001e e e welcome and good evening welcome to the msad51 uh board of directors meeting for Thursday March 6 it's actually the first time we've had this meeting for a bit we had quite a few Thursday snowstorms in February so it's wonderful to see everyone tonight um just call the order we have the full board here this evening wonderful seeing everyone we also have some administrators present which leads us who our highlighting the literacy teachers and literacy specialist at miw so we're going to welcome mallerie up to to come talk about the program thank you good evening everyone for those of you who don't know me my name is mallerie or zuchowski I'm the assistant principal at mael I Wilson School in my role I have the distinct pleasure with the mentorship and oversight of
002Corey and Marie of leading the literacy work at Mabel Wilson now in an ordinary year this is vital work that requires skill care and attention to move forward in a year such as this year it's a particularly heavy lift this year we are in the midst of piloting two new literacy programs these are year-long pilots that require intense planning regular meetings classroom observations and the utilization of a comprehensive curriculum evaluation tool that is to name only a few of the commitments tonight I would like to recognize our 17 pilot team members consisting of 15 classroom teachers and our two literacy Specialists Kelsey Frost Tatum Leo Allison flu Sarah gray Jonna King Teresa Folly Tina singer Phyllis Jones Abby weeks Katie Benner Jessica swindlehurst Lauren and twistle Valerie deminsky Ashley lant Amelia coffee Rebecca mzik and
003Jill Hughes there are many important reasons to Pilot new curriculum but there is one that rises above them all to learn these teachers and Specialists chose to embark on a journey to engage in a deep and meaningful learning process a process that not only provides valuable information to help inform our next steps but also one that deepens their own teaching practices many say that they are lifelong learners but these staff members embody that concept and for that we are thankful and for that they deserve every bit of our recognition thank you thank you so so much I know we've had some additional guests we do have signin sheets for public comment if people are here to make public comment tonight um I think there's some circulating if people um do want to sign up you're
004welcome to um and if any of the anyone new who's come in is interested um we have one more item and then I will be collecting the public comment Sheets if people are interested in speaking and then using those to call people up just make sure everyone has a chance if they're interested great all right so we're going to move to approval of minutes can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the January 16th 2025 meeting thank you Kim can I have a second second thank thank you Jesse um any questions or comments about the January 16th meeting I know it does seem like it was a while agotime ago Lots happened okay all in favor great I'm abstaining abstaining Anna because I'm stting she wasn't here great so um we're going to
005move into public comment uh sign up has been made available for those wishing to speak um I have one sheet up here with two names where is there any other sheets with names on them okay so before I begin public comment tonight I would like to acknowledge that there has been a lot of attention about our district at both the state and National level specifically as it relates to various Title 9 investigations around student athletic participation first I'm going to Echo the statement from our superintendent from February 21st and reiterate our unwavering support for all of our students this support is not based upon our limited on upon or limited to any Viewpoint opinion or identity this support is unconditional for all students of value members of our school Community next um ms51 will continue
006to abide by the main Human Rights Act which is state law the state act states that is unlawful to deny a person equal opportunity and athletic programs or deny a person that benefits of any academic extracurricular research or occupational Training or other program or activity on the basis of sex sexual orientation gender identity physical or mental disability ancestry National origin race color religion we along with our legal team have been working to keep up with a very fluid situation and one that seems to change every day we are working to stay cons in consistent communication with main doe and our legal council and until directed we do not expect to change a policy or practice this has been a whirlwind and we will continue to focus first on controlling what we can control and work
007to make sure each school day as normal safe welcoming and conducive to learning as possible I wish I had more specific but as I said things are developing and changing rapidly I would also like to take a moment to personally thank our teachers staff administrators for dealing with an extraordinarily stressful situation with Grace and professionalism to our students some of here on the board and here today you continue to impress me with your Poise and maturity thank you we will continue to put you first I also recognize and regret the stress and attention this places specifically on our lgbtq students no student no matter matter how they identify should have to deal with this unwarranted and unwanted attention one final word to our neighbors in Cumberland and North Yarmouth we are a community we are
008neighbors friends and families that each bring unique experiences and perspectives let's continue to build a community rooted in respect compassion and kindness that celebrates our differences and find strengths and our shared values I ask everyone to show compassion for those who may be going through something different than you are show understanding and empathy for everyone's Journey our children are are watching us and looking for us as examples on how to model civil discourse let's make sure we work together to set that [Applause] example so the board welcomes and recognizes the value of public comment and to ensure public comment is fair and orderly we'll follow procedures as outlined in board policy bedh and we ask that all members of the public do so as well we follow this policy to keep the meeting civil respectful
