RSU 22 School Board Mtg December 17th 2025

001Yeah. Mic check. Check. Check. Mic check. everyone and welcome to the Hampton Academy Library for the RSU22 board of directors meeting. Um, everyone is present except for Ellen. All right. And now I will invite everyone who can to join me. Stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Um, now I'll accept a motion for approval of the minutes for the meeting on November 19th. >> I make a motion to approve the meetings from the November meeting. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Yes, Les, there is. So, um, at the end it says that Jessica Barnes seconded, um, the

002motion to adjurnn and she wasn't there. So, it was I believe it was Shelley Sergeant. So, if we could reflect that in the minutes, any other um discussion on the minutes. All right. All those in favor approving the minutes as amended. Any abstensions? She did. So all approved except for two abstensions, Barnes and Doyan. All right. Any recognitions this evening? And there are no persons um desiring to address the board. I only have one. Oh. >> Oh, yes. Sorry. I'm jumping way ahead. >> All right. We do have an adjustment. Um under article item 15, new business, we're going to discuss an act on an overnight field trip request. Um so recognitions persons desiring the only thing I want to say is that um the educate main symposium was held at the cross insurance center

003last Friday and my wife attended and RSU22 had two teachers who are honored at that ceremony. Um Mrs. Samantha Paul from Wagner Middle School and she's received a national award I believe uh for science teaching and um Ben Johnson as um the Scott County teacher of the year and one of the the finalists was it semi- finalist for for main teacher of the year. So I I just wanted to highlight that that we have excellent teachers in the district and there are only two examples that are being recognized. um statewide and even nationally. That I will uh turn it over to you, Nick, for personnel. I have a couple uh resignations to announce. First, >> first, Gloria Deitten, health teacher at Hampton Academy, and second, Richard Dudley, special education teacher at Hampton Academy. I have

004one transfer to uh announce that is Connor Ree is uh our teacher at Weatherbe and McGra has been transferred to Reedsbrook. If you recall last month you approved the uh Weatherbe McGra teacher and with that approval we were able to transfer Mr. Reese to uh Reedsbrook. and one nomination. Uh, my nomination is for Jeff Small, special education teacher at Hampton Academy. Mr. Small has 18 years experience primarily in grades 9 to 12. He is a bachelor of science and secondary education from Summit University. My recommendation is Mr. small with a salary of $72,000. $72,450. >> Second. >> Any discussion on Mr. Small's nomination? All those in favor? And that's unanimous. >> Congratulations and welcome to the district. Right. I think Shelley is doing the reading of essential behaviors. >> Education enables all students to learn

005the skills, acquire the knowledge, and develop the attitudes necessary for them to reach their potential as citizens who can meet the challenges of a changing global society. We believe that all citizens in our community share the responsibility to educate our children and themselves. Our schools are our community support systems and should welcome and encourage all members of our communities to participate. And our schools will have an supportive and empowering atmosphere for all students and community members. All right. And Nick, superintendent report. Uh so for those of you that have been with us for a while, this is an annual report that is given in the month of December. Uh those of you that are new, this is uh new and it is in a kind of an abbreviated version from what we've seen in the

006past. um the district status report. We tend to get I tend to get very excited to report about all the uh positive things that have been going on in the district over the last year. Uh but I have recognized that some people tend to um lose some interest over a period of time. Uh and as a former teacher, I can recognize that the interest level might not be as high uh at the end of the presentation than at the beginning. And so with that being said, I've tried to um shorten this a bit but give you the same exact message. So what you will see uh this district status report is always based on our strategic plan. Uh and you will see things that we have uh accomplished in the previous year or in the

007last year. Uh and then those things that we are going to be working on. Uh we are currently in year number four of our strategic plan and we can talk more uh about that as we progress and as you get into the end of this year and into next year uh you'll hear about our strategic plan pretty significantly uh as the board will approve that. But to get started uh we always start with our current enrollment. Uh you can see our six schools. Uh in the past we have had seven up there. We do not we no longer have the uh Newberg Elementary School where we house our prek that is at McGra. So currently we are at uh 2015 students districtwide. Um last year was 2,115 and just for comparison data the first time

008I did this presentation four years ago we were at 2,180. So, we have had a decline in the four presentations that I've done of 124 students. And so, as you are probably well aware, when you have a decline in any student population, your subsidy changes. And so, we need to also keep that in mind. Uh when we look at the different schools, you can see the individual um enrollment of each one of those schools. And for those of you that can't see it from where you're sitting, uh, Reedsbrook is 295, Hampton Academy is 728. Uh, Wagner is at 181, Smith School 269, Weatherbe 366, and 217 at McGra. And again, for comparative data, as you're looking at that information, uh, in 2023, here are the numbers that we have had. Reedsbrook 338, Hampton Academy 761,

009Wagner 2011, Smith School 273, Weatherbe 270. Keep in mind we've changed grade levels in that building as well as McGra 286. So if we take out the changes that we've made in those particular schools, uh Weatherbe uh would have been uh it is with second grade would be 348 and and McGra without prek but with second grade would have been 247. So you can see that uh our numbers are decreasing. Our strategic plan covers uh multiple pages but in summary each the um what we consider building blocks numbered 1 2 3 and four uh all have titles which we'll talk about and then within each of those building blocks we have goals and action plans and in the past what we have done is kind of separate those uh this presentation into some of those

010goals and to go over those action plans but you'll see two slides per uh building block at this point with all of it combined into one. So with as far as the strategic plan uh one thing that I had mentioned when I started and held strong with that um I would not accept this plan to be a shelf document. I have been around many years to see uh strategic plans developed the time and effort put into strategic plans and no one u looks at them no one follows them. no one adheres to them throughout the entire five years or 10 years or however long uh schools have decided to implement them. So our team has done a tremendous job in really focusing our decisions on the strategic plan uh and really honing in on uh

011what the board, the students, the faculty and the community members have asked us to uh look at over those five years. Uh last year at this time I said that I would highly recommend looking at this down the road as an annual renewal and that's the direction we're going to look at uh in our next plan. Uh we've started at this point uh polling staff members uh administrators and we're working as a team right now to hopefully pull together a strategic plan when this one expires that hits uh on all of the things that we need that will help the students and and staff be successful. but then look at it on an annual basis and renew it annually because if you read through the current strategic plan as it is right now there are

012things that are just not relevant anymore and with the changing of education the changing of technology that is bound to happen in any plan if you stick to it for 5 years. So we have things in there that we just will not address. They're not relevant anymore. They're not timely anymore. uh and so in those situations what we would do is we would remove them and add more relevant timely things into that. So that's what we're looking at doing uh moving forward. So the first building block is student success. Um the progress that we have had and and just so everyone knows this is not a full picture of what we would what we have done throughout. There are a lot of things that we have done that may not necessarily be on here. Uh

013this is more of a snapshot. So if you have specific questions about any one of these building blocks or any one of the bullets that come up, certainly feel free to ask, whether that's tonight or uh down the road. But keep in mind this is more of a snapshot of of the particular uh last year. So we have had uh a change in our prek program in Winterport. So our Waldo cap partnership that we have down there this year has changed to 5 days a week. One of our goals is to expand uh prek. While our numbers are are fairly maxed out right now uh based on the staff that we have, we certainly have been able to incorporate a fifth day which I feel has been extremely beneficial to our students. Um, we have

