001Everyone, any adjustments to the agenda? I do. There's a couple. Um, first of all, just a correction on name under [Music] 12 should be Britney Golding. G O L D I N G. And then I have a couple additions under business. First of all, under letter [Music] Under A. Then there's B. Consideration of approval. Coach, if you would add a C. We're going to move the others down. I'd like to ask consideration of approval of Ria Franklin for the CSU District High School guidance council 2025 2026 and then that would make the currency D current E F and And we will add letter G. It is to go into executive session under one MRSA 6A and that's for discussion with the incoming superintendent. We were going to do that and we've reached that time where
002you're going to have a discussion with the incoming superintendent. That's my adjustments. Thank you. Can I just clarify? So, is there also an earlier executive session under 4056D? Yes. It doesn't seem to have an doesn't really have a number attached to it. Yep. That that Sabrina is coming after the committee meetings. Okay. Thank you. Let's let us see, right? I guess it would be C under committee reports. Yes, that would be on the committee. Thank you. Action to accept the board meeting as presented. For a motion. Yep. Second. Oh, any discussion? All in favor? Made the adjustments on yours. Thank you. I'll give you a minute to get situated. Any recognitions? There is none. Considerations of minutes for the regular board meeting on March 11th, 2024. That's in a form of a motion. Any discussion?
003All in favor? Thank you. No action required on the consent agenda. I didn't see the minutes in the packet either on those either. The minutes are on the on your laptop. If you go into those links that are on your agenda, that'll pull them up. We're trying to save paper. I believe Mr. Toothacaker will be doing the NESC presentation. I got you, Bob. Don't worry. Mike. Mike. So, we've been talking about this for the better part of a year and a half now and and just updating you guys that we are in process of working through our collaborative conference visit. Um, and I wanted to after finally the the report was voted on by the commission in March. And so taking time to share that report with you as a board and kind of giving
004you a thumbnail sketch of what um what the work looked like and what the findings were and what our work is um moving forward for the 2526 school year in preparation for a dennial visit in November of 26. So just a quick review um essentially the the NEAS evaluation system has the school in a position to uh first do a self-evaluation based upon five discrete standards. Learning culture, student learning, professional practices, learning support, and learning resources. And within those standards are embedded uh indicators. And the primary indicators that we're looking at um first are what are called foundational elements and those are non-negotiable um indicators that must be present in a school to be accredited. Um so on a rubric it is truly binary. Either they are present in the school or they're not present
005in the school. Uh under standard one, the two foundational elements that we were focused on um were with the school providing a socially and emotionally safe environment and then also the school has a written document describing its core values and beliefs essentially what amounts to a vision of the graduate. Under standard two for student learning, the foundation element we were tasked with looking at was a written curriculum that is consistent in all format and across the school for all departments. Under professional practices, uh the school needed to have a growth in school improvement plan. Uh you can disregard 36 3.6A because we don't house a CTE program inside of our high school. So that's not applicable. Standard 4 for learning support. The school has an intervention strategy designed to support learners. And under five, the
006school's site and plant supports the delivery of instruction, curriculum, programs, and services. And the school provides a physically safe environment for students and adults. Essentially, when we start this process, those foundational elements are are our first level of of threshold, looking if we have those. Um, in the 23 24 school year, staff were tasked with essentially writing a self-evaluation report based upon those foundation elements as well as in the packet I just handed out to you, you'll see there's a variety of other indicators as well. Um, so we we spent that year really looking at and diving into our practices and our systems and our structures and evaluating ourselves. In November of 25, NEAS then sends a a a team of teachers and administrators selected across the state. They embed themselves in the school for
007two days using that document, that self assessment as a guiding document and essentially check to see if that's what's happening inside of our school. As a result um of that visit, we've come out with four priority areas for our learning and our growth. Um the first one uh is under uh one of our foundation elements. We need to develop a vision of the graduate. We have a variety of mission statements and vision statements. Um but they are they are focused on the school and what the school provides. uh the the shift in focus in this particular set of standards has the vision and mission statements written in a way that communicates what we expect a student or a graduate of of RSU20 to possess. And so our work in here and there's a this whole
008list of of bullet points is essentially our work plan for for next year is to take our existing documents and vision and mission uh translate that into something that speaks more to the graduate um and then make sure that they are embedded in all of our documents and drive our documents and our processes. So that's priority area number one. I probably should pause here and ask if there are any questions as we go. Do you I'm assuming but I don't want to assume like each one of the priorities is are they all are you working on all the priorities or simultaneously and then there's I'm assuming a timeline for each one of these bullet points. Yep. And that do we have to give that to NAS or is that something that's fluid within the school?
