RSU 22 School Board Meeting 2/9/2022

001uh can everyone join me for the week i pledge allegiance to the life of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice any discussion all those in favor adjustments to the agenda we do have a couple here we have nominations and transfers um section eight um we have section 12 in policy b c and d um that calls for icing policy j k and b j k e furthermore in new business we will discuss that that brings us to a portion of our meeting where we have persons that can address the board prior to doing that i'd like to read our public participation policy all meetings of the board shall be open to the public all actions on the board shall

002be taken openly and deliberations leading to the board action shall likewise be conducted openly the public is invited to attend more meetings and will be given limited time to voice opinions or problems the board recognizes its responsibility to conduct the business of the district in an orderly and efficient manner and will therefore require reasonable controls to regulate the public participation for the board plus public presentation the primary purpose of the meeting is for the board to conduct its business as charged by law spontaneous discussion as well as disorder and disruption prevent the board from doing its work and will not be permitted a person wishing to be heard by the board shall first be recognized by the chair he or she shall then identify him herself and proceed with his or her comments as briefly

003as the subject permits the chair is responsible for orderly conduct of the meeting and shall rule on such matters as time to be allowed for public discussion the appropriateness of the subject being presented and the suitability of time for such a presentation a speaker in violation of these rules may be required to leave an order to permit an orderly consideration of matters for which the meeting was called persons who disrupt the meeting may be asked to leave and the chair maybe may request law enforcement assistant as necessary to restore orders speakers are asked to observe the following in the case of a large audience speakers may be asked to sign up before the meeting so they may be called upon expediently speakers will be asked to keep their comments to three minutes confidential personnel matters

004will not be shared in public no complaints or allegations will be allowed in the board meeting concerning any persons employed by the school system or against particular students personnel matters or complaints concerning a student or staff issues will not be considered in public meetings but will be referred through established policies and procedures all speakers are asked to identify themselves gossip inflammatory comments or abusive or vulgar language will not be permitted speakers must address all comments and questions to the chair comments will be heard and considered requests for information or concerns that require further research may be referred to the superintendent to be addressed at a later time generally the board does not discuss or act on items not on the agenda speakers are asked to not be repetitious of comments already made to the board

005in interest of the most efficient use of time the chair has the authority to stop any presentation that violently violates these guidelines or privacies the privacy rights of others persons wishing to address the board may be permitted to do so only during the designating time for public comment i just want to go back and touch on a couple of these things so we're clear here too and number two when we're speaking about confidential personnel matters um these are any matters that have to be referred when you refer to a employee or teacher a superintendent an administrator so those of you that are planning to speak tonight i would just ask that you look over your presentation and and try to to present that to us in a three-minute period time period that can be done

006without addressing somebody's name um and if you can't do that i would i would ask that you could find another way to do that that might be contact me directly and we'll figure out a way to get that to the board without bringing it into the public it's a personnel matter can't be discussed involved maybe you could send that to to the board as an email but like i said reach out to me we'll talk about it and figure out a way to get that to the board because we do want to hear what you have to say but we can't violate policy by bringing that personnel matter up in front of some of us here and that being said i think we have our first stupid good evening my name is beth kilbour and

007i am co-president of ea 22 our local association of teachers and support staff last november i addressed the school board about working with ea 22 about extending the coven 19 sick leave as enacted by the maine legislature in the fall of 20th 21. i revealed with you at the time that our school district was instead following the advice of drummond woodson a legal firm out of portland and not extending the extra covid sickly past october 18 2021. if you've been following the news out of augusta this month you know that there is current legislation in the works to address what has been described as a loophole in that law passed last fall according to january 31st article in the portland press herald the mea and maine principals association both support passage of ld 1874 which

008would extend those 15 coveted sick days through the end of the school year our current sick leave policy was not designed to respond to a pandemic in the past couple of weeks we've seen at least two employees reach a point where they face no pay for days missed due to family quarantine requirements the same policy that has enabled us to keep the doors to our schools open all year has also had the unfortunate effect of keeping some employees home and out of work ea 22 knows of several other individuals who are about to face the same situation this is particularly hard hitting on our support staff due to structure of their sick time mrs nichols has been working with ea 22 and our staff to ensure that the employees in this situation are being advanced

009holiday pay and remaining sick time to maintain stable paychecks however the consequence is that for the rest of the year some of these employees will no longer have access to sick time and the superintendent's office will again be facing a challenging problem in that portland press herald article a spokesman for maine superintendents and school boards protested the extension of the 15 coveted sick days citing a need for local control ea 22 is reaching out to both the school board and the superintendent's office willing and able to work together to implement said local control and develop a memorandum of agreement in which our employees will be afforded these extra sick days our goal is to provide our staff with the support and protection they need and to send a clear message to the rest of the

010state that rsu 22 is where you want to be working in education thank you [Applause] tonight i'm going to speak to you about something that i am aware that you cannot do anything about but also something that you can and how to intercept initially my daughter wanted to come here and address me tonight a few weeks ago and not for the first time a few boys in one of her classes told her some truly despicable holocaust jokes it wished out of a teacher the teacher did nothing the following day my daughter was discussing this incident with friends and they began discussing a multitude of other incidents that have occurred this year alone in which students have gotten away with harassment via lack of follow-through ineffective administration or influential parents causing a scene my daughter wanted

011to come here and speak to these problems and how it was damaging students however she has been watching school board meetings with me and she has seen the social media afterwards she does not feel safe among the rantings of some of the speaker it feels in fears being the subject of postings the following day i know that you cannot control me and i applaud you for not feeding into them and making them loud but i'm here saying for all to hear that these words that are spoken here are being heard by everyone and they are affecting everyone the students are hearing the hate that is spoken at these meetings and it is emboldening some students to speak with more hate in school while helping helping to silence others so what am i asking of you

012to help the students we all know student mental health is worsening because of cobit training teachers to spot a crisis add social workers with therapy training to every school especially the middle schools and high schools so that the teachers have someone to refer the students to the social workers can also help keep teachers up to date on warning signs and can help be proactive in students lives since covet is affecting mental health are there cochlear recovery grants that can help get funding into place for this while we figure out how to make it a permanent part of the budget our teachers cannot do everything that teacher needed training in what to say when she hears holocaust jokes there needs to be a set plan in place when something like that happens there needs to be

013a professional employee trained to deal with such situations thank you you [Applause] [Music] my name is catherine collins and two of my six children attend hampden academy i'm a member of concerned parents and taxpayers of rsc22 the definition of indoctrination is the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically i believe that some teachers at hampton academy are not interested in educating our children but indoctrinating them in leftist ideology the basic standard is for teachers to show no bias in the classroom therefore students should not know an individual teacher's political stance this is certainly not the case at hampton academy instead two students are only taught leftist talking points for example in one classroom the students are subjected to the teacher giving a cuba is awesome where everything is

014f-r-e-e lecture she exposed the virtues of this communist hellhole where citizens have been starved beaten imprisoned and oppressed for 60 years any student who would raise their hand to point out these facts would have been immediately silent and be threatened with poor grades these teachers have moved from i disagree with you so i'm going to make an argument against the one you just made to i disagree with you so you do not have the right to have that opinion and you are a racist or a sexist or a nazi in the past two years students have been allowed to display the police anti-military antifa and blm material on their person antifa's goals are to defund the police and plant an anti-government insurgency blm is a revolutionary movement rooted in marxism that wants to dismantle western

015society teachers have displayed drawings of communist agitator che guevara in their classrooms i've seen pictures however at least two students were sent home in the past six months for wearing let's go brand new t-shirts to school when only one political ideology is allowed free free expression it is censorship rsu 22 spends over 15 000 a year per student for that cost only 42 of students are proficient in math only 66 are proficient in reading the teachers and administration of each school should be focused on educating each child entrusted to their care not foisting leftist ideology down their throats censorship is not a sign of strength it is an indication that their position cannot prevail in the arena of ideas i wanted to tackle at the very end forcing children to wear masks that have proven

