4/14/25 School Board Meeting

001If we could stand and do the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy and justice for all. Thanks. And our mission, our mission is creating a better future, one student at a time. And public comment. Did anybody sign up for public comment? I think DRC did, but she's during budget, right? But you you said budget so later on. Thank you. [Music] Yes. So we will have that um second opportunity for public comment um later in the the meeting after Amy's done budget presentation. Then we'll have an opportunity for anybody that would like to make public comment and then the board will have their discussion and take any action if they choose to do that. So we will start with our recognitions and we want to start by

002thanking our deans and princip and assistant principles as it is national assistant principles and dean of students week. So, thank you to Cat and at PRHS, to Amy at ESS, to Danell at um Poland and Kelly and Kayla. So, thank you very much. We appreciate it. I want to thank you for all the support you provide for our students, for our staff, and for our families. Congratulations to Jacob Jam Mo, the runner up in the state foul shooting contest, making 47 out of 50 shots, which is 94% accuracy. Class of 2025 Western Main Conference Citizenship Award winners, Autumn D'Amelia and Olivia Austin. And we want to congratulate Don King, who's over there, ignoring you, ignoring us. And those congratulations come along with some state recognition from the main intercolastic athletic administrators association where he has

003received the Martin E. Ryan award for excellence. So, Don, congratulations on that state recognition. Well [Applause] [Music] [Applause] deserved. Mabel Tyler for the main principles association principles award for academic excellence and citizenship. And uh Elm Street School is being recognized as the 2025 Maine Environmental Education Association School of the Year Award. Uh the school of year award is um designed to recognize an outstanding public or private school that demonstrates an ongoing commitment to delivering environmental education that involves most staff, reaches a majority of students, and takes place year round. So we want to congratulate Elm Street School and their get everyone outside team. So congratulations. The Sunjournal Winter Allconerence teams, boys basketball, Damon Martin, a junior. Girls basketball, Charlotte Grineer, a sophomore. Indoor track, Alyssa Mason, a freshman. Boys ice hockey, Breck Langan, a senior.

004Girls ice hockey, Paige Feto, a freshman, Lexi Langan, a freshman. Adeline Martin, a freshman, and swim, Cameron Lemieux, a senior. Alpine Ski, Dylan Cobb, a sophomore. And we'd like to say thank you to our school bus and van drivers, our transportation monitors, our bus mechanics, and we want them to enjoy their appreciation day, which is April 16th. We appreciate all they do. We would like to recognize Juliet Zantier and Annabelle Whitten, which were represented um in the state house with Whittier Middle School in the girls day. Congratulations to them. and we are for our first presentation. Emma's going to help us out with that if you want to do the introduction to that. Um, recently your regional LRTC winners who placed either first or second in their local competition uh went up to Bangor for

005a night where we got to go bowling. We got to have a competition. We had to see the opening ceremony. It was a really great experience um in which we do have a group of 13 students that won at the state level gold medals and will be going to nationals in Georgia. Um five of them are polling students I believe five out of 13. And to add on to that, so at my LRTC meeting with the the sending schools is the multimedia team that the students put together a video almost a five-minute video of capturing the skills USA. And and having never attended and most of the superintendents never attending, we were like, "Wow." And so we're all like, "We need a copy of this to be able to share with our board." So you

006can actually see it's like the Olympics. Like, and you'll get to see Emma. Have you seen this yet? Cuz I spy you a couple of times in here. [Music] Looks like we got a little buffering going on. Must be the heat. Getting it all worked bugs out for uh the math presentation later on. Where are they all heading, Emma? What are we watching? We were just heading up to Bangor to our hotel. Uh some people had competitions Thursday, but most people had their competitions Friday. So, Thursday, we arrived at the hotel, changed into our competition uniforms, had our opening ceremony, and then headed there. They provided us dinner. We had our ceremony, headed back to the hotel, had our night, and then Friday morning, people were up at 4:00, 5, 6, 7, 8, out in

007buses and out for the competition. And we arrived back around 10:00. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] But people [Music] I'm going [Music] after I'm going after [Music] back again. Let's begin. [Music] And it [Music] is USA board recognizes the cooperative relationships that have been established over the years between local school administrators and scales USA chapters. The success of each chapter is reliant on the collective efforts of many dedicated school administrators who have unselfishly committed their professional and civic talents in support of our students. The first awardee has transformed their technical center to a beacon of excellence in career technical education. His leadership style characterized by compassion, integrity, and competence has inspired both students and staff. His enthusiasm for skills USA is truly remarkable. He has made it mandatory for every student to participate in either a technical

008or leadership competition with many students competing in multiple events. This initiative has broadened our students horizons but also significantly boosted their self-esteem in a technical skills. Please join me in bringing to the stage and congratulating March 1st 2025 cornerstone award winner Mr. Robert Cal. [Applause] [Music] fun. Funday. [Music] Turn it down. [Music] I'm not [Music] region. Please welcome your state region vice president. [Music] together. [Music] It's the fire. [Music] Why are [Music] you still [Music] So many things. [Music] Good morning. [Music] So, the the report from Rob Callahan, who you saw received that award, he's he's in charge of our our LRTC is that 105 students and that was a record number of students oh it is there has a mind of its own now did attend um from LRTC and it was over four

009venues and that included the cross arena that that you saw there it included the United Technical Center in Bangor Eastern Main Community College and Midmain Tech so it's really spread out all of those competitions over four venues which I was like blown away with by myself and then it's like to see like what was like happening at each one of those was was just phenomenal And uh there's also the part too where Rob wanted to make sure that you knew that we did exceptional given our size and the numbers of students PRHS sent and then placed. He was generally impressed. And then we also had lots of fourth, fifth, and sixth place uh students in those competitions. And I know Emma will probably talk a little bit about fundraising has started to go to Georgia

010because our gold medal winners will be able to attend um the national conference and if gold can't attend then it'll be offered to the silvers. And Rob also uh talked about our our LRTC and specifically PRHS being cited for the sportsmanship and the social experience that you saw there too. And um next year March 12th and 13th is the Skills USA and he is going to offer uh there's going to be guest passes. So, if any of you would like to travel up for the day or two days, uh then we will have those to be able to uh be part of that experience to actually see what the competitions are like when students are are building those as well as partake in that fun uh social experience of the dancing and and recognizing each

011other. So, um I think you've got some recognition there with um the gold, silver, and um bronze medals. Okay. So from the Skills USA state conference for gold winners, Calvin Schroeder with interactive app and video multimedia, Serenity Knight video production and multimedia. Hope Lamont baking and pastry arts and culinary arts. Jenna Karen job skills demo a/c cosmetology Emma McMahon emergency medical technician EMT. Silver medalist Johnny Bazulac, plumbing. Griffin Spur, John Interview and Firefighting. Bronze winners Oliver Olsen, automotive tech and automotive service. Dylan Tero, diesel equipment technician and automotive technology. Congratulations, Emma. So, next up is planning to head to Georgia. Yes, we uh have I just filled out the form to get uh my plane tickets. We are leaving July 23rd, no June 23rd and we come back June 28th and we spend the whole

012week down in Georgia. The competitions are all spread out. There's like a fun concert event outside. They're also looking to take us to the museum and not the museum, no, the Six Flags and the aquarium. So, we are looking to fund raise money and we have events going on and donation forms to send out to businesses. So that way we can all go and travel costs are paid for and it's roughly 22,300 2,400 per student. So will you keep us informed about the I don't have I checked today on my portal and I don't have any fundraising stuff yet but I'll send it out. You got it. So is Kelvin Serenity Hope and Jenna all going too? Y thanks. So, next on our agenda is our KSIX math leadership team. And I know they've been

013working hard, and I'll just turn that over to Jill to share that with us. Yeah, I wanted to share an exciting change for our math programming for K6 learners. Uh, in the fall, we will be implementing I Ready Classroom Mathematics, and that will integrate very well with the diagnostics and the universal screeners that we currently use. And in a minute, I'm going to turn it over to JC Wells. She's a sixth grade math teacher at Minet Consolidated School, and she's been piloting the program this year, and she's going to show you some firsthand examples um in the video. And if it'll connect and you'll see that math is very different from when we were in school. You'll see that the level of rigor is very high, which is great. Um, and I could tell you

014lots more about it, but I think it's way better to see it firsthand. So, if she's able to get connected, I will let you see that firsthand in her classroom. And I'll echo what Jill just said. Um, it's been an absolute joy to to pilot this program. um between the fluency component, the problem solving skills the kids have developed, um the multi-step problems that they're solving. For instance, today we did a five-step problem to get to the solution, um and annotating problems to pull out key information. It really has been um I think it's the shift that the district needs to um to increase our our math um content knowledge. So, you see my cute sixth graders [Music] My name is Stacy Welch. I teach sixth grade math, science, and social studies at take you

015along for a day in the life of math. We always start our lesson with a warm-up problem to get the kids thinking about the concept of the day. It could be what is the same, what is different. It could be which one doesn't belong. It could be does it always make it true, sometimes or never. And in this video, you will see how students are looking at four parallelograms and explaining their reasoning for why they are the same or why they are different. You can tell me something that's the same. They really do. They all nice and are all parallelograms. You wouldn't argue this parallelogram. Let's talk about different. Who can tell me something that's different about these? Hey, next we move into the problem of the day where students work on pulling out key

016pieces of information to what the questions are asking. They then work independently before collaborating with tablemates to compare solutions to problems. It's a great way to build math discourse amongst the students. Yeah. And it's and also later says the length will be 2 ft longer than the width. So this must be the width. Which means if we go if we have how many this is we know that to add two [Music] what you think about I think it's a lot but [Music] it's things and um like how lessons there's like you do like one lesson and you get to do a test and I think the test is one of like my favorite part of it is I like doing the test like every the session sessions. How do you think you've grown with your

017math this year? Um, like how have you changed from the beginning year to now? I really struggled 1.5. Can you tell me what your thoughts are on my reg? Um, I like it because it's really made me more confident with um how I did my math. At the beginning of the year, I was like not really. [Music] What parts of I math do you really like? Um how at the beginning we have our um warmups that are usually like same and different and comparing things. I 100% support I already math as the new district curriculum to see the growth my students have made this year with it not only in their test scores but in their confidence and their ability to see themselves as mathematicians has been amazing. They are entering middle school with the

018confidence needed to be successful at the next stage in their academic careers. [Music] Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Yes, that's a firsthand look and um like I said, we're very excited about this shift and it'll be a great change for our case math learners for sure. Anybody have any questions or or comments? I have a question. Were there any other curriculums piloted or did you kind of know you wanted to do this one? Yeah, we started the year with a program called Illustrative. Um, and we used Illustrative until about December and then we had some really great training on I Ready and then we were supposed to end I Ready in March and at the math leadership meeting it was a unanimous vote that everyone was in support of moving forward with I Ready. So