014a new drone course that has been successfully implemented in uh, Hampton Academy. At this point, we have approximately 45 students, two classes this semester and a commercial drone uh, class next semester and all three encompass about 45 students. Uh, you'll hear about that in the community partnership as well because that has taken on kind of a life of its own. And it's really neat. I know some of you saw the students flying the drones uh, last year, but it's really neat to see them. uh I've seen them outside and inside this year uh and it's it's quite amazing to see the progress of the students and what they're getting out of it. Uh we have technology course uh scope and sequence that has been developed and instituted amongst our prek to 8 uh schools with

015consistent instruction throughout the district and and one of those things that you might hear quite frequently throughout the night and and as we progress down the road is consistency. uh we want to ensure that we're consistent across uh our district and whichever school students go to uh they're receiving uh similar experiences. We have our educational outreach u program the coordinator has started that is a grant-f funded program. Uh we are we were awarded a half a million dollars for that particular program. The staff member has started. He's working out of Winterport between Smith School and Wagner. Uh has already met with some families. We're still awaiting our um van that we had ordered under that grant. And once we are able to receive that, then he can go visit schools uh excuse me, go visit

016families and have uh on-site meetings with the families right there at their home in the van. So, we're excited about that. Uh UTC enrollment remains fairly steady. uh we have a small dip uh in in the enrollment but not drastic but UTC involvement for Hinnan Academy students still remains strong. Uh, one of the biggest changes with UTC in general this year is that LD436, which uh, I believe is extremely beneficial to our, uh, UTC students because what that does is that allows students who take courses at UTC to have credits transferred to Handon Academy in relevant uh, content areas. So in particular, they may be in a in a program that um allows a certain amount of math credits and that will be transferred over to their hand academy transcript. Uh so they would essentially

017u be required to take less handed academy math credits here. Uh in addition to that uh we were providing three total credits to students who took UTC uh for the year. uh we have aligned regionally with every school district that goes to UTC to provide a total of four credits and then UTC has done a crosswalk with uh a subcommittee that they developed uh that looked at standards uh so that they could help us identify which standards would be met uh to award those particular credits. Um and and certainly attendance has been a major focus in our schools. attendance has been uh increased in all of them. Uh our schools have done a tremendous d job in really trying to pull students back into the schools. Uh for whatever reason they're out uh obviously for

018per many of which for personal reasons, but the schools have really reached out and tried to um get the students engaged and the families re-engaged back into school. Uh, and it's really neat to see the the students come back in and to hear the the success stories and the what I call rewards to the students, schoolwide rewards and and certainly classroom rewards uh for kids coming in. So, that has been a huge progress for us and we're going to continue monitoring that and continue with that as a focus. Uh, but that that is certainly something to highlight from this past year. uh next steps briefly talked about consistent implementation with when I spoke about the technology scope and sequence, but that is certainly something that we're looking at across across the board uh throughout the

019district with a curriculum audit. Uh we're looking to uh refine school scheduling so that it best meets the needs of all of our students. Uh we have a variety of schedules throughout the district and we're hoping to uh really hone in on those so that we can uh get as much out of the students and and provide as much to them as possible. uh spoke about our continued attendance uh PBIS continue in implementing that across the district PBIS as uh if you're not familiar positive behavior interventions and support all schools have it in some fashion obviously it is uh grade level and age appropriate uh and we're looking to continue that and to really build upon that um complete more common assessments 612 we want to make sure again regardless of what school and obviously

020once they get to the ninth grade, they're in the same school. But even when uh we're looking across the hall or down the hall in different departments, we want to make sure that kids uh all of our students are getting the same information and being assessed in the same fashion. Um it certainly helps with um calibration of standards and any sort of student achievement that we want to look at. Uh, one of the I think mentioned two different times in the original strategic plan is something that is involving some sort of school restructure. We went through that I think last year uh in detail or maybe two years ago. Um, and and that was a hot button topic that we had in this district and we haven't lost sight of not necessarily school restructure but

021just the the components of it. What is the reason for it? The reason we really wanted to make sure that they had similar experiences, we wanted to make sure that when they got to the high school, they knew each other. They didn't feel isolated because they belonged to one town or one school or the other. And we're still trying to look at those types of things. So, we're uh looking at our uh collaboration and we have that mapped out for the year. There's still some specific details that we need to look at uh and iron out, but uh the middle school principles have done a nice job and we just met with them uh uh this week in particular to talk about those as we progress through. Uh so school restructure is not that would

022be one of the examples that we would really want to review uh on an annual basis because it is certainly not now what we thought it would be. Uh but certainly the middle school collaboration that we've been talking about is something that we feel we can do at this point. Professional excellence is our second building block. Uh certainly a lot of progress in this fashion. I would like to say that our retention rate for our teaching staff uh is significantly high from last year to this year. uh over 90 90% and I dare say it's about 94 to 95% if I remember correctly uh from calculating that in the year uh beginning of the year. So to have a retention rate of about 95% in your uh professionals uh is really good nowadays uh because

023a lot of schools have people leaving for whatever reason. Um many people are actually just getting out of the field of education entirely. Uh so to have that high of a a retention rate is tremendous. Uh, one thing that we've really worked on this year is a edtech handbook uh that was implemented um to uh for our special ed staff and to have targeted professional development for them. Uh that started last year and and has continued into this year uh with our two new uh special education administrators and they've worked really hard on the professional development for those uh that particular group. Uh we've improved our implementation of the MTSS which is a multi-tered system of sports. Um, we're focusing mostly on attendance and behavior this year and as I've already spoken about the attendance

024has improved drastically. Uh, and we're keeping that as a focus along with the behavior itself. Uh, we started this fall in our management day with what we're considering as an annual leaders among us um, award and we started with preK to 5 as one category and 6 through 12 as another category. So leaders among us in and of itself is not new. We've had it for a few years at this point, but we wanted to um increase that and to really uh find the the individual or individuals that exemplify professional excellence. And we did that this August with our staff. uh and we awarded uh three preK to five recipients and three six to 12 recipients that really exhibited that professional excellence and the model of our leaders among us and it was a nice

025award and we're going to um do that again next year and then what happens with the plaque that they win they keep it for the year in their particular school. Um we have increased the number of graduate courses that are taken by our staff. That has uh grown quite a bit especially in our support staff uh individuals. We have four newly certified national board teachers and RSU22 has they're they're the exemplar when it comes to national board certification and the number the participants uh throughout the state. And when people uh hear about RSU22 and find out the the number of National Board Certified Teachers, uh they're astounded by how many we have. So we had a total of 23 in the district and four new uh this year. We had a a mass casualty training

026this past August with a a variety of uh entities and we'll talk more about that in the community um devel community portion. And then uh new professional development advisory committee has just recently started. Uh we're looking to utilize that group to help us uh refine our professional development for our staff and we have two students on that committee. Uh and those two students happen to sit right at this table with you folks and they participate and have been participating uh via email in that particular group. So the next steps for professional development uh we certainly have a theme of engaging for impact. Our focus has been uh on student staff positive engagement throughout the year and that may have a lot to do with the um the attendance having gone up. We're going to continue

027supporting our national board certified teachers as well as those uh aspiring to get advanced degrees. uh we feel that's important uh in exhibiting the lifelong learning. Uh we're go hoping to have our consistent implementation of response to interventions and that's specific to tier one interventions and when I say tier one interventions that's predominant predominantly right in the regular classroom and so that's one of the things that we're going to focus on. uh and then also to better differentiate the appropriate professional development for staff. And we have uh professional development days that may not necessarily be relevant or pieces of it may not necessarily be relevant to individuals or pockets of individuals. And we're working hard to differentiate for those individuals like a teacher would in their respective classroom. Community partnerships is our third building block.