009That's something that we provide to NIA in terms of our deadline and essentially we are this is our work plan for the 25 26 school year for our professional time. Yep. Yep. The second priority area that we are tasked with is developing a specific school improvement plan. And so we are going to as a staff look at um identifying data sources um that are reliable and longitudinal in an effort to um to create a growth plan for the school as opposed to district-wide goals. we're really going to get into a more um a more focused set of um goals and plans. So that's the second part for our priority area. The third is one that the school identified in talking about is um looking at a way to remodel our school leadership stakeholder model um
010development. Essentially, we had been relying on older models when the school was much larger and had larger staff where we could develop and have committees. Um, we're at a point right now where we're small enough that committees are actually um inefficient for us to use because it it slows that down. So we're going to look at next year how do we build some of these structures to involve not just the staff but students community members to develop kind of a leadership vision and plan for how we disseminate and make choices make disseminate information and make choices within the school. And then the fourth priority area uh is school curriculum. Um we're going to continue to look at auditing and having cycles of of review. And the other piece of this um that I know we
011had talked a little bit about policy is ensuring that we have a format and a way to make the um the current curriculum accessible to the community um and readily available for review at any time. So it's a real living document. Um in that documentation there were also many many accommodations and and I can go through kind of the the synopsis of that. Um the committee was was very impressed with the physical plant that we had. The the the building was beautiful. They had lots to say about the art and the facilities and the library and the classroom. Um so that was um that was a big accommodation. Another one that came out clear in all of the accommodations was the amount of professional resources that the board and the community has supplied the school
012for student supports and mental health. Um they were it was remarkable to them in a in a district RSI to have counselors, social workers, McKini Vento liaison all there in a collaborative sense to help support our students. Um and then just in terms of the professional the professional development um available for staff in the outdoor learning spaces. So, lots there really for us. Ruth kind of asked the question earlier. Um, these four priority areas are a working document for the 2526 school year. Um, it's our job. We're tasked with developing a work plan and a timeline. And essentially, um, November 1st of 2026, hopefully that same team or some version of that same team will come back this time for three days and give a more comprehensive dentennial visit. um you'll get a report very
013similar to the one that you've got, but it will be u more comprehensive in evaluating not only the foundational elements and the priority areas, but all the other standards as well. So, it's a long hard process, but it's good. It it forces us to be reflective and work um and get feedback from an outside source uh for an educational audit. So, any questions for for me? Just another question quickly. Sorry. Yeah. Um obviously I mean the these are some pretty lofty goals that I know you guys are going to work diligently at but if something is not met is part of the process that they ex that we as a district explain why they weren't met so like is it resource wasn't available or funding wasn't available or so that yeah the the old model
014have I don't I don't think anybody you have you gone through the old model okay so the old model used to be um very heavy-handed and and dictatorial almost in a gotcha sense where they would come in, they would do this. Um, you wouldn't receive the report until days after. Um, and you really didn't have a lot of say in how that report was was handled. Um, and it was it was it was very much a pass fail. Um the the accreditation in 2002 was the reason why we have the the main office area linking the junior high to the the high school because we had failed under the um for the the site plans, right? This is different. The model that the the NEAS is entertaining right now is that these goals are are
015not necessarily to be met, but they are to be aspirational is the quote that they would use. And so, um, this document here is really a work plan for us to to improve. And so, if we don't meet those things, it's not it's not so much about not meeting it. It's it's about making adequate progress during this. So, um, it's perfectly fine that if we hit the 2026 November meeting and we've not met all these bullet points, but we should be showing a plan and a growth to meeting those. Does that answer your question? Yeah. Um, first of all, thank you for this. It's certainly helpful to get a better understanding of what they were looking for. uh in the report that we were sent previously where I I'm sure you don't have the pages