019for the remainder of the year, we had the choice of either going back to everyday math, illustrative math, or I Ready. And I correct me if I'm wrong, but every grade level has chosen to stay with I Ready to to finish out the year. Any other questions, comments? Thank you both of you. All right. And Caitlyn [Music] Um, most of you know me. I'm Kayla Brown. I'm principalated school. Um, along with me, I've also brought our dean of students, Kayla. Uh who Kayla apparently I should be uh congratulating you on uh to the right appreciation week that is happening this week. I was not aware but I'll bring in the tree later on this week. Um so we just wanted to um just highlight some of the work that we've done at this year. So,

020um, in the past couple years, we've done a lot of work on identifying our core values. So, here at Minet, um, our core values that our staff have worked to, um, put together are community, compassion, and growth. And we really, um, have these guide us in all of the work that we do with students, with families, with our goals, with our hiring of new staff. Um and so for this year in particular, we have really been focusing on that growth part. Um our goals for this year as a school have all been around student growth and staff growth. Um as you know, um the last couple years we have not had any title one funding. Um I'm very excited to hear that that will change for next year. Um but with a lack of um

021additional staff to provide academic interventions for students that in need, we really this year um focused in on helping our staff to be able to have the materials and the skills that they need to be able to provide those academic interventions within the classroom setting. So, we have had an all hands on deck approach to this um including Kayla and I have been um also doing interventions throughout the year. Um if you work in the school, you are somehow attached to making this happen. So, um it's been definitely a full school initiative. The ways that we've responded is we've built systems for student supports. So, we've created the structures that we need in order to identify students that are in need of academic interventions. Um, we've really done a lot to streamline this part with

022what we do with bar. Um, so any situation that we can to make this more manageable for staff because this is really above and beyond what they do on a daily basis. Um, so we tried to do as much as we could to streamline it with things that were already in place. So we did build those systems for identifying students that needed the academic interventions. We did provide training for staff. So staff needed to be trained on the the individual in interventions that we purchased for staff to be able to use. We had to also um deliver some professional development on progress monitoring those interventions and where we're going to store those that all of that data. So there was definitely a lot of staff training that that went into make lifting this off the

023ground and making it work. Um, we worked with each grade level to identify a dedicated intervention time for their grade level and really built that into their schedule. We also provided either a staff member to support that or a staff member to be able to support within the classroom so that they deliver that. Um, what we know about interventions is we want the highest trained professional working with um, our LC students. So in many cases that was our classroom teachers. Uh but we still need someone in that classroom to support the other kids while they're doing their work as well. And then obviously a lot of a lot of um the work that we do with interventions also includes a level of documentation. We want to be able to capture any of the interventions that

024we have in place. We capture the data of where kids were when they started the intervention and then progress monitor most in most situations it's on a weekly basis to make sure that we're continuing to see growth. Um and that um documentation is really important so that we can um keep parents in the loop of of progress that their students are making. And then also if students are not making progress then that is an indication for us that we need to come back as a team and determine if a different intervention is more appropriate to continue to make their go. So to take a look at this again, our our main focus is tying it to our core value of growth. So we're going to break this down into continuous growth of students and then

025Kayla will talk about how this impacted the continuous growth of staff. So as far as our students go, here's a little bit of uh information of the numbers of for the intervention that we had going on this year. And again, this is all made possible because of that work that we did with the documentation. Um, so in literacy, we had 79 students that received a tier 2 intervention in the area of literacy. That represents about 22% of our students. In math, we had 58 students um receive tier 2 interventions. Again, that's about 16% of our students. For social emotional, we had 25 students. That's about 10% of our students. But we also in addition to that had three grade levels that um based off of some of our data, the uh school counselor decided to

026push in and do a like a tier one intervention for those three grade levels. So, um you can take that into the factor when you look at the 10%. we really went through probably about 30% if you look at her pushing in for those interventions as well. And then for behavior interventions, we have about 32 students that were receiving tier two interventions and that is about 13% of our students. And then Cayla will talk to you a little bit about the continuous growth of our staff. So during our PD time um we took time to put the intervention framework um which meant new learning for our teachers. Um this was an addition of new intervention curriculums that we put in place. So we um had two reading interventions that we looked at and two math

027interventions that we looked at. Um, the first two, youly phonics and really great reading are the tier two small groups that kiddos got to work in small groups within the classroom or with Caitlyn and I outside of the classroom um for reading. And then we also have hands to mind fluency as well as bridges, which is our math intervention where kiddos got to work in smaller groups. Um, again, this is with it with the teachers in their classrooms doing those smaller groups. Those are examples of of kids actually using each mention. And then um additional training that teachers have done is our letters. So this is a professional development program that provides education with indepth knowledge of science and reading. Um it focuses on students uh learning to read while um some struggle and how

028to apply evidence-based instructional strategies to improve literacy outcomes. So this year we did have 11 teachers participate in letters in the level one training and we had an additional three staff members um who have gone to work on the level two training and some staff members who are doing letters right now will be continuing on with level three which is really exciting. Level two or yes there are some of the teachers that didn't start level one this year. um they really wanted to fully implement uh level one training and so they do have interest of doing level two and I will say that um while these are the numbers from min um there are a whole cohort of elementary students uh teachers and I think maybe are there any from the middle school that just

029the elementary that um participated in level one and level two training this year it's been a big lift for for our staff and then you guys just heard about the math program pilot uh which a lot of teachers within um the math leadership team had taken part this year of um piloting a couple of programs. There was the illustrative program and the I Ready Math. Um, so as you can see, there's some sixth grade students up up above, pictures of them um involved in the programs that they piloted and kindergarteners down at the bottom enjoying some of the piloted math. It was really interesting to come into these classrooms and just see the engagement and involvement that the students had um for both the littles and for our bigger kids within the elementary school. And

030I'd say like overall um that's I I think that's the end of our I think overall in both areas um as far as growth of kids, we've seen great growth. I know. Um I'm getting really excited because I have been doing my literacy group with my second grade students and I happened to be in the classroom and um they were doing a phonics lesson with their teacher that I was observing and we've now got them to the spot where uh some of the the skills that we've been working hard on are now starting they're starting to catch up to their peers and um are seeing it in their classroom. And so to be able to see them be successful with the with that content with their peers has just been remarkable. And I would say

031while our intervention systems aren't, you know, it's they're not perfect yet. Um and I it does put a lot on our teachers, I would say the amount of growth that we've done in this area, I feel like we've done a great job to hit that um that growth core value. Does anyone have any questions for Kaitlin or Ryan? Uh Caitlyn, um where do you see uh the the Title One program now? I mean, you've worked really hard. You've got it sounds like you've got a a really organized intervention program. How can you see Title One fitting into that and enhancing that? Yeah, so we'll be targeted next year. So, it's really going to just be K12 um that will be able to receive services through title one. Um I feel like the systems that we

032have in place for identifying students are already in line with what we're going to need to do to identify the lowest 20% um within those those grade levels. So, I feel like we're in a good spot as far as having tools to identify students um and a process to do that. Um and certainly we're still going to have kids in grades three through six that are still going to require interventions. So, having materials and structures in place for those grade levels will certainly help. And uh you know I have the other two elementary school principles in the room and I I'm sure that if I ask them does title needs um the answer is probably always going to be no ever. So even in K through two we still have materials instructions in place for

033us to do any additional um required um interventions for those. So feel like we're in a good spot. Okay. Other questions or comments? Andrea, you sort of answered one of them. I that you saw results really soon. Yes. I mean, I really s Well, I mean, we have we've seen results. I mean, I think when you take if we're taking the lowest kids in the grade level, this isn't going to be like a, you know, a four-week thing and they're going to be on grade level. But yes, we are seeing we're not talking flowers. see immediate like um kids confidence going through the rooms really quickly. Like when you when they're used to being in their classroom and they can see what their peers are doing and they know that they're struggling with it and

034you get them into a small group with skills that are really at the level that they need, it it changes things around. I just had a parent actually tell me that um they used to kind of have to like convince their child to read at night and that now they're actually like bringing stuff to their parent and being like can we read this? So to me if I have a parent saying that a child is going home and asking to read that alone is enough for me to know why it's an immediate success. Excellent. Thank you. I have a question I probably should have asked when Jill and JC are here and maybe they're still here and can answer it, but um the new math program, what gap do you think that fills in the

035everyday math program? What do you think that particular program is going to do better and what gap will they fill? Yeah, I mean I would I would say we've had everyday math for 20 years now. Um and so what we're seeing is is that we've put a lot of uh professional development into literacy and um you know there's still room for growth but I'm seeing a consistent like movement in the right direction. Um, we do I Ready Diagnostic in the fall, in the in January, and in the spring. And in in literacy, our numbers of kids that are meeting their growth goals and or on um like in the green um for their grade level for the end of the year is significantly more. I feel like we've just been at a standstill with the

036math. Um, I I think that what I've heard for feedback from the people that are piloting it is that this is the least amount of teacher talk that they have done in their classroom ever because so much of it is set up for success for the students and they're the ones doing the talking and explaining and the teaching, you know what I mean? Once they do their lesson, like their level of understanding is at a greater degree. Um, I know that Jaci has also said that the material that they were she's had to kind of do some pre-teaching at the beginning of each of the units because what they're expected to go into it um into the unit is more than what our fifth grade curriculum does going into sixth grade. So, I think there's

037just more rigor in the um in the program itself and I think our test scores are showing like even more rigor in our program. Jill, do you have anything you would like to add to that? That was perfect. That was really I think the um it's definitely way more student engaging like they the student does the teaching the talking and it provides them with multiple pathways which is what our current program does not do. It allows them to get to an answer in many different ways in one that might fit each child differently. And I think that's been the biggest um change I've seen is that the student might be doing it completely different than the one next to them, but they're both getting to the same answer and they're both very confident. So having

038that ability to work through it on their own has been a game changer for a lot of students. The structure for the week is that like earlier on in the week it's more teacher heavy because they're introduc introducing they're having to support any misconceptions all of those things. As the week goes on, it's like transferring the work more and more to the students so that by the end of the week, um it's a lot of like hands on um game based like student explanation those pieces so that they're really taking the ownership of it by understanding. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thanks. We'll move on to our consent agenda. And as part of our consent agenda, we have the March uh meeting minutes. We have uh new hires that include Daniel Roy as outdoor

039track assistant coach. Uh Salvador Capichio, uh music coral director. There are no retirements. There are some resignations. Rhonda Lucier, uh an edtech 2 at PRHS. Walter O'Drisco at EdTech 3 at Elm Street. Uh Dong May Yan, a first grade teacher at Minet Consolidated School. And that resignation is effective at the end of the school year. Um it also includes the March subcommittee minutes for operations, personnel and finance and educational policy. Um, there are no friends of RSU 16, but there is a meeting tomorrow, April 15th, which combined with the Optimus Club will be the Friends of RSU 16. That's at 1:00 at Elm Street. Do we have a motion for a motion to accept the consent agenda and a second from Andrea? All those in favor? Unanimous. And Amy, your report. Sure. um highlighting some