009and productive we hope that this allows for all community members who would like to speak to be heard um we were using the sign up tonight per policy um residents and staff members have been given priority um and we have 30 minutes of public comment if needed um we ask that speakers use a designated Podium when making their comments and comments to by individuals are limited to a maximum of three minutes and the clock will be visible on the screen and after 3 minutes the timer will go off and comments should be wrapped up please state your name and town of residence before beginning your remarks um as a reminder public comment is a time is not a time for discussion Q&A or debate between the board and speakers rather it is a chance for
010members of the public to express their opinions on school and educational matters the board will not comment on remarks made by speakers during public comment please let this um please know that this does not mean we're not listening lastly please keep comments respectful and civil this includes members of the audience and we asked that comments are addressed to myself the chair please do not direct comments at or about individuals in our schools and communities and I I want to knowe that I will stop any comment that's contrary so last call I have uh two signups I'll start with Mike profet that makes me nervous does it start when I talk or no I'm just kidding I'm teasing I'm teasing I'm teasing hi there my name is Mike bretti um I wanted to go first because
011in case people were wanting to sort of speak negatively about what's been happening I want to set the tone I do appreciate that a lot of people including people in my own family are saying oh we're following the law we're following the law and I appreciate that and I and I appreciate following the law but just be mindful that there may come a day when the law is immoral so I just want to you to think about that because it could change all right the idea that there are strictly two genders is in the middle of being debunked by science and good theology the Prayer of St Francis has a line in it it is better to understand than to be understood I direct you to the podcast embedded you can get it on NPR
012or wherever you listen to your podcasts it's called tested scientific discoveries in the last 50 years have expanded our notion Beyond Simple XX or XY chromosomes determining sex these are simply not the only indicators of gender sex or identity our scientific understanding of it now includes so much more evidence if we are open to learning also native cultures long before we populated this land had a way to integrate people fully into the community they are two-spirit people if one doesn't want to accept these facts and ways of moving in this world then perhaps statistics will help in the last 10 years 50 transgender students in Maine have asked to participate in a sport 50 in 10 years I don't know the percentage of total athletes during that time but I expect that expressed as a
013percentage of the total it's infantes also the nc2a shamefully bended knee to our madman in charge of the 500,000 athletes that are Collegiate nc2a athletes there are 10 or fewer transgender people make up 2% or less of our total population transgender athletes are in no way displacing female athletes statistically speaking I'm the father of two daughters and so I speak personally as well one person's experience is not a threat to my existence if the state legislature wants to work on problems that will help our children think about this there are about 1500 high school students in Maine probably identifying as transgender or experiencing gender dysphoria listen to this one yet more than 3,000 students live in poverty in Maine so there's plenty of work to do [Applause] thanks Andrea Barry hello my name is Andrea
014Barry I live in North Yarmouth and I'm the chair of the North Yarmouth select board uh the select board would like to appreciate the school board all the amazing work you've done and the way that you have welcomed uh and supported all students uh I've been invited to read a statement that we made on Tuesday night this is a statement in support of the lgbtqia community from the North Yarmouth select board in this moment when the national Spotlight is on our community the select Board of the town of North Yarmouth wants to be abundantly clear that we stand in unwavering support of our lgbtqia plus community members we affirm that all residents deserve to feel safe valued and included in our town and will do all we can to defend those rights North Yarmouth is
015committed to fostering a welcoming environment where diversity is celebrated and all individuals can live without fear of discrimination targeting or harm the main Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race color sex sex sexual orientation gender identity age physical or mental disability genetic predisposition religion ancestry or national origin and in North Yarmouth we follow the laws of our great state we recognize the importance of ensuring that our policies programs and public spaces reflect these values and we remain dedicated to creating a community that uplifts and protects every one of its members to our lgbtqia plus neighbors you are a part of the fabric of our town and we stand with you together we will continue to build a more Equitable and inclusive North Yarmouth where love and respect Prevail over hate and Prejudice and to
016all in our community we will use our voice to uphold what Dr Martin Luther King Jr wrote in his letter to from a Birmingham Jail Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere your municipal government is here for all of you we amplify your voice we defend your rights we swore to uphold the rule of law because our state motto is dear ago with the North Star firmly fixed in our sights we continue to stand strong because we're your neighbors and that's what neighbors do we are very proud to stand in support of this community everyone in this community and we want to make sure that all of you know that you are welcomed in North Yarmouth and I know that that sentiment is echoed in our neighbors in cerand so thank you so thank
