001We'll call the meeting to order at 6:30. Any adjustments to the agenda? I do have one adjustment. If you look under new business, letter E, uh number three, I am going to remove at this time the uh recommendation for an extension of the elementary principal, Mr. Wilcox. We have more discussion and evaluation process to go through. So, I'm going to remove that. Motion to accept the board meeting agenda. Motion. Second. All in favor? Yeah, I was just writing. Sorry. All in favor. Sorry, De. I was writing. We can't go that fast. Oh, please. Any recognitions? There is none. Considerations of minutes for the regular board meeting of April 8th, 2025 and the emergency board meeting of April 14th, 2025. Is that in the form of a motion? No. We need a motion. Motion to accept
002the meetings uh regular board meeting of April 8th, 2025 and the emergency board meeting of April 14th, 2025. I'll second it. All in favor? Thank you. No action required on the consent agenda. Any presentations? No. None. Any public participation? None. reports from the administration. Perfect. How's everyone doing this evening? Good to see everybody. Um, so I guys sent you that newsletter. I just posted that to Facebook. So, trying to keep with the theme. Um, quickly going through that, we do have a lot of happenings going on at SCES, obviously, end of the year celebration, so on and so forth. Um, we have a lot of hires. You'll hear that later from Mr. Downing. So, we are filling those positions and I couldn't be more excited for the people we're putting in. So, um, I know
003Mr. Downing will share that later. So, quickly going through, we have our eighth fifth grade graduation coming up. Looking to keep the same sort of theme as the years pass where we celebrate the fifth graders and we do sort of a tunnel sendoff for our fifth graders. Um, we had teacher appreciation last week. Huge shout out to our PI group. Um, they went above and beyond and spoiled our staff. Um, we also did have uh Stanley Chevrolet from Belfast come into the uh elementary school where they did um celebrate our our teachers as well. It was a great assembly. We had balloons. Kids were acting crazy. It really got really loud, but we had some good time celebrating our our teachers. Um, moving on, we did have our Special Olympics last on Friday. Um, we
004had some great participants and a huge shout out to um, Llaya Banks and her um, Stepping Stones team for really putting on a good show. We had the kiddos had a great little send off where we got most of the school out and we celebrated the kiddos as they went off. So, it's a good good send off, good end of the year for our Special Olympics participants. Um, moving on, we are into our spring testing window. Um, our state testing started last week with third grade, fourth grade this week, and fifth grade to follow. Um, our I Ready um, diagnostics will be starting this week as well. So, that will be our K through two mostly. Um, moving on into our summer school. Just advertising that as well, letting those letting those kiddos know that
005we plan on having good participation there. Um, our student of the month assembly went great. I heard Miss Bethky mentioning her kiddos in there. We had a good time celebrating those kiddos. Um, our last student of the month assembly is May 29th on the back. So, I would invite you guys to come to see what it's about. It's a great time. Great time celebrating kiddos. So, that will be our last student of the month assembly. Um, and then obviously Miss Cook wanted me to share our lunch humpers. we do some sort of incentive system where kids can uh choose to serve lunch for the school. So, we got six kiddos who did it the past couple weeks and I think it was great to to highlight them. Um and then uh last two things are
006we did our visual spring visual performing arts center with K through 12 with Mr. Toothacaker and his his gang. It was a great showing. Um it was great to see every kid play the instrument and it was just really good to see everyone together. I did not expect that much participation, but there was tons of people there and I think it was good to show the arts and I'm looking forward to what next year will bring. Um, lastly, could not say this enough, our custodial staff, Terry, Mike, and Bonnie. Um, pictured there is Mike and, uh, Terry. They have been outstanding. I can't tell you how many compliments I get from outside people coming in like, "Wow, the school looks so clean." So clean. Like, just don't mess with Terry and her floors, okay? Um,
007but they do an outstanding job and to get the the spaces clean for our kiddos. It's just a great way to have that positive learning environment. So, I could not thank them enough. Thank you. Thank you, Terry and Mike and Bonnie. And then lastly is that assembly. I'd love to see you guys there. I think it'd be a great time and great to see you guys there. Um, that's all I have my report. If you have any questions about it, be happy to take it. Can parent I'm assuming parents can come? Yeah, I'm going to get that out next week and we'll we'll get those going. Yes, parents can come. Um, will all the students be at the elementary school for summer school this year? Will they be at the elementary like last year or