016to be ineffective all day at school and then at athletic events for up to seven hours a day is child use [Applause] in um school district and i am well aware of the smut that is harvard and on display are school libraries cherished by some teachers staff in this administration specifically i'm talking about all books that contain cartoon pornography or pornographic language books that are violent or describe or normalize abuse and violence books with bad language and books with lgbtqia themes that by their very nature being in book form are given a platform for hours encouraging children to wonder about their gender and sexuality at such a young impressionable age impurity has not even hit and their best friends are currently of the same gender my children's curriculum has books that if put in movie

017form with all of their included efforts hate speech and filth would be rated r or worse my children would not have watched them in both form though teachers absolutely have been given the go-ahead from this district to overstep and disrespect parents when these inappropriate votes in the curriculum have been brought up to the administration the advice has literally been to home school parents like me may be in the minority but we are a growing member as others become aware i know i wasn't super surprised when i heard a while back that our district has applied 200 students transfer out since july and that was in november above the entrance to the library in thieves ancient reasons cried but it was quote a healing place for the soul can't we do better at rs22 why is

018it the reading books dealing with sex social issues etc is deemed prerequisite just to learn at this school district it is hard not to draw its conclusion based on personal recommendations from teachers and books in the curriculum that i have seen firsthand with my children are you assuming that i as a parent embraces bigoted or homophobic because i am not and i do not know any parent that is here are you assuming that i don't love my children enough to teach them about important things like sex for instance they assure you that i love them more than you what i want from you as a school award is to help reading to be an uplifting experience as far as teachers using these questionable books in their classrooms there is no excuse for not warning parents

019and students about specific content it should not be required of every diligent parent to read the entire book choice list of 15 or even four books to decide which is the least offensive as for pornographic books whether painted by words or in picture form i urge you to relocate them to the public library although i prefer the trash please make some changes to bring actual healing to this divided community i beg of you choose best books don't just choose books based on bringing awareness to social and like inequality for example you only got a snippet of my original speech that i wrote on monday because my original was perhaps more emotional this is dealt with my children and it's too personal friendly giving my speech to you it was written on monday was akin to

020casting my pearls before salon and discussing what changes you might actually make after hearing my speech well my husband and i finally decided we will be pulling at least three of our children from the school district next year i'm still hoping for a miracle i will not have to pay thousands of private schools tuition after already paying thousands of property taxes but i'm not holding my breath [Applause] good evening my name is amy curtis i'm a parent in the district and a member of concerned families and taxpayers in rs22 when kobet was knew taking maximum precautions with sensible using layered mitigation strategies was widely accepted two years later however we know how much more we know much more about the virus we know for instance that masking does nothing to contain it and there are

021now vaccines widely available to everyone over h5 that wants them it's time to get rid of strategies we know are ineffective ending contact tracing was their first step now it's time to end masking and pulled testing pool testing was suggested as a strategy to keep kids in school and playing sports in reality what it did was cause a large number of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic students and staff to stay home at times half of my kids entire classroom including the teacher were absent some sports were cancelled temporarily due to lack of players i know several students who just this school year have had coveted twice how many weeks of school is acceptable for them to miss due to minor cold symptoms how many days can a class be taught by a substitute before student learning

022is affected dr crouchi ansel stated that outbreaks of respiratory illness are not driven by asymptomatic individuals it is also relevant to remember that for children the risk of severe disease from cobit has always been extremely low the risk of dying is on the order of being struck by lightning u.s covet policy is an outlier many european nations kept schools okay without masks many have now ended all covered restrictions u.s schools that remained open with or without mass mandates have not seen major outbreaks and are not significantly different when comparing numbers of cases routine copa testing is not a risk-free intervention and neither is masking the social emotional educational and physical damage that children have endured because of the outsized reaction to this pandemic by adults for the sake of adults is unforgivable and it will

023not be judged kindly by history the apparent lack of curiosity about what effect these policies are having on the mental health of kids in the district is appalling mrs nichols was asked what data they are following to ensure the policies are not causing untoward harm to our children and her answer confirmed that she's not tracking any data these covet measures were supposed to be temporary and there needs to be an exit i understand it must be hard for those in charge to know when to end them considering there was never any evidence to support their use in the first place the logical moment was when vaccines became available to ages 5-11 but that moment came and went but it is the time it's time to quit the theater give up the power and control and

024get rid of the ineffective measures and both by mrs nichols and her hand-picked medical advisory team accept the reality on the ground like the rest of the world is doing the conviction to cling to outdated policies despite an ever-increasing body of evidence showing they are wrong is not science it's religious dogma cult-like behavior and bewildering to rational people the only covet strategy needed at this point is actually very simple logical and supported by the information we have after two years if you're sick then stay home [Applause] [Music] good evening mary ann royal wake up i am here to address the honorable members of the rsu 22 board honorable because i believe you will honor your oath of office honorable because i believe you will fulfill your duty to educate the students of rsu 22 ensuring

025they have a well-rounded education honorable because i believe you will live your belief statement i will support you in that this is black history month we need to talk about racism if we fail to do so we're guilty of perpetuating a culture that allows racism to continue i'm concerned that our teachers don't feel safe in bringing up the subject in their classrooms and why because they might have to face some angry parents i would ask you as a board to create a zone of safety around our teachers our librarians and our nurses so that they can do their job the job you hire them to do and in fact policy kec does that it says any curricular concerns need to be directed to the principal or the board that means the lowest applicable level for

026those kind of complaints is not the teacher or the librarian or the nurse it is administration and the board i fully support policy kec and hope that you will act to ensure it is enforced now when we come before you we get to have our say but i want to acknowledge that does not mean we get to have our way hopefully some of what we say will enter into your deliberations but i sincerely hope it does not override your duty to the students of rsu claim too i'm going to leave you with this thought when one group tries to silence the voices of another group that is oppression i hope you will support the staff of rsu 22 and will stand with them to ensure that all voices are heard during black history month especially

027those voices that make us feel uncomfortable thank you [Applause] hello my name is david pasaden i'm a parent here as a student here at hampden academy i'd like to respond to the statements made last month that the education here at hampden academy is hyper sexualized well my daughter was watching last month and regarding the notion that education and sexual health was an encouragement to engage in a sex my my um my wife turned to her and asked if that was the case and she kind of gave a teenage face and responded no and so i i also told my older children who attended hand in academy here and they they said that this education sexual health was unbiased and was rather neutral so i just thought it would be helpful in addition to black history

028month this is also national teen dating and violence awareness month and the national intimate partner sexual violence survey indicated that one in four women first experienced intimate partner violence prior to the age of 18. so while we have conversations about sexual health at home the education received here at rsu 22 also helps to reduce my daughter's vulnerability so thank you very much additionally it proves her information literacy skills she has been asked to compare the nature of information she receives in you know at school compared to what she might view on the web or receive from peers so we appreciate that ability to explore information literacy my wife also made an excellent point we teach suicide prevention drug and alcohol prevention and abuse prevention we don't expect education on these subjects to foster an increase

029in teen suicide drug and alcohol use and abuse why would we suggest that education and sexual health would increase sexual activity society has changed its views regarding gender identity and sexual orientation in june 2020 the supreme court and the bostock decision recognized that discrimination based on sex include gender identity when it extended civil rights protections under title vii and the decision was supported by an appointee of former president trump there is no proof whatsoever of a correlation that k-12 education has led to societal to these to this societal change so the objections that you are hearing are based on personal values and perspectives without proof k through 12 ed efforts with regard to gender identity identity and sexual orientation fosters cultural competency and the ability of our children to function in the world as it