040of the the things that have been going on in the past month of most of it has been as you can imagine budget and we'll get to that under new business. I have attended all of the leadership team meetings and all of the schools the five schools to be able to talk to their leadership teams about the budget and how do we go about engaging the community more to understand what is going on in the budget and to uh hopefully um have some more support with our budget so we can get more people to the polls. Uh I have worked with Jill and the three elementary principles to develop our service model model for title one going forward next year. Uh as you've heard it will qualify for title one services. So we've had to

041make some shifts. That doesn't mean we get more money in title one. That simply means we have to shift our people that we have. So uh PCS will maintain a teacher and uh two teachers, one for literacy, one for math and their their edte or their support staff person will go over to mine at consolidated school. And then at Elm Street School, they are schoolwide program, which means everyone at Elm Street School qualifies for title. So Elm Street will retain their their teachers, their two teachers, one for literacy, one for math, and then also two edte. And their third edtech has been moved into the local funds uh in order for us to be able to meet our pot of money that we also have for title. So, we worked collaboratively on that to to

042form a solution in order to make sure that uh as you heard, Caitlyn is ready to welcome in an additional pair of hands to be able to fit right into the system street already has. Uh I appreciate the support for continuing on with new superintendent school from you and as well as the administrative team. Um the last one was great. It was all about budget and negotiations. So very two timely pieces where I've got some helpful advice as well as some confirmation of the things that I'm doing, we're doing, and we're we're putting forward. So it's always good to be able to work with experts and uh some some other people that are in the same new position that I'm in. Uh did have uh our budget continues to be one of the the bigger

043pieces. We've had uh multiple AT meetings in which we have gone through the budgets and so that to get to the one that we're going to present to you tonight, we've had four budget committee meetings in the month of March and April that has also landed in a a full uh recommendation for you to look at for tonight. I've had breakfast with the town managers and we've our our focus there was of course budget and cost sharing. Uh we have also been lifting off the ed policies looking at cell phone policies. So was able to uh have some walkthroughs with Steve and Emily and Eric and we went into uh the classrooms here at uh PRHS and did a little data collection. We shared that with the ad policy committee and then we engaged in

044a in a discussion a roundt discussion with um staff and with students. And up next will ad policy committee will continue to work on that as we develop a survey to be able to send out to students, staff, and uh families. And we were able to wrap up the cost sharing which will be later on in the agenda for us to go through. At the end will be a report. Mary and Angela will be able to talk more about that as um board and municipal reps from from their towns. And also got to experience lots of fun. There was prek week of the young child at our schools and got to uh uh head over to see Rebecca Ducharm and Nicole Bryant at Elm Street School and all of their parents coming in so they

045can they can understand what prek is all about and the students were able to take their their their parents around to the different centers and show off all of the learning that they've had uh in prek. I was also at the prek registration night for uh PCS which was the same day as the senior celebration norming. So literally went from our oldest students who are graduating and to welcoming our our youngest students. It was great to see all of u some familiar faces of students that I had in the past back in fifth and sixth grade are now uh parents and bringing their their you know that's the that whole town feeling. And then also too, just wanted to highlight the uh really strong success that uh and progress that I've seen especially in our

046K2 functional life skills programs at at Poland Community School and this and the K6 SEAL program at um Minet Consolidated School. Again, coming down to systems, structure, and leadership in those in those rooms. It's a joy to be in them and to be able to visit them and and those can be tough places. And I'm not saying that, you know, it's those are tough jobs to have, but just watching the students thrive um in their own ways and show progress is really uh one of my other favorite spots to go uh in addition to prek and to visit the middle school. So now I've got two new spots that are my favorite. And that sort of wraps up the uh my report for my my going comingings and goings for the last month. Okay. And

047so there's no old business. Under new business, we have a motion to approve the financials as recommended by the personnel and finance committee at their March uh 31st meeting. Do you have a motion? Second. Second. Is there any questions or discussion? That was in your packet and Stacy is here if anybody has any questions or discussion. Okay, seeing none, all those in favor? It's unanimous. And the next is consideration to approve a fully insured private plan for Maine uh for the Maine paid family medical leave. And at our last uh uh personnel and finance committee meeting, we did uh approve a program to move forward to you. Um Stacy since then has some other information she wants to share with us. So why don't you just Okay. Get us up to date. First, I got

048to say it's very hot in here. I I'm not looking at you with long sleeves and sweaters and I am just dying. So, the plan that we had recommended was the UNUNIM plan and the rate that came through on that was 0.92 as opposed to the state rate which you know is 1%. They did require an additional line of business. So, we would have to engage with them with some other line of business. So, there would would have been a cost for that. The main school management plan rate did come in higher like we talked about at the at the personnel committee meeting. It came in at 9.8% but there's no additional line of business required because main school management will bring schools together and be able to have buying power. So we will have

049a savings by going with the MSMA plan instead of the unim plan. The contracting insurance company that they are using is called Guardian. So they have been providing paid family medical leave plans for over 13 years. They're active in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. And they are working this current year in Maine, Delaware, and Minnesota on paid family medical private plans. So that's who Stacey, can you just talk a little bit about how these plans meet our the requirements of the law? And yes, so the state authorized these companies. So it's we're not just picking companies. It was actually a list that we had to choose from that the state provided that that they have their plans have passed the state requirements. They will fulfill the state plan. Um, I will tell you

050there is a bill that's out there to exempt schools from the paid family medical leave plan. And if that does happen, then we would not be required to go further with a plan, even if you vote on it tonight and we sign the documents because this would not start until May 2026, which means the premiums that we are currently paying from January through March 31st would be submitted to the state. we would never get those back, but we would not start paying again until May 2026 under the private plan. Um, you do always have the option to stay with the state plan, but that's the 1% and we would still we would continue to keep paying. Um, it wouldn't stop. Um, this is thousands of dollars. I will tell you we have looked through the

051budget and taken out the excess. Um, that's pretty much and Guardian will guarantee their rate until 2028. The state's rate is set now at 1% until 2027, at which time they can go up if they decide they need more money in the coffers to supply uh benefits, paid benefits to people that request them. There would be no difference going with this plan in that the same quarterly reporting that we have to do to the state even if we go with a private plan we still have to report to the state quarterly we would use that same reporting for the guardian so there's no additional work by going with a separate plan and there'll be there would be um it would have the same requirements as the main plan in terms of our staff there wouldn't

052be any decrease and any kind of benefit for our staff either. No, because the plan has to comply with the state plan to be authorized by the state as an option. Okay. So, I do have a a motion that I will read if somebody wants to bring that motion forward. It's to purchase coverage from guardian to provide a fully insured private paid family medical leave plan in lie of participating in Maine PML program. So move. Okay. Second and a second from Andrea. We have a motion and a second or any more questions for Stacy or discussion. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? Okay, that was unanimous. Um and let's move on to the superintendent's proposed budget. Um for those that are watching at home, you can also go on to our website rsu16.org or and

053go to the budget section to be able to download the packets that I'll be referring to. Both of them are there. Um I'll start with just by talking about our our world in general. If you start looking around like just the systemic changes that are happening all around us from hospitals closing to maternity wards closing or downsizing, even the Sun Journal changing the way that they do their overall distribution, um 4-day work weeks and um you know, even St. Dom's surprisingly closing and just even on my way here of just you know taking time to observe what I was seeing because it was such a nice day is just like the amount of like ebikes. So like there's just so much like change happening out there and um and it is hard to maintain uh

054what we have and and really look at what how do we protect that core which is our students. And so uh you're going to know that this budget has been difficult. We have talked about this at several stages here. Board meetings, finance committee meetings uh countless number of at meetings uh and uh finance committee meetings too. I do appreciate the guidance that that that team has been able to to insert along the way. And just a reminder that this started back in November, December. This is this has not been just a last month work on this and you know that with the sitebased development of the budget at the building levels with the teachers and leadership teams there and then the internal review where Stacy and I went line by line asking our administrators what

055makes up each one of those lines and then adjustments based upon feedback that I'd given them, feedback that we were receiving, feedback that we knew already from our having three district budget meetings um just it seemed like yesterday. Uh we've also done the four budget u meetings that we've we've had and in there we've gone cost center by cost center modeling it after the district budget meeting where we hold the little slip of paper in order for us to really look at the increases and the decreases of those budgets. And so I bring to you tonight our our our our budget. And before then I just want to show you the stack. This is six iterations of the budget before I bring to you the one that I'm sharing with you tonight. And I shared

056this with the budget committee and I I think it's worth sharing again because it means a lot to me. Um that stack sits on my desk and it represents a lot. It represents stress from worrying how to balance limited resources with growing need in a customized world. It represents frustration, feeling stuck and overwhelmed when there aren't enough funds to support priorities or our new strategic plan, guilt, struggling with the emotional weight of making cuts that impact student, staff, programs, and the community expectation of us. But it also leaves me feeling determined, feeling motivated to find solutions and protect what matters most. hope believing in the long-term planning and the new strategic plan and that our community support they will support will lead to better days and relief of finally bringing forward a balanced proposal after

057six drafts. So I present to you our seventh draft in which the um budget committee has uh agreed to. We use a tent a TA approach tentatively agree to each article and uh we bring forward that tonight. So, we're going to jump right in to the documents that I've left at your table. And we're going to start in with the um pages labeled uh page 1A, 2A, and 3A. So, if you are following along at home, you can jump on the the um website and download those under the budget pages. And for that, I'm going to turn that over to Stacy to talk about uh those pages right there because this will provide you the broad overview of the budget. So this first page is actually a document that I created to do the assessments

058because everything on this page is what what the towns are build for for their contributions to the budgets. So the first line, the required local, we talk about that often. It's called the required local because it is required. The state sets a mill expectation each year that each town and city in the state must raise. This is based solely on valuation nothing else. For this budget it is 6.1 mills. So that is multiplied by the main revenue service valuation of the town and that is what they have to raise. The local only debt as you know is the middle school edition and the main uh I'm sorry the minet uh revolving renovation fund project that was just finished recently that is based on our cost sharing formula which is 90% enrollment and 10% uh yeah

05990% valuation and 10% enrollment currently the additional local when we take the expenditure budget and we subtract all our revenue sources including the required local any tuition state subsidy, interest, income. The amount that's left that we still need to raise to fund the expenditure budget is what is the additional local. The adult ed has a separate budget. The 130,000 is what we raise locally and so that is also shared by the cost sharing formula. So that is also on this page. And then the CIP the capital improvement plan that also is you it has the cost sharing formula used to raise those funds. So these each are raised in an article. The required local is in article 12. Local only debt actually has two articles because we have to have an article to expend the

060funds and we have to have an article to raise them separately. So that's why you see that that has been designated as article 10 and article 13. And the additional local is article 14. And you may recall that one requires that we disclose how much we are over the EPS funding formula. So that wording is also in the article when we get to that article. The adult ed has its own article, article 16. And CIP actually has two articles as well because we need an article to raise funds and then we also have an article to expend the funds. And sometimes those are different pending maybe some carryover that we anticipate. we want to be able to spend that in the following year as well. So we do we might have a higher expenditure article