016necessarily in front of you, but this is this is close closer to the end where they're actually going through all the priority areas. And they say that they recommend modifications to most of the priority areas. They actually took one out, but I'm having a hard time really understanding what they mean by modifying. Like to me this just reads as you said something and then I don't know I guess you responded to it but then they're also responding to it but I'm just not understanding what they're asking you to do differently. So let's so on the very first one you know the goal statement priority number one goal statement. um you had a response that says develop a vision of the graduate, measurable, blah blah blah. And then they say their response is that they agree
017there was no vision of the graduate and agree with your process. And so I'm just trying to figure out why all of these say recommend a modification to the unless that is just meant to imply like this is a priority area you have to work on. it is with the with the additional feedback from the chairs who were on the visiting team of additional bullet points of things that they'd like to see in the process. So are the suggested action steps theirs? It's a combination. It's like bullet points review existing documentation bring together blah blah blah. Is that what you put forward or that's what they put forward or some combination of the two? The first part is what the school put forward as a recommendation. And the second part is what their their language
018is and the bullet points are pulled from their documentation of what the indicators are for those for that particular priority area. Does that make sense? Yes. So is it fair to say that the only thing that I would say sort of substantively differs between what you all identified as priority areas and what they identified is the one that was actually removed by the visiting team. Correct. And that and that is going to be a driving factor. So they originally in the in the original visit they had we had technical issues in getting them access to the written curriculum in Google Docs. There were sharing issues and so their initial rating was that as a foundation element we did not have a written curriculum. So um challenge that in the hearing um made it available but
019recognizing that Google Docs and the sharing of that file is hard in a broader sense. So we opted to remove that as a priority here but keep the priority goals of the curriculum piece specific to now looking at Atlas Rubicon and other software to make sure that the curriculum is available. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Any public participation? Anybody sign up? Diana beside you. Report from the administration. David could not make it. He had to get home. There was an issue that had to be taken care of, but he did have his report and I put those uh by each board members so they can look at that. Uh he will be here in May if there's any questions. Yes. Yeah. But he put a lot of stuff
020in there and I believe it's online as well. He made sure that. So David is not here to present tonight. I can tell you that having talked to some students that did the last month the the planetarium thing and this this week is the whale thing. They are really really loving it. I'm hearing kids walk around like trying to make whale sounds. Like they're very excited about this. And then for in my in my with the two that I have, they're actually like at home looking stuff up and like drawing them. And now I've got came home to a bunch of fish tanks being set up. So um the experential learning stuff that they're incorporating over there, the kids are eating it up. It's really wonderful to see. Thank you. Mr. Toothaker, you're up again.
021I have a report for Lee Kobe for student council after this. I can do that. We're going to have you just stand there. All right. Like to sit down at some point. No, it's good. Um, do you want me to start with Elise Col's student council report for the student? Okay. So, Elise couldn't be here this evening. Um, she wrote up that she was happy to report that the March Madness 2025 was a huge success. Uh, had the most student participation that we've seen in many years, even that grades that usually struggle during these type of events, typically the younger grades, participation wise, had good turnout. We did things very differently this year, having only one full day to do the activities and gain points. Believe everybody preferred it that way. Uh, and there was
022feedback from both teachers and students that it was a much easier schedule to follow than previous years. And it looks like this might be a new model for things to go moving on. So I would say from a school administrator standpoint, it was less chaotic and I found that the kids had more engagement and fun. So any questions for the student side of things? I believe the juniors won, didn't they? They sure did. They won't let you forget. That's right. Thank you. All right. uh report from the middle high school. Uh in we'll start with athletics across the middle high school. All sports are up and running. We have all teams fielded. Uh we just can't get outside. So the gym is a very busy popular place from 2:30 to 8:00 most nights. Weather like
023this doesn't really help. Uh we have our first games potentially scrimmages this coming Saturday. Cross our fingers if things go okay. Um but we're just waiting to get outdoors. Um I'm happy to announce that um the MPA principles award uh was awarded to Bay Neetto this year uh on April 5th um all the principles and award winners from the state gathered in Brewer for a lunchon uh to recognize and honor those students. And as a result of that um it's also nice to announce and I'm happy to announce that Bay won the Richard D. Ross $1,000 scholarship. um there was 10 10 scholarships given out and he was one of them. So he'll have a plaque and a pin. We'll do a more formal dedication and recognition at the senior awards night later on in