028Uh, one of the biggest highlights is the new website and thanks to uh, Nate and technology and Becky Moore uh, for really putting that together and and getting it uh, live for us. We have uh 340 over, excuse me, uh total new news articles over 340 and that is uh relevant to our schools putting posts putting posts out there and really making an effort to publicize our schools, our district. Uh they've done a tremendous job tremendous job with that. Uh as discussed earlier and we'll talk a little more in detail mass casualty event that we held in in August we had a significant amount of um entities here uh here at Hampton Academy. We had uh many different law enforcement agencies. Uh Red Cross was a huge support to us uh and quite frankly an

029organization that I never knew I I knew existed but I never knew existed in the fashion that they do uh when it comes to a a mass casualty event. Uh we had county EMS, both of the counties that uh were represented here in the district and SEIR bus and and along with many staff members uh staff members that were not required to work over the summer that came in as part of the team uh to work with us and and the administration that was here as well. We're incorporating we have incorporated an a you2 campaign where we've identified individuals in each one of our six schools uh and they're go-getters. They're getting pictures for us. They're getting stories for us. Uh, and those are the types of things that we're able to utilize so that

030we can publicize that on our um u social media. We have formalized plan for uh junior achievement partnership for grades uh 2, five, and eight throughout our district. Uh business partnership acquired for the drone program. So, we talked about that in uh building block number one, but the the individual uh corporations and businesses or uh just individuals in general that have participated in that is it's amazing. Uh we have individuals from a a blueberry field owner to full corporations um throughout the state. So, to have that partnership um with them has certainly been extremely beneficial. Um, we also have uh new parent guides that we are uh we have developed and that is K5 parent guides because what we want to do is be able to give those to parents so that uh whether they're

031new or veteran parents in the district, they can see their respective grade level that the child is in and what the topics andor programs uh that will be utilized within that particular grade level. And they've done a tremendous job. the staff have looked at it. Uh led by Jennifer and her crew have really done a great job in developing those. Grades K to five are done. As a matter of fact, I think in my inbox I may have had the middle school ones which is as a next step. So um I just haven't opened it. So it's going to stay on next steps. Uh and the last part to this uh our leaders among us business sponsors we of course we have one right at the table but we we have been blessed to have

032uh business sponsors for our leaders among us and this is something that uh Tina has really taken the bull by the horns and and got that program up and running and she individually solicits the businesses to do that and uh her kind demeanor uh having her go into the business uh and and get that and many of those businesses have been very very receptive and and done it without any hesitation. And so uh they have helped us tremendously in any gift that they have provided us. Uh and I know that the staff truly appreciate whatever the gift is that they get. Uh and certainly kudos to Tina for really spearheading that. uh next steps with community partnerships uh expanding the partnerships for authentic learning experiences and developing those apprenticeships or uh volunteer work that may

033be done through outside organizations, businesses. Uh oftent times what I'm doing when I'm talking to businesses uh asking do you have space for a student worker or do you have space for a student volunteer? Do you need uh students to help out? and uh some say yes and others uh they're just not in a position to have that at this point. Um one of our probably our biggest thing especially coming into the budget season is to continue to rebuild our partnerships with our four towns. I think we have done a nice job uh in getting in that direction but there's still a significant amount of work to to be had when it comes to the building that partnerships. um back when I started this presentation a few years ago and certainly the the second year

034the partnership and that that relationship that we had was was very much tarnished and I've said that to them. They've agreed uh but we've really uh made a pack to try and get that repaired and uh going in a positive direction and I think that that's something that we need to continue doing. Uh certainly a next step would be to increase our community involvement within our schools. Uh and then as I mentioned earlier, the next steps are to just complete the uh grade level uh parent guides for each of our grade levels, certainly up to the middle school level. Uh and then the the high school has their uh program of studies that they utilize for those particular items. The last uh building block is our operational excellence. uh the progress that we have. One

035of the biggest things that I would say that was a success story from last year uh is that um having our four representatives from our towns self- selected by them to be part of our budget committee that will continue this year. Uh I do think that that was extremely beneficial to not only get people to understand our budget budget and to learn our budget, but to help us promote it in an appropriate fashion uh so that they could help um certainly eliminate some of the the myths out there uh and just help us uh get the information out to the citizens. Uh another piece of progress is our ADA compliant elevator that we had at Weatherbe. While it took a little longer than we anticipated, uh it is done. uh and it looks tremendous and

036now we can say that all of our buildings are ADA compliant. Uh and that has been a a very nice project. Uh I would say that we're in appropriate financial position right now and that has been maintained. Do we have some work to do? Yes, we have some work uh specifically coming up with a budget development and uh any sort of fund balance issues, but with the uncertainties of uh finances and uh money coming in from state andor federal um agencies towards education, I would say that we're in extremely appropriate financial status right now. Uh we're going to we certainly have had a continued assessment of our campus facilities. We prioritize any health and safety needs. Uh and then anything else is next in the priority line, but we have continued to uh assess those.

037We have some things that may take longer than others. For instance, uh heat or cooling uh simply because of parts. Uh but those are all things that have been taken care of and were uh either on order or um being reviewed at this point. uh we have had an ongoing review of expenditures uh within the needs of our district and that's something that uh we're looking at even more as as previously mentioned the enrollment has declined significantly. Uh one of the things from this fall um we know that parking has been an issue and continues to be an issue at weather the Weatherbe McGra complex. Uh so we're thinking more so outside the box and we added a significant amount of parking uh to help alleviate some of the the pain of the parking lot.

038Uh and as was mentioned earlier, at least it's paved now. Uh and we have made some significant progress in our safety plans where all uh schools have had those updated recently. Uh not that we didn't have safety plans in place, but we needed to truly review those and refine them because we had some um former employee names in them and procedures and practices. So those have all been updated uh and schools have taken that uh extremely seriously and that's all done. Uh the next steps first and foremost uh certainly being very vigilant in our future budget uh considering the the changing of the property tax increases and that's across the board. That's all four of our towns. Uh there is a significant burden on all of our taxpayers, all of us included in that. Uh

039and so we have to be very diligent and cognizant of how we're going to approach that coming up and how we're going to work with the towns and the communities to do that. Uh staff alignment to student enrollment and student needs. So as mentioned a couple of times already, our enrollment has declined significantly. So we need to make sure that that uh staff alignment is appropriate based on what we have seen. uh what we currently have and what the needs of the particular students are that we have in front of us. Um one thing that we're looking to also do is to make some changes over the summer to the McGrath school. If you have not been in the McGrath school or if you have uh you would understand that once you get into the

040building there are long hallways and it's essentially like an open classroom concept. Once you get into one hallway, uh you're able to visit many classrooms without going through another door. Uh and if you walk down the hallway, the kids tend to look at you like, "What are you doing around here?" Um it it is truly an open concept school. And so if someone were to get into the building um and have access to the hallway, then they could essentially go anywhere within the building. So one of the things that we're looking at making a significant change of agra is essentially um make that more secure in that vestibule area. So once if an individual is able to get into the building uh to speak to the office, they can't get any further than that. Uh

