I'm taking like sort of
092the 100 foot view with this that we really want these things to really happen like though we've in I know our community's value sustainability I know this board does value it then we have to put it in a space where it can really be actionable and that's my concern when it was another committee that we talked about about things and I know I heard from Community like not you know things didn't seem like they happened and I think that that was part of my proposal is to really make things happen I would um I would Echo Maddie's concern about um the the severing of the of the committee of the community members on the committee I understand that the standing committees don't have community members on them um and I'm not sort of tied to
093this idea but I was just trying to think of other ways that we could accomplish both of these things and you know is there a reason we couldn't keep the sustainability committee but not meet monthly right so we don't want to add too much to people's plates and have all these committees but you know maybe there's maybe there's a a two meetings one of the Fallen one in the spring and and you know they can do some of those brainstorming ideas which hopefully Glenn can attend and then take and make it more actionable on the on the facilities committee I'd hate to lose the the knowledge because my fear is that if we if we don't have the committee anymore and we then need to turn to an expert we don't know who they are
094anymore right so um that's that's my concern I'm not you know I don't think it's a brilliant idea but I'm just trying to come up with is that maybe other folks Susanna yeah thank you I guess I share this concern and I I see and appreciate the proposed solution of dividing into the two committees because having been on that Community Committee in the past we felt like we haven't been able to make the progress we have wanted to because we've been sort of pushed out for various reasons uh sometimes that is well you're you know we've met twice a year because our meetings get canceled but that said the Freeport and panel meetings I mean communities are really engaged with that committee and really have been driving a lot of the actions that have happened
095it has not come from the school we've actually had pushback from the school saying that this isn't something that you know they're thinking we're doing too much and it's the community that's really driving that action so if we remove the community I'm not quite sure I I guess it feels it feels wrong to me in several ways one thank you one is that we're removing where a lot of where that energy has been also you know each of the towns is going through and developing its own environmental sustainability climate plans and those largely involve students involved people and there's great opportunity to engage the schools in it but if there isn't some kind of official connection I'm not sure how we can actually do that in a so to speak sustainable Manner and I also
096I guess I would share what Michelle you're saying you know we have a group of people in each Town who's really passionate about this and knows a lot knows people who know things and if we lose that we're relying on a smaller group of people who is this isn't their area of expertise to identify who those are and when those people would be needed rather than people who actually do this work professionally and who know how to engage that so I guess I would be and that's what I apply to the curriculum as well uh on so both in ways that's developed I would want Community engagement or at least a plan a plan for it rather than a will reach out if we need to thank you I'm selfishly thinking about two months from
097now when when you're no longer a board member and we lose access to Susanna's uh you know expertise in in these areas um you know that's not something we want to let walk away we're not going to forget where you live I mean we'll track you down wherever you are in the world but um yeah Colin yeah I I share the concern around the the question around Community engagement I think my um my thought currently is that um having served on the sustainability committee for the past year um as it currently functions it is uh it does not have any actual function um it does it is an advisory committee to Gene as the superintendent um and so that is it's that is its only that is its only um that is its only task
098is to advise the superintendent and that given that um I just in hearing what y'all are talking about in terms of like the reasons we want to maintain connection and and the reasons that we want that expertise I don't actually think that actually makes sense to keep in the context of a committee um because I don't think as far as again I was able to observe uh there was actually um uh real opportunities to sort of like feed those ideas to uh Jane not that you weren't open to them it's just it wasn't it wasn't functionally um so I I'm in I'm in support of of changing the of changing the structure um but I get I'm also in support I guess to Michelle's point of TR of exploring some other ways in which we
099have mechanisms for engaging the public um and I don't I guess I would also make a distinction between engaging the public and knowing who the who uh people with knowledge are about particular subjects in the community I don't really think that again was the function of the um the sustainability committee to have a collection of experts that we could rely on um I I believe it was a way to maintain like to Susanna's point to maintain connection with other ongoing activities and those are two very different things um to have a group of people you can rely on that have expertise in certain areas so I guess um I wish I had a good proposal I guess I'm I'm sort of I'm I'm I guess I'm curious to sort of see how we might do
100something along the lines of what Michelle you suggested of saying like what if we have two moments in time um you know in the one in the fall one in the spring um where there is a some sort of convening of community members to talk about um issues pertaining to facilities and perhaps issues pertaining to curriculum um and sort of have have more of a a dialogue or a conversation and sort of idea generation but not have it be any sort of sense that it is sort of direct advisory or the sort of a fit in a sort of official capacity in that way that would just be one one possibility and just to clarify when you guys mentioned curriculum you're talking about sustainability and and how it relates to the curriculum right not just
101the overall curriculum committee correct so the elements of the sustainability committee that would be brought into that direction gotcha okay no I think that makes I think that makes sense I I just didn't um when I first heard curriculum I was thinking like overall curriculum and that didn't seem like an appropriate place to have community members involved in in the creation necessarily I mean I know Cynthia does reach out to some specialized you know experts in certain areas to make sure we're um we're being broad uh in our curriculum but um so I I don't I don't know how we can accomplish that um you know do do we feel does the board feel comfortable sort of striking the sustainability committee from the roster in hopes that we come up with a solution on how
102to maintain a connection do we want to keep it but adjust the charter to be a little you know a little less frequent you know inclusive of of Cynthia and and or Glenn um what's the pleasure of the board on that Maddie I'm I'm comfortable um approving the the change with um if we can give the superintendent or ask the superintendent to perhaps follow up with the people we've heard from or the community members who are involved so far uh seek their input and along with our director of facilities come up with a plan that seems um plausible to everyone yep I mean and maybe it's you know an invitation to the facilities committee and one one of those meetings in the fall or something like that right to make sure that that group maintains