030is the feedback last month also implicated religious freedom and choice though i'm a roman catholic and when i read about jesus it is clear to me that he had an exceptional degree of cultural competency and that he was inclusive many of his disciples were of a lower socioeconomic class among his closest followers were fishermen his movement take a place for women despite the fact that at the time women were the property of their husbands additionally he spoke to a samaritan woman at a well the practice that would have been forbidden given that she was a samaritan and a woman he also defended a prostitute without a stone so thank you for your efforts to supplement and admit what we do and attempt to exemplify at home you are providing an educational opportunity for our daughter

031to help developing skills in information literacy cultural competency and to empower her by giving her accurate information about her physical well-being and within your appropriate role as a public entity providing an educational format for inclusiveness thank you very much [Applause] minutes tonight i'm here just to thank you all for serving i watch month after month as people come here with passion anger distrust hope and you listen and you're responding to our community and we appreciate it i want you to know that i i don't have the ability to do what you're doing and i thank you because my kids are in this district they're in kindergarten i have many more years at ric 22 and i thank you for serving for the education that they're going to be receiving in the future as well because

032the decisions you're making now are going to impact what my kids are going to be learning over the next 12 years and that's a long term commitment to the littlest children in this city and i really just appreciate i know i keep saying that that you come back every month that you don't run away from a community that's trying to find its footing and we do appreciate it [Applause] good evening my name is samantha foster i'm a parent of kindergarten kinder burner at mcgraw recently there have been many articles released on how important a return to normal is for our children one of which is an article from usa today titled with vaccines available mass mandates are not necessary in school by dr bolsitis dr mcbride and dr walsh a quote from the article reads

033as scientists and physicians we are concerned that 2019 mitigation measures for children are doing more harm than good too many policy makers have viewed health as the mere absence of copenhagen putting children into a loop of mitigation measures that are uncoupled from actual risk after two years of living with one disruption after another the evidence is clear the pandemic and the loss of normalcy are taking a tremendous toll on students but the data on mental health being particularly alarming the american academy of pediatrics has declared a mental health emergency in children as the surgeon general recently highlighted combined analysis of 80 000 children found that symptoms of depression and anxiety have doubled the amount of people during their pain living with one in four showing depressive symptoms and one in five showing the anxiety further

034down in the article states with omicron we can expect numerous mild infections in fascinated people teachers parents and caregivers remain well protected by vaccination end quote not mentioned in this article are the children with autism sensory processing disorder severe adhd brain injuries and other neurodivergencies who have been given no choice but to mask regardless of how it affects their mental health in some cases those with mask exemptions have been offered solitary confinement from their peers all day in a storage closet in this district this this is beyond appalling if you are educated in basic child development then you should know that children naturally want to please and follow orders from adults you may say that they have adapted well to masking but it is their inherent instinct to do so it is their instinct to

035trust adults but this does not mean that masking children is healthy or safe moreover it is time to put an end to the incessant obsession with metrics cases do not equal hospitalizations nor deaths especially in children those who have been wanting to vaccinate their children have already had ample time to do so and on the topic of metrics i'd like to know how the medical advisory team was appointed and why the community was not allowed in the choosing process will they be assuming liability for possible pulmonary fibrosis bacterial pneumonia educational and developmental delays for their recommendation of continued universal masking or will the district be the evidence that masking is causing more harm to children than protection is overwhelming ignoring real science is political and dangerous to end my children's rights do not end where

036your fear begins unmastered [Applause] oh my name is carl i am being homeschooled because my mom and dad worry about my learning and how wearing masks all day i hate wearing a nose i can't breathe it's hot i can't focus i get mad and have headaches when i get off the bus i like not wearing math but i miss my friends [Music] because because i miss my friends i can't understand people with the masks i don't want to learn this thank you very much dear complier we've met but you probably don't recognize me you may remember referring to me as a conspiracy theorist racist sexist bigot or anti-vaxxer but in fact i'm none of the above and much more to you than you realize i'm your friend family member colleague lover acquaintance and neighbor i'm

037everywhere and i don't self-righteously disclose where exactly you're wearing the mask so i can't see the scorm set on your lips or even a smile if it's there your eyes are visible but in them i only see compliance fear shame and defeat i don't judge you as i know you are a victim you have been efficiently conditioned the result of which has left you stripped bare of self-confidence dignity power and compassion your only strength is to attack those unwilling to join you in obedience it's okay i don't feel mad i feel sad for you i will allow you to direct your fear at me and i will accept it because the battle i'm fighting is for you as well as me it's for your children and grandchildren as well as mine you and i both

038had a choice to make and i decided to fight for freedom you submitted instantly and attempted to shame intimidate and coerce me into the same becoming outraged at my independence and my belief in my body my choice you disagree in my striving for a fair and just society free from fraud and description you call me a fascist for arguing against government overreach do you see this irony while you continue to angrily comply to follow those will continuously lie to you i will continue to push back i will continue to value my autonomy and i will use my strength to free us both from the path you are blindly walking down one day you will see how much your compliance almost cost us and hopefully you will see that i was never your enemy i look

039forward to this day and i will celebrate it with you until then i will be here propping you up and preventing you from falling anonymously of course that was not actually my own work but i found it and i thought it was only really appropriate because we have a divided community here and every time we get up to suggest that we don't agree with things going on in our school district and we're fighting for our children we get nasty attacks on facebook only to have it turned around on us no but this isn't this isn't about us this is about our children this is about our kids education their health and their safety and just because we disagree we need to stop it right i thought this was appropriate because you can call me all

040the names you want but i'm going to still stand up here every time i come to this board meeting and i'm going to stand for freedom and i'm going to stand for what i believe is right and i want to stand for my children and i'm going to stand for yours as well [Applause] thank you my name is scott cuddy i live in airport i have two kids at golden china wagner i'm a state rep for two of the towns in the district and i'm also a former board member and i came here tonight to talk about the interaction that i had with principal raymond around one of my kids my youngest is on the chess team and he is a bright kid but unfortunately from me he inherited certain traits that don't make him

041an awesome student all the time so he fell behind in his math max and he loves being on the chess team but my ex-wife and i got an email that he was going to be placed on academic probation because he was way behind in mathematics mr raymond's email to us was clear it was concise it told us what the problem was told us how to fix in the short term and how we could address it in the long term so it didn't reoccur we were able to look at it we talked with him he had homeschooled him when masks were optional because we didn't feel that he was going to be safe in this environment his masks were optional when we finally brought him back in i had completely forgotten about power school i never

042checked it he needed to be brought up to speed on it the school brought him up to speed on it he missed a meet he did miss one chess meet um but luckily the team won that game so he he felt good about that and in the next week because he was caught up on everything he was able to get back on the chest team um i'm going to go back to the chess team in just a second i don't want to be a summit on it but i'm very excited um and then because he now he has power school he's checking his work to make sure he's got it we haven't had a reoccurrence of it because mr raymond also explained to me again about power school i've been checking on it making sure

043that things are going well and things have helped and it was just a good interaction where mr raymond took an interest and uh held my son accountable for his inaction again and doing his work but also um taught him a lesson with that thing and so i was i just wanted you to know how that particular instance got handled by an administrator in this district and the second thing is that regarding the chess team unfortunately mr hall had to step away from the last week of testing and they had one meet and then the regionals left to get through um the school contacted my ex-wife and she and i worked together to get the kids through the last week at the taking of regionals and again i don't want to steal anybody's thunder i was

044going to ask mr raymond but he wasn't here and the kids came in as the fourth seed out of four teams twice they came from the two-point deficit in the last round and they ended up winning first place in the region so yeah i would [Applause] and it was it was beyond crazy to see their excitement the orono coach said that he has been in the league either as a player or as a coach since 1998 and he had never seen wagner win in first place so i don't know when they when they uh won it before if they have but they did win it this year and it was just very exciting thank you yes and i am truly concerned that what is still happening in our schools i'm not a super political person