061than a revenue article and then I contact each town to get from them what a mill is worth in their town and that is divided by the amount of the assessment to come up with the tax impact. So, this budget is unique because, as you know, last year we it took three budgets to pass a final school budget. And in between budget 2.0 and budget 3.0, the towns had to commit their taxes. And so, Amy, I'm going to ask you for that term that Lisa came up with because it was it really encapsulated it was simple, too. So it's really talking about if you look at the tax impact there on the first part that is what it costs and then the adjustment from 3.0 is what you'll end up paying. So there's those two

062differences be there because of that extra collected tax. Yeah. So that's why you see the the difference on those on those tax impacts on the $100,000 home. Mine is a little different just because they used half their credit one year and half the other because the way they bill is different from our fiscal year. Um, and the times that they send out their bills for their assessments versus when when our fiscal year [Music] changes. If you don't have any questions on that first page, I can move on to the next one. And as a budget committee, we did talk um quite a bit about the the difference in in numbers and how important it is that in terms of the tax impact that people understand that the the bottom line uh is partly well impacted

063by the extra that was collected by our towns and is being utilized this year because we don't want people next year to be overly shocked when it goes back to sort of a higher rate because they're using this year to offset that what was collected last year because our budget was not finished. So, um I think it is important that we all understand that and can be able to explain that to our communities. Um because this year that's a help. It won't be there next year. And as a budget committee, we're not always just looking at the year in front of us. We're looking at how is what we're deciding this year going to impact the years that come after us. So I think it's important that we all understand that and be able to

064explain it. Jess, but how those funds were collected, held by the towns, and then applied now as a credit, that is not our choice, right? As a budget committee or a board, that's the town officials and they're guided by the laws that apply in this situation, right? And so it it may be that each of our our towns look at a little differently, but um these are the figures that will impact the the bottom line tax bill. And I will say Poland did have that very clear on the pamphlets that they sent out. The number is the same that we have. They explained how they kept it separately that they were applying it to the school. They were it was they did a great job explaining it and having it very clear. I have a

065question. Um, looking at the article 16 adult education, is that the explanation why the minet mechanic falls are looks like they're paying less this year for that particular article is because of credit for adult ed? Yeah. Is that not Oh, no. I I know what you're talking about. Yes. Okay. It's because of the slight shift in the cost sharing. So, every year we the cost sharing formula. So it's 90% valuation and 10% enrollment. When valuation changes that also changes slightly, you know, the portion that different towns pay. So it is is a slight shift in the cost sharing formula. That's why it's more this year. So it actually went down because of that for those two towns. Is that just I understand that correctly? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Thanks. [Music] So on the next page on

066the revenue page, the first three sections are the sections we have already covered. That's all the local revenue. And then you have the state revenue. You can see that we are getting [Music] $37,748 more in state revenue. And when you talk about the state revenue, that's where some enrollment comes in. Staff ratios come in. There's a lot of factors that go into the EPS funding formula for the state revenue. We are going to have a tuition student again. You might recall years ago we'd have sometimes five tuition students. Um we have a potential of having another one come in, but I did not want to build that into the budget because it's it's still not guaranteed yet. And I would rather underestimate revenues than overestimate them and and have to cut expenses the next year

067because we're not realizing all the revenue fund balance. So after this million that we're adding, we have about $410,000 remaining in fund balance before we close out FY25. You may recall last year we put in 1.5 million but then at the end of the year we got some additional subsidy and because we had voted that warrant article where any additional subsidy would go 100% to tax relief we had to apply that additional 154,000 to cash balance. Any questions? Can you just talk a little bit about um fund balance and um how much did you say we would have left and then how does our what happens through the audit how does that go to fund balance? Yep. So after the the application of the of the million for the proposed FY26 we have $410,000 remaining.

068When we close out FY25, we are allowed to carry over 5% of our prior year's expenditure budget. So that's about 1.3 million and we would be at we would be about $40,000 over that 5% but we have three years to have a plan to spend it. And so because we are always applying a fund balance um it's it's very unlikely that within three years we would not use any amount we're over that 5% for instance that 40,000. We would just put 40,000 more to cash balance next year which would be very easy to do. So we do keep an eye on that. But we do have a three-year rolling time period to use that excess fund balance. And that is just totals on the next page to show the proposed amount that each town must

069raise. That includes the capital improvement and adult ed. So the very bottom shows the numbers of what would what would we what we would be looking at and those match up to that first page that you saw because that's the amounts that I have to use to calculate the assessment for each town. [Music] Any questions for Stacy before we move into the um budget book? And I would just say from the budget committee um point of view, one of the things we particularly appreciated was that Amy and Stacy um structured the work that we did through the articles and it was just much clearer for us. um other years when we're talking about um priorities and possible budget cuts, it was sometimes difficult to figure out where that really fit into an article. So, um

070our town representatives um mentioned it. Um and certainly I think it was a much easier um way for us to to process a lot of numbers and a lot of information. Definitely. So, I'm going to take you through our our annual report and budget. So, those of you that are at home or over over there with our administrators, it is also on our website under the budget documents. And so, this document captures all the graphs and charts that usually we flash up on the screen, whether that's here or budget committee or even at the district budget meeting. So, it's all one place. So, this this serves as sort of that learning spot for you, that one-stop shop. Um, it also gives you a glimpse into there's the reports from all of the administrators. So, again,

071we've heard that return on investment. Uh, it also starts to then connect back to our new strategic plan and it really gets a glimpse at what all of our funds are going toward. I have heard that the budget booklet can be overwhelming and I completely understand that because you know what it's new and it's your first year and I expect it to be a little overwhelming but if it becomes our annual report then you know what to ex expect from it and you know how to read it and you know how to go to it to find your information. So even though it is a little bit of overwhelming I hope that you uh take some time with it and and really look it through. I I ran it through my uh my uh my

072Dave, my husband, and he he's said he learned a lot and has some questions and felt overwhelmed himself, too. But it's one of those things that you can pick up time and time again. So, our total budget, as I'm just going to say that so our our people at home know that we are proposing a $29,885,660 budget for fiscal year 26. That is an increase from fiscal year 25 of 1,456,09. And so first up, we're um as you're kind of going through the budget booklet, if you're not going to like write in it because maybe you're looking at it online or you're not going to write on it, I know Sarah volunteered to take any copies of those to be able to drop them off at different locations and then that way they're out and

073about quicker than um getting some printed before we get them out. So, uh, keep that in mind that we'll recycle them if you if not, you can definitely write on over them. Like, feel free to do that, but I know some people don't want to do that. Um, so as you start kind of like cruising through, we are going to go to page 19. Um, but as you start kind of cruising through, you can see the letter there from Mary, Patrick, and Sarah as our chair, vice chair, and committee chair. my letter, the table of contents, our strategic plan, and then you have all of the administrator um uh letters and reports. So then that way you can be able to say, okay, what what am I getting by by investing in this? You have

074uh actual documents that you can share with people to be able to say, okay, what is going on in facilities? What's going on in technology, adult education, our improvement of instruction? And so we are going to continue to cruise through. Uh page 17 is just one of those that have come up before as to like well what is are our spendings per article for the past couple of years and there's that historical percentage because sometimes again we flash that up on the screen and then we move on and people haven't been able to really look at that. We're going to keep on going to page 19 after page 18 is our enrollment and then those 20 to class of 20 through 24 statistics that are are of interest to our taxpayers. So again, a one-stop

075shop kind of all of these things should look familiar. Uh we've talked about them and again really going back to uh really wanting to run the district budget committee similar to that district budget meeting because really for me it's about let's work smarter not harder. Let's begin with the end in sight. And so the end is really that district budget meeting. And from there I got we had some really good conversations with our our budget committee. I do want to say I do see Lisa Elby is here tonight. She was the municipal rep from Poland. Uh Lisa Cesar was the um minet rep and we also had from um um Mechanic Falls was was able to attend a meeting. Um and then page 19 was one that our our our board uh group really focusing

076on on that's our per people expenditure costs and uh part of that is is just calling your attention to those graphs and our per people spending remains um below the state average and it does align closely with several districts we're commonly compared to and I think it does reflect our commitment to be fiscally responsible while making sure every dollar is effectively used. And uh there you can start to see some of our comparison districts and the state average there. Our next one is we'll start to cruise through uh to page 24. Um but then you know as you're cruising through you'll see the the EPS the essential programs and services. Uh that's always a good one because sometimes that question comes up as well how much is the state funding? I thought they were supposed

077to spend uh fund 55%. And that allows you to be able to say yes they do. and being able to show the the the portions. And then you also know on page 21 how the EPS is heavy in valuation. So that does show the the three-year average for each each year used for the three towns. And then you do have the required local because remember that state subsidy is made up of sort of a a combination. There has to be a required local in order for us to get the state subsidy. And then on page 23 is that state contribution. And we've we've shared those um already and those are just um there for you to be able to to take a look at. So our additional local is the next page which is page

07824. And as Stacy already talked about, the additional locals are those raised above essential programs and services. And that is currently based on our cost sharing formula which is 90% valuation, 10% enrollment. And if when you look at this graph on page 24, it's important to note that our additional local funds are lower than those comparable districts that operate with more than one elementary school just like we do. Despite having a similar structure, um we're asking less of our taxpayers while striving to maintain our programs and services in each one of our buildings. And you can start to see that by looking at those bars and then uh seeing how much additional local is raised in each one of the comparable districts. Below that is just a brief update on the cost sharing um update

079which we'll we'll circle back around to that later on uh about the changes coming to that. And like I said before, Mary and Andrea will be able to talk to us about what we'll see on the June 10th ballot for the cost sharing update. Next up we're going to go to page 26. Um, as you're kind of cruising through to get to page 26, 25 is our as our usual graph of our our our budget through the years. Amy, I wonder, can we look back on 20 23? Sure. Because, you know, one of the the questions that we often get is why Poland is paying so much more. And to me, this this graph kind of addresses that. Uh if you look at the state contribution by town, um Poland has significantly more students than

080both Mechanic Falls individually and Minet individually, but what they get for a state contribution is much much less than what they're giving for each of the students in uh Minet and Mechanic Falls. And you know, I think sometimes people lose sight of that and and that's part of why I think they feel that there's some that they there are grave inequities in the formula. It really is about the fact that the state is not giving us nearly as much money for our Poland students per student as they are for our Mechanic Falls and our Minet students. And that is impacting us as a district. And I I do recognize that that's impacting Poland most strongly. But it it it really is about it's really this graph that causes that inequity is that the state is

081giving us less per student um for a Poland student than they are the other two. I think I'll call Stacy back too because I think she can say it better than I can so I'll start talking while she's making her way back. But it comes down to that mill and the valuation that she started talking about. So each year the state sets the mill. like last year was 6.97, this year it's 6.1. And so they times that by the valuation, that three-year valuation that you see on page 21. And so that becomes your required local. So again, there is that piece that we're to blame for the required local where it's not. It's at 6.1 times that three-year state valuation. Then as we saw on Stacy's page 1A, we go through, okay, we got the