103some continuity of of connection okay anyone else all right with that so we don't often get rid of committees other than the ones that go away like the track or the high school do we have to vote to eliminate them because yes you do yeah you need to take formal action do I have a I have a motion for them or does by no probably not yeah but it's on here like Safety Committee is on here Performing Arts is on here okay [Music] four on the bottom oh I'm this one sorry I was looking at the list in the motion okay okay so we would be looking to Strike 10 11. 13. and uh there was another one five okay so consideration for approval to add delete consolidate committees and make annual appointments okay all
104right so that motion does take care of all that um okay with that being said what are people feeling around committee assignments and what they were interested in picking up or dropping off um just a reminder for negotiations we're still in the process of negotiation negotiating settling the support contract and this year is a professional contract negotiation year so that one will be critical um thanks Susanna so so let's call that that there's probably two spots for for negotiations because we generally don't even get started by the time you would be done in November so so um I'm I'm open to however people want to do it yeah um I just have a question I have been on for the past four years or three and a half years the cable TV board um I
105have asked people who's on the who who even else is on that board whom do I contact and I keep getting out we don't know I've now had this week community members reach out to me saying there's a whole pile of cash there that they're trying to use for various things in the town but it can't be accessed until actually somebody does something convening that board but it hasn't met in eight something years um how do I find out who else is on that board because I've asked before and I was given a complete drug at the shoulders from the town hall and here because I've always heard that we had to have that committee because that is how we access some of those yeah funds but we don't actually get them but no no
106I think we do but this was just more community-wide you're like trying to figure out actually who's on that committee and the only name that comes up when that is searched is mine so I either have a whole lot of power place over there either but it would be really great to figure out who actually else is on let me let me see if we can do some digging okay find out thank you I'm not sure where I'm gonna dig but I'm going to try okay excellent otherwise I'm just gonna yeah so in in the same vein um the other uh for for Maddie who is leaving us in November not running again um we might want to think about not that she couldn't stay on through November but think about if folks are interested
107in those committees we'll revisit when we have our two new folks but um they tend to be kind of the heavier lift ones which new folks aren't usually interested in yes Maddie I would like to nominate Cara for our policy committee you good with that all right so candy and Colin you guys are still good yep all right so Kara for policy what are people thinking about negotiations Don't Leave Me by myself God only knows what I'll do when do those meetings typically contain they're usually in the evenings because we're negotiating with the the teachers so it can't be during the day usually um it varies depending on the year how usually we'll start in the January time frame January February time frame and we'll meet every couple of weeks in an effort to settle
108the contract by the end of the school year um but they're usually sort of blocks of time call it four to eight ish in the evening sorry Michelle I'm just I'm tired but did we vote to add the curriculum and program Development Committee yeah they're not on here are they no and facilities and operations is not on there all right so we'll we'll add those in so yep so the old ones are still on here the new ones okay so we have facilities and operations right and that's three three people and I think the paper says that they're going to meet the second meeting of the month the second board meeting meet Wednesday of the month but that's actually going to change to the first board meeting of the month on at five o'clock we
109just switched Finance to the second meeting so um all right so facilities and operations is three curriculum is two and that's how we added okay do we have to do anything about the stipend one to make it a standing committee which note it okay okay so we're adding two we're deleting four okay I guess just one just to your point about um our our friends who are leaving us I suppose maybe just to clarify with those friends whether they want to remain on any of these committees until November or whether or not those are they are vacating those spots just so we really understand the uh which horse stables are being traded into or away from Daddy um the only one remaining that I would be staying on would be strategic Communications but I don't
110think that's wise honestly I think it's important to to bring somebody new on there who can see it through the year and isn't isn't catching up Midway through the year so um sorry to say that I'm departing but I think I think it's better for the board if I do and somebody else step in [Music] yeah and you are always welcome to join the meetings and share your Infinite Wisdom or whatever how much wisdom you have Susanna I can follow up on that um yeah since I've just been booted off sustainability and yeah and it goes yeah well two in one night luckily I still have the cable TV because I can still own cable TV um I'm I'm neutral so if I can I mean I have the Dei otherwise yeah Dei and cable
111TV uh if somebody would like to jump on the Dei and when the year gets going I'm very happy for that and I'm happy to fill in theoretically uh any gaps between now and then but my schedule like these ones work with my schedule so I just need to some some many of the ones I can't do so I can't totally fill in but I'm happy to do that largely so I'm gonna I'm gonna jump to Malik because you don't have any on here yet so I want to give you you know what what strikes your fancy [Music] button now it's on you might just want to get closer yeah this is the part I was most nervous about by the way um I would love to jump into your Dei seat if you are
112ready to it's all yours awesome thank you and I'm also interested in the facilities and operations okay great Maura I uh uh facilities and operations and Dei Maura you look like you're gonna put your hand up for something I saw it I was I was going to put my hand up for negotiations but I don't want to deny anyone any opportunities so I'll just say I'll serve on anything I'm not I prefer not to do region 10 just because I'm already doing msba but I can add another committee depending on other people's preferences okay what are we thinking Kelly I have a pretty Limited schedule because I often taking care of my kids with no support so I am I'm thinking facilities and operations is one that would fit into my schedule and I would
113also like to know when the um strategic Communications meetings meet they're generally during the day in the morning so I could pick up that one also all right so I'm just negotiations are in region 10 are the two that we need to make sure we fail um I'm going to start with candy are you okay staying on region 10 okay I did speak with Jen galletta she's good she politely declined um so we do need another we either need another board member or we need to seek out another Community member because that is the one where we can as long as we have one board member our second seat could be a Community member um so what are you thinking Danielle I was looking to see when they meet because of my schedule um I