024May. Uh from the high school side of things, the master schedule is 99% done. Yeah. So, um, it's a it's a it's a process, um, of kind of finagling and working with things and sliding things and putting Mr. Bradford through the paces of locking and unlocking things and moving. But I think we're we're at a good space right now. We're just doing some manual oneoffs and changes with schedules. We should have that ready for teacher review, not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday with rosters to make some changes and hopefully have student schedules in their hands before they go home um for Memorial Day. Um a couple of schedule pieces. April 16th, we have a a schoolwide assembly coming and I sent out notice. Should have come out about 4:45 today to you. Um, we are
025partnering with the main Bureau of Highway Safety and a group called Choices Matter. So, we will have them in that afternoon to give a a speech, have a motivational speaker, talk to the kids about choices. Um, students in grades 6 through 12 will hear the motivational speaker, Steve Ant, speak. Um, after that, the middle school will go off and do some other activities with their adviserss. Um, and the main bureau of highway safety has a bunch of interactive displays in terms of driving simulators, um, interactive displays around driving safety. So, that'll be happening the 16th. And then on April 17th, we are having an open forum, open meeting for all parents of eighth graders raising up to 9th grade to talk about four-year planning, scheduling, and some of the things they should be aware of
026as we begin to dive into the 25 26 school year. Any questions for me about the middle school, the high school, the athletics? Um, just because you mentioned BA's scholarship, can you remind us the schedule for the like senior night and the graduate? I know graduation is the 5th, but when is the My brain is jello and Chris Garrett's going to say May 22. Got it. 5:30. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's going to go quick. April break's going to be here before you know it and then it's going to be a whirlwind to June and you're going to blink and it's going to be gone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Downing. I just have a couple points uh to bring up. first uh uh upcoming committee meetings will be policy committee. We'll be meeting
027on Monday, April 28th, and then we'll be into May and we'll have some schedule for May coming up, but we do not have any schedule at this point. Uh secondly, um I think I found my retirement job. I'm going to become a weatherman. Um but with the decisions being made uh one reason why we did an early um no activities after school today and why is that we have been trusting the weatherman and things changed but we stayed in school. So, with that being said, we are close. This is not official uh at this point, but we are close to say that what we're looking at for the end of the year, and I hope I don't jinx things, um is that Thursday, 12 June or June 12th, depending how people like to say it,
028would be the last student day. and June 13th, which is the Friday or 13th June, uh would be the last staff day. And that's based on we've had two snow days. So, we've only had to move that uh back two days and graduation always remains the same once we establish it. That is June 5th and that is at 6 6 o'clock in the gymnasium with air conditioning if needed. So that's that's the weather forecast. Um tomorrow will be sunny in the mid40s. Uh well, excuse me, I was slipping into weather. And next week should be warm. So I'm hoping those days will remain. And then the third thing that I have is um we do have some uh resignations that will be happening so that next year we've already started interviewing and looking for filling
029positions. But um up at the elementary school uh in the K through2 sped resource room, Matthew Walton has uh attended his resignation. Uh we have grade three Michelle Shepard, grade five Zachary Seldon, and then at the high school level we have Chris McBride, high school math. So we are going to have an active spring and summer interviewing, but we've started early and you will see that one of our adjustments to the agenda uh is actually a position that we'll be filling tonight, which we're very excited about. So that's my report. I'll answer any questions if there are any. Yep. Yep. Just so you know, there were 13 guidance position opened on serving schools through pages eight today. I didn't go the rest of the pages. Thank you. Committee reports. Policy committee. you have um notes
030or minutes from our April one meeting in your packet. And I think I spoke last time about how we are going through primarily the required policies or other policies that are relevant to um or needing change in the near future. So you can see that we've looked at quite a few JIC student code of cond conduct JLF child prevention and response. Um and we've been developing the JLFA and JF R and JF documents that go alongside of that. Um those will be coming to you at our May meeting. I believe we're just about ready for those to come forward. Um we looked at GBP, earned paid leave and GBPR, the administrative procedures, IMC, guest speakers in school, IMB, teaching about controversial sensitive issues, um and GBEC. All of those were covered in our last meeting.