041and that's one of the the major things that we were looking at doing when we were looking at um or one of the goals and accomplishing when we were looking at hopefully getting a new school for McGra. Um since we're down that list at this point and not really seeing we're getting a new school anytime soon, we need to make some changes uh as soon as possible. And so that's one of the projects that we're looking at doing uh over the course of the summer. Uh we as a board need to determine a pathway for the central office. Uh obviously that is not ADA compliant. Uh we had our referendum vote. We'll uh you'll sign off on the the results coming up soon. Um but that is not ADA compliant and we need to make

042a determination as a board as to what we're going to do with that. Uh do we make changes to it? Do we leave it as is? Uh that's something we'll have to discuss. Uh, another step that we really need to look at is maintaining our K12, preK12 enrollment. Uh, it's been decreasing. Is there anything that we can do differently to have that uh increase or at least stay consistent uh so that we're not losing enrollment? And then uh to ensure that all building safety plans are updated annually and reviewed by staff. As I mentioned, they are now um and we want to make sure that we continue to do that on a regular basis. So, at this point, this is the summary. Uh, certainly a lot shorter than what you have seen in the past.

043Um, but I can say that I'm I'm very proud uh of what this district has done. Uh, we have some significant hard workers in the district from uh hourly employees to salaried employees, uh, educational technicians, teachers, custodians, administrators. Uh, I am extremely proud of this district and when I go around to uh different communities or I speak to individuals outside of RSU22 and they find out what I do and where I work, um, more often than not, they have extremely positive things to say about this district. And I think you as a board should be proud uh that you were involved in RSU22. And I am extremely proud of the staff uh that we have and the students that we have. Uh we have tremendous people and it's certainly an honor to be uh the

044superintendent of this district. Uh and I would hope that everyone feels it's an honor to be part of this district in whatever fashion they're in. Thank you, Nick. Um I guess it would be appropriate any questions for Nick on his presentation. Um, with the improved attendance, do we have a percentage kind of where we were or like what the increase of that percentage was? >> I don't have it right now. We do monthly attendance checks when we have our admin council. It's a standing topic on our agenda now. Um, I can get you those numbers, but I just don't have them right now. >> Um, and then for the prek, are we at max capacity for both schools? Like, are we weight listing kids when they're enrolling? Uh we are at max capacity on the

045Hampton campus. Uh Smith School to my knowledge has a a handful of positions open. So we just if a if an individual or family moves to town in either Hampton or Newberg and we don't have room, we offer u Smith school to them. And we have had a couple people take up take us up on that and we have had others that have chosen not to. So there as of last week I was able to put someone down there. Um, I don't think that was at capa. I don't think that made us at capacity as Smith school, but definitely Hampton campus it is. >> So, if they're going from Hammond down to Smith school, are they given the option to stay at Smith school since those kids are starting prek with like when are with

046those kids or would they automatically just come back up to Hampton? So every year students go to school in the town they reside. Obviously Newberg doesn't have one so they will be handed. If a family has a desire to do it to request an indistrict transfer, they can do that. But those are only granted on an annual basis. So if a family who goes to Smith school this year has a desire to stay there, they could put a request in next year for next year to stay there. >> Okay. But they would have to keep requesting every year. Correct. Okay. Well, >> I remember a few years back, I think just before you were superintendent, there was a enrollment projection. Do you know if we're ahead or behind, do we have more kids in that

047projected or or fewer students? Um, I looked at that last year during the budget process and I think we they predicted a decline, but I don't recall if we're significantly different from that decline. >> Yeah, I just I think it is a little bit lower than I think they expected. Just wonder if that's what you thought too. Yeah, because I mean student enrollment is how we operate the school is is with that enrollment. So, every every student lost is um either if it's from a transfer or whatever reason or just not as many people living in town. >> And student enrollment nationwide in public schools has decreased significantly since uh the COVID pandemic. Brought up another question. Do we have any stats on kind of where kids are going? Whether it's not as many people

048moving to town or moving out of town or going to private school, homeschooling. >> Yes, I I have all of every student that lives in RSU22 that goes to either another U setting or is homeschooled. We have all that information. >> Do we have how we compare kind of to the state and national? >> Uh I don't have that, but I could try and research it. Yeah, I typically when I do the annual budget um report for the board, I always include homeschool students, private school students, u superintendent agreements, but I don't compare that. I I'm not sure if I have the comparative data, but I can certainly look into it. >> I'm just kind of curious if it's a statewide like to the same level um or if there's something going on within the

049district or anything. And I I honestly don't know. It sounds like there isn't like it is a whole nationwide issue from some publications that I've seen, but I'm just curious. >> I do know last week I was speaking to a superintendent outside of this within this area, but certainly obviously not RSC22. Uh much smaller than us and they had double the homeschool students that we have and about half of the student involvement we have. >> I just think it's something to consider in the strategic plan going forward. We are a choice town. So getting as many students students in at this great facility as and how we can recruit students um just helps us. >> All right. Thank you. And um now move on to the assistant superintendent update. We have a couple presentations tonight.

050I'm going to try to be very brief, but I do want to mention that we have a book talk on parent night on January 13th at the Winterport Memorial Library. And I want to thank the Smith School PI group and the Wagner Pride Pack for partnering with us to host that. Basically, we're going to sit down and review what the text the anxious generation tells us, see how we feel that might be impacting our kids in our communities, and then talk about if we do feel that the data is mirroring what we see and it's worldwide, so we predict it will um what can we do about it as a team? So, we're partnering with the PTO's, the libraries, and in the end, we hope to have a calendar of screenfree times, and we are

051our PTO's are starting to reach out to our rec departments so that we can have one place where a parent uh can go when they say, hey, you know, put your iPad down, and the student says, well, there's nothing else to do. So, it's um about teamwork and finding some alternatives. And we're very excited to be able to bring this forward, and I thank those groups for co-hosting that. So, if you want to join us January 13th, the flyer is in my schoolboard report. >> Thank you, Tina. That sounds like a great idea. Um, and now the monthly financial report. Right now, we are looking at about 60% uh of our school year remaining, 53 almost 54% of our school year remaining. Keep in mind uh the percentages. I'll probably say this for the next

052five or six months just to emphasize it even more. We haven't covered all of our salaries and benefits uh to help us at the end of our fiscal year. Uh what I would say is if we look down through some of the articles, we have a number of special education positions open, specifically our edte positions. So that number would be higher than um what we would like. Uh and when we have an open position, obviously the salary and benefits are not paid out. And so therefore, at the end of the year when we have those positions that remain open, uh all of those uh wages and benefits will then be considered as unspent funds. So we do try to hire the the positions that we need. Uh but there are just some positions we cannot

053fill at this point. Uh everything else is pretty consistent with what we've seen in the past. Um, as I mentioned, almost 61% of the school year remaining and 54% of the fiscal year. So, we are trending in the right direction. Uh, I do not have any concerns at this point. >> All right. Thank you, Nick. And now I'll turn it over to Ashton and Annabelle for the student uh board representative report. Okay. Um, the advisories participated in a giving challenge to see who can bring the most food to donate for the HA student pantry and whoever won got breakfast this morning in advisory and that's sponsored by NHS. Um, December 10th was the winter concert for HA music department. Um, Hampton Music is also caroling to raise money for their department. So, small prize. You