045i form for what i believe in i believe every single person has the right to choose you can choose to read above who you pray to you can choose who you vote for and believe it or not you can choose if you wear a mask or not well we can't because you are closing us we ask our children you want to wear a mask cool wanna wear two masks be my guest after all it's your right but it is also a right to not wear a mask and you should not forget that there have been numerous studies saying masking doesn't work that it's causing more harm than good masking schools versus mass optional schools are reporting the same number or very similar numbers of positive cases so what's the point we as parents have the

046right to choose and i don't understand why nearly two years later you are still not giving us the choice i'm well aware that medical knowledge is constantly changing as our understanding grows practices change vaccinations are available a great choice for people who feel they need it this should be a time to peel back layers of mitigation that we know now to be ineffective it is also important to acknowledge that the risk from covid19 to healthy children has always been low cdc data shows 863 total pediatric theft related to cobit 19 since the beginning of the pandemic which is less than .001 percent of the covenanting deaths in the u.s and this number does not specify from copen 19 versus with copic 19. many people argue that masking is a small inconvenience for the greater good

047however masking kids is not a damage-free intervention it negatively affects learning and causes significant social and emotional harm masking impairs verbal and non-verbal communication between teachers and students limits facial identification and has occasional physical side effects visualization of the entire face is of crucial importance to social emotional and speech development the other day i asked my daughter if she failed anyone's bucket a lesson we are probably all too familiar with thanks to our guidance counselor she told me she helped someone pick up their marker that they dropped but they didn't smile at her so she doesn't think it made them happy how sad is that you are taking these moments away from our children if masks were proven to work to prevent transmission perhaps it would be worth this but they aren't i'm not sure

048what you're looking for your transmission not going to happen are you waiting for other districts to change to parent choice first show the parents here who are begging for change for the parents watching at home too afraid to speak out that you are listening to us that you respect and support not only us but the overall thank you [Applause] that brings us to my report which i do not have anything tonight uh and we do not have a policy to bring to you tonight's review so i will turn that over to you reading with personnel thank you uh this evening i have one resignation to announce that is the resignation of ian hall fifth grade teacher at samuel l weiner middle school we'd like to thank mr hall for service to us and as you

049heard he was involved in some club activity at wagner school and we very much appreciate that including him putting them on the journey toward winning the chess tournament so that's fantastic tonight for nominations i do have the following slate of spring coaches for the 20 21 22 school year i would like to bring to your attention that on that list that slate list is one employee who is new to us and so i will point her out first that is our nominee for jb softball at hampden academy marianne hunsinger she is new to us and we are certainly excited to move that forward we also have at hampden academy transferring to another year coaching jonathan terry as head coach for baseball and tim rockmorton as jv coach we have matt madore as head coach for

050softball at camden academy and then we have marianne that i just noted as a jv coach she also has previous experience as an assistant softball and basketball coach and is currently a gymnastics coach her stipend will be 2 59.10 for outdoor track we'd like to announce uh head coach as jason cash and continued assistant coaching by brittany lehmann and assistant coaching by dean alhaj for tennis we have boys head coach tyler ross and girls head coach rich nutter and jv coach logan houston moving on to reetsbrook middle school we would like to move forward the outdoor track head coach samantha gardner and assistant brandie chase and at samuel l wagner middle school baseball head coach cody bayley um head coach of baseball for the a-team michael lawrence all right i would entertain a motion to

051take those coaches as a slate as read by nichols i believe that we accept our nominee uh appointed people as coaches as a slave all right we have a motion and a second discussion all those in favor any opposed or abstentions that as is move into the superintendent report tonight reading of essential behaviors and outcomes is board member homes education enables all students to learn the skills acquire the knowledge and develop the attitudes necessary for them to reach their potential as citizens 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 our community support systems and should welcome and encourage all members of our communities to participate and our schools will have a supportive and empowering atmosphere for

052all students and community members thank you very much tonight as we start the superintendent report i am pleased to bring recognition to you and this is an evening of recognition of national board certified teacher pinning that occurred earlier this week on monday evening and rf22 is excited to announce that two of our teachers received their national board certificate pins and those teachers are jilly bisson and stacy labrie we will be recognizing jody tonight and to introduce introduce jody to you we have sue o'brien who serves as our national board uh teacher coach and mentor here in rsu 22 and plays a role at the state level as well are we on now the whole for the time i am so excited to tell you that we have two new national board certified teachers in the

053district that brings us up to 10 teachers um just last year we did do a big presentation for the board for those of you who were on the board if you didn't get a chance to catch that um national board certification is an advanced certification written by teachers for teachers so it was there are 25 certification areas and they go by different age levels as well just about every single teaching teacher could be certified they it's different than other accomplishments that teachers can continue their learning it's different because they not only have to improve their content and show that they understand their content they also have to go and prove that they have uh understanding of the pedagogy of teaching they have to prove that they differentiate from between their students they have to show

054evidence of student work they have to show their student work samples and the big deal is they have to videotape themselves so that the assessors can take a peek into their classrooms they have to show that not only do they participate in professional development but they also are leading professional development and they're part of professional learning communities in their school they're working very closely with families and parents and they are part of the community as well so to become a national board certified teacher isn't simply reading and taking tests and showing that way you're showing what you know in your classroom so i'm very excited i wish stacy could be here tonight hopefully we will get her on board another night uh stacy is a sixth grade teacher at reedsburg school and i'll say that

055for a time she can attend but i am so honored to recognize the hard work of jodie bisson she has been a teacher for 31 years she started her teaching career in lincoln maine and she has been in our district since 2013. she helped me out and did the math that's nine years she's been with us and she's been at second grade at mcgraw school all those years and not only is she a nationally board certified teacher but she also has her master's in curriculum instruction and assessment so let's give her a great big [Applause] so we won't make her talk but she talks all day long and i really had the opportunity to go into her classroom and see not only um jody but i also saw stacy many times teach and they are

056just so gifted and they have honed their craft and through the process they didn't just prove they were accomplished teachers they also changed their practice to grow and they have to continue to grow that's one of the other highlights of the national board process it's not you get it and you're nationally board certified forever no you have to maintain your certification and you have to do that that's the next thing she's going to do turn right around and continue this work sorry and in five years she will be putting in two two components showing what she has done to continue what she did for her initial certification so it's a forever thing and at the pink ceremony the other day we were talking about how important that is because these teachers who aren't actually board

057certified continue to go through and they don't stop congratulations joey i just want to say real quick too on behalf of the board many of us have had conversations with folks that have completed this and we understand the rigor that this program takes so thank you mrs bisson and please convey that mrs labrie and we will when we see her obviously thank you very much and we understand what kind of commitment that is so thank you for from behalf of the board and our students who have yet to have you so thank you congratulations and a job well done thank you okay next on our agenda is the kovitz standard operating procedure update and tonight i'm going to be speaking to you along with dr eric jarvi who is a representative from the medical advisory

058team we are going to be talking about the data that we have been monitoring and go ahead and show you that through powerpoint and also talk about our journey forward which you heard tonight there were many inquiries about when the district would be looking at masking and we have information to share about that so we'll start by welcoming dr jarvi to the podium and there's a powerpoint presentation uh board members you do have that as a pdf and an email and then the audience we will be displaying that on the screen take one moment thank you again i'm representing the task force advisory group and we're going to report to you tonight on the data we've collected to date if you'll remember i presented to the board late last august early september about how we

059are in fact going to be tracking the progression of colbit and rsu 22 and we now have our in a position where we can talk about five months worth of data representing what we've seen in rsu 22 and what potentially we might expect in the future we're going to start off with i'm going to just go ramp through some of the individual data sets so that you can see the amount of data that has to have been collected over the last five months each one of those lines is a separate week worth of data you'll remember that initially what we were trying to do is follow the cdc guidelines for assessing what the individual stakeholder status was in many academic units green was good no transmission yellow was low transmission and orange was high transmission