031We did have one last night as well um where we did continue to look at the JLF um policies as well as help me out Ruth. What were the other two letters? The letters threw me off. We we came up u Mr. Mr. Toothaker was kind enough to have um created a draft of the R that went with the child abuse reporting thing to make it easier for teachers and staff to get the information they need in advance before they have to call. Um and then we checked out some of the language on the code of conduct to make sure it matched. We looked at a couple of MSMA policies and found that in one situation ours was more thorough and so we decided to keep that. Um and we have I think four that
032are coming to the board for first reading on on the Yeah. Thanks. So and then there weren't anything so really concerning like ours were missing. It's just either we didn't have one. We had a procedure but didn't have the policy like the earn paid leave and then some of the other ones it was just we added a couple of words that embodied our school that maybe the prior the prior sample didn't have. So it wasn't anything, you know, revolutionary that we added. Oh, I I lied. There is something really neat that I Thank you, Miss Laura, for mentioning that is in one of the policies um where there's uh it it mentions the second policy. There'll be links like the ones that are actually connected versus a cross reference. There'll actually be a link. So
033they if it's let's say it's the bullying one, there'll actually be a hyperlink to that policy. Um so that if they're looking at two simultaneous policies, they can read them and and be make sure that they're seeing what both of those entail. Yes. Thank you. Finance committee meetings April 8th and 11th. We met We didn't have an official meeting tonight. um because we was down to one board member but um the only thing of really um CS board is behind for two payments and I believe that they're going to contact them and get it taken care of. So um as far as the the budget summary goes, we're actually um under by 9.61%. So that's good, too. Um last month they were actually behind. CSU was by two, but they brought it in the day
034before. So the one but we are back at two again. So other than that that's it on that one. The next one we're going to in form of a motion consideration of approval to enter into executive session for the purpose of labor contract negotiations 1 MRSA 4056D and that's in a form of a motion. Second. All fabul. All right. Old business, there is none. Under new business, consideration of approval of transfer of Vicky Cox, grade 5 classroom teacher to seven and 8 ELA teacher. And that's in a form of a motion. Second. All in favorites. Consideration of approval of coaches and volunteers. John Fry, varsity baseball coach. Josh Wright, varsity baseball volunteer. Can we take these separately, please? You want to take them separate? Yes, I do. Okay, I guess we'll take them separate. First
035one, John Fry, varsity base coach. That's in a form of a motion. Okay. You can when it involves personnel, the only thing you can discuss is a position. You cannot discuss a person. Okay. So, that's an form of a motion and you second it. Any questions? See none. All in favor? I don't know. Against abstain. I don't know. Did three abstain? Two. Where does that go? Way to vote and wait is from the same town. So stop and then stop and then three extensions. No, I think she said I said voted for three extensions. You voted against I'm sorry. I didn't see I didn't see her. So, Nobody abstained. It was all five, right? Approval for coaches and volunteers. Britney Spalding. Uh, Golding, I'm sorry. Jenna Keech, Sharon Keech, High School softball volunteers. That's in
036a form of a motion. Second Chris as noted personal matter. So that all in any questions on the positions? All in favor? Next one, Marie Maria Franklin as a high school counselor for the 2526 year. And that's in the form of a motion. Julie. Okay. I put just so you know, I put your profile. Yep. Yeah, it's right here. Thank you. All in favor. Considerations of approval of the fund balance plan. Chris, I don't see here the family medical. Oh, shoot. [Music] It has to be on there. has to vote on it in order for us to move forward and have it be part of our budget. It's not on there and it wasn't made in the adjustments. So, We'll have to have another board meeting in order to approve that and then have to
037do all the budget work. You can't add it because correct agenda. Correct. So that'll make making Yep. It's another meeting. So that will make um you won't be here. Letter D and E C. We'll have to go on to the next. We'll have to have a meeting um after April vacation unless you want to have it during April vacation. I just soon have if you anybody's around unless I zoom. May I ask a clarifying question? Yes. Do we follow Robert's rules? Apparently, you may amend the agenda after it's been adopted. Higher threshold. Changes are not made after the assembly has agreed to the original order of business. I'm going to make a comment. I know that you can, but we we haven't in the past. Is it something that we want to do? by Robert's