054can send the carolers to someone's house to spread some holiday cheer. And December 12th was winter sports picture day. >> There we go. Additionally, a sports media team club is in progress to get more attention drawn on the sports round academy. Also, the National Honor Society is selling candy canes to send to people of your choice to raise money for the HA student pantry. Tomorrow, the the school talent show will be hosted in the Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. And finally, our winter break begins at begins on December 24th. All right. Thank you, Ashton and Annabelle. All right. Now, general questions of board members. Jessica. >> How about Okay. Yeah. All right. Um, my first I have a couple questions, but I just have a recognition. Um, as I was scrolling through Facebook the

055other day, um, all of the Hampton schools are doing a great job, um, with their social media, but I specifically wanted to recognize Ashton, who just showed up on my feed, um, for his allconerence honorable mention in all academic honor. So, congratulations. I just wanted to recognize you for that. Um, but aside, I would I have a couple questions about um if we have any updates from the Baldwin trip specifically, like is the high school has the high school implemented anything any changes as a direct result of the trip and are the teachers getting the support they need to be able to move forward if they are trying to implement changes. I don't know if the students have any information about that. If you guys have anything, >> are you looking for the answers now

056or do you want a presentation next meeting? >> Presentation at the next meeting would be great, but I just didn't know like if the students had seen anything happening currently, but yes, a presentation would be fantastic. >> Uh, yes, I could actually chime in here. So, one of the newer ideas implemented from that following trip, we have a room, room 208. And how it's structured is there's um six whiteboard tables with TVs for all of them. So, you can plug in your computer, air play something onto the TV, and have people work collaboratively on a task with these whiteboard tables. And admit, admittedly, at first, I kind of saw it as gimmicky. I was like, you know, we're going with an open mind. Try it. And I found it's been excellent. has been great for

057that sort of collaborative engaging learning and I think it sort of follows the future of education like as a senior I've been touring colleges and things of that nature and at Bentley University I actually saw something very similar to what we have in room 208 you know had the whiteboard tables it had you know the TVs and they said they used it for like business administration marketing you know classes that are more collaboration or oriented so I believe that it's a huge thing we've implemented from that Baldwin trip and it should be continue to be supported. >> We hadn't heard about it and I know so excited about it coming back and that's awesome. That sounds so cool. But >> they are working hard and we they've they are the reinvisioning school team, right? And

058the people are invited to join them. You can chime in if I'm missing anything, Dr. Dubo, but I think that um it's safe to say that they would probably love the chance to say what they've been working on. That would be great. I don't want to speak for them, but we'll see how that goes. And they have been doing student shadows. So, some of the teachers on that trip and some who did not go have shadowed a student for a day. And I think that talked about that. >> The other thing they've been doing is um offering some professional development at staff meetings. So they did I think it was in one of the board reports um they did um sort of a identifying the skills that we foresee people will need in the future

059and you know some work on um I guess what I would call like sort of what our values are like what do we value in student learning and then they are they didn't we had a sub meeting today but they didn't follow up with that so they're going to do some more work with that down the road so they're they're doing some like I guess basic work of trying to see where we're at and to see where we can go. But as Ashton explained, um the that community learning room, there's also um an AP seminar class that's being offered this year as an independent study that was um saw I think they saw it happening in Baldwin. We're excited about that. So we have I think about 12 kids taking it this year. So um

060and we're working forward with that too. to the ED committee to have it be in the schedule next year. >> Anyone else? >> Were there new like brand new board certified teachers like two or three or something like in the last couple weeks or four? That's really impressive to to have that many like that just that doesn't happen anywhere. So, congratulations to that. >> And um Mr. Matador, I think is the president the current president of the state chapter. All right. So, committee reports, there were several in your board packet. So, if you have any questions, I encourage you to reach out to to board chairs. And uh I want to remind all board members, new and old, new and experienced. Luckily, I'm one of the older ones. So, um that you are welcome to

061join any board meeting. um that you're not a voting member there, but you're welcome to go and to find out what's going on. I know that we all have a lot going on, so I understand that as well, but um you're always welcome at those those meetings. >> Brooke, >> um so from we had decided that we were going to update people periodically about the ED committee and what we've been doing. So, we just met I don't know a couple days ago and ultimately the couple things that we did again these parent brochures that Jen handed out to us and I guess are available at all the schools. They're really quite nice actually as a parent who doesn't have kids in the district. It's kind of nice to see like what other kids are doing

062and so that if you ever have a a question it's it's a really quick version and quite nice. Um, and also if you want to pick one up for the years to come, you can always kind of see where your kid is headed in the future years. So that's kind of nice too if you want to think about summer work or something. Um, so those were very nicely done between I think Jen and the administration >> what >> teachers too and the teachers. >> Yes. Um, other things we had five new course proposals brought forward and three were approved. two went back to be fine-tuned. Um, if anyone has any questions on the specifics of those, but they're really exciting courses. I thought they were pretty great. Um, and I know that that the staff

063is pretty excited about them. They they came back from the department. So, there was a lot of a lot of hands-on there. And then the last thing that we talked about briefly uh would be the the science scores. Um, I guess there's some next steps, not so great in the science realm. So, are looking at some of the numbers but more the why so that it can be addressed. Uh next meeting if you feel like joining us it's January 14th at 3:30 in the garage and then on the dropout committee just because no one even thinks that we meet. We do we actually do some cool stuff. I like that committee. My mom it's my favorite. Um, we actually had a meeting recently and Brian Cartwright, who's the outreach coordinator that you've heard from Tina's

064report, that's that's the van. I I prefer like mobile office because I feel like van just feels like we should have candy. Um, but the mobile office is is it's a it's such an exciting concept for trying to reach out to um kids for all sorts of reasons or families for all sorts of reasons. So, while the grant was given to address the opioid problems and and such, I think as it goes along, we'll be able to kind of broaden that scope and bring in any of the families in the community that just kind of need a little bit of a help or a hand in working through some of the things that they might be dealing with. So, Brian's a really exciting guy. He's got a lot of motiv like he's just he's an

065energy bundle and you can feel how much he really cares. So, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what he comes back with in the next meeting. So, >> thank you for the update, Brook. I know that people have been uh looking forward to hearing more from the education committee, but now now I've got the Chris Farley character from the van down by the river stuck in my head. Uh without further ado and with that uh light interlude, I'm going to turn it over to Fay for policy discussion. >> Um you when you looked at the agenda, you must have thought, gee, I wonder how long they were in that meeting. Well, we were there for a while, but we got a lot done. So, we're going to start with first reading. First reading is

066policy CB, school superintendent. Uh as you could see from what was in your packet uh a section was added along with legal references and cross references and due to that the policy committee moves to approve policy CB school superintendent for first reading as presented. >> Second. >> So we have a motion um to approve first reading of policy CB school superintendent. Is there any discussion? Well, um, and you might be getting to this later on, but policy CHD, administration, the absence of policy. I don't know if that's seems a little duplicative to what's in CP like to act before, but maybe just take that back. Um, it seems like it's saying the same thing in two different policies. CHD. >> Any other discussion, questions? All right. All those in favor of approving for first reading

067policy CB school superintendent and that's unanimous. The next is policy CBI evaluation of the superintendent. Uh this policy was rewritten to clarify the board's role in the superintendent's evaluation and the purpose. Uh therefore the policy committee moves to approve policy CBI evaluation of the superintendent for first reading as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second for approval of first reading of policy CBI evaluation of the superintendent. Any discussion? All those in favor of policy CBI for first reading and that's unanimous. The next is policy CHD administration in the absence of policy. Uh this policy was rewritten uh to provide more clarity. Uh therefore the policy committee moves to approve policy CHD administration in the absence of policy for first reading as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a