017you like to close public comment and I know that everyone is more than welcome to stay as long as they'd like we do have our budget presentation tonight but first it's a cyber security plan come on cyber security anyway don't take it personally okay none taken m so we have Durk van curan and Donna green yes uh thank you I'm the tech director Dirk Van curan and Donna green is my assistant director who's back in the corner and uh Ryan Wallace also is on our Tech group um I wanted to thank them for a lot of the work that went into the cyber security plan um including uh Nicole Barnes and Pete roie so the five of us work diligently in putting this together it's 22 pages long and I'm going to read every word
018so basically this is going to be very high level because this plan isn't a public document it's being given to the Safety Committee for the use if there is a cyber incident so it's there's things that we don't want everybody to know because then they might know where our holes are so basically the the whole purpose of this is to protect our students and staff uh we do quite a bit already and we're doing a lot more as we move forward um and why does it matter we're vulnerable okay we have a lot of technology in our schools we're on to one basically with all staff and students and we have a network of almost uh we're up to 360 some actual points that make up our Network so we have to make sure that
019those points uh are safe and secure for our Network um there are a lot of cyber attacks happening and we also know that we have a very strong Network in a firewall to protect us um we also are very diligent about our student privacy within all the software that we use um we use a a coalition that we actually have written student privacy agreements with all of our software companies that says they'll protect our students data and our staff data so that's really important Donna does the line share of that with working with all our Tech teams to make sure that we do the due diligent if we're looking at any new software and lastly the financial data like one of the I say the main focus of the cyber security plan is where's the
020money where are people trying to get to and where our vendors the supply chains our payroll HR things like that so so we developed the plan we used um the nista framework and also second point there msma is where we get our cyber insurance from we use templates that they offer to us working with our insurance company and nista is the National Institute for standards and Technology um we also got feedback from all our stakeholders including the district committee Safety Committee the principles and District leadership team um all got eyes on what we were doing and so that we made sure that if an incident happens they're aware what has to happen we've also the Top Line there talks about the different things that we've done in the tech department we've been to uh multiple
021webinars we've gone to um actum which is our state Technology Group had a conference in Portland last year all on cyber security we've done a state um table talk uh table exercise uh mirroring something that might happen at the state level and how we would participate in that so the Nissa framework basically starts with identifying that there has been a threat then it goes to protection detect um respond and recover so that's the framework and to see it put out like that once we identify that there has been a threat or um we are going to put into action what we call our incident response plan which talks about the level of what the threat is so if it's just okay something very low level it might just stay within the tech department and then
022if it rises to a higher level there's more people that get triggered at different levels within the organization but also outside the organization law authorities and things like that so the protect the safeguards what we do to reduce those risks um we just signed on with a third-party vendor that's going to install more in point detections and they also have a 247 365-day team that has access to our Network and can shut particular things off if something were to go Ary and make sure that it gets isolated off the network um and that's part of the detect and then the respond it's it's working with this group um that were hired uh and then um internally who's affected and what do we have to do to bring the system back up so we can get
023back to the teaching and learning uh and recover that's basically are we back in operation and then there's a part that where we have to do reflection and what did we learn from it cuz this is not going away we've already had one incident you're probably all aware of the power school incident so that's a really good example of where that's all our student data and that's somebody had access and downloaded all of that and it's still ongoing um because power school has some obligations to us because we're a district that uses power school but also to the state and they've also I think everybody got notifications to sign up for free credit monitoring so that was that um let's see the plan as I said it it is 22 pages long very detailed of
024the things that we have to make sure that we cover um and it provides you know protective defense and a clear response strategy in event of an attack and the inant response plan is really our map on what we have to do depending on what that threat is malware fishing attack um ransomware so that pretty much next steps is present it to you know the school board we're then going to take it to the Safety Committee uh to have it put into the overall safety plan um and then we will conduct regular reviews um about this because it is a fluid plan it things change rapidly I mean probably within a month things will be different on what things we probably have to be looking at so so on that any questions yes uh so
025so the vendor that is already in place that uh we're in the process of putting them into place yes do you know will will we get information from that vendor about um sort of attempted attacks or you know I mean so just just to be aware of like our people attempting to get into our system um are they going to if there is an incident would we be notified asking so not a not a incident successful but just even attempts oh yeah we'll get as a tech director we a tech department will get notified they also because they're working 247 they have the power to work for us to basically take a switch offline or you know a copy or an HVAC so these are all where that you know everybody who has access onto