060rate and ideally what we were hoping to see is green or yellow and all of the individual academic units as we progressed through that was not the case um unfortunately but it gave us a very quick visual representation of what we were seeing because the data numbers were so complex relative to students staff and all the other things we were trying to collect in this database but you'll notice that clearly most of the academic units are in the orange category and a high transmission rate i might hold that this data set for just a little bit longer in retrospect two particular things jumped out at us and i'm going to give you a graphical representation of that uh here in just a little bit but it turns out there are two time frames over the

061last five months which have turned out to be very very interesting if you will relative and it's across all the schools and uh it maybe it wasn't so apparent when we looked at these massive data sets but when we took the time to actually plot the data i think it would be very obvious to you what's going on there is a success story in rsu 22 and it's the other set it includes newburgh uh central office and some other things and for the most part that's been in green um and and it's probably not unexpected considering the students we're looking at there considering that the population we're looking at there but it does tell us that one of the units we're monitoring on rsu 22 has been very very successful to this point and it

062is a success story so we began to assimilate the data [Music] because it's so complex we tried to summarize it we generate these data reports for the rsu 22 every friday and this is a color representation of where that school sits but it's also the active cases for that school at the end of that week and unfortunately you'll see that once we got into january virtually all of the academic units are in the high transmission rate and that was that was certainly concerning uh to us as we as we move through you'll see schools come in and out relative their color variation this last data set go ahead one more the last data set actually looks again the color code only refers to the cdc classification for the school what's most important is the number

063in that cell which includes the students that are quarantined or isolated for that school related exposure and at the bottom there is a total across rsu 22 and you'll see that those numbers have certainly been very very high at some point relative to other time points that we've been following now this data set because of the size of the table does not include the comprehensive data that we started collecting last september this is really only the last 13 weeks of the audit so this is how we're trying to again just see what's happening in the most recent history snapshot but going ahead to the next slide i think it really begins to become apparent graphically what rsu 22 is seeing and i know there's a lot of detail in here but i'll ask you to

064look at the overall trends that we're seeing um the first two thirds of that are september uh september 17th through about the first of december the prominent variant we were dealing with then was delta the last third of that graph is omicron variance if nothing else it's a very graphical representation of the dramatic difference communities are seeing relative to the omicron variant versus the delta variant they have been two very very different kinds of disease processes the other thing i think that's very evident here is that there's been a dramatic increase in virtually all of the total cases by week since omicron has become the prominent variant that we're dealing with now um i have wagner in particular circled there as an example um if we just look at the uh again that last third

065where omicron is the predominant variant we're dealing with we'll notice that with one exception all of the schools are starting to drop off on their total cases wagner is the only one that continues to increase and this seems to be an indication that we might in fact be getting to understand how this variant is acting in our school system and perhaps give us that window opportunity to begin to make some more realistic decisions about beginning to back step out peeled and onion layers out of our migrations out of our mitigation strategy now the other thing i want to point out to you because again it's probably difficult to read there that increase occurred after the christmas break the last third of that draft is entirely a time frame that is after christmas break in rsu

06622. well you might ask okay that might be pretty significant as a piece of information what's happened earlier in this time frame if we can go to the next slide i blew up the bose the post thanksgiving break and while it's not as dramatic because we were working with the delta variant you can see that there's an obvious increase in virtually all of the schools in the two weeks that followed the thanksgiving break followed by a drop in most of the schools after that two week period what does that mean to you we are two weeks away from the winter break we are six eight weeks away from the spring break well i'm concerned about trying to reject what's going to happen in those breaks there is clear evidence that the district responds to increased

067cases after an rsu 22 break it's very evident after thanksgiving it's even more pronounced after christmas and we suspect that the prominent type we're going to be dealing with over the winter break is still going to be omicron and that will probably still be the type we're going to be dealing with over the spring break as well so before i leave this data just one other thing projecting case loads uh is a difficult situation i've actually gone back the green graph you see there actually represents standard academy and that's a model that looks at the two-week average of cases okay all of the schools that are plotted on there are a two-week moving average of what the number of cases is over that last two week period and obviously hamline academy is very very high

068you would look at that and you would say well clearly cases are based on that model are dropping and that's important but i want to tell you some of the difficulties in modeling i actually went back this afternoon and looked at hand and hand the academy looking at a linear least squares projection model to try to project what would be happening in spring break in april the line for hammond academy is a positive positive sloping line going up it is not that chilly average you see there so the difficult and i wrestled with why that might be the case and quite frankly for hammond academy what's driving that linear increase in a projection model i think are the two post-vacation time periods where the data went up very very dramatically so projections can be difficult

069but clearly real world data is showing us that we do have spikes after vacations now we've talked to we've heard many many times about reports in the literature usa today reports u.s news and world report news u.s news the world reports and i try to go out and maybe find a succinct kind of reference for you and put it in layman's terms that might suggest how we can begin to interpret what's out there there is one source called the cochrane library which organizes medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices and 53 groups around the world utilize this database to perform analysis of what's out there in the literature this report came out in january 17 2022 so it's very recent and these are the results from that review it looked at 38 relevant studies all

070the studies um unfortunately most of the studies were modeling studies much of what i tried to do for example in projecting what was going to happen in the academy modeling studies inherently have risks okay let's remember that they inherently have risk it's not the randomized control trial that we'd like to be able to do to prove what's going on in the communities unfortunately randomized controlled trials take a long time and then in the middle of a randomized control trial the variable we're dealing with changes it's no longer delta it's now omicron so that randomized control trial becomes even more difficult because the infectious agent has changed so anyway majority of those studies were modeled bottling studies but here's what they conclude 23 modeling studies assess the measures to reduce the opportunity for contacts all studies

071show reductions in the spread of the virus that causes cloven 19. 11 modeling studies and two real words real world studies looked at measures such as masking mask wearing in schools cleaning hand washing and ventilation five of these studies combine multiple measures most studies show a reduction in the spread of the virus that causes clogging 19. 13 modeling studies in one real world assessed surveillance and response measures 12 focused on mass testing and isolation measures to look specifically at symptom-based screening and isolation most studies show favor of these interventions and lastly three studies looked at multi-component intervention assessing physical distancing modification of activities etc again most studies showed reduced transmission of the virus that causes over 19. that's pretty compelling summary from this research group on this very comprehensive review of the literature that's out

072there by the way the most recent publications were i think they're recalled through november or december however what is their confidence in these findings our confidence in these results is limited why might you ask and i i want to be truthful it is they concluded that it is confidence is limited and the problem that they assess is that most of these studies used models that were not randomized controlled trials and second off as i alluded to in the middle of this whole process the varying change and so trying to assimilate data across two different variants has become very very difficult however their key message was that reopening schools are keeping schools open while having a broad range of broad range of measures masking is only one of those interventions reduces transmission of the virus that

073causes kobe 19. and lastly i'll leave you with something that just came out this is a very good pictorial diagram of what merit wherein mass can do to lower the odds of testing positive and you'll notice that you go from left to right no mass thought mass surgical mass and respirators yeah 95 1095 offers the greatest production and that is something that we know from the literature and again the references is up there at the top and again the literature that we've pulled is from referee journals so that certainly at least in our mind gives some credibility to those references so thank you now i guess i can entertain any questions that will they have [Applause] we have a question i i do have a question i just want to know why the medical advisory

074board member doesn't wear a mask in public we don't we entertain questions from them well that was it not wearing a mask so i'll move on here to the timeline and this is part of your powerpoint um based on the data that we have collected over the past five months and the modeling that dr jarvie just showed you we have been reviewing that we are at a point where we are now looking to move on a journey toward considering optional masking when the data shows us that we have the ability to do so so this timeline is articulating what we're looking at so today february 9th through march 11th we'll continue with universal masking and we're continuing in alignment with the main cdc standard operating procedure that's the sop that you hear about we have