008will they be We'll be at the elementary school. All of them. Yep. And then we'll be utilizing the high school library space for our summer um standards and course remediation. So we'll utilize that space while there are ongoing maintenance and other projects going on. Correct. That'll be the month of July. Y Thank you. Any other questions? No, but I will add that I said this earlier before everyone was here. The concert was fantastic. It was amazing. It was amazing. And the art was beautiful. It was very, very nice. Thank you everybody. Yeah. Huge shout out to Katie Bailey and everyone else involved. Hayden Levit, all those people, Cobalt, Harris. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tooth. We're in the thick of it. We're in the home stretch. Um, reporting out from the middle school, we
009have a ton of trips out. Um, as we wrap up the year, we've had our eighth grade um, science classes have been working diligently on the University of Maine windstorms project. So, they just recently went and competed there uh, in the giant engineering wave pool. Did very well. Um, had a lot of great feedback from some of the engineering students and they get to tour all the the stuff that was there as well. So, um, that was a really great hands-on project with a lot of support. We even had some individuals come from the Coast Guard to help mentor some of the kids and some of the work that they've done. Uh, seventh grade recently went to an escape room. Some were successful, some were not so successful. We were successful at heart. Um, but
010that was in conjunction with um, seventh and eighth grade math. They've been using mathematics and designing uh, escape rooms with mathematical problems. And so as a as a kind of a capstone event they went to see a real escape room and and see how that played out. So um that was really good. And then the eighth grade on the flip side of that next week they'll go and do the escape room on the 23rd of May. And then sixth grade not yet happened but will be happening next week uh they'll be going on the state MLTI trip to go and work at the University of Maine with other middle schools uh looking at technology and integration inside of the the classroom. And of course, we're just wrapping up and getting things ready for some of
011these transitions. In particular, our eighth graders becoming high schoolers and then welcoming in the fifth grade. We're working on the transition plan for those fifth graders to come up. I know it's going to break some hearts. Um high school um schedules are out. We have given um all the schedules to kids for the 2526 school year. The guidance office is buzzing with ad drop. Is buzzing the right word? Okay, buzzing is the right word. Um, but it's good. We've got a we've got it down to a really tight um system right now and it's relatively painless. Uh, we just sent some kids today from the high school to the Husten Alive um program where they spent the whole day touring the the campus and engaging with other high schools. Um, so that was really uh
012it's a really popular trip. And then obviously we've got the the end of the year graduation regalia coming uh May 22nd. You are all cordally invited to see the senior awards night where we hand out academic awards as well as a plethora of scholarships and some new ones. So, absolutely. Um no tipping of any kind of information, but it'll be it'll be a good one. Uh from the sports co-curricular side of things, uh spring sports are ongoing. Teams are are doing well. Um, we recently had pretty exciting game uh for our girls uh high school softball team where our senior Bailey Bagley hit two home runs to lead our girls to their first victory of the season against Lee Academy 14-10. Uh track lots of personal records I've been hearing from kids so they are
013moving forward and getting closer to qualifying for states and middle school kids are learning the game and having a great time. Uh we had our Special Olympics last week where we sent our middle and high school kids off to Camden Hills Regional High School for a really exciting day. Everything was very positive. Uh robotics actually started their new season last week. They had a big uh reveal party with a potluck dinner. Uh the the the new game was revealed at 8:00 at night uh internationally. So they're all excited and planning for their their new event. Just as soon as one season ends, the next one begins. And again, uh it's been mentioned a couple times, a great uh performance from our VPA department, uh K12 with that. And um last hiring process is ongoing. We