068second for first reading pro uh first reading of policy CHD administration in the absence of policy. Any discussion? So I have a question FA more than a discussion point um relevant to what Will was asking. Is this a required policy CHD? >> No, it is not. >> Is it something that we could if there is any language difference that we could roll into policy CB without loss of? >> Sure. We can check into that. that that's absolutely could be done. >> I mean, it might be nice because they're both short policies and it would streamline our our policy manual. Seeing no other discussion, all those in favor of approval for first reading of policy CHD and that's unanimous. The next policy is policy CGC, adult and community education programs. Um this policy uh will be

069recoded to section I which is instruction. it truly does not belong in section G, which is general school administration. Uh the administration of adult and community education programs has changed since 2014 for this district. Therefore, the policy has been simplified and reflects current practice. Um and a legal reference was added. Therefore, the policy committee moves to approve policy CGC, adult and community education programs for first reading as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on the floor for first reading of policy CGC, adult and community education programs. Any discussion? person. >> Uh just formatting the hashtag in the title. >> What is it? >> There's a R. It says RSU number 22. >> Thank you. I missed that one. >> It I'm almost wondering should we just strike the RSU 22

070from the title because none of our other policies include our district in the title. Seeing no other discussion, all those in favor for first reading of policy CGC, adult and community education programs, and that's unanimous. The next policy we reviewed was policy eh which is policy implementation. Um it will be revisited at a later time when we get to section G under personnel and at that point it will be recoded. Uh but for now we'll simply just update it or update the date on the policy for clarification. That means that we need take no action on this. Correct. >> That's correct. No action is needed. >> Thank you. >> The next section is uh policy deletions. Um and you as you've seen in the past, we are looking to see if there are policies that

071really are already covered in other policies. And so that's what you will see uh quite a bit of in this section. When we do policy deletions, we only go through it one time. There is not a second read for policy deletions. It is simply yes, you agree to delete or no, you not. Therefore, the first policy is policy CC, administrative organization. This policy is not a required policy and it and we felt it was no longer needed. The policy committee moves to delete policy CC administrative operations. >> Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor for deletion of policy CC administrative organization. Any discussion? >> Shelly, >> can we look at the next few or all deletions? Can we look at doing a slate instead of doing all individual? >> Okay. So,

072that would require a motion to amend the first motion, Shel. So, I'd be glad to consider that. >> Oh, yeah. could do that as well too. >> Generally, when you delete, you need to do each one >> simply because we're talking about getting rid of them. And so, it really should show in the minutes and probably should be done one by one, but if you want to do it as a slate, we can. >> Well, that's a point well taken. F Shelley, would you like to There was no motion. >> Question. >> Okay. And there was no motion made to amend. So we do not have to vote or retract anything. Any other discussion? All right. So again, this is our final um this is our only take at it. So all those in favor

073of deleting policy CC administrative organization and that's unanimous. The next is policy CE, administration, councils, cabinets, and committees. The content of this policy are covered under policy CB, school superintendent. Therefore, the policy committee moves to delete policy CE, administration, councils, cabinets, and committees. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on the floor for deletion of policy CE, administrative councils, cabinets, and committees. Any discussion? All those in favor of deleting policy CE, administrative councils, cabinets, and committees. And that's unanimous. The next is policy CCB, line and staff relations. Um, the content of this policy is already addressed in policy K, public concerns, complaints. policy BHC board relationships and communication with staff and some relative language from the collective bargaining agree agreement. Therefore, the policy moves to delete policy CCB line and staff relations.

074>> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on the floor for deletion of policy CCB line and staff relations. Any discussion? All those in favor of deleting policy CCB, line and staff relations. And that's unanimous. The last one for deletion is policy CGD, state and federal programs and administration. The contents of this policy are now covered under KBF, parent involvement in title one programs. Therefore, the policy committee moves to delete policy CG D, State and Federal Programs Administration. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on the floor for deletion of policy CGD, State and Federal Programs Administration. Uh, is there any discussion on the policy? I haven't looked at the policy that you say is already covered it on its face the titles seem different enough to me but I

075have your the committee's assurance that these are similar. >> Yes. As a matter of fact we just updated um policy KBF in 2024 and that was so that we could be in compliance to be able to get our title funds. So that one is definitely up to date. The language in policy CGD is basically the same thing. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. >> Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of deleting policy CGD, State Federal Programs Administration. And the motion carries unanimously. When we get to second reading, there were no changes that were requested at our last meeting. Therefore, the policy committee moves the approval of the following policies for second reading as a single slate. Policy BAA, evaluation of school board self-evaluation. Policy DG DJA, purchasing authority, policy DB, annual budget. policy

076DID inventories and policy DID audits. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on the floor for a slate of policies for second reading. These policies are policy BAA evaluation of school board self-evaluation policy DJA purchasing authority policy DB annual budget policy DID inventories and policy DIE with that's unfortunate uh coding for audits any discussion on that slate All those in favor for approving for second reading the slate of policies just listed and the motion carries unanimously. >> Now we vote on the on the policies themselves. So we just voted on the slate as to whether or not we want to do it as a slate. Now we have to vote on approving them for second reading. Is that correct? >> Oh, >> yes. >> I didn't pay attention to the wording. So

077>> yeah, and that's okay. So the policy committee moves to approve for second reading um the policies that were just mentioned so I don't have to read DIIE again. Um and so the policy committee moves to approve them for second reading as um as presented. >> Second >> discussion. All those in favor of approving the as a slate the policies for second reading. All right. So that also carries unanimously. Thank you FA for the clarification. And that wraps up policy considerations for today. There is no old business on the agenda. So we will move on to new business and the first thing is to discuss and act on CBS cohort three. Good evening everyone. My name is Christy Bam and I'm the director of special services for RSU22. And I wanted to bring forward with

078you this evening some information in regards to planning for the transition of special education services for three and four year olds. Currently Maine's services for um students birth to five is held underneath child development services under the main department of education provides early intervention special education and related services for children birth to five. The structure of the current system under CDS is problematic and has been for several years. The main department of education has new has had in previous years many reform um thoughts ideas started to move forward on it. They recently had an audit with OEP which is the office of special education at the federal level and OEP has told the main department of education that they have to move forward with a reform CDS. So it's going to be shifting information to

079the public schools. So I wanted to give you a little bit of information in regards to that. Child development services currently the overhead cost and the structure of the system is very costly for the state of Maine and that's why they're looking to shift it to the public school setting. In addition to that, they have not been meeting the needs of students birth to five. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that as I move forward. Section 619 of IDA, which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act at the federal level, has a section 619, which is early childhood special education. That's the federal law governing special education for students birth to five. We currently in the state of Maine and for your for RSU 22, we're responsible for children five years old

080who are in kindergarten up until the age of 22. With the information I'm giving you this evening, we're going to start becoming responsible for three and four year olds. IDA is a federal law that ensures that all children who have special education needs have a free appropriate public education. So, we're responsible for providing services to students and families at no cost. The early childhood special education services are designed to help children with disabilities or with developmental delays participate at the same level as their peers and in a program that is adequate to meet their needs but also have them be mainstreamed with students who don't have disabilities and the law is very clear that that is the least restrictive environment as much as possible. So after step. The federal government came in and did an