075taken the time this week to speak with the state about any particular timeline that they think there might be a change to the sop because remember because our issue 22 is participating in universal masking it allows us quarantine exceptions for people who are close contacts of the school and if we move away from that universal masking we will no longer be eligible for those exceptions so we'll talk more about that we'll continue with pool testing and the positive covid case data management that we've been doing and then the two-week return following february break because we've seen those historic spikes after the breaks that we're taking from school we'll study that and if we see continued evidence that we're having precipitous drops and we have i heard someone tonight speak about the goal can't be zero

076copied our goal is not zero total what is it that is not that is not realistic so we will certainly be looking for the decrease that we are already seeing in our schools start right now being sustained and on march 14th schools that demonstrate a two-week sustained decline or a plateau that has already shown a significant decline will be opened with optional masking and schools that are not showing that data where we're seeing an increase or we never saw a decrease and there's a plateau at too high of a level they will remain with universal masking at that school campus and i want to be clear here using a data driven model if we have a school that goes optional masking and we see some type of rebound data that shows that our cases are

077going back up for sustained time because it's only fair if you're going to use sustained data you use it both ways then we would return to masking at that particular school we're comfortable going school by school because we've been measuring the data all along and as you saw tonight we have schools that have different data patterns and we like to be able to respond to each campus so we're sitting at february 9 and we have march 14 as a date that we are looking at this is nothing that is in stone it is a timeline that we hope is a journey we want people to have enough heads up that this is what we're considering so that people have time if people haven't gotten a booster yet this would be the time to consider that

078if you are not enrolled in pool testing this would be the time to consider that because those other mitigation factors are going to be important now we've heard a lot about our students of course because they are our mission here in rsg22 but we are an organization that also has a significant number of adults and it is very important that those employees have the time and have the data so that they also can feel a sense of confidence and going into a mass optional environment not many of us in this room spend all day with at least 20 students around you some teachers have caseloads of students who come and go and they are over 85 students a day that they see so going to a mass optional environment is a different step so at

079this time i'd like to welcome brittany raymond to speak to any details of this that she would want to be sure you understand because there are ramifications related to the soc moving into the mass optional environment sure thing and if you have questions please let me know because i haven't tried it i have a sick kid at home um so currently we have reached out to our uh county representative who is a liaison to the nurse consultant with the state and the nurse consultant herself to ask what would be the ramifications if we went optional masking and the sop was still in place as written and as written we would then have to revert back to contact tracing and quarantining unvaccinated on non-pool testing students so that does you know that that is a challenge

080we haven't had to do that since the uh change in the sop out as of january 11th and i don't want to go back to foreign tv kids so we're hoping that there'll be a shift at the state level that'll help us with that it's my understanding that there is a meeting at the end of this week personal discussion around that but as it currently stands we would have to contact trace and quarantine kids so i do want to just give a real life example of that at the high school level we had a case and it would have required 28 students to have to quarantine so that's just and that was yesterday if we were we were not using our universal mastery exception um we are continuing with pool's testing um there may be

081a question of why we're doing that so i went and pulled some information and i um i just want you to know that i appreciate the program for what it is but i am also interested in an off off-ramp for pool testing um it's really done the job that it's supposed to have done for us and i appreciate that um but it's time-consuming and you know we did hear examples of asymptomatic students but there are benefits to us still so i did write some notes so um why are we continuing with pool testing we had worked with concentric who is the lab source that we use and they have fixed their turnaround time to match omicron omnicon trans um is transmissible really quickly so if we're waiting three to four days to get our results

082it's pointless at that point right because we're seeing those symptomatic students break through before we get our results back so they have tightened up and we are now getting our results in 48 hours from the time that we um send it down so we pull test on tuesday and we get our results back on thursday it was awesome last week it worked really really well we had all our pools back by 10 a.m on thursday morning and we were able to fight follow up and find those positive students um so it's an accurate and cost-effective way to test multiple kids and to be able to find those covet cases before they transmit to other students because they use a pcr test and i've spoken to you guys about that before we have found the binex

083now is sensitive enough to pick up omicron one study actually has found that it fix up omicron better than it did delta so i'm very confident in the bionics now test that we have and we were fortunate enough to get a shipment of about a thousand from the federal government and i was just a lot an additional 400 so we have plenty of finance tests in our district right now so that's i was sweating there for a week but we did we did get them in um if done consistent consistently and timely pool testing can break the chain of transmission so meaning that we will break the transmission in our schools and then secondary transmission beyond as a child to be able to isolate so that's another it's another mitigation strategy if it's used correctly

084um i did mention that it does find asymptomatic carriers and right now that's still a goal of ours will that be a goal in the future probably not but currently it is a goal it's cost effective both in time and money and helps my health staff because we're not individually swabbing because we have talked about using a different test return or testing program but it is cost effective and it is a surveillance tool because it's allowed us to look at our district data compare it to the region to the state and to the nation and we fall right in there so one of the points that i'm asked about is our positivity rate and i pulled the positivity rate for the last 30 days for each of our buildings and it hovers around two percent

085except for two outliers which is hans academy at three percent and um wagner at three point seven percent that falls right in money nationally my daughter pointed out to me last night that if we go optional masking on march 14th that's two years to the day that we shut down i cried i had a really hard day yesterday and to hear her say that i was like oh right at the end of the tunnel i have two very different children i have a very social kid who loves the high school and she loves being with their friends so i asked her will you take your mask off well i don't know it depends on who i'm with and my teacher i talk to aj who i really thought would hide behind us for the rest

086of her life she would know it's coming off and she's excited so i think it's great that we're setting these goals and i know we can get there we just got to let the data take us that way thank you [Applause] just a quick uh question of clarification on the graph i see it is a moving average i believe there's a seven there's a number of options in calculating the average and what an average does is it reduces the noise in the data obviously we settled on on the two-week average based on foreign meaning and a number of the other issues that we're trying to follow and we decided that the two-week moving average would probably be best and that's how we plotted all the schools you are right in the vacation periods are out

087of necessity left out of that data and it is the graph would show an empty space there if they were expanded out appropriately but but in the calculation it is not a zero it is simply a non-data point you see you're starting out with a clean slate it depends on the behavior of the break to see if it's starting down flat or upward when we return well clearly yeah clearly when you come back for what uh superintendent suggested what we'll be doing is continuing to monitor each of the academic units look at the total caseload see if we're getting that decline and we've not seen it in all of the units except for riding there at this point uh and if those kinds of trends continue i think we're in a very favorable position to

088to begin to move forward with more concrete kinds of class systems absolutely thank you got a quick question for brittany petty student that was pool tested and was full tested on tuesday people go on thursday was vaccinated or vaccinated and then the cdc guidelines for quarantine say five days um i understand that we're doing a seven day but uh he was the only one that was tested positive and full testing but the quarantine started on thursday i was wondering if you could clarify why we don't we don't recognize tuesday as the initial test day for him that is a great question because we asked the same thing when we first started this because we went rogue and did count tuesday and we were told by the state that it had to be the individual's test

089day so when we teased out and tested all those children it was that individual binex test so we had originally wanted to go with tuesday because it made sense to us but we were calmly slapped on the wrist and told to knock it off so we did we did try to do that in the very beginning anybody else i thank you for listening to the presentation and i do look forward to us continuing to see the decreases we're quite optimistic that we will continue to do that and we're going to hope that february does not show us a spike like the other breaks we've had so we'll be fantastic next on the superintendent report is a notice to the school board that the final district audit has been received and the finance committee did meet

090in order to review that we did have one finding from our audit and that involved timing we had a reserve account transfer that we were authorized to be allowed to make on july 1st and it did not get made until later in the year and the recommendation came back that our timing should be closer to the start of the fiscal year so we are going to be reviewing that in addition we talked to the finance committee about the fact that internal controls are really the essential functioning of how the audits are coming back with either praise or suggestions so we are going to find an expert opinion to come in and talk about our internal controls and look at the practices that we're currently using and advise if we could be doing better in other