014um at this point, uh in the middle high school, we only have one position still needs to be filled with our counselor position, but everything else is going quite well. We're fully staffed as it is now. Any questions for the middle high school? Not really a question, but I just wanted to um echo and and give another shout out to the folks that did the windstorm competition, especially Miss Rambrin. I was able to join up with the guys up there at UI and watch them and they they just did fabulous. Um and also a sort of second shout out to Miss Levit and Miss Bailey for not only doing the concert but also managing everybody up to District 5 like two days before. So, thank you. They had a heck of a week. Um, and
015they really did a nice job with that, too. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Student council, they are you going to give anything tonight? Okay. She is busy. Had nothing other than what we're already told at the end of the year. We're all set then. The superintendence report. I have some information. um not as exciting as the schools, but um we've been advertising, interviewing, and hiring this month of April and May. And I want to give kudos to the administration as well as the staff that volunteer their time. Uh we been have been aggressive. Uh we have been fortunate. Uh we have some names for you tonight, but you know, to only have one vacancy at this point is is really a tribute to those folks. Um I'd recommend you pay attention to legislative action that's
016going on down in Augusta. There's a lot of things happening down there. um too many to start listing them, but it's anywhere from changes in superintendent agreements to review of the main human rights act um to other items. Um it's it's a very active legislature this this spring. You might want to check in on that now and then. Uh negotiations have been going on. We've had a couple meetings. We are still negotiating. Um, so I wanted to let uh the board know that uh policy committee, personnel committee, and BGT, building ground and transportation. We will be establishing some meeting dates. Uh, we've been waiting to see the status of negotiations because a couple of our board members serve on a few of those other committees. um policy committee have been gracious to give up a
017couple of meetings because of negotiations, but we will have uh the schedule for May and early June. Have that out probably within the next week. Uh a couple reminders, town budget meeting is Wednesday, 28 May. That's at 700 p.m. in the high school middle school cafeterium. Uh Josh has already mentioned the senior night is Thursday 22 May and that's at 5:30 graduation. Um and then graduation is the class of 2025 is on Thursday 5 June and that starts at 6 p.m. Right. 6 p.m. So there's a little difference in time. That's why I want to make sure that people hear that. Uh just a reminder uh the last day of school for students is on Thursday 12 June and that's an early dismissal schedule. And then all staff their last day is on Friday uh
01813 June Friday the 13th. So we made it through the winter with two cancellations. So that's it. Thank you, Mr. Down. Committee reports, policy committee meeting. Yes. Our last meeting was on April 28th. I believe the notes are in your packet. Um, we went over, I think, a total of six different policies and each one is currently in some stage of review. um none of them are ready to bring to you um at this time, at least not the ones that we reviewed during that policy committee meeting. We've got some questions um and want to gather some more information um and want to bring um some of the administration on board with some of these policies um and they weren't available for that meeting. So these are all in progress, various stages of completion. The
019one we do have for you this evening. Um is uh a second reading on GPB earned paid leave. You'll see that in your agenda. Um but all the details are in your notes. If you have any questions, just let us know. Thank you. Old business, there is none. Under new business, consideration of approval for the per proposed taxexempt lease with MST government lease and LLC for the purpose of refinancing and funding photocopy equipment leases, including consulting fees and related costs of issuance of such leases in an amount not to exceed $88,744 and the interest rate of 5.19 per year through. I was going to say that says thought, but I think it's through August 1st, 2029. And we'll need a motion on that. So move. Second. Is that you, Sabrina? Okay. Any discussion? Floor is
020open for discussion. Any questions? Can you just give us a brief you it what it is and and if there's anything you think we need to know about it. Um it Mr. Bradford has has arranged for it. I can just tell you that the leasing um they came in with the lowest um bid. We we did get three quotes on the leasing and it was the lowest bid and Mr. Bradford can speak to the equipment. Do you want more information on the equipment? I mean is it anything that's new or is this basically just extending a lease on what we already have? A little of each. So, some of the the printers are uh over 10 years old, so they're they're uh harder to get parts for. Some of the copers are only 5 years