082required local, the local only debt, the additional local, the adult, the CIP. So what is the total cost of our budget for fiscal year 26 and now you know it's 29.8 or if we want to round up 29.9. And then from there, Stacy asks each town, what is the mill worth in your town to be able to raise those? And that's how we arrive at that cost per per per 100 valuation. So Stacy, did you want to add to that and make that clear because you always say things super succinct and and easy to understand. So on page four of the ED279, you always hear us talking about the 279. This is it. All these pages, this is all the school funding formula. So on the third page, it talks about member municipalities and it

083gives a three-year average of state valuation. So for this budget that we're building, Mechanic Falls is $238,116,667. Minet is 291,700,000. Poland's valuation is 1 bill36,566,667. So when you take those valuations and you multiply it by that 6.1 mills, you're getting the required local of 1.4 million that Mechanic Falls has to raise, 1.7 million Minet has to raise, 6.3 that Poland has to raise that is that is then carried to the next step in the formula. So this the 55% funding for pol for RSU16 is 22,821,000. So the very next thing that they do is they subtract the 9.5 million that we have to raise locally. Then the next step is taking those amounts that the towns are raising, comparing them with that 22 million, how that breaks up by each town, and that gives you

084the amount that the state is paying. So that leads to what you were talking about, Mary. This is how then they decide that each town is going to have to pay uh what each town is going to get in subsidy. So Mechanic Falls gets 4.9 million, Minet gets 3.8 8 million Poland gets 4.4 million because of the difference between that 22.8 million that we we are allotted in the funding formula less the 9.5 million we already have to raise. So the amount that we're getting from the state is is pretty even if you look at all three towns it's it's 4.9 mechanic 4.9 million mechanic falls 4.4 million Poland and 3.8 8 million for Minet. Um so although enrollment is factored in the formula on a prior page, um it it doesn't have a lot

085to do once you get further into the formula we're using in our in our cost sharing. And so that's where a lot of it comes in. But the the state EPS funding formula is very heavy on valuation. I know Susan talked about that in the cost sharing formula when we have the the cost sharing it's very heavy. Um some districts are 100% valuation for cost sharing. So I know we want to get to like a per people cost but it's difficult because it's in mills. So it's that mill 6.1 mills times the valuation at by the main revenue service. So, I know we want to like try to figure that out to make it easier for our to understand, but it's it's, you know, having conversations with Stacy's, you can't compare it that way because

086it's all about that valuation. Yeah. The per pupil cost the state takes a full budget except for transportation and debt service and and calculates a per pupil cost and that's why we can always say we're below that per pupil cost because we're spending less per pupil for K8 and 912 based on every other school in the state. Steve. So, newbie question. So, yeah, thanks. Newbie question. In order to qualify for the state essential programs and services money, uh the local communities, our local communities have to raise a certain amount. What happens if we don't quite raise the required local? How much state money do we get? You lose dollar per dollar. So we do get some but we don't get the whole enchilada. Thank you. And then if you don't reduce the expenditure budget, it

087moves into additional local. So if you're not going to accept the full funding from the state, you cannot fully fund your expenditure budget if you don't roll that amount then into additional local. So you might as well take the state money. We will traveling over to page 26 in that budget booklet to go article by article. And again, I'll remind you that the district budget committee did go article by article uh to tentatively agree to each one. We did circle back around to a few of them because I wanted better information. And as I talked about uh under each one of those cost centers, we've gone line by line multiple times. And all of the articles were approved unanimously except for article six by the district budget committee. And we'll talk briefly about that when

088we get to two article six. So on starting on page 26 is a is a hopeful is a hopefully a document that can be used and shared with with our community members and at the district budget meeting. So we have a comparison from the current fiscal year in to what we're proposing in 26 and what the difference is for that as well as some information in there so uh everyone can be on the same knowledgeable page. So before I start though I do want to say that if you notice in that top box all articles do have contractual salaries and benefits. You've heard that year in and year out. We also have that paid family medical leave tax that just happened in May of 26. And then we also account for inflation and rising costs.

089We didn't really talk about any of those increases in what you'll see in the in the notes sort of the headlines coming down, but we did at 18 level and we did at the budget committee level. And then also too, I think it's important to point out, and I'll probably say this a couple of times because decreases definitely hurt uh us as we starting to reduce a budget to get to one that we can bring forward to you tonight. All of our lines have alignment to historical spending. We went back and looked for the last couple years where else can we shave off even $50 to align it better with historical spending. We've also had some 10 either between 10 to 50% of reductions in one of more of the following books, travel, supplies, dues,

090and fees. And again, that was done with the A team together. Uh and then that was also brought forward to the the district budget um committee. And again, those were represented in those lines that we've gone through. So I just want to make sure that those things are not lost when we're going through because reductions have been made in and aligns with those those areas. So article one is regular instruction and as you can see we are um proposing a 473,597 increase over fiscal year 25 for a total of 11,470,919. Regular instruction includes our teacher salaries, uh our edte salaries, substitute teachers, our English language learners program, uh our gifted and talented program, books, teaching supplies, and classroom equipments. And so, uh some of the highlights of our increases there are what you've heard already

091today is the K6 math program, as well as what you've heard before too is the the NEAS to be able to round out finishing up our our accreditation through NIASK. Our decrease is there. um our five teacher positions. One is at PCS. Uh one is our gifted and talented teacher. So we'll be looking to uh uh re repl our our service model. But right now we have two gifted and talented teachers. So now we will uh have one and uh looking at Jill is leading that with our our gifted and talented teacher to look at how we service that. It does align with other other districts our size do have one gifted and talented teacher and even some of the bigger districts like Oxford Hills uh being the fifth largest district in the state has

092two gifted and talented teachers. So it is unfortunate to lose one. All of these cuts hurt. Uh there is a reduction of an Elm Street school teacher. Um and I should say the PCS teacher is through retirement. The gifted and talented teacher is through retirement. the Elm Street teacher is through a resignation and then a shifting of of teachers. Um the PRHS uh learning center teacher does have a person in that position uh right now. Um and then there is the Whittier Middle School uh writing teacher that was a one-year position. Also in there is the uh edtech uh that was currently restorative that's been unfilled for the year at Woodier Middle School. And then also two in the decreases is our ecology school trip for the sixth graders and the yard visit set aides

093that we have. Um and for there uh our hope is that um we will have a a group a tri town group form and come forward to really start looking at can we fund raise for the ecology school because the ecology school has been going on for I don't know 20 plus years and we um uh had to make some difficult cuts as we start to move forward with with um our reductions in order to get to a budget that we can bring forward. Amy, how much is the uh about how much for the K6 m? It's about $58,000. What's the ecology school cost? Um our portion, we do share our portion with we do get a reduction. It's $155 per student. So that is $20,150 for 130 students. U we did have about $4,000

094set aside for what we call yard visits. So they would come to our school. That hasn't happened since COVID just because of rebounding with getting um uh educators on board from the ecology school. And then we also have 1,600 uh just about $1,700 in contractual stipens for our teachers to spend the night in um in the at the ecology school. It is minimally about $3,000 for transportation. That's for the buses. That does not include uh the transport back and forth for students who need uh that are not going to spend the day, sorry, not going to spend the night. That does not include the van trips back and forth like we've had uh this time of like we need to van to go pick up these kids and then bring them back at the end

095of the day. And then also next year we were alerted to a $10 additional cost. So that would be another $1,300. So the ecology school altogether is is just over $30,000. So that is article one. Uh any other questions on article one that was approved unanimously by the the the district budget team. Article two is special education and that has a increase of uh $513,598 over fiscal year 25. And article two includes our special education teachers, our ed techs, our administrators, our substitute teachers, service providers, our teaching supplies, books, classroom equipment, our out of district student costs, tutoring and legal fees. And our increases there is uh we continue to build our reading program. Uh our students in special ed need a program uh because they are weren't able to access the tier one the

096the reading program that we use with all of our students. And so they do need an evidence-based reading program. And then we also became aware of a new known outofd district placement for next year. Uh so that was at $90,000 we needed to add to the budget. And then we um have our services for students that are out of district or um it's it's known as main care seed. It can be it can be a little confusing with main care seed because basically what happens is it's any of those services that can be build through main care. So there's this sort of another thing it's like school funding formula. very complicated, but the way that I understand it is um like the Department of Health and Human Services estimates the seed costs and the DOE

097upfronts those costs and then alerts us quarterly like how much we have to pay and that comes through our subsidy. Uh so we receive less subsidy and um and so we at first were going to not uh have a percentage increase in our our main care seed because well we thought that that would be that could get us through because it's for those OT PT speech services that our students receive out of district. But then having conversations with other special ed directors with Joe did that and with the special ed uh sorry with uh the superintendent, we decided that it would be in our best interest to have an 8% increase on those costs. So that's an additional $28,000 that we added to our budget to make sure that we do have funds in order

098to pay for those services that students uh are legally bound to by their IEP. So that is a kind of a a look at article two and that one was also uh unanimously accepted by the um budget committee. Do I have any questions on article two? Article three is our our LRTC. I think we know this one. That's our portion to cover the cost to attend our 69 students to attend LRTC. Any questions on article three? Good. Uh, article four is our other instruction that includes our summer school programs, field trips, transportation costs, athletic director salary, stipens for coaches, adviserss, officials, supplies, uniforms, uh, transportation costs, and then also fees with um, drama, band, chorus, and math team. Um, as you can see, our proposal for fiscal year 26 is uh, down 24,629. uh even

099though we do have an increase in the contracted service for athletic training uh being able to really look carefully at an audit of our trips and really aligning to historical spending. Uh and then also looking at clubs and activities that have not run in a couple of years. We're really able to with a fine tooth comb be able to find uh some additional funds as well as just want to make sure you know that Don did do some decreases also with with um uh other lines within there of supplies and things like that. So that is our other instruction being down 20 20 just just under $25,000. Any questions about article [Music] four? Okay. Article five is student and staff support and that includes our nurses technology library guidance districtwide teacher and staff training and

100workshops and improvement of instruction. And this one is up uh $25,465 from our fiscal year 25. What is new in that is our uh uh we are moving on to having a continuing on with our math leadership team as well as some additional costs there to be able to lift our new math program for stipens for our teachers to come in over the summer and also starting to form a new literacy district leadership leadership literacy team K through six. We do have some increase in our world language testing, which is kind of a movement over from um different lines under um the PRHS, but also being able to have our students be able to uh participate in world language testing, our tech repairs and parts and network improvements. And uh you know, again, I think

101it goes back to this is one of those cost centers that there's a lot that makes up this one. and um to you know specifically looking at some of Mark's too is having a new safer secure um uh network is cost $69,000 but he was able to make some reductions elsewhere. So if you look at article five to have that only be up 20 $25,000 uh is is is remarkable remarkable. And then some of the decreases there are like I I touched upon as the technology supplies and softwares and then also to um our one teacher position our literacy coach our literacy coach will be transferring into an open teaching position. Uh so that position will will be eliminated. [Music] question on article [Music] five. Article six is system administration that includes the schoolboard stipens,