114I am interested in the curriculum one for sure [Laughter] um the problem is the Mondays because for region 10. that's my call schedule yeah yeah what about negotiations do you have a date we don't like we set the schedule we try to set it like a couple of months out worth of meetings I'm in and it was for last year and can I ask on the curriculum instead of 2 30 could we do like 3 30 okay I'll make it um okay so you said one o'clock on Tuesdays oh okay but I'll know the dates ahead of time right got it okay I'm I'm in curriculum and negotiations curriculum yes yep I got her down so um so all right so what I'm seeing is we still have one negotiation spot which Maura said she
115she might be willing to take um we still so policy we're good Finance anyone interested in in finance thank you I know here's the keys good luck um okay uh strategic Communications candy Cara and Kelly that's fun um uh RSU 5's gone so region tense we have candy anyone else I'm happy to step in on region 10. thank you Colin I think you're gonna really like it everyone who does it really enjoys it so especially Jen galletto she did actually she really did enjoy it um so Dropout prevention this is one where we have to have somebody but it's a it's a pretty once a year I'm happy to go back on it because I've been on it before and I really um enjoyed it and it's not it doesn't it works for my schedule
116so unless there's somebody else that's really interested then I can do it just one oh so it's very different than okay all right sign me up sign me up all right so Dropout prevention good stipend committee review Beth here on that already are you still good with that I'm uh that one what's the what's the lift on that one because you guys did all the work like it already it we met if something comes up but it doesn't there isn't anything that's on the work all the time right yeah now I just want to point out that a couple years ago we were meeting pretty regularly because we did like a five-year review so that's probably coming up in the next couple years just just for everybody's so I'm gonna do it this year so
117I don't have to do it next year all right so um anyone interested in joining the stipend Review Committee as needed you go without care all right uh we're gonna leave Freeport cable TV and Susanna's capable hands until we figure out what's going on there we'll figure that one out in November um Wellness Kelly is that still work for you all right um sustainability no Dei so we have Colin we have Malik that's great so facilities and operations we still have one spot there because I have Kelly and Malik in there we have one more spot I'm kind of interested in that one but you want that one more this is exactly what Kelly said though as long as they don't have the same members as Finance you're like oh um that's all right we'll
118figure it out I can be in two places at once um but does everyone else does everyone else feel like they have an adequate you know I feel like everyone has at least two committees yeah Susanna just a quick question on the facilities um does it make sense to have either Colin or me there as sort of from ability to sort of like look at that link because it would be good to figure out how we're gonna develop that link yeah I don't know um or can one of us be part of the first meeting with Beyond just being a bystander and actually talk about how we want to develop this relationship yeah I mean you know the committee committee chair can recognize whoever they want at the meeting yeah to speak so um yeah
119no it and if you want to be on that one until November and I mean I don't know maybe it'll meet once before then in October Maybe so um if you want to do that one and then we can pick it up from there okay I am actually gonna be away for like a week in October you know it's half of October so do we know which week do we know the date I don't I don't have the date in front of me yet oh it would be the first board meeting because it's right before the board meeting it's at five o'clock okay I could do that okay thank you I'm very certain I can do that okay I mean maybe I'll also just plan on being at that meeting as well but not on
120it yeah so I don't need to actually make sure we'd have an agenda item that we taught we have a conversation about what that carrier works okay then that's mostly what I'd be interested in so I don't need to if Michelle if you want to take it now or more and then I can just show up or call and then I can just show up um what do you want to do Mark you want it I'd rather you take negotiations oh well I was gonna say I was gonna thank Danielle for volunteering and say like because we only need two people minimum right on negotiations or do we have to have three I mean a three is better um for for usually for support staff we have two for professional contract we do three okay
121um but all right you had to pick one I would I'd rather have you on that one okay I'll do it all right I'm just marking people off okay all right so I'm gonna run down these um so uh Cynthia can see what we have so negotiations for the professional contract is Danielle Mara and myself uh support contract is candy and Maddie we'll keep you on that one for now um for policy it's candy Cara and Colin for finance it's Mara Beth and myself for strategic Communications it's candy Cara and Kelly we are striking number five the RSU 5 Community programs advisory committee for region 10 is candy and Colin for Dropout prevention committee boost it's Beth for stipend Review Committee it's Kara and Beth for Freeport cable TV board it's Susana we are striking
122the fpac advisory committee and the Safety Committee for wellness committee it's Kelly for we are striking the sustainability committee for um Dei I have Colin and Malik for facilities and operations the new one we have Malik Kelly and myself and for curriculum we have Danielle and Candy does that sound right everybody hear what they thought they were going to hear got it all Cynthia okay so do I have a motion for consideration and approval to add delete and consolidate the committees as just represented and make annual appointments uh Beth Maddie there's my motion all those in favor not a post great thank you all right so uh 12d the board self-evaluation we did not get this to on our agenda all right take care Tegan um we did not get to this on our our
123Retreat um but you do have it in your packages I'm going to find my old notes because I took notes on there so thank you to everyone who took the time to um to complete the board self-evaluation we've had this one in place for I don't know four or five years now we tried to consolidate it from a very very cumbersome old evaluation that had like 612 things that you had to score it was ridiculous um so this one is really more related to the boards the board's activities the boards operations how do we work overall um so one of the things I was as I looked as I looked through um as I looked through the the comments and the the scores it's a one to four rubric similar to all of our our
124evaluations that we use in the district um you know that the ones that always pop out to me are ones that are below three So Below um you know what what we'd expect to be meeting the standard and the good news is is we didn't have all that many of those um MO two of the two of the three that were below three were in um the standard three which was Communications and community relations so one was the board works with the superintendent to gain input from the community using forums surveys and other vehicles following agreed upon procedures this one was just a hair below three so it's pretty it's pretty close to anpar but I did just want to raise it to see if there were any folks had any thoughts on you know