081audit. That was three and a half, four years ago with the main department of education. The main department of education had to put forward some legislation to shift funding and to shift the responsibility to public schools. So the transition LD345 is an act to transition the responsibility for child find activities and for ensuring a free appropriate public education for eligible children from child development services to school administrative units. The other piece of that law is LD 2214 and that was shifting the funding and that did pass in law um two years ago. So the elements of the law that that we really need to be mindful of. It started back in July of 2024. Implementation began when early adopter school districts decided to start taking on the responsibility of child find and the free appropriate

082public education for three and four year olds. There were a limited number of school districts that started that. Between July 1 of 2024 and July 1 of 2028, there's been a phase transition period with districts joining that the main department of education has been working on with the goal that by July 1 of 2028 that all districts would become responsible. Currently for this school year, FY226, they're in cohort 2. And there are a few districts that are participating across the state with the majority about 70% of school districts joining cohort three in the fall of 2026. That's been a slow process um with lots of information coming from the main department of education on how school districts are going to take on this responsibility, how we're going to receive funding for this and how we're

083going to implement plans to take that responsibility on. So it's twofold. The districts become responsible for Child Find and special education and related services, which is what we're currently responsible for already for students kindergarten through 22. We can provide services just like we currently do in RSU22. Um, within our school districts, we can contract with providers, and we do have contracts with with providers to provide some of our special education services. And we can also, as we're moving forward with this plan, we can um utilize child development services because they're creating hubs now. CDS will turn into hubs that will match up with the superintendent regions in the state and they will be able to contract with school districts to provide some of those related services if necessary. So funding, that's always the number one

084question, right? How is this going to happen? What you need to know is the main department of education is committed to funding it 100% at this time. I say at this time um they do have a funding formula where it's fully funded for SAUs to take on the responsibility for three and four year olds. It is not a reimbursement model. when a school district joins as a cohort beginning on July 1, you receive your first um allocation of money. And then in October when we do our child count, letting them know how many students we have within our school buildings and we currently do that for our own students right now, 5 through 22. The students um that are aged three and four would be counted in that child count and that's when our allocation

085could be adjusted based on the number of students. and then we get two more allocations throughout the school year, but it's not a re reimbursement. We don't have to put the funding up front. We're going to have the funds right away from the main department of education. The other piece is that they do fund the cost of the high out of district placements. We do have some students at the least restrictive environment. we can't meet their needs and the least restrictive environment would be a higher level of service for them and the main department of education will cover the cost for those students also in addition to that like I said the child development service system has been problematic for many years there are significant number of students that have been underserved or not served

086and the cost of the compensatory services that would be owed to those students the main department of education will fund will be responsible for implementing the services, but they will fund them. I think that's a key piece to be aware of. What it means for us, there's a lot of implications. Being new to RSU 22 and 6 months in, we've done some a lot of leg work around um being able to become a part of the cohort. What I'm looking forward to is joining cohort 3, which would be the fall of 2026 next fall, but only taking on the responsibility of the four year olds in that first year so that we can work through the systems, make sure that we have everything in place before we take on the three-year-olds and we can stagger

087it. So in FY 2026, we'd like to take on the responsibility of Child Find and Special Education Services, that faith responsibility for four-year-olds. and then in FY2027 do that for the three-year-olds. Currently, I've been working with the main department of education for two months now, really monitoring the numbers. Right now, through child development services, there are 14 three-year-olds currently identified or in the child find process. Not a significant number, but I do foresee that number increasing between now and June because we will be welcoming 26 identified incoming kindergarteners. So, and that's been relatively steady for for RSU22 over the last three to five years, anywhere from 20 to 25 students. So, I do foresee that number increasing. We are looking currently to offer those special education related services to four-year-olds within our district. We do

088have the prek programs in Hampton and also in Winterport. Some students could continue to re receive their preschool programming in a community setting, one of your area preschools. We're looking in January to collaborate with the area preschools. They do have to meet a criteria level through not only the main department of education, but also the Department of Health and Human Services for us to partner with them and to provide the special education services. So, it's going to be multi-tered for us, but looking to join in the fall of 2026. So, these are the next steps that we've been working on in the district so far. I have a meeting on January 20th with the main department of education. They'll be on site to take a look at our prek space and to look to make

089sure that we've got everything we need for three and four year olds within those spaces spaces that we've set up. Also to have the rich conversation around transportation and how we can safely transport three and four year olds because it will be a little bit different than the school bus. We're identifying professional development needs and also looking at our teaching staff. We're fortunate. We currently have at least one special education teacher who has the specialized um certification. It's a 282B, which is for the younger students to be able to provide that special education support. Um we will look to have one or two additional teachers conditionally certified, but that certification is also in legislation looking to to make sure that we all schools can meet that need. So, we'll keep a close eye on that.

090Um, like I said, I'm looking to explore partnerships with our community providers. I know of, um, one preschool here in Hampton and three in the Winterport area that have the clearance to not only the main department of education, but also the Department of Health and Human Services that we can partner with. and I will look to schedule meetings, go on tour and have rich conversations with them because partnering with them is going to be valuable to our district programming uh preparing for the implications of staffing and program designs looking to see what we're going to need and the main department of education is supporting that with their on-site visit. So, we'll have a good understanding in January explicitly what we need. We'll have our first um draft allocation from the main department of education on

091how much money they look they're that they're going to look to give us on July 1. So we'll have a good understanding after that July visit identifying data systems that will need to be modified and developed. We currently have a student information system power school that we can you know add our three and four year olds to but we're also looking at our special education student information system. the main department of education is looking to shift to um a different delivery system for the three to five year olds. Um so we'll we'll keep an eye on that and see what's going to work the best for the district for that. And then also identifying how RSU22 will partner with the CDS hub and looking at preliminary numbers and current numbers that I have from the

092Department of Education and our current staff. We right now if we only had those 13 children, we could meet the need without partnering with child development services or um hiring additional staff. So those are things that I I have to continue monitoring between now and July one to make sure we can meet the need. I know that was a lot of information. I went really quick. Do you have questions for me? >> Go ahead, Fate. One thing I will comment is please ask all the questions you want to but any discussion or editorial comment safer after motions on the floor. >> Uh a question when you say the costs are going to be transferred from CVS to the district does that include everything like the staffing the transportation the materials that we might need? Is

093all of that going to be transferred over or only parts of it? my understanding all of it. >> So like I have to put a proposed budget together and I'll Mr. Freeman will do that with me. Um we'll have a rich conversation about that but we have to project out like special equipment that we would need for to meet the needs of three and four year olds that gets embedded in there. Um we can cover some of our administration cost. So between myself and the assistant director of special services some of that administration cost can be captured in the CDF. um the teachers salaries. So right now we get a I never remember I just want to say 271 we get a 279 right for our K through 12. Will there be a similar aotment

094format that will be presented for that? >> Yes. Um you discussed the uh they have a formula for their allowance. Um does that include influx of children moving into the district per year or does that change the following school district and the district covers the costs until that district then? >> Yeah, my understanding and I I have it as a question on my next meeting again because I had a meeting today that gave a little bit of different information on the zoom. So I have deeper questions. My understanding is you get your first allocation in July one and it's based on the numbers that are current identification of students. October one you give another count and it could be adjusted at that point. But then you get your additional allocations two more times throughout the

095school year and you can adjust it during those two. So, I know you said that we wouldn't have to hire anybody, but when you think of all the offerings of CDS and what they do, we can handle adding on 13 plus kids to our OTS, PTS and our speech currently >> with our contracted providers. Yes. So using CDS contracted providers, our current contracted providers that we have for RSU2. >> Okay. >> Um do you anticipate any challenges with space? >> I do. Yeah. >> Okay. Any plans to address that? >> Yeah. It's why I asked um the main department of education to schedule their visit in January, not in the spring, so that we can have that rich conversation. They're not providing funding for construction. They did to the first cohort of schools in 2024.