102legal fees, referendums, superintendent salary, business office salaries, supplies, postage, and financial software. Uh, as you can see, there is the increase in there for a halftime administrative assistant to the superintendent and our financial software. So, that is up uh $110,598. Uh most of that is uh about $69,000 of that is the new financial software as you've heard us talk about and say we are out of POS. We want to make sure uh Tyler Technologies is no longer going to be updating the software we have and I don't want to be in a position where we are unable to meet payroll. So that has been a commitment that has been pushed out of the budget for the last couple of years. We can no longer do that. Um, this one uh did have one opposing person

103uh one opposing vote at the uh budget committee and that centered around and any of the budget committee members can jump in was about the administrative assistant to the superintendent of how that was uh taken out last year and then now it's being put in and just some concerns around how community members might react to um to that. Yeah. And and I would just like to to say that um you know as a as a board that is a position that that we have made a commitment to because we really felt that without that for a year that that has um has has put a lot of strain on the office of the superintendent and that we're not putting it back full-time but we're we have as a board um felt that it really needed

104to be there half time and half time is really minimal in terms of being able to to do the work. [Music] Yeah. I have a question. Could you remind me, did we, when we removed that position, was it a full-time position that was removed and now we're trying to add a halftime position? Is that correct? Correct. Thank you. Article 7, school administration is up uh $82,972. That includes salaries for our building administrators, our school office staff, staff training, postage supplies and equipments. Uh again, just repeating those pieces that we have those contractual salary obligations as well as you know those reductions alignment to historical spending. Uh the major highlight of article 7 is the decrease of one support staff position that's at PRHS and that was a resignation uh and that uh already has you

105approved that resignation tonight and that position will now be eliminated and and not filled questions on article 7 is transportation and buses that speaks for itself. uh salaries, contracted service, fleet insurance, fuel, vehicle maintenance. Uh our increases for that is a total of $252,320 over last or the current fiscal year that we're in. And including in that is our principal and interest payments on the one new bus. And our repair expenses uh have increased. And so, you know, our fleet is aging. Uh our bus is getting sent out. the cost to be able to send out for those repairs are increasing potential with tariffs and we don't know what that looks like for inflation and costs. Um as well as we do have one new bus replacement because as you know we are falling starting

106to fall behind on our our replacement schedule for the bus but that will allow us to have one new bus um for next year and then the decreases there are some of the the contracted service and supply lines that John has also um looked to reduce. So that is our transportation and bus article eight. Article nine is our salaries for our custodial maintenance staff, operations director, repairs, building utilities including electricity, heating, phones, insurance, grounds, and the building maintenance equipment. And that one is up $26,97 uh over last year. And part of that is, you know, John wanted to make sure to note that the heating fuel uh has decreased. Um just looking at our historical consumption of that and then our electricity with our new locked in rate has allowed us to uh potentially to

107to um reduce those lines a bit and to have our facilities of $26,000. John really looked at uh some at that to make sure that it was just to be able to do repairs. Uh, you know, it's a it's a tough line, but uh I do appreciate the work that John put into article number nine for our facilities. Article 10 is our debt service. Stacy's already talked about that. Um, that's to pay our wittier addition and the school revolving renovation fund. And that is down $10,57. And again, part of that, Stacy, correct me if I'm wrong, is is part of that is uh just our our reducing debt on what we owe on the woody year addition. So, our interest is a little bit lower than last year. Our article 11 is our all other

108expenditures or what we sometimes call our contingency. And that is just different than last year. Like that 8,579 includes our paid family medical leave tax that Stacy talked about. We have not put that fully into our lines yet. So that sits right there in article 11. Article 12 is the state funding formula and that's the total cost and that was back on page 20 that graph there. And you can see the EPS funding formula that combines that required local uh with the state subsidy. And so that is um up 947,885 uh dollars for a total of EPS of 22,821,542. And Stacy's talked about that when we looked at pages 1A, 2A, and 3A. Our local debt service that goes back to article 10 that raises the funds needed to spend in article 10. Our additional

109local we've talked about that's the funds above the EPS to fully support the RSU16 budget and that is uh 1,158,330 more than last year uh for a total of additional local that would go to that 90% valuation 10% enrollment [Music] 5,342,022. Article 15 is the summary article which basically then just looks at article 1 through 14 and puts it into that total cost. Uh as you can see our total cost there is $29,885 660 of all of those articles and that is our budget is up over last year $1,456,9. We've got our adult education article 16. that's to appropriate and raise $130,000 and then to be able to uh for Shelley to be able to spend her grants and as well as her enrichment funds that come in and all of those were looked at

110line by line um with the budget committee and approved unanimously. Article 17 is the capital improvement plan. Um it is up $56,000 over last year. Uh it includes the roofing project here and the minet foiler stabilization. We did have hopes for the univvent controls at PCS, but that has since been pulled out uh in order to maybe well in order to look at what we're going to do with our HVAC and heating um in the in the future based upon our our work with um our companies moving forward at the operations um committee level. And then we've got article 18 is to spend the CIP and that is always going to be more because if we have leftover from the previous year, we want to make sure that we bring that forward. We have authorization

111to be able to spend that. And then article 19 is if we receive more state subsidy. Uh last year we did do a 5050 split between tax relief and CIP, but our voters let us know at that meeting to vote that down and 100% tax relief. So the budget committee and myself are rep are recommending 100% tax relief and then article 20 is to expend grant funds and we want to be able to extend those. So the recommendation is yes. So those are like our title one grants, our local entitlement grants and any other grants that the state may offer. So, um, what I'm asking for tonight is if there's any additional questions, but, uh, I do believe that this is the the most responsible path forward, maximizing our resources with the financial reality that

112we have. Um, and then, um, before we discuss it as a board, I think we wanted to have public comment in case there are, um, people that would like to to share. I know DRC you signed up. Y sure at this point we'll be good too. This is long. Um so I guess what I would say is I am Dr. Jeff Robinson and I'm one of the co-presidents of the union um of this district RSU16. I've been very proud to be one of the co-presidents for like the last six years. I've been through several budgets so far. I would like to congratulate Amy and Mary in particular, but Amy for all the hard work she's done behind the scenes. I don't think anybody can understand how much work has gone into this budget and I'd

113like to sit there and advocate for you to certainly vote for it. I know it's hard. I know it looks tough. I know for some people it looks unfair, but it's not unfair at all. I mean, this is what the state is asking us to do and this is how they um have calculated for us. But most of all, I'm asking for not only our union and all of the people that I work with all the time and how hard they all work, but for the students because your support in passing this will indicate to the faculty and that will then bleed on to the students your willingness to do the very best thing for them you can. Every day I drive down and I see the sign and I say, you know, one student

114at a time and one student at a time doesn't come cheap. Okay? It never has. It never will. But I see every single day how hard everybody in this building from the teachers, from the administration, which I've had the opportunity to work with closely. Um, from a text, from food people, from the janitor who always comes in every day, smiles at me and asks me what additional thing he can do to make my life easier. how hard everybody in this district is working and how much they want to be, you know, a success at their jobs, but not only that, be good for their kids, for our kids. They are our kids. So, please, please, please just understand that this is about as far as you can go. When if you don't accept this budget,

115we're going to start looking at diminished resources. And where it's going to come from, I know there is no way around it is more faculty because that is where the greatest amount of expenditures are. And that has a direct impact on the attitude and the climates in all of the buildings. And I don't think that we want to discourage anybody from continue to work as hard as they can. We want to keep faculty here because I know at I've been at P Regional High School since it opened. I never thought I'd ever be at a school so long that I'm looking at the history of the school, you know, in my room all the time and that I would be at one place so long. But I love this district. I love the school. I

116love these kids. And I think we have to suck it up and really do the best we can and vote this budget in. It's the best we're going to get. So that's my plea to you. I hope that you will do that. I will hope that you understand that we're working really hard and we want to keep the faculty in good spirits. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like [Music] to come up? All right. I apologize that I came in a little bit late and was unable to sign up. Um, my name is Dominique Cross and I think many of you have gotten some emails from me in the past month. Um, and I first want to acknowledge Amy and her communication. She's been phenomenal through it and I think that

117um, in looking at the budget, I have a better understanding of the why. However, I do think it's still a difficult thing for Poland taxpayers to be able to swallow as we're looking at another increase. If we look at the budget historically since 2012, we've seen steady increases. And in the short time that I've looked at it, we've also seen a lot of cuts. And so I don't truly think that there's necessarily a solution in this budget without cutting personnel. And we don't want to do that. We need to hold on to our people. We need to hold on to our programs. And I my request to the board is that if you want Poland taxpayers and all taxpayers to support a budget, then we need to start thinking of ways to break this cycle

118because the projections of increased cuts and increased costs just can't keep going. And so I know I had thrown out some favorable things for that I would prefer which are probably not favorable in this room. However, my request is that we start looking at ways to fix the problem. And I know that that's a huge undertaking and that the futures task force dove into it, you know, three years ago or so, but we're still seeing the same issues and unfortunately not much has seemed to change. Um, and so that's my request. Uh, I would like to support this budget this year, but if we keep seeing this happen over and over again, I think it's going to be really challenging for Poland. So, thank you. Thank you. And Dominique actually um kind of tease up

119my ending piece is like uh I I do agree with Dominique is that we need to start looking ahead to fiscal year 27. I do hope there's support for the budget and that we can really spend our time on April 30th at our our our forum really being able to talk with people, get their questions answered, really talking about the cost sharing. We've heard you, the cost sharing team put forward a new a new formula. But then um so hopefully then we can start looking ahead to 27 because we have to engage in some early discussions about how we're going to continue with our our financial constraints because things are not not going to get better with it with with with funding formulas and and how much it costs to educate students in the year

12025. And there is that how do we break that cycle to to quote Dominique and and then how do we become innovative and start to think in new ways to shape that sustainable future um in order to get make sure all of our students have access to the learning experiences that they deserve. And I I do think we owe it to our our taxpayers, our teachers, everyone that we have a plan so that the beginning of next year when we go into budget season, we know what that new reality could look like or what we're going to go without. So that is clear. So if from here on out we are going to go without and you can fill in the blank with whatever that is then we are clear and upfront with that with

121all of our teachers and our community members at that point because you're right Dominique and I'm sure any of the administrators uh would also chime in at any point that's your hint at anybody to say that you know I think to go back Jesse you said use the word sad CIP was sad that it's not larger than it is and there's there's points along all of this budget where it's sad that it's not where it is. Um, but we've all come to those sort of realities of like this is our financial constraint and how do we continue to protect that core and we can't keep doing what we have done this year because it it really it really hurt. Um, I don't know if any of the administrators want to say anything or have any

122thoughts. I think I think it's rough. I think every cut that we make it's I think we can see the impact asent kids. I think you're right about some piece of morale. I know that going into the fall um without a budget was brutal for our staff. That's not the way that you want to start a new year. So, I I do hope that we'll be able to get a budget passed um before the start of the year. um I would really advocate for this one, but um certainly before the start of the year, but I I I think when I think about the education I want my kids to have and that they are passionate about at school, like those pieces of things that are I have a question. Um, I think more so