125are there ways that we could be gaining input um other vehicles we should be considering around that or is this something that we you know want to task our strategic Communications committee with trying to to brainstorm around okay are we not letting Kara speak did you guys hold the executive decision over there I guess I have to hold it while I talk I'll do that um so when I joined the Strategic Communications committee last fall I expected that to be in goal of and an activity for us was to really evaluate that and that isn't exactly what we did so I do hope that's something we can tackle this year is to really dive deeper into that particular piece and how we can better engage the community and get their feedback and I would love
126to hear ideas from board members and community members yeah remember this being a really hot topic uh was prior to the Strategic plan the Strategic plan that we're currently looking using um and so I know that that idea the idea of doing that again soon is has been raised and so I think now is the right time to really be looking at that because if we're going to do a new strategic plan we need and want Community input and I remember being part of that process we had facilitated meetings in this room and there were kind of okay attended some better than others but it was it was really great to have that Community engagement so I I do hope that that will be a focus of that of that committee this year good any
127other thoughts on that one yeah yeah I think I realized for that one that I I just don't know what our mechanisms are um and so therefore I also don't know how we are using those mechanisms to work with the superintendent to do those things so I think that um uh I don't know like I think maybe um identifying a Time sometime uh maybe this fall or early winter where we could kind of identify like what are what are the mechanisms that we have to um those strategic communication seems to be one would be one mechanism where the board through our Representatives is working um uh the sustainability committee would be it would have been another right the DI committee certainly is one um but I'm not sure actually whether many of the board members
128know uh very much about the those two mechanisms right about how the how with the Dei or this or the old sustainability committee we actually did really work with the with community members so I don't know I think like it seems like a a concrete takeaway from that one would just be identifying a point in time where we discuss what those mechanisms are we review them and figure out if they're sufficient yeah um I agree with that I think you know the Strategic Communications committee could could kind of you know consolidate how we're engaging right as you're thinking about other ways like you start with what's the current state right um and in your report out to the full board that could be part of that report out is is you know hey the you
129know these are these are committee minutes this is what we've identified as you know the ways that we're currently engaging do we see any gaping holes any opportunities the other thing that I would like to see us do this year um and it's not necessarily on the work plan but in the board updates um I mean we do a really good job around policy finance and strategic Communications but we don't identity we we offer people the opportunity if you represent on a different board to provide an update but maybe what we want to make sure we're doing is at least once a year or twice a year put the name of each Committee in in there so that we are we are forcing ourselves to provide an update on what that committee's doing right like
130Dei is a great example like I'm not sure what they've been doing since we finished the the equity audit and those sort of things and I'm sure there there's great work being done so um you know maybe maybe uh Gene and I can work with Ginny to make sure that on each agenda there is a committee that's reporting out on what they're doing and we'll try to time it to make it most effective and appropriate but to make sure we're hearing from all those committees all right um the other one under Communications and community relations every year 3E the board is an advocate for the district's interests with legislators and other elected officials this seems like it's always one that we're like yeah we want to do this but no one has the bandwidth to
131to tackle except Maura and I just added negotiations to her table so um um so we do get regular updates so for example uh next year the legislative session will start in January and it'll go through April so that's like the only part of the Year where I could potentially be updating you and we get and I'm sure Gene also through the Superintendent's Association we we do get regular updates about legislation I can just forward those to the board I mean they're on the MSB msba website and what happens is I go to an msba meeting once a month and we have a lobbyist who lobbies on behalf of msba and then I think is there a separate one that lobbies I yes then it's Eileen King lobbies on behalf of Ms essay and we
132each have our own we might have slightly different positions on bills but um the resolutions that we pass like the ones that will vote on this fall drive those positions and so our lobbyist will is always at the meetings during legislative session giving us as a board updates on the bills and um she usually goes through them all and it's a lot so I mean I can do whatever the pleasure of the board is but I mean I can share more of that information with you I know there was one instance where I shared information and we ended up not doing anything which is fine too um if there are issues of particular interest as well I could also flag those if folks have other thoughts and ideas but I do I am tuned in
133or keyed into that just because of I go to those meetings and um yeah yeah and I think I think we've done you've done I'm not going to take any credit you have done a much better job of keeping us more up to date on what's Happening um and uh and also through the superintendence updates sometimes we'll see something come out through there I think what we haven't historically done is the the advocating piece right do we ever want to um you know have a statement do we ever want to make a testimony at a bill um you know is that something that's important to this board that we feel like we should be doing and if so how do we accomplish that I don't have historical data on this question but um anecdotally I
134feel like during covid we probably scored higher on this because we are Performing Arts teachers we're really involved with the state around how to do music instruction during covid and then our superintendent was also I think the only superintendent representative of an Arts committee at the state level so I'm thinking about what Gene shared in her update about being part of that group advising at the state level around new mainers um and so that to me represents I mean it's not legislative necessarily but it is an opportunity for advocacy and for her to report to to this group in this group to provide feedback um so that that seems like an exciting opportunity just wanted to say that and um just on that note before I forget they are doing a similar meeting for board
135chairs for that same group of that cohort of schools so South Portland Westbrook rsu5 Yarmouth Brunswick Lewiston Biddeford um and that is the 20th of this month so um so I will report out on that but if anybody has any thoughts or ideas they want me to bring to that I'm happy to so just let me know um yes um I don't know if folks feel like this would meet would fulfill this but could we have a meeting like once a year with uh could we have a meeting once a year with our Senator like our Senator and our representative and invite them to come and just talk with them about our interests and the issues that we think are important and I mean that's one way of advocacy it doesn't have to be necessarily