038water which is what we follow. Yes, we can do it. I know. Yes, we want to do it. Do we want to move this forward? I think what I think I I guess what my point was we normally don't even when we've done this when we've done this mistake but um but it is not budget. We need Yes. Okay. I'll make a motion. Why not? Thank you. To add the approval of the fund. No. No. the P. So, is that going to be H or are we going to make that G and then the executive H? We would my recommendation would be that the fund balance plan is not affected by it is not but the budget itself would be. So, we would want to put that in before the budget vote which has been
039now become G F. So we would make this paid family medical leave F move the consideration of the budget to G. Yep. And then we would we have added H which is an executive session to go into discussion with the incoming superintendent. Okay. I will make aside from does it have to be a motion to add the item and then and then Okay. Add the item first and then we make a motion and then we make a motion on what it is. Okay. And we have to make another motion to accept the adjusted agenda. Okay. So, we're going to make a motion to add PFMLA. Right. PFML. PFML. Consideration of consideration of to purchase coverage from guard. No, it's a consideration to add the motion to purchase coverage from Guardian to provide the private PFML
040plan in lie of participating in the main PFML PFML PR program. That's what it says there. All right, we'll do it. Why not? Okay. I know it. We're going to make a motion to add the purchase coverage from the guardian to provide a private PML plan in lie of the participation to participating in the main PFML program in the form of a motion. That's in the form of a motion. Second. That's to add it to the agenda. So, it's me and then Ruth. All in favor? Okay. Thank you. Yep. That's to add it to the agenda. Motion to adjust the to accept the agenda as adjusted. Make a motion to accept the agenda as adjusted. Second. All in favor? Okay. Okay. Now, we're on the consideration of approval of the fund balance plan and that's
041in a form of a motion. Second. And um you have the copies of this workshop. And you have a copy in your packet. So um every year at this time the board reviews the um fund balance that exists with the district. Um, we currently have reserves that total 700,732,000 $732. We are proposing that we reduce those reserves and bring those funds back into the available funds to reduce the assessments which was part of our plan for the on that budget revenue worksheet. This will have to go to the budget meeting and have the public approve it, but the board has to approve it first before we can move it forward. So, it's essentially just to approve the 2025 proposed fund balance plan as presented with the reduction of $300,000 in the reducing reserve accounts. $300,000.
042It still leaves $400,732 in the reserves for capital um reserves, sped, transportation, and fuel oil stabilization. Yes. Well, we just keep decreasing every year. So, I'm a little getting a little bit concerned now, but we need that in the form of a motion, right? Yes. Yep. This is the discussion. Yeah, I know. Anybody else have any comments? Can I ask a question? Go ahead. We're in comments. What do we I'm sorry. What do we normally have in our fund balance the last three years? What we have what we have presented in each budget is 1.3 million used from the fund balance. We did not have the 1.3 million available because we have used been using it. So we have the 900 as you look at the top of this form we have the 992,000 available
043plus we have this reserve these reserves and the reason we put monies into the reserves is because there was a time when we had excess fund balance in the state if we didn't tag it the state would um they have like a threshold it was 3% they moved it up to 9% during co they're bringing it back down to like 5% So we school districts put money into these reserve funds and we certainly have used them for capital reserve. We haven't had to use them for the others as of yet. Um but now that our general fund balance basically our undesated fund balance has dropped below the number that we need to reduce assessments for the towns. This is why we're asking to move some of the reserves back over. So is historically for our
044district only having 400,000 low um five years ago we had no we had no reserves at all and we had no reserves. We had undesated fund balance but we didn't have these reserve accounts or just they're approved every year by the by the voters. Um the board then has to approve use of them. Like for instance we last year we said we would use the capital reserve to do the tanks or the Yep. for for one of the projects which we do. It's just if in the past they made us take it out. We we all had it in one balance but that's why we divided it up. Okay. I just wanted clarification to make and and and to your point um Denise yes our our available savings because essentially this is like a savings.