096They offered um some funding for construction um but they're not offering that now. Will they provide funding for um like accessories or additional needs for those children? Um special equipment that is needed. They will provide that but just no construction. Yeah. >> And I think that's why it's really important that I also look at the community partnerships, >> right? Because if we have students that are currently in a preschool program, but they need speech and language, we can accommodate speech and language either in our building with a student coming to our schools or having a contracted speech and language pathologist go to the preschool. Yeah. All right. If there are no additional questions, then thank you so much for the information. Um there is a recommended motion but um if people have another motion that

097they want to make that's there. I move that RSU22 enters into the main department of education cohort 3 early childhood special education transition for the 2627 school year. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on the floor. Is there discussion? I'd expect the state should be able to give us like a full funding formula for this. I don't know why they aren't sure or like we've hearing different information because the E279 is explained out very clearly. I mean it's complicated but I'm really interested in the budget we come up with and then what what that might change or look like. >> And you agree? Yes, as Christie mentioned, um everything that we have been told, uh we will have the documents and the uh numbers, the allocations throughout the course of the

098year. So, we're hoping that the appropriate funding comes our way. We can't make a guarantee, but that is what we've been told and that is what we're hoping for. >> And it's outside the normal ED279 process from what you've been told. that I don't know. I don't know if you know either, but I mean there is a special ed component within the ED279. So I'm not sure if they will embed it into that. Um I've got a Penquist meeting tomorrow. I can ask those that have been involved in the two individual cohorts specifically. Um I don't want to go out and make a speculation, but uh I would think it would be part of the E270, but but I'm not sure. >> My impression was yes until I had my Zoom today and I questioned

099it. That's why I didn't answer. Um, but I have requested a draft of whatever our allocation would be so that we'll have that before we start looking at it. Now that we're discussing like voting, I've got to say firsthand CVS is rough to deal with and if our kids can get this opportunity, they'll probably be set up a lot better and they can actually probably do a lot better than the way that they have been set up in the past to from firstirhand experience. The other piece of that is we're eventually going to have to to accept these students. And I think if we do it earlier, then it it's going to be beneficial to us to be on early earlier rather than later. >> I'm hoping that the bugs have already been fixed through

100cohort one and two. Um, and that's why we had originally waited. um because I have talked to Lynn Wells about that, but I have heard from districts that have implemented it and they seem pleased with the funding and how the transition has happened. I haven't talked to a lot of them, but the ones I have talked to, they they seem okay with what's been going on. >> Nick, would this move us up in the list if we don't have the correct accommodations of the >> I thought we move up in the list last time. uh who knows. Um so I it's usually about a six or sevenyear cycle for those uh new construction projects. I would have anticipated that we would have moved up significantly based on how many applied last year, but it really

101depends on how many people apply and what their circumstances are. So uh the top few schools, uh two of them had fires in their schools and that obviously is not anticipated in any sense of the imagination. Um, so it really is not a guarantee. We can only hope, but it it's not a guarantee. >> Even if even if we're chosen, is it like a 10y year process kind of thing? I mean, it's a long time between the time you get approved to the time you actually have. >> All right. If there are no other questions, then um all those in favor of the motion, Catherine, see your hand up. Thank you. >> So that's unanimous. >> Who didn't? >> Oh, sorry, Scott. Any opposed? And that so there that's everyone. Thank you. So, that motion

102carries. So, now we go on to We don't have blue pens today, do we? Um, discuss Oh, excellent. Um, discuss and act on the computation and declaration the referendum vote. And this is related to the referendum for the dis uh central office building. So essentially the the whole purpose of this is just completing the the process of the referendum. It's been voted on. The votes have been counted. We have a tally of the votes and that's been part of our vote packet. And now we vote to um accept them or to certify approve the certification and then we sign in order uh the same order of every sheet um for this. So the motion is given on the uh on the board packet. So I'll accept any motions. I move that the board of directors

103approve the certification of the computation and declaration of referendum vote held on November 4th, 2025. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second uh to approve the certification. Uh is there any discussion, Luke? Um, I I don't know if this is the right time, but I would like to say I think we need to get the ball started on what our decision is for the spring because right now with the building committee and the community relations committee, I don't know if any others at the moment. We're at a wall. We need to know what we're doing to to pursue that further um to get plans in paper so that we can get that ready for the spring. >> Excellent. Thank you, Luke. Um, yeah, Nick, Nick and I will be talking about that

104to get it um next steps taken care of soon. Obviously, we can't discuss it at this meeting because it wasn't on the agenda, but um it is so noted that we are anxious to get see what the next steps are. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. All those in favor of the motion. This time it's unanimous. So everyone knows for some of you this is the first time you've done this. We're going to go through pass them through sign in the same position each time. >> Oh, it's just one. That's easy. has to be a second that's right. I meant to talk. >> I know. So, I'm gonna pick it up. I talked about it because I I didn't know >> you or exploration. Wonder Yeah. While Nick's collecting that, we're going to The

105next item is new on the agenda. >> We're going to discuss an act on an overnight field trip request from the Hampton Academy music department. Susan, can I invite you up for some details about this, please? Good evening everybody. Um we had um we have this field trip that's coming up in January. So I thank Nick for adding it to the agenda um to this meeting and it is the Jazz Allstate Festival at the University of Southern Maine. Um and it is an auditioned um competition to get into it. So uh students are selected based on their audition. We have three students going um and so we are transporting them by school van so there's no transportation cost for a bus. Um the cost to the students is covered through the music department budget and

106um there are staff obviously going along to chaperone them and also be part of it at this event. Um they rehearse and then present a concert. So it's a great opportunity for our music students to work with students around the state. Um it is very prestigious to get in there. So we're, you know, proud, as Nick always says about the entire district, but especially proud of these three who got in. And um they also have opportunities to see live concerts that USM organizes for them. So it's really a great opportunity for our um our music students, those three um to grow in their field. And um there's a corresponding one later, but this is in particular the jazz music one. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> And I don't know if there's a Oh, in

107the adjusted notes, there is a recommended motion. So, >> I move that we approve the Hampton Academy music trip to the All State Jazz Festival being held at USM from January 15th through the 17th. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? All those opposed. And I'm going to abstain. All right. And as if Luke was reading our minds, um we have a workshop for next month. It's going to occur at 6:00 before the board meeting. Um is that the I can't remember the date. It's the third Wednesday >> 21st of January. And the purpose of this will be a special board or board workshop not a meeting um to discuss next steps on the building uh central office building. >> So does that mean that >> and Brooke gave those that day time? >> 14:30

108here. All right. Are there any other meeting dates that need to be set at this time for subcommittees? We have no executive sessions on the um on the agenda and I don't believe there's any other business. >> Move to second.