136on specific bills so one thought is we could ask them what the issues are and then tell them our positions on those issues or we could decide to Advocate on certain specific bills but there's also an opportunity if something's important to have them put forward a bill or to advocate for something in particular but maybe we could fulfill this just by inviting them to one board meeting once a year I don't know if that would be folks think that would be enough how many cover the whole District oh that's right we have uh because because Durham is in yeah you're right we have multiple yeah panel in Durham yeah I mean it doesn't mean we couldn't do it I I do think we might have yeah two senators and um two or three Representatives yeah
137I know there's some like overlap some of it's like tunnel and Durham maybe parts of Durham yeah I guess the thought of inviting inviting them to the board meeting that you know that tend to run long that that's that sounds like a lot but there could be an Outreach you know perhaps we could request that they email us email the board you know twice a year or just just keep the district involved you know here are the things that we think that are happening that are that are important for you to weigh in on Colin um yeah I think I think that's a really nice idea I think I guess I go again to this I guess like the word mechanism like what are the mechanisms that we have or that we should be using
138and is there one that we are not doing so for example yeah like as as Mara was suggesting is the if we have if we hear from the we hear from our elected officials and then we share some of our ideas with them does that effectively fulfill that or are we looking for um is there another mechanism which is I think maybe we discussed last year is that we we compose a uh whether it's a press release or a letter you know as a board um and then release it um is that something we should do or want to do I guess again I think part of I think part of what we when we come around to evaluating that one I think it may just be also partially a matter of like just not
139knowing What mechanisms we're talking about or thinking about or remembering um how that so I don't know that's my that's also my sort of gut sense of that one so again if we just have some clarity for ourselves of like oh right we have four different ways we we do that and I said four as I held up three fingers great it's getting late um and maybe this is a question that Maura can ask Steve Bailey Maybe is like are there districts who would do a really good job of this and how are they doing it right I do think they probably have a committee not that we want to add more committees we just strike four and attitude so we're net down two which is good but I don't know if we want to
140necessarily fill them um but you know to to Colin's point of the mechanism you know is it we we try not to draft things as as 11 people right editing 11 people's worth of thoughts it would be a lot and probably Insanity so um seems like it would probably have to if we wanted to do something like that it would have to be through a committee um so just just an idea um just wanted to raise it because it did that was our lowest um score of the nine um seven of us gave it to you on that so that was that was really the the only one that had a really consistent below three um rating on that I think part of it is we're not even sure what the mechanisms are so um
141the other one uh the score wasn't particularly um wasn't particularly low but the comments struck a chord because it's one we've seen through the years that we haven't really done a great job of of nailing down and that's around the mentorship of new board members and um and maybe setting up some kind of more formal process with um you know other board members that have been on it for a couple of years you know to to try and to try and um acquaint people with with the procedures the policies I mean we do the orientation for every new board member um which is kind of like drinking from a fire hose I would imagine um but you know is there a better system in place and and I don't know I always go back for
142I always go back to when my kids go this is the Exemplar like what what what could we be doing how could we be doing it better um I don't know if people have been on other boards where they've had kind of that new member Mentor program um you know we've gone back and forth between assigning a mentor and then we've got Fallen back to the vice chairs everybody's Mentor which is great that's fantastic but there's a lot of people um so you know I'm open to thoughts on you know particularly from new members like what would what would be helpful to you like what what do you feel like you don't know yet that you know some of it you just have to you don't know until you get there but you know is
143there other things we could be doing for newer board members sorry I'm looking at you too yes um I do think having a mentorship some sort of mentorship would be really helpful it's like how's this it's on I'll just talk really loud um so I I do think having a mentorship program would be really helpful um I think what do I know right now almost nothing um and it would be great to have like a point person I've had a couple people kind of reach out to me which has been really really helpful but it would be nice kind of to maybe have a little more formalized process Dania I agree because I feel like I'm asking different people different questions because I think of something and then I don't want to bother people so
144then I don't know when to ask the question um but I think that would be nice just to be able to run questions that come up about meetings or emails that we get and stuff like that Kelly yeah in in the beginning I tried to reach out to a number of people and they were really helpful in getting me up to speed but I sometimes wonder if I'm just not I don't know what to ask I don't know what I don't know and so it would be really nice if there was some formal process by which somebody who's more experienced could say hey I just thought of this and you really should know this and there was a process by which to reach out for that yeah I was I was lucky because you know
145um I kind of got recruited by someone who then went for walks with me pretty regularly and then I you know I tried to sort of replicate that with with people that I knew so it happened kind of naturally I think to ask one person to be a everyone's Mentor doesn't work because mentoring is something that it does have to have an element where there's some Rapport I do think perhaps the vice chair or or an appointed person could be the person who coordinates that you know gets in touch with everybody who's new and says hey just off the top of your head tell me two to three members of the board that you think you might resonate with the most and I'll try to get that set up for you um and I I
146think it's really important because this job is really unique um and it's something that you don't really understand until you're in it and even people when they're running for it they think they get it and you don't and you don't even sometimes get it for a year or two it's it's really unique and um we're so lucky right now to have a really connected collaborative board um and I think that mentoring that on purpose connection will will help that continue and and help continue the spirit of respectful dialogue that this board is able to have all right so um we'll do a little bit of research on how you know what it might look like how we can put some some infrastructure in place around that to make sure it's happening right we know we
147have some new newer board members we know we're going to have two brand new Ward members in November um so are you volunteering to be a mentor oh you don't have to be on the board that's okay I'm just going to I'm a mentor for the scholarship committee right we all the the job is I connect with that person once a month and we usually talk on the phone for half an hour to an hour but I mean if there's a point person whether it's Beth or someone else who just who ensures that people are paired that that happens and then the mentor well the both of them you're both responsible for connecting at least once a month I would say more if if needed that I think it can be that simple and it's