045These are all together. You couldn't you know we you you or I would have a savings account right is is reducing is reducing is going down because we are using it to offset town assessments. So we will still we retain the undesated fund balance and then we'll have the other 400,000 as our reserve. Is that correct? We'll have the 400 as reserve. We are we are pledging the 992143 for next year's budget and what happens is we will have leftover funds from 2025 and then we will be okay we we assume that we will have leftover funds we typically do 92 was basically the from fiscal 24 right okay what's what we what we what we have available based on the fact that this year we've promised 1.3 we we won't use that whole 1.3
046but can't promise any of it even though we know we're not going to use it all because it's just not good fiscal practice. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All in favor? Okay, we back the first reading down too, right? The next one is to prove the PFML. The next one actually is Oh, is it? Oh, I thought I'm sorry. I told her that we moved it. Okay, that's my fault. Sorry. That's all right. The next one is the first reading of GPB earned paid leave. That's in a form of We don't need to do anything. No. Okay. to approve the PFML. I should have kept your thing, Deanna. Um, the RSU to purchase to use a private insurer, Guardian there, right? To purchase coverage from Guardian to provide a private PFML plan in lie
047of participating in the main PFML program. I should have kept your paper over here. Can we use motion that is in the form of a motion. Second. Any questions? See none. All in favor? Okay. Now it's consideration of approval of the 2526 budget and that's in a form of a motion. The floor is open. Any questions? We have them. So, we was 4.04, right before this, before you went and made cuts. Correct. Piece of budget was 4.04, right? So, right now we're at 3.31. Yes. And the two towns are um see what's 5.27 with this. Yes. And Stockton's 5.97. Yes. But the overall budget, the overall assessments, the overall assessment is 5 63 635 and we were directed by the board to get to get the budget um under four, which you can see in
048that box. So we've got it down 3.31 and then we were instructed to get the overall assessment on the six which we've done as well. So that's we're presenting as a budget which if approved by the board will go to the voters on June 11th or whatever that Tuesday is. Can I ask a question? Is it the 10th? The the I don't second Tuesday of June 10th. I think it's the 10th. June 10th. Yes. And the public hearing is on May 28th at Wednesday. Can you walk us through the adjustments with a little more detail? Yes. Um we looked at uh it um discussion was brought up about um I'm I'm doing the IT subscriptions. That's a software that was asked about. Uh the IT director cost was a a budgeting correction that we that
049we made uh during the budget workshops. Uh we had a decrease from the initial W County Tech Center assessment. So we've put that in there. Um we looked at transportation of fuel and the sublines over the last couple years. We felt that we could decrease that by 10,000. Um we when we had the administrators together, we looked at some supplies and uh we looked at what we we do get grants or we get some funding outside of budget for special ed. So we looked at that. um you paid family medical leave by going to private. It saved us 20 20,000 and then the after school program we can use uh resources that are remaining from title grants to reduce that as well. And so we put that towards the local budget which in turn decreases
050what the budget line would be which then ultimately helps with the assessment to the county. So that after school program piece is title one. Yes. Well well the ESA grants we have we have several. Is this going to allow the program to continue as is or going to require cuts? Nope. No. No cuts to the after school program as is. And do we know which subscriptions were cut from the IT line, Mr. Bradford? I would lean towards you. Yes, we cut u the document management. uh we cut uh multiffactor authentication and we um cut some training. So the subscriptions were the multiffactor authentication and the document management. So no classroom subscriptions. Correct. How many classroom subscriptions do we have total? Stand by. Deanna, while he's checking that, will you the highlighted of the food program,
051food service, the 9430. Mhm. Where is it coming from? I think is what she's asking. Yeah. Where where's that coming from? The increase. That's that's um been there since the beginning of the budget workshops. Okay. So, it's because in the pre because we that was another situation where we had an excessive fund balance that the state indicated we needed to reduce. Last year we were able to reduce assessments by 174 town assessments by 174,000. That used up the majority of what we had available to for for the fund for the food service has its own fund balance. It's a separate fund. Um, so that meant that even though with a very minimal increase to the food service budget, I think it was under 1% or under 2% that it's the cost came back basically because
052we couldn't off we didn't have the fund balance to offset it again. Okay. All right. You ready, Mr. Bradford? Indeed. Um total subscriptions including the the uh nonpaid subscriptions we have 36 classroom subscriptions. How many are paid? Standby. Sorry. I feel like they thought they were going to get rid of some of the like duplicated ones like and I already like I thought they were moving. I didn't hear that right. I thought we didn't have a question. We don't. So why aren't you asking that question? Huh? How come? I don't know. Uh we have 35 paid subscriptions out of the 36. Yeah. And I'm sorry, Mr. Bradford, I didn't catch the first piece that um I know one of the subscriptions you said was cut was document management, multifactor authentication. And was there one more?