091areas and give us those skills if we need to talk more about any specific area so i'm really excited about taking a proactive step because our audits have been noted to improve with each year anything from finance committee anyone want to add anything about that okay so you will be able to see a copy of the audit we do get hard copies that come in we get a handful of those you're welcome to come in and pick one up i'll let you know when they arrive and then we also post the audit on the website so they'll be accessible to all and that will be happening next enrollment projection census we ordered the enrollment projection census back in and because of covid it was put on hiatus we do have back a significant amount of

092the material for it but we don't have everything yet because the housing starts for each of our four towns are the remaining data point that we need to make a formal enrollment summary so i did include some material in your packets the last two months for the board meeting and i just wanted you to know that we are making headway and we do have a couple of things that i want to point out one is that our census expert has pointed out that we are in four towns where we can rely on historical migration trends there will be some change due to covid but our communities seem to be trending in a pretty typical direction there are going to be some adjustments in enrollment for the number of home school students that have been out

093of our district during the coven period so we will be seeing that data point and then there will be some housing start information that may be unique to any one town because we do have a few more housing starts for instance in hampden right now that we might have in newburgh or frankfort but until we get the actual numbers from the towns we can't make that distinction so i'm looking forward to having a solid number for you as we get into the budget season deeper any questions on the enrollment census all right and then the school nutrition administrative review we tabled from our last meeting our school nutrition director kathy kitridge she's unable to be with us tonight but she did an outstanding job with this audit it was an administrative desk audit and there

094were a number of components that were reviewed and we had no findings for that audit and she was absolutely lauded by the state for the performance that we have and there are a number of indicators that are covered so our school nutrition department is solid and at this time i'd like to turn it over to assistant superintendent bloom for her report if you've watched our websites lately you see that we are in the throes of winter kids so please take advantage of those smiling faces out there outside and we want to celebrate specifically a 500 scholarship awarded to smith's school for one of their photos it's a young man holding a fish and then also winter kids related the main principles association hosts uh mean positive mains positive stories of the day and smith's school

095was also celebrated for those of you unaware this is national school counselors week and so we would be remiss if we didn't celebrate our 22's fantastic school counselors i'd like to call them my name melissa erickson is at mcgraw kim raymond at smith school kelly weaver at weatherby charlotte lowell at wagner and moody at reedsbrook jill kenny christine beauteur and erica oliver all at aha they have done a fantastic job for us throughout the pandemic and continue to help us navigate student needs and meet those needs as diverse as they have become and will likely continue to be we are planning for meeting students at an individual and proactive level so thank you school counselors for the hard work that we do here [Applause] i'd like to bring your attention to the budget document to

096look at our finances for the month to bring context to you we have 42 percent of our school year remaining and we have 40 percent of our fiscal year remaining and our budget is at 41.84 i don't think you could be more on the money than that so um i have no concerns and things are tracking very very well and our student report jacob uh give me a minute i have a few things on my phone all right so i just need to put a small list on my phone i apologize uh so with the student body there's been a few fun things happening the most prominent and the thing that most students care about is the snow days we've been having recently and i'm sure all students have been enjoying those uh as have

097i they've been a big relief during a uh often stressful time of the year um the student council is pushing forward with some changes to the dress code which has been outside of the representatives in stephanie and the student council we're trying to get everyone's voice in on it who wants it which that's been very interesting and very productive and uh winter sports are currently coming towards the end of their season i know a lot of sports have pvcs this weekend next weekend which very exciting for a lot of people i'm on the swim team so that's been on my mind all week but yeah overall i think student body is in a pretty healthy position thank you that brings us to questions of board members uh in looking at the policy committee i noticed

098there were three people missing myself chris devonte and justin um um my next question uh is i saw it in the building between this about a letter going to blt about aj traffic my business is so i'll have principal tracy come on up to the microphone and principal tracy drafted a letter to the department of transportation and building committee reviewed that we do have massive congestion at dismissal times and so his letter was to talk to the dot about options they have so take it away thank you so brooklyn and nichols so what we've been looking at is uh really the western ave exit and some some patterns there that we're seeing slowed down so one of the challenges we've seen this year is that we're not able to program the light the accounts aren't

099able to program the light the way they used to so it's that steady time frame and it just slows that traffic exit there so what we'd like to do is actually be able to add a lane that is a right turning lane because right now if you want to go forward it is just you're waiting right so we'd like to add that there but of course we can't do that without the traffic so we'd like to be able to adjust the light again we'd like to be able to add that lane and then the other piece we're talking about is at least on the exit is to be able to remove the speed bump on the exit side coming in we like that as i come in but we noticed that just another pattern that

100tends to slow us down quite a bit so we've asked for um information on all three things and consider all three things to keep our traffic back flowing again any other questions charging um we will check into that i will say that in order to qualify for free lunch lunches have to have many components and so if the student takes a milk it may not reach the threshold of the free lunch components so i will inquire if the milk could be part of a free lunch that a child just doesn't end up taking because they have their own lunch chris quick questioning so we came up and spoke about training social workers adding on is there sort of an overwhelming workload right now with the social workers that we have on staff or is that

101something that you're attracting we have received actually just recent notice from our special education director lynn wells i'm not sure if you're here tonight but um our social work slots are passed out as of i think last week and we are looking at hiring social work but it is very difficult to find people to do the job and we're finding that in all sectors not just education but we are absolutely evaluating how many social work needs we are going to have not only through individualized education plans but also for needs around social emotional support so we're going to continue to look in that and you'll see that in the budget as well all right anything else no normally we have questions of board members and then questions are for medicare i don't see that here

102right so this is though jacob brought something up are we even for snow days right now all right that brings us to policy considerations all right this evening we have four policies that are being brought to you for a second greed there was an adjustment to the agenda and those other three policies were sent as part of that adjustment the first one is policy kdb it's the public's right to know freedom of access uh this meeting with this policy was brought back to the committee to ensure that some of the concerns that were addressed by the board were presented in the policy itself if you look at paragraph one two three four five um that is where the major adjustment was made if you look at what's in yellow it has it is now saying

103that within a reasonable time of receiving the request the superintendent or designee shall provide a good faith non-binding estimate of the time within which the superintendent or designer will comply with the request as well as a total cost estimate as required by law so that was the major change that we made along with moving a few sentences around if you look at the second page you'll note that what was in red was crossed out because that was moved into that paragraph also we added the word preferably up in paragraph three that and that is by law and so that word was inserted from the last time that we met so based on those changes that we made i move for uh to adopt for second reading policy kdb public's right to know freedom of access

104we do have a motion and a second discussion all right see none all those in favor of policy killing ev for a second reading opposed or abstentions that's unanimous the second policy coming to you this thing for second reading is the student code of conduct policy j on c um this is exactly as it was presented to you for first reading as there were no recommendations needed i move that policy jic move forward for second reading student code of contact all right we have a motion and a second discussion sitting on all those in favor of policy j-i-c for second reading opposed or abstentions just as in addition to that one the student code of conduct the what is included in handbooks that is presented to parents as being adjusted right now the reason for

105the adjustment is due to certain laws that have changed and so those will be in place before the first of next year the next policy is policy jk student discipline again this was a massive change that we went over at the last meeting the changes that were made had to do with laws that were changed and this is also based on the msma recommendation for policy jk i move that we i hope that we accept policy jk student discipline as presented we have a motion and a second discussion seeing all those in favor opposed or abstentions that is unanimous the last policy that we're looking at this season for second reading is policy jke expulsion of students again no changes were made to that uh seeing as all the changes that were made to it

106before the first reading are based on the new laws that have gone into place so i move to approve for second reading policy jke expulsion of students as presented so we have a motion in a second all those discussions all those in favor of second reading of policy jke opposed for extensions that is unanimous and i just want to say too that uh the new leader of the policy committee and i have discussed um that where this is coming from a policy we don't technically need a we're just coming from a committee we don't need a second because it is implied that that committee has just been more than one person from that community so we have support for more than one person so i just want to bring that up john as a little