148best if it's that simple all right I would just I would just agree and I think that also I think creating a culture where everyone who's on the board understands that that is part of their um their obligation is to um to be a mentor and have it be on a on sort of a rotating you know sort of a a sense you know again that would be where I think whether it was it seems like Beth's a great person and I think would really be just the perfect person for this particular uh per job to coordinate it uh but just sort of to have an understanding of like all right like it's not that you know uh that Kara is going to be tagged every single time time to be the mentor for whatever
149somebody's new there's sort of a sense of like no like all right Cara Cara was on the last one and now it's Danielle's turn and then Susanna because she's back on the board and then you know like so just again just sort of that is of the culture and we have that culture and we kind of know like oh I haven't mentored for a while so I would then you know remember that yes I should be open to that one Beth calls me you're getting the first call Colin all right um okay um other other things that jumped out to folks as they looked through anything oh I will put um in the four standard four around fiscal resources staff recruitment environment if you're looking at the comments and you're like well that kind of
150looks like mine but I wrote some other things we did redact some stuff there were some names in there so because it's public we took some names out um but we kept the spirit of the comment so hopefully folks are okay with that um what's that 4C yeah so that one was below two and that was just a hair also um and that was the facilities plan to meet student staff health and regulations and guidelines I think part of that is about the the splitting of the positions the turnover we had last year in those positions um and I'm I'm hopeful and optimistic that with Glenn working to sort of rebuild that plan with the new facilities committee I think all those things will help drive up those scores going forward and the other General
151thoughts on the on the evaluation when you read through anything that surprised you any wondering says Cynthia would say no everybody's good all right so we will move on to the Strategic plan okay there are several documents that go with that so I'll I'll walk you through what they are and then we'll we'll focus on one so the first one on the with um that says uh strategic plan goals that is you know that is the Thousand Foot look of your goals under the headings of climate culture teaching and learning school community relations finance and operations so though that's the the um the broad look at it and when you go to the next piece of information in your packet that's where it gets more specific so that's where those goals and those those objectives
152are put in with some really specific action strategies it's this big thick one that you see here that's color coded and you may notice that some things are in green if it's in green there's documentation over the years that it is satisfied and if it's yellow that's what we're recommending on looking at this year and we'll go over what those things are and I'll remind everyone that when we look at some we've had this conversation before that we may say we've met a particular goal is for the purpose of the Strategic plan but for example for example there's some some um some goals about diversity equity and inclusion practices that is colored green it doesn't mean we say we're done with that forever we've met it we're never going to address it again but just
153for the purpose of what the board decided to do for the plan the next piece of paper which is color coded that's my cheat sheet to see what we've actually accomplished over you've accomplished over the years and then yellow again what we'd like to focus in on this year the next start we have a lot we unfortunately we were not very sustainable we got rid of a lot of trees I'm very sorry um for this one but that is your sort of the broad look when you first started having documentation of completing some of these things the recommendation is what we're going to get into the actual goals that's actually 12 f and what we we met with our administrative team and we said what can we really accomplish this year because you're we've we've
154really outlived the plan there was some some pauses to your plan because of coveted there were some things you just couldn't do so things kept getting bumped out on what I'm recommending is that we we do a subset of of these goals that's on section 12 F that I'll talk about in a minute and that we really engage our communities in the strategic planning process and develop some new really measurable goals that would be my recommendation for that but for what to accomplish this year if you want to look at 12f what we really looked at is looking at um strategic objective one one strengthen and align social emotional supports and systems to meet the needs of Learners and that's where we're looking really looking at some evaluation because there's been have been some things
155that have been put in place and we want to see if we put something in place we want to see does it really work or do we need to adjust it and there's you know several things that have been put in place already in the district and we look at objective 1-3 and we're really talking about physical movement and adequate breaks and that's why we really want our team to explore and research what really are those best practices that other schools are using with similar grades span because we know what that might look like for a kindergartner might be very different than what it looks like for a senior in high school or not for us as adults it could be too it could be moving on to the to page four that's still looking
156at physical movement and breaks and that's what we want to really look at identify in our schools are there areas of needs of improvements or needs for additional breaks and then when you move to page five that's the next action strategy then we make some recommendations with stakeholder input and certainly look at how can we improve that practice there and also we're talking about how do we share with colleagues at similar grade levels at different schools within the district and what are what things that are working really well moving on to goal two that's when we're where students are regularly engaging in meaningful student-centered learning that's where we're really looking at um our team will be looking at those student-centered instructional practices and really looking at what are those things that work really well in
157schools in Maine or even Beyond and then to evaluate on page seven evaluate those options and make some recommendations and create a plan of what that might look like to incorporate some of those things and then when you move to page eight that's where we'll actually be able to implement some of the recommendations so if you know we look we see you know something looks like it really works elsewhere then we'll we'll have our schools Implement that and then it is kind of it's funny you have that Flex so continue we want to just make sure we continue expand expanding those student-centered practices um and also evaluate again always evaluating the effectiveness because we want to make sure we're putting something in place it's doing what we wanted to do and if not revise onto