123that we could have like a goal in mind because when I look at the budget and the budget historically, it's always gone up. Um, and I think town budgets always go up. My personal budget always goes up because things become more expensive. So, I think that at the budget committee meeting are we're at like a 5% increase. Is that right? Yeah, we're at a 5.2% 2% increase. So I wonder I I think it would be very interesting to know what the towns and what the rest of this board thinks would be like what is our goal? What are we looking for? Because without letting go of staff, there is no way for us to go forward year-over-year without there being an increase. I don't think unless I'm missing something. So we'll just have to kind

124of like have something that we're aiming at. Otherwise, it just feels like nothing is ever going to be low enough. Like, and I understand the tax impact completely, but we also need like a reasonable goal in mind. Oh, go ahead, Lisa. I have a [Music] question that we actually had a significant budget cut to the point where it was like very very painful from stand. So since then moving forward we've almost been for me coming back up where we to support our students even though it looks like an increase. It is increase every year, but it was because we had such a significant cut in 2011. And as far as percentes, I can see for the town of Poland that our budget increase this year. I believe 10% of that is because of the county

125or the the ASL and they also don't have control over what they get from the state. So it's it's a domino effect. [Music] And something that you know is kind of popular opinion these days is a lot of it comes down from the state like everyone's saying like uh minimum wage for edex is going up 125% or 133% of the state minimum wage of $15. So that's set in stone by state. We didn't ask for it to go up. We didn't we didn't ask for any of that to go up. There also is legislation at the state level of minimum salaries for teachers that we also are going to be obligated to meet. So these things just keep, you know, snowballing and snowballing and snowballing. Even though we say, you know, our goal every year

126is 5.3% then we get hit with a 20% increase of mandated salaries. Everything's out the window at that point. So it's kind of a moving target. And right now the state's going over their funding formula. So we might get some relief from there. But it's like this really hard and keep moving target just trying to you know really just doing our best just to get by at this point until something drastic comes down from the state. So so with the budget committee recommending approval of the budget at uh the 29,885,660 that is also my recommendation and so um I would look for a motion for consideration of someone to support the budget at that amount. a motion and a second. Are there questions and discussion? Christina, so I understand all of this and I think

127that the average taxpayer does as well. The problem is is at what point do we tell the people of Poland? It's going to keep going up and up and up constantly. And when they can't afford it anymore, which they were already saying last time, and now it's up again, and it's going to be up again, that can't just constantly get overlooked because it's nobody's fault. They still have to come up with the money. And that's that's where the problem is. I don't think that the people of Poland want anybody's jobs cuts, but if they can't afford it, that's where the problem lies. It's just so difficult because there's we need a solution. Like it I completely agree with you, but we can't magically make it's just it is an impossible situation. And I think that's

128what's hard. Like I would love to hear I think all of us would love to hear if any of them have any ideas, you know, of how to fix it. I like as a Poland taxpayer, I'm I agree, but I don't think that we can let that hold up moving forward this budget because we just don't have a solution to it. And I think you're spot on with that, Emily, is is is, you know, looking at the budget as it is and then being able to have those conversations with our with our community to be able to to get some feedback and to see if we can we can have some understandings. I you know, like I heard Dominique say she understands the the budget more and that's that that's exactly what you want to

129hear from people of like having those conversations and and and understanding where where and why the behind the budget is the key part. And I do think that forum is going to be a great spot. And then from there, uh, we do have to start planning for fiscal year 27, like what is what is that going to look like if because if we do want to, um, have even a lower percentage, which, you know, the budget committee did ask me what the percentages are with the other districts around us and we are are lower than most of the districts around us. Most districts are around anywhere from 8 to 10 to 12% increase over budget to budget. Um there you know there is RSU4 which is looking at a 3% but they also did just

130vote to close an elementary school and that's what got them to that 3.2%. So, uh, yeah, it is it's it's it's the the two conversations and I can appreciate your perspective, Christine, of them going together, but right now we've got our budget for fiscal year 26 and then, uh, as soon as we have that passed, then we start to look at what is fiscical year 27 because we, this group here, what's sitting behind you, we can't sustain another year of what we have gone through in order to get to this $29.9 million budget. and the cost sharing team did agree to make adjustments which should have an impact however much that will be over the next couple of years. Correct. Right, Steve? I I wonder if as citizens, voters, and taxpayers, we could convince the

131state to find revenue streams other than property taxes to help fund our schools. If we're agreed that there's no correlation between uh property valuations and property taxes on the one hand and people's ability to pay them on the other, then maybe we need new revenue streams. And if we belong to a democracy like we say we do, and if Augusta's listening to us like they ought, maybe we can convince Augusta to do something about this since we don't have pockets deep enough here in our district to fund uh most of the construction and renovation that we desperately need. I I would like to add one thing. I don't know if everybody is aware of this, but when the budget passed last time, there was people that were at the town hall that came in there

132crying that were elderly for real because they could not pay their property taxes because their house has been in their family. It wasn't worth what it's worth now. And that's only going to increase as we move along with other people that are going to be put in that position. And somebody has to consider that as well. If they qualify. I was just about to say that. So if they contact the town manager town, they can certainly get them in the right direction. Thank you for sharing that. Uh any other comments or questions after? I just want to get to Emily's point about the cost sharing for formula. So yes, the the team the team has gotten together and have finalized those plans, but those will be sent to the voters to vote in the changes.

133So it won't just go into effect because of us. Thank you. Take the voters. Any other comments or questions? If not, we can I ask just a a housekeeping question. Why do we vote in article 10 to spend money that we haven't raised to article 13? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Is there some kind of law that I mean, this is just dumb, but we're voting to to spend money we haven't raised yet by doing it in this order. come first. Okay. Well, see there's there's a reason. All right. Thank you. Yeah. There are no silly questions. Okay. All right. We do have a motion and a second and the the motion was to approve the superintendent's proposed budget. So, all those in favor? Oh, well, I hate it. And opposed? two people

134opposed. Okay. So, that um motion does carry. So, now we need to um consider the warrants. Do you want to speak about that first, Stacy? I'm just going to dis dismiss all of the administrators and say thank you for time, energy, and uh go home and have something dinner and I'll catch you most of you at 8 a.m. [Music] You so um so we need a motion first, right? We need a motion to approve the war documents. We have a motion and a second. A second from Steve. So, a motion and a second for the war articles. Anything we need to know, Stacy? Hold on. Okay. So, we have a motion, a second. All those in favor of the warrant articles. All right. [Music] We have a line with our names on it. Yes, you'll

135be proud of me. [Music] when Okay. So, that's a separate one. [Music] So, do you want me to wait until we get this one all back? Okay. So the the next one that we need to vote is to approve the warrant to call the actual June 10th budget validation referendum. And what second Sarah and Andrea? So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor. What are we voting on again? I'm sorry. We we are voting on calling the referendum. We voted on the articles before. F right. Yeah, that was so this is to hold the meeting for the secret ballot because we cannot call a referendum. It has to be the select people. So you have a page to sign and they will sign. So there are six times to sign because

136I need an A again. [Music] Can I ask [Music] me anything? We need to suck it up. Negotiation is somebody else. [Music] But in the meantime, it's just like you would simple and it will be quick and they can get that done with fasttracking some legislation and temporary emergency powers to uh to the governor. They can get it done and get us out of this mess. [Music] Oh, cuz they want control, right? I'm so proud of you. You're so cynical. I think I'm going to [Music] cry. So ends the bloody business of the day. [Music] We're not done yet. [Music] Oh [Music] no. Amy, while everybody's signing, I just wanted to say that this is so wonderful. Like, it's overwhelming. I get it. I don't actually think it's overwhelming. It's so organized. Like I Are

137we going to We're spreading these around the community. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's This was so helpful. Yeah. Good. I appreciate the feedback. Just like I said, I wanted a one-stop shop. We flash all the things up on the screen and people are looking for them. So now it's in one spot. Just I love how there's something from each of the like a team. Yep. that everybody can use. When I was collecting my signatures, um, I used the original charts that you sent out and people loved them. They they asked me questions. I say, "Hey, look at this nice bar chart." Yep. People loved it. I must have shown it to 20, 30 people that I talked to at the dump that day. Which bar chart was that? I used um the cost per student,

138cost per student, um the the test scores that were above average and our cost overall compared to other communities. And where did you find that or you got it from the budget committee? Yeah. No. um each budget committee I gave them a one pager so they could take something back to their their town councils and select boards to share with them or I'd always say like put it in your wallet so you have something to pull out but now you've got the whole document to share with us they're all here it's all in here do you have everything that's in the one pagers is now in the the 29 pager we can pull this out like a gun I know you put it in your back pocket because Stacy has everything that she needs to

139we can move on G, which is a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar as recommended by the ED policy committee at their March 31st meeting. Second a motion and a second. Amy, you want to talk a little bit about the development of that? Yeah, our school calendar is done through the uh LRT sending sending schools because we cannot have more than five days out of whack with each other. So, it does take a little bit of discussion as to when you're having your PD. uh to make sure that our kids have the optimal time to attend LRTC. Uh it does meet that. It also basically mirrors our cal school calendar from this year. Uh one of the highlights is the two weeks at the Christmas the vacation that only happens like once every 8

140to 10 years. So there's some excitement around that. Um but the the A team and the association have both reviewed and uh uh approved the school calendar as did the policy committee. Any questions or discussion? All those in [Music] favor? Unanimous. Um our uh next two I think we can do those together because the first one is the policy. The second one is just the administrative procedure um to use that policy and it is uh policy JR AF which is the notification of rights under furer which is the family educational rights and privacy act and the second one is just how the administration and staff uh utilize that and implement it. So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. Amy, is there anything that you want to add about those? Patrick, just just

141to clarify, it's J A-E. Okay. Yeah, these are two policies that are actually mandatory and we did not have these. So, as we updated uh policy J last month, we uh noticed that we did not have these two policies. And so basically it's just talking about that parents have the right to inspect their kids' records here at school and how they go about doing that and also directs the how the administrators respond to such of those requests. So any other questions or comments? So there was a motion to approve approve both of those both the policy and the administrative procedure. All those in [Music] favor unanimous. Um, and the next one I'll just leave that to Patrick. Great. All right. So the um policy committee uh went over the um bed policy committee went over

142the finalized performance questionnaire uh for the superintendent which is in her um part of her contract to have a performance evaluation um that we have all worked through and agreed upon um which still needs signing. Um but this uh through the ed policy committee they finalized uh or came to the board with the approval of um a questionnaire. So it now needs uh board approval which then Amy myself Emily Emily will be working on and updating to be sent out to people who need it. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve that questionnaire? Make a motion to approve that question and a second. Uh, any questions, comments? All those in favor? I had a question. Oh, okay. Um, you were just saying that you guys are going to work together to create the questionnaire.