107jab to john and he didn't know also too i want to address what jacob brought up regarding the dress code policy and that is coming to the policy committee for recommendations from the students the student body that's been working on that so it is coming we're not ready to present at all at this point in time but we are working on it all right that brings us to old business so take this into new business as we heard last week we did make a presentation to you on two fronts one being the proposed hampden academy expansion project here at the high school and also a school revolving renovation fund grant that we have been seeking for reedsburg middle school so i'd like to start with new business item a we are bringing before you a

108motion to move on calling a referendum for the voters of our four towns to decide on a school construction referendum and we would be moving forward if it is the will of the board to put forth for a public hearing that would occur on march 9th regarding the school construction and we would go to the forum for a public hearing make a presentation similar to what you heard last week regarding the need for the high school expansion the funding for the expansion coming from the america rescue plan esser grant and we would be moving forward to answer any questions that the public may have about that project so tonight you will be asked to consider a motion to get that referendum and the public hearing underway if we look at item b on the agenda

109it is to discuss an act on calling a referendum election for authorizing the school revolving renovation funds being issued for reedsbrook middle school that would be for renovations and we were alerted on february 1st that rsu 22 did receive funds for the project of renovation on uh middle school the award was eight hundred and eighty six thousand eighty dollars and that award is what we call um a partial grant and partial maine bond bank award so 70 of it would come to the district as a grant and the reason 70 percent because we're a 70 subsidy receiver 30 of the grant would need to go before the main bond bank and we would need to be moving on that very quickly and that's why we're coming to you tonight and that would be a 10-year

110loan at zero percent interest so essentially money that is coming to the district without us as taxpayers having to pay that back the receipt for each of the payments that's made to the bond bank ends up refilling the pot for school revolving renovation funds so it's revolving every year and it has been four years since we've been able to apply for a grant so we're very pleased tonight to come to you we do need to act on two separate items revolving the construction of hampden academy and calling for that referendum and then calling on the referendum for the authorization to pull down the srr grant money but when we read the motions tonight they will be combined because we'll be doing the referendum on the same day two separate questions and we'll be holding the

111public hearing on the same day in separate sections so people can come and hear about either and have their questions answered i'll stop there and ask if there are any questions about the projects themselves and then if it is the interest of the chair we can move forward with the process of forwarding devotions um i do believe it's 10 years it's the 200 it's a 220 could you read the amount for me i do believe that will be a 10 10-year payback because of the amount but i will verify that for the public hearing any additional questions so i moved at the board of notice of elections the rsu 22 rsu regional school unit 22 presented to the meeting he approved and that the referendum collection for rsu 222 rsu the rsu be called for

112april 5th 2022 for the purpose of approving the school construction project and approving the issue of a bonds or notes for minor capital project purposes as just described therein okay so i have a motion and a second discussion further discussion all those in favor opposed all right i make a motion that the notice of public hearing presented to the meeting be approved and that the public hearing on the school construction cross project and insurance of the bond notes minor capital projects preferences to be held on march 9 2022 at 7 pm has provided therein so i have a motion and a second any further discussion clarification so that would require yes on march 9th we will need a quorum of board members just as we had last night at our newburgh forum thank you any

113additional questions all those in favor opposed or abstentions we have a number of warrants to now sign and finish off the last two action items on our agenda and then just stay seated and we'll pass around the warrants i think that would probably be okay just please don't leave okay thank you actually we need to advertise the one moment please my computer yeah please let us know so we can we know who's coming uh we actually have uh i would say to you that we should make an amendment to that because at six o'clock so i guess we'll be starting we'll come back okay so the next item of business is to discuss an act on the first read of the 2022-23 school calendar this is coming to you as the first draft of school

114calendar so i'll let everybody get that pulled up um okay so i have a motion to reconsider um we have discussion on that all those in favor of reconsidering opposed or sentience i make a motion that the notice of public hearing presented to the meeting that be approved and that the public hearing on the school construction project in the intro of the bond notes minor capital project purposes be held on march 9 2022 at 6 pm as provided therein all right we have a motion in a second discussion all those in favor opposed or extensions six o'clock on march 9th okay school calendar so uh we have a bit of a change this year on the school calendar from the past one thing i'd like to let you know is that last year in ro22

115we moved kindergarten screening to the beginning of the school year and the rationale for that was that when you screen in the springtime you're capturing students who may or may not be with you and you aren't offering anything to the students who show up newly over the summer so if you go in the fall you're actually capturing the students who are really going to be in your seats so that worked very well last year and we've been asked to carry that forward so the first week of school that we would have for grades 1 through you will not see pre-k or k during that week because the screening will be occurring for the students we also have come to you this year recognizing that in the past we have had folks who have advocated that

116we start school after labor day and to do that in our shoe 22 is a challenge for a couple of reasons one is we feel very strongly that the educational days before labor day are once to be captured students do very well in the days of the fall and after they've had a long summer break they're ready to come back to school and i think some parents would even submit it's kind of nice to see them get on the school bus and come on back but we do recognize that we have heard from the community they have an interest in having an extended labor day and so what we did was instead of having the monday be off the first week of school we have made the friday before labor day a vacation day so

117that we could have four days so it's a compromise we do like the faced in weeks to get students and our teachers back it really does help not to have a full five day week for a couple of rotations just to catch your breath and get back to business but we also recognize that there are several either early dismissals or in-service days and we really are looking for input so our employees will be receiving this first draft if you approve it tonight and we'll be asking for their input on it and that will be delivered to you before we have a second reading so that you'll be able to understand what our employees are interested in and we've already received some feedback from ea 22 that we are seriously considering great great perspectives so um

118with that i submit to you the first draft of the 2223 calendar i prove that we accept calendar as presented to us all right we have a motion to in a second to accept the calendar as presented uh discussion i believe we discussed this but how does this align with any activity at utc this aligns well um i will say that utc is also looking at their calendar so it's a constant conversation but um yes it does indicate partial attendance but we should actually remove that because we would be having our uh sophomores juniors and seniors back by that day the kindergarten the case the freedom right okay since then that's the only reason i would call it because i didn't think that it would have been a partial and i was reminded that if

119you and k are still in screening additional questions all those in favor of the 20 22 23 calendar for first reading all right opposed one opposed any extensions yes all right okay [Music] uh next we have approval of the informal to formal activity for the smith school garden club at six herbs earps are an ele estimated relative position um segment to determine how much a stipend would be and this stipend would be approximately at six cents is this for last year we would be starting now all right can i get a motion further discussion all those in favor opposed or abstentions that is unanimous all right that also brings us to the adjustment to the discussion act on the delay on a formal cross as an activity lacrosse has been offered as a club sport

120and will be offered again as a club sport for the spring and part of the requirements in policy jj regulation jj require that we collect data to bring back to you about the success of the club in order to decide if it should become a varsity sport the regulation also requires we do this at the end of the first semester but the problem is we haven't played the second year of club lacrosse so to bring it to you now doesn't work we recognize the reason for this the rationale is to have things decided before budget season so an athletic committee we discussed that we will put something in the budget to hold a place for lacrosse and then as the spring unfolds and we're making decisions in athletic committee we might have a last-minute decision

121about lacrosse and so we'd like to delay the requirements of jjr so that we can collect the information and then make a decision based on that all right one thing we'll need a motion to delay if that's what we choose to do all right so we have a motion and a second to delay until june discussion all right all those in favor opposed or abstentions okay that is unanimous so we'll look we'll take a look at that in june that brings us to set meeting dates are there any dates that we need to set tonight um that haven't been set we have any relations opposingly on first for the second march uh and i'm flexible um oh as um i right so we do not have an executive session this evening um we didn't decide

122that at our last meeting did we [Music] may i speak with uh fred and clarify that okay and if that's the case i mean you can just put it on okay all right so we do do not have an executive session is there any other business we need to discuss tonight if not uh we will assuming you're trying to we'll wait we'll wait until after we sign and then we'll entertain emotions oh