158your goal three which is all rsu5 student parent Community Partnerships are based on strong communication and active involvement to support Student Success and there's some things that have already been put in place that are what we reported out on last year and again we want to evaluate do they really work and and then if they don't let's make some adjustments three a goal um three three then we're again we're looking for more um encouraging that strong staff parent partnership that we if we find something that we um think we can do better we want to implement those recommendations when you get on to goal four that's on page 13 that's where our goal is that RSU 5 has well developed and refined Finance facilities transportation and Food Service systems to support the learning of all
159students they're looking at explore and evaluate options for improve improving communication regarding Financial Planning in the district that's something Kelly's going to take on with input from the finance committee because on the next page you look on page 14 she might make some recommendations for how we improve that planning the page 15 that's where the energy audit conduct a full energy audit I know we had some conversations last year about that there was some some talk about it but it actually did not get completed and Glenn's going to be looking to have that done and that will that audit will help be part of the full Capital Improvement plan for the district as well as he will develop and present recommendations not just to the facilities committee but certainly to the full board we believe
160these are things that we can accomplish this year and with a recommendation that there will be some things in white we might not get to but we've really there's been an awful lot of wonderful work done in the district over the years for this strategic plan but it's it's time to re-look it again in what a wonderful way to certainly engage our communities that's our recommendation so I was really glad to see the one three items get on there um the the physical movement breaks that was a big one that we heard from the community when when we did the Strategic plan Outreach like it came up again and again so I was really glad to see sort of that moving forward I know that was one of the ones that kind of got put
161on pause because you know our where we were starting was hey we want to go see how everybody else is doing it and nobody would let us in so um because nobody was there so I'm really I was really excited to see that on there my concern um from these is as you know it's it's always that Balancing Act of making sure we're making progress and not biting off more than we can chew because we know there's a lot in the day-to-day um 2.1 I'm not sure how we're going to explore practices in Main and Beyond evaluate the options implement the options expand the options and evaluate the effectiveness between now and may it seems a little overly ambitious I mean I'm not even sure how you can Implement by May to evaluate the effectiveness
162but you know what I mean um I don't know if it was just a goal to get this whole one done um or and I think that that's a wonderful point that was the conversation we had at the administrative team and they would be very happy to do less on this one they what they were trying to do is as much as we could on the Strategic plan but I think um to cut some of those down they would be they would be very very much in favor of doing so I mean you know I guess I would look to you to say what what's actually doable like we don't want to set expectation we want people to be working towards these things and striving but we don't want to set expectations that nobody thinks
163they can meet right because that just doesn't help morale and I think too I mean they certainly could explore and evaluate some options but I would I would be in favor of striking um two one e two one F and 2 1G all right my compromise was I would like to see maybe some implementation this year but I don't know it's up to like you tell me like is you know I don't know how long the the exploring and evaluating the options takes right is that a month is that a six month I don't know it depends and I think certainly we could we we might be able to implement some of those things we could keep that in there um which I think we would anyway anytime we whether it's here or not we
164know something's going to work we do it yeah but if we took f and g away that would be more doable yeah yeah because that's one that I remember similar to physical movement that was also a huge Community input I mean we have a we have a Waldorf School in our community we've got a lot of students in our schools who who started there so that student-centered piece and that physical movement piece are I think they're going to come up again and again so um yeah I don't want to give you more than you than to bite off and you can chew but I really would hate to see that lost especially as we're considering moving to a new strategic plan because I think this that's a high value in our communities I agree yeah
165just not sure we're gonna get to evaluating the you know the effectiveness yet okay um I think I have a different microphone than everyone else I'm noticing you have the new one which is actually a better one but I'm not sure why you have to hold the button that wasn't the case last year um can you clarify when this strategic plan ends again because there's one document that says 2026 and another that says 2025. so I think it's 2026 because 2025 was the original date before the pushback from covid because we said you know like we kind of had to pause everything um so I think that was going from memory here um that's my guess okay and then my other question is when when I was reviewing the Strategic plan support document um I
166saw a lot of I was looking at the progress indicators and I was really curious what the written recommendations were what the reports were and I'm wondering if it's possible to have those Linked In This it sounds it seems like a lot of work here's the tricky part because that's that is great feedback and I think when we have a new strategic plan we're going to do things a little bit differently um but over the course of the years has been done through a superintendent's report so I have last year what what my report that I that I can re-share but I don't have a it would be digging through things and creating new documents from the superintendents report to see what was actually linked to the to those areas but I think that's great
167feedback and I think absolutely going forward we it would be great to have sort of this Archive of this is how we said we met it yeah could that happen going forward as of now or does it need to wait until the next strategic plan it's my report so so for anything new things like the what we're doing right here we can do that I can perform and I can also I can resend um what I share because another board member asked me that and I can resend mine from last year so you can have that too and it is it identifies what what it was we met okay excellent thank you thinking about objective three uh 3.1 where we're talking about expanding Avenues used to proactively distribute information about the schools and seeking feedback
168from stakeholders this came up earlier of 3.1 D develop and Implement a plan to improve parent and Community communication including feedback from all stakeholders I would love to see that plan what that looks like I don't remember seeing it and maybe I just didn't see it but it looks like that should have been completed in December 2022 um and that written recommendations to the board from the communications committee would have happened then and I don't remember that so any documentation I have I'll I'll certainly I can I'll share that with all the board as well whatever I shared from the from my time here that I can easily do okay great and one last thing so in terms of the next strategic plan and maybe you said this already and I apologize but can you