021old, but we have a couple of copers that are a million copies, so they'll probably be replaced. Sorry, didn't have my mic on. And I am assuming that this falls within what we already looked at in terms of budget for next year. Yes. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? All in favor? Unanimous. Consideration of approval of the superintendent to execute and deliver the taxexempt lease with MST, Government Lease, and LLC. on such terms and conditions discussed and provided to the board and execute and deliver any such documents required to execute the contract with specialized purchasing consultant incorporated. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? All in favor? unanimous. Does anybody object to taking these as one or would you go like to go individual? Does anybody have a preference? Okay, I'm going to take them
022all as one then. Consideration of teachers to be offered a continuing contract. Ninga. M. Science teacher, grade 9 through 12. Derek Gin, special ed teacher, grade 9 through 12. Eric Humeman. Hman, science teacher, grades 9 through 12. William Jackson, ELA teacher, grades 9 through 12. Tanya Robinson, special ed teacher, grades 6 through 8. Drew Smith, library media teacher, SCES, and Sarah Wyman, library media specialist for Sport District Middle School High School. Is that in the form of a motion? No, we need it. Okay. So moved. Second. Due to personnel, we cannot have a discussion. So all in favor? Unanimous. Any objections to the next one taken as one? I see none. Consideration of teachers to be offered a secondyear probationary contract. Terry Hollowell, grade one classroom teacher. Colette Jis V all teacher. Melissa Lockat, social
023worker. Joyce Mooney, grade two classroom teacher. And Tenny Spiegel, title one teacher. So moved. Second. Once again, there'll be no discussion. So, all in favor? Unanimous. Any objection to taking the next as one? I see none. So, we'll do it. Consideration of approval of the following administrative contract extensions. Josh Toothacre, Middle School High School Principal. William Bigu, Middle School High School assistant principal. Robert Bradford, IT director and data man manager. Deanna Blanchett, business and HR manager. Matthew Littlefield, special education director. Joshua Brady, director of maintenance, facilities and grounds, and Tina Cook, nutrition director and SCES kitchen manager. Sir, there'll be no discussion on personnel. All in favor? unanimous consideration of approval for the new teaching staff. Patricia Pos, you do have a um print out just so you notice that first. I think you all
024saw it. Patricia Parson's SCES grade five teacher. Emma Spiegel, SCES, grade three teacher. Kate Maxon, SCES grade two teacher. and Haley Lindit Lop Sport District High School grade 10 math. So moved. Second. May I have permission to say a little bit about each of our new staff? Yes, you may. I gave this to the board so that they have it. But I think after discussion, we want to make sure that we let folks know. Patricia Parsons has experience at all grade levels from preK through seven. So she's been an elementary teacher all her career. uh she has experience also as a title one teacher and the reaction of the hiring committee. I asked for a statement and what came out was a relationship with students and the understanding of elementary education which is what we
025want the elementary school. I've got one for each. Yep. Uh Emma Spiegel, you may recognize that name. She is a graduate of the University of Maine just this month. Um, she is a graduate of RSU 20. She sounds just like a mum on the phone. She'll probably kill me for saying that, but she does. And what came out of that interview and the hiring? Very organized and very professional for a recent graduate. Kate Marxon. Maxon or Moxon? Josh Maxon. Maxon. Thank you. experience at elementary level, including as a reading interventionist. This is no slight here, but she's relocating or she has relocated to Maine from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Some goes one way, some and the comment there, passionate, inspiring, looks at the whole child. And then Haley Lindllo, graduate of Thomas College this May
026of 2025, a graduate of VSU71. So another local young lady and this is what came out of her comment. Enthusiastic, full of energy, and she has experience at both the middle school and the high school teaching different levels of math. So we found the math teacher. So, I wanted to provide that to you. I know the board was asking for that. I think it's a great idea and four great people come on board. Thank you. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Job well done, guys. Thank you. Second reading of GPB earned paid leave. I think I have it here. here. Thank you. Should be in your packet. I think everybody has It's like one tiny little slip of paper and it was um kind of stuck behind the the the personnel thing. Yep. And this