143So, how are we voting to approve it if it's not created yet? Well, it's using everything that's in here, the questionnaire. It's just different people get different questions. Different people get different questions from this and also gathering the results is probably going to be Google. Yeah. Like like the Google form. So the process of gathering information is to be decided but the questionnaire is we've already saw that at the subcommittee. Yep. Okay. So let's do that again. We have a motion and a second. Any other questions? All those in favor? [Music] Is there anyone opposed? One opposed. Okay, moving on to our administrative team reports. Um, actually I saw a lot of things in there. Um, I was pleased to see that our PHS students have done their refined vision of a graduate because as

144we worked through the strategic plan, that was something that we left for. we talked about, but we really left for it to be refined by our student population. So, it was it was great to see that. Um, uh, middle school, lots of outreach to enrichment kinds of programs to the main Jewish museum. Uh, they had the National Guard, uh, for a keep it real program. There was lots of community uh, outreach. It was a food drive, a blood drive. It was a readme agriculture program. They were title one nights, career days, middle school play, an upcoming high school musical. Adult dead had some new offerings. Um there was just I thought lots of exciting new things. And also um wanted to recognize uh John and his crew for another successful bus fleet inspection by Main

145State Police. And thank you to John and the transportation team. Also a thank you to Linda Harvey who has made a commitment to completing the drivers training course so she can train with drivers and that I would think would be a great help in attracting drivers. So get it done. I think there's as always lots of good things going on. So anything else anybody else wanted to call attention to? Okay, let's moving on. And we had our enrollment status that was um part of our packet and Emma the student. [Music] Thank you. It's very hot in here. It is. Um just to start off, we are only a couple weeks out from the real senior celebrations and sophomore exhibitions. It was really great to see some faces in here from the school board going in

146and doing the norming on that. We have prom coming up on May 3rd. It's at the TL barn which is in South Paris. I don't really know much about it, but I looked it up and it looked pretty fancy, pretty nice. Uh, the theme is Northern Lights. I don't really Who pays attention to themes, honestly? Uh, the senior class trip has been decided. We're going to be going to Portland for a day instead of spending a night somewhere. Um, we're just going to leave really early in the morning, have breakfast provided to us, have some time outside. We get to go to Peaks Island for a couple hours. If people want to kayak around Fort Gorgeous, we have a lot of extra funds. I wonder who is the treasure of that class to provide us

147with the extra funds. Um, and we will have a sunset cruise with pizza provided from one of our teachers husband's new restaurants in Portland. So, OffTrack Pizza if you're ever in Portland. They do a lot for our class. Um, we recently have finished up with our last fundraiser for the senior class. So, we um are doing the second year of the egg my yard, which is I think really great for the community because it gives seniors the opportunity to drive around late at night like they stupidly do anyways and gives them something to do for the kids. The parents don't have to hide eggs in their yards. The seniors get to do it and we get money from it. Um, graduation is coming up. I see that date right on this piece of paper. Very

148excited. only actually only really a couple weeks left of school if you think about it cuz we have April break and then the celebration of learning. I'd like to take a moment to recognize somebody over there. He got into not only Harvard but also MIT. Hunter is extremely smart and extremely talented. JMG has the blood drive going on tomorrow. I think there there might still be some slots open. I'm not 100% sure. So, you can go ahead and come in and donate blood in the auditorium. get you get an excuse out of class for students, out of work. Maybe you'll get a cookie if they provide them. That's what I'm hoping. Uh I had a very great experience a couple weeks ago. I took a day off of school and I got to be very

149hands-on at the state house which I prepared a testimony and I was able to testify in front of the state judiciary committee um on a set of bills. Um so that was pretty cool. I got to meet people from all across the state. The referendum will be my first time voting. I was just talking about this. I just need to actually register, but it will be my first time voting. Skills USA was a amazing experience, and I think LRTC is an amazing experience for students. So, when you start looking at cuts in the future, as I won't be here on the board, I do hope that LRTC is something that is kept up very high. Uh it's not a requirement that they make it fun for us, that they spend as much money as they

150do. They don't need to rent part of a bowling alley. They don't need to buy us pizza or provide us with all that food, but it was really great and the hotel was nice. And some places you just drove up for the day. And I couldn't imagine I would be absolutely exhausted if I had to do that. Um, so that was really great. And I think nationals I will definitely reach out when I hear more. Um, and then my last announcement is just that there's two athletes this year for Poland Regional to represent at the Lobster Bowl. If you're unfamiliar, the main shrine lobster bowl classic is a big football game, the east versus the west. So, um myself and Nolan O'Driscoll will be participating in the lobster bowl, raising money for the main shrine,

151lobster bowl classic. Um we each have to raise a certain amount, but all the money goes straight to the Shriner's Children's Hospitals. The two most local ones are in Boston, so we're going to be out and about within the state meeting people from across the state as well. Thank you, Alma. So, um, school board chair report. The only thing I wanted wondered if Emily if you want to give any kind of update in terms of the PR committee and the budget forum. Yes. Um, we are meeting tomorrow at six o'clock at Elm Street to put together the slides for the budget forum. and Amy was so kind to share some of her graphs um that we will be using during our presentation. Um and yeah, we would really love for all of you to be

152there on April 30th to help answer questions to the community as we talk about the budget. Sure. I I feel that the attendance will be high. So, and then also too, I'd left you with like two of the um announcements. Um, so if you cut them just cut them in and like if you're going to like I don't know Slatteries or somewhere like the post office just see if you can hang one up um in two spots because there's 15 of you. So that means there's 30 out there floating around that maybe someone will get a look at. It's like hey I want to be part of that. So and also too that's on social media. So just another way to help spread the word. Lisa I'll make sure to give you some too. Jess

1535 o'clock tomorrow. Oh we have a lot to do. what she said. She's actually not six o'clock. Call her my co-chair. Okay. So, um next on it is the cost sharing committee and you you got the uh report final report and then the the referendum language. And I'm just quickly going to go over that and Lisa can help fill in if there is something that uh that I forget. Uh the the board members on that committee were Joe, Angela, and I. Um and what we did was follow the process that was outlined in our reorganization plan. It really was a municipal committee, not a schoolboard committee, even though there were three school board members on it. There was also a municipal leader and a community member. So there which was the outline in our reorganization

154plan. Um and we had facilitator. Um then that was Susan Bodwin who has had some extensive experience at the state level in terms of of finances. We met three times and then we collaborated on the report that's in front of you. Um and if you remember we're only talking about the additional local costs which is about 17% of our budget. And you can see that graph that that kind of shows that that little triangle. That's the piece that we were we're talking about. Um and we looked through lots of data. We looked at how other districts are doing it. We looked at some of the data that that Amy has shared with us. Part of the requirement is that we got some community input. We did that through a survey and we did have 229

155people respond to that um with some varied results. Some people felt that it was inequitable while other people felt it was equitable. So um you know it it showed us where our communities land that there are some um difference of opinion within within our communities. Um, we also concluded that there's only we would have to make some very dramatic changes in our cost sharing formula to reduce both the impact and the dollars and the percentage that um that Poland pays. And so we did we we spent a lot of time discussing that discussing the impact of valuation as we've spent a lot of time tonight talking about um you know and the question before the committee was what if any changes could we make to that um cost share and we all agreed that there

156was no magic formula and as I said when we looked at it only significant changes would give Poland the kind of relief that they were looking for and that if we did that that that would be a burden that likely mechanic falls and minet would be unable to meet financially. So we even considered not making any change for recommendation. But we also felt strongly that we do value our three communities and we value the fact that you know that we can't that we work together and we work together for all of our kids and to and so therefore we felt that some change um was needed that just to show that value and collaboration. So what we're the committee is proposing is that there's no change this year and then over two years that we

157go in the first year from 8515 we're 90 now it is 9010 to go 8515 and then the year after that to go 8020 and in terms of what that means for for dollars based on we can't say exactly that because we don't know what the budget would be in those two years. But if we looked at what our budgets currently are for Mechanic Falls, that would be in the um the first year of the change of $8515. It would be about $26,000 more. For mine, it would be about $11,000 more. That would shift um to Poland. And in the uh year after that for mechanic falls it would be about $53,000 more and about 22 for for minet. So you know it is shifting some uh of it I but there is recognition on

158on the committee that though it's not as significant as we know that that Poland would like to see that. Um and part of the reason we had started out talking about an extra year and um there are a lot of uncertainties right now in terms of school budgeting both at the state level and at the federal level and so that was why we only are recommending the two years and then for it to be looked at at again again after that we've made it had two years of change. So the next step is that it needs to go in a referendum to um our voters. So when our they go to vote on the referendum for the budget, they will also go uh to vote on this referendum which we did the lawyer did spend

159some time going through it. It doesn't reflect any change in the way we're currently looking at um what those that bucket of costs are. it um it it really is moving forward in the same way that we are doing the the 9010. Lisa, is there anything you want to add to that? Um so, so that's kind of where we're at. Just question when it goes to the voters in June, does it need to be passed in all three towns? Exactly. Individually or the total number exactly like our referendum in total. The total number needs to pass. Yes. Okay. And then one more question because this change was not an act of the board like we just approved the budget tonight. So the will of the board is to approve the budget. So we all support

160it now going forward. This was an action taken by a committee that was not ours. So is this something that we also need to promote and you know pass forward to the communities or this is I mean it's a really is a municipal referendum. It you know it impacts school and the um our reorganization plan says that that's our next that that is the next step. Um, you know, the the part that we had as as a school department had it. I mean, Amy was at was, you know, gave us all the data and supported the work of of Susan, but it was a municipal one. We end up we pay for it. That was the part of the reorganization plan, which I think was about $7,000. Just a little over. Yeah. So, yes. So,

161there will actually be three things on our referendum having to do with schools. There will be budget, there will be this, and there will be whether we want to continue to do the um two-step process, process, the district budget meeting, and then the the vote. Um, so after the two years when we come back to look at this again, do we have to hire somebody to come every time we reconsider this process or no, you don't have to. You'll bring it back to the board and just say, "Okay, is this something we want to pursue?" And if the answer is yes, not like it's a restart, like like we decided like, hey, we want to really have someone go through the process of potentially changing it, then yes, you would need to hire a facilitator.

162But if you're just like, yeah, this has worked. Uh, this has, you know, pros and cons to it. Because I think Mary outlined those that no, you don't. You just have to, you have to talk about it at a board level at this meeting. Okay. Amy, we don't have to automatically go back to that search yet. I mean, we've been 24 years now before we done it. Oh, we there was a requirement in the re reorganization plan that we the board consider it every so many years. And yeah, and we have because I thought that we hadn't not as frequent as it said. Yeah, I think the last time was was 2016 was the last time it was officially in board notes from what I could pull. Okay. And how many years does the reorganization

163plan say that we're every It's every two years. Every two years. Yeah. Yeah. So, we want to get on that that cycle. Yeah. Yeah. Who's trying to save money? Okay. So, um that is the end of this piece of our agenda. We do have a board policy that says if we're going to go past 9:00 that we should have um a board vote to continue to proceed beyond 9:00 and it's 9:05. So, I'm going to we can adjourn in this part of the meeting, but then we will probably should I move. All right. You have a second. Second. All right. All those in favor of adjourning this part of the meeting. Executive session will be in the library. So, that will give Cole and Hunter an opportunity to clean up and get home before they

164need to be back. Well, we can do it when we get in there. Okay. And let's get pass down your paint tags, please.