169walk us through when that process will start and what that would look like well it takes a lot of planning first of all and certainly if we when I would recommend that we engage someone to to Shepherd us through that process and that's also a budgetary concern because you have to have money to hire a firm to do that and I think that's where um we can start at the the Strategic Communications Community say what are those steps we need to do to make this work and what might that look like but realistically it wouldn't happen until that part till next school year Maura thank you so much for this Gene and to our administrators um I think it's great I do have one concern and that's around 4.1 which I know is green and
170I know we've completed the action steps that were in it originally and I know this would be part of a new strategic plan to take a look at our facilities and how they're meeting the needs of our students but I think my concern is that we already I think can foresee a future where that potentially won't be the case where we don't have the capacity to have students in our schools so um I guess I would be interested in moving forward with addressing that step as opposed to waiting for us to go through that process and waiting a couple of years to develop a strategic plan when maybe we could have some sort of actionable goals because what's on here now I mean I can see we did it in that's that's the challenge of
171a strategic plan right we did things that addressed it that happened in the past and now there's probably you know there's new things that we need to do that will be part of the next strategic plan but I'm just concerned about putting those things off um until we have an opportunity to develop the new plan and just wanted to voice that I think that's a great role of the facilities and operations committee I think that's one of the reasons we want to put this in place to very much have these conversations and I'm sure when we do our new strategic plan that will there's my experience and there's facilities is always a goal of some some sort but I think you're right we don't want to wait and that's something the facilities committee needs to
172look at so it might happen that there's that they come back with action items that aren't current okay great thank you um I would just love to go back to the um the was it 2.1 e we were or 2.1 we were condensing right um I guess I would just be in favor of I think there was a uh I felt like there was a little it was a little gray what we decided about 2.1 e um and I guess I would recommend that we not rush that implementation um because I think that hat I think we've seen some instances where that has occurred and when that is sort of a spring goal and sort of like we really want to reach that and check it off so I I guess I would just be
173in support of ignan again I think there's low hanging fruit to implement than we implement it but I think that setting it as a goal for the following year and really be really clear with ourselves about what you know what came out of 2.1 D what are the options the recommendations in the plan that have been recommended to the superintendent in writing we know what that is in the beginning of the year with a sense of like that's what we're going into and so we're very clear about how we're implementing that and the timeline for implementing and we're not trying to do it in like the first two weeks of June thoughts on that I think that's really wise I I'm thinking if I were a teacher to have to shift mid-year in my in
174my approach to teaching might be a real Challenge and having some time over the summer to retrain or change strategies might make a lot more sense than trying to do it whip saw at the end of the year just don't check the box so I think Colin that's a really wise thought I like that summer time to kind of readdress and rethink it so C and D will leave on there so explore others practices in Maine and Beyond evaluate options make recommendations create a plan and that can be done this this school year with e f and g to come because I think you know EF and G could be in the same year if you weren't trying to figure out what that plan was in the same right so if you have the plan
175this year then you can roll it out next year and next spring you could be like okay how do we do I mean that I think that that's makes sense any other excuse me questions comments on the goals um okay well if we don't then we do generally take a motion to approve these as amended um for for 2.1 so do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the RSU five district goals for 2023 2024 Susanna Danielle thank you all those in favor great not a post all right new business none Personnel none we are back to public comment um do we still have some folks okay all right Claire Ross thank you for sticking around [Music] where we'd all like to be I'm not much of a public speaker but I've lived
176in Freeport a number of years ago and I now live in Durham so um and I'm a health care provider so first of all I just wanted to say thank you oh this is better better I need all the coaches I can give thank you but I want to thank you for the difficult work you do it's complicated your environment is extremely complex as it is in medicine and it's it's not easy so I just want to say I recognize that I was doing some active listening when I was home listening to the earlier comments and I wanted to I noticed several separate concerns and I jotted this down because I'm not going to remember everything but in my work as a healthcare provider one of the most important things I do is to listen
177carefully to each person it's really crucial to my practice that's how I obtain buy-in with a patient to really adopt their plan or move forward with something positive to create a better outcome so um I believe from what I heard tonight that it's really important to be clear on the separate concerns that I heard and I certainly felt people talking from their heart um but it appeared that all present share concerns about the welfare students number one I didn't see that there was any wiggle room with that I heard a request for one more policy committee meeting before the first reading of the AC Triple A proposed policy I heard parents universally concerned for the welfare of their children regardless of whether it sounded positive or or negative towards the policy I that's the underlying
178framework I think that we're working with and I think that's where we can gain some strength I heard parents who are very concerned about losing access to their students educational experience and they express strong feelings that they didn't want to be omitted from proportions of their students progress especially if the student expresses interest in the transgender exploration um but in summary no person who spoke indicated any intent other than to support the students the distinctly strongly ex was the distinction that was strongly expressed tonight is not against the policy particularly but specifically that parents should not be excluded from their students experience and I don't think anybody's necessarily intending that and I think we're again we're in the complex environment a complex issue um so it strikes me that a reasonable approach might be to
179have that single additional requested meeting of the policy committee I'm not sure about that but it seemed like a reasonable um thought the additional time spent in one policy committee meeting might go a long way to coalesce some broader support for the proposed policy maybe wiser to pause for a second and do that and rather than Rush forward with another implementation and and to kind of pull people together a little better that's all thank you so much thank you Claire all right um all right so uh item 16 do I have a motion for consideration and approval to enter into executive session as outlined in one MRSA section 4056a for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's evaluation through the first 11 days of school no I'm just kidding um Mara and Beth thank you all
180those in favor okay not opposed thank you all