053The other item was training. It wasn't a subscription. All right. Training. 49,000. Thank you. So our average fiveyear total is an increase over the last five years each year an average of $419,000. 419601. Mhm. Sorry, I'm following what your I was just seeing what the increase was each year. That's all. I was just talking out loud. That's not every year. That's in the total of five years, right, Diana? No. Oh, I see what you're looking at. Right here. No, you're looking at the year average each year is 419,000. That's a fiveyear average, but it's yearly because your fiveyear total is 2,98,8. I was just talking out loud. The um the 10-year average for assessments um is 3.82 for Searsport and 2.67 67 for um Stockton Springs or 69,353 for Stockton Springs and 135,288 for Searsport.
054I just have another question if you guys don't mind going back in regard to the IT subscriptions. I'm just curious about the decision behind that in regard [Music] to going back to the security, the training, the management as opposed to classroom subscriptions. What was the thought process behind that? the classroom subscriptions are used. And so I my understanding from the board when the request for the cut was from the IT line, not from the school subscription lines. I don't think that's the way it was presented. I think I spoke about leaning more on experiential education and hands-on learning than subscriptions that part was spoken along with that request. So I was just curious what the thought process was in switching over to these other pieces which are security and training and we have other things
055that I've um I can speak to the meeting the admin meetings that we were trying to look at in areas that would not directly affect students. I think that was really what the administrators were focusing on. Well, that's confusing because I thought the whole purpose for the multifactor thought was because of it has student data because I think I talked to follow up on what she was talking about the exper experiential I can't speak tonight um teaching was to look at some of the math and reading subscriptions that some of them are a little bit duplicative like the Lexi and I ready and things like that. So that we didn't find any form of um subscription that is you know maybe one teacher prefers over another but there that the amount of the amount of
056time that we had to review the budget and make these reductions um I don't believe allowed for that sort of review however because the IT section is within a cost center those are conversations that can happen after it the the the reductions that Mr. Bradford offered up that amount of money could potentially be used be reduced somewhere else if the board or if it's determined that we would should have the multiffactor authentication first. But those were the things that did not directly affect student experiences from my understanding of being in the meetings. Okay, I've got administrators sitting here, but I'm just telling you what I know. The bottom line is we were given an amount that we use as a target and we said we're going to stay away from anything that affects the kids
057as much as possible and that's what we did and that's what we came up with some of these figures which you can see that you know they they pretty much do not touch the students and we trying to get under that figure that we were provided and that's we met as an administrative team and we discussed it and these are the ones that we felt were the best to bring to the board. If there's redirection, we need to hear it. I don't have redirection because I'm going to trust that um these are the things that we can do without Mr. Bradford. I guess I am asking that question because I thought that the multiffactor authentication was pretty important in our security. The the reductions that I put forth were things that we can do without
058without reducing the security level or the impact of the students. Okay. Well, that's good to know. These were these were additionals, right? To beef it up even more. No, but I would like to continue a conversation down the road about the amount of time students are looking at screens and the amount of time we're utilizing these subscriptions in place of hands-on learning and creative lesson planning in the classroom. Okay. Any other comments? Any other questions? I I would just like to thank our administrators for um going back and doing this hard work to get to a number that was in line with what we requested. So noted and appreciated. Yes. Thank you. Anybody else? All in favor to send this budget. Thank you. Consideration of approval to enter into executive session for the purpose of
059personnel matters MRSA 4056A. It's a form of a motion. Second. All in favor uh 7:55. Just so all know that will be be 13 May because the next one is during April vacation, right? And so do you want to set the one that would normally be afterwards as a workshop? I got to talk to Chris about that afterwards. Um, date and time. Are we ready, Bob? Yes. Okay. Date and time, May 13th. Um, motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Okay. Laura, thank you for staying late. Bob, thank you. Yes. Thank you, Bob. Sh. Bob, thank