027is the second reading. RSU20 will comply with all applicable provisions of Maine's earned paid leave EPL law which takes effect January 1st 2021 with main department of labor rules governing EPL. The superintendent design shall be responsible for developing and implement administ administrative procedures to implement use of EPL under this policy. Notice the EPL law will be posted in a visible location in each workplace. Administrative procedures including employee eligibility, use of leave and employee notice requirements will be provided to employees and writing in through electronic communications, the school units employee handbook or other suitable means. Uh so moved. Second. [Applause] Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you ladies, gentlemen. Consideration of the budget referendum, warrant articles, and signing of the warrants. We need a motion. So moved. Second. Any questions? All in favor of signing
028them if we need it. I don't even know if we need it, but we get it done. Okay, I'm going to pass these around um two different ways. They're your name is in like very light print, so you'll know where to sign because we have to sign in the same place um for every one. And please sign with black ink. Don't mess this up. Don't mess it up. Mr. D, do we have to give this back? I know we do. The profile sheet has to go back. But does this have to go back? [Applause] Like that. I like that. culture shock. There's no door dash at 1:00 in the morning and all those other things. Well, until we went to Puerto Rico, we were settled on southern North Carolina as a place to purchase a
029part-time vacation, like retirement home, cuz we don't want to ever live there full- This is going to be in a form of a motion. I move that the vote entitled vote to call and approve the warrants for the budget meeting and the budget validation referendum and to authorize the notice of amounts adopted be approved in form presented in this meeting that a copy of said vote be included with the minutes of this meeting. Vote to call and approve the warrants for the budget meeting and the budget validation referendum and to authorize a notice of amounts adopted. that the warrant for the regional school unit 20 the regional school unit budget meeting presented to the meeting be approved and that a regional school unit budget meeting be called for May 28, 2025 for the purchase for
030the purpose of voting on the annual budget for the regional school unit for the 2526 fiscal year. That the warrant and notice of election for the regional school unit budget validation referendum presented to the meeting be approved. and that a regional school unit budget validation referendum be called for June 10th, 2025 for the purpose of approving the budget adopted at the regional school unit budget meeting for the 202526 fiscal year and consider and whether to continue the budget validation referendum process and that the form of notice of amounts adopted at budget meeting presented to this meeting be approved and that the superintendent of schools of the regional school unit be authorized. and directed to complete said notice in accordance with the regional school unit budget meeting on May 28th, 2025 and to cause copies of
031said notice as completed to be delivered to the municipal clerks of each municipality of the regional school unit for posting at the Poland places for the June 10th, 2025 regional school unit budget validation referendum. a true copy as adopted by a majority of the school board attest. Mr. Down will sign that and that's in a form of a motion. Oh, Chris second it. All in any questions? All in favor? That was a tongue twister. There we go. I'm going to give this to you to sign. Okay. 28. Yeah. I was just making sure that I didn't have visit. Thursday. That's um senior night. [Music] Date, time, and location for next board meeting? It will be 11 June 2025 at 6:30 and the finance committee is at 6. And just a reminder that's a Wednesday night
032because the referendum is on a Tuesday night on the 10th. I don't know that this will matter because I hope everyone else will be there. But um unless I'm mistaken, I won't be able to be there because I think it is the middle school. It is the way it worked out. Not enough snow days, right? middle school celebration. There we go. And follow up real quick. Um May 22nd for senior night at 5:30 graduation. Mine's on. May 22nd, 5:30, senior night. June 5th, 6:00 p.m. graduation. Both in the air conditioned gym. And the elementary is 12th Thursday at 9 a.m. Mine's on be June 12th at 9:00 a.m. Yes. And then we also have our student month assembly on the 29th at 9:30 a.m. May 29th. Yep. 9:30. Thank you guys. Thank you. Motion to
033adjurnn. All in favor? Thank you.