026our internet could be a weak spot yeah it'd be great over over time just to brief us on like are they going up down or not seeing many at all hopefully we aren't but just just to know if there are patterns or we got dos that's a attack where it just floods our Network and basically brings it to a halt it's not getting into any systems it's just affecting teaching and learning so and one question I asked this company when I uh was considering them I said okay out of all your customers how many have you had to pay out ransomware and they said zero so and they they they live in the K12 space that's their model for their company there's a lot of cyber security companies out there that do K12 but they
027also do all sorts of others so other question I had a question um so with the power school and this this may be something that's already been addressed but um with the power school attack the I recognize that the students and the staff were protecting what about the Guardians and the parents information that is there within the student files we don't know yet all of the the information that was in the file that they downloaded from us so that's still part of what power school is getting to us there was only one staff member that had a social security number and the current staff and and uh so it it's still yet to be known everything but there was a lot of encrypted uh parts of that file that they couldn't open and get to
028so okay we feel pretty confident that you know where we sit right now that you know it's not going to happen again because they are in the crosshairs of all public schools that use power schools got so got thanks D appreciate it yeah and what is I mean it does give me a little more confidence that they're not just this oneoff company that we're dealing with like they have a big reach like do most school districts use power school I would say I'm going to guess half it's either uh oh first I forget what the other company is we used to use it and we went to power school when the state took away paying for power school we went to um Don you remember the name of the other Infinite Campus Infinite Campus that's
029it yeah and have we helped enforce go ahead speak to can I quickly speak to the power school yes thank you um so um Power School is in the process right now of they hired a Experian and they are in the process of directly contacting um all of the people who um of whose data was released um so over time we expect all of those people to get contacted so you said like you know parents um they we didn't lose like financial information um for the most part you know you were talking about um directory information addresses phone numbers names um but there is some pii like children's birthday um but obviously there's not going to be parent birth dates um but our right now power school is has hired a company and people are
030being notified we've had some staff be notified already um about what they can do and we're expecting parents to be getting um their EMA their um be getting Communications fairly soon but how school has not been good about keeping us up but you know telling us what they're doing to be honest okay thank you so much for that additional information and about I I know that we there was a notification about changing of passwords and there may have been some incentive to students to change theirs but did power school did they not force everyone to change their password they did not um we forc um so um this had nothing to do with the parent portal okay um how the bad actor got into the system system was through one of their tech people and
031no they did not have two-step verification for their technology people and their technology people had complete access to our data we didn't know that we use a company called Tec that signs student data privacy agree we have um that um we that we use to get student data privacy agreements they um broke that agreement um and te is um working with their lawyers because they signed an agreement saying that they were protecting our data and they didn't okay and I know another obviously tool that everyone uses is um Google and Google classroom and do we have the two factor for that two Factor verification for all of our um staff accounts um and it's forced so they don't have a choice um we are working on two factor for student accounts it's a little more
032complicated because they don't have a you know a phone um but there are companies that are stepping into that Arena and um so we're definitely keeping an eye on that okay thank you other questions yeah um in a past life I did a managed cyber security for a couple of startups they trusted me probably improperly to do that um but um one of the things that I always came across is the number one thing was fishing attempts and the fishing attempts were got very very very creative and I just actually had one of my previous organizations who was attempted like attempted hack through like posting a um a job that wasn't it didn't go directly to them it went to it didn't it wasn't like an actual posted job it the information was posted to
033some kind of scammer so I'm curious what is currently like our number one cyber security threat is it fishing is it uh other kind of form of hacking and like just very Broad broadly what do we do about it right now before this solution is in place yeah it's it's definitely fishing um and we do do cyber security train Online safety training with our staff um and our students get some through Common Sense Media through their digital citizenship training um learning but we do we do um train our staff on how to um identify um you know because fishing is hard we also forced uh password changing for all students so they all had to do that we got what 35 that didn't try it so we had to actually uh force it on them
034so that was a little problematic yeah grad um six and up six and up would we be able to send like a fake attempted fishing email just to see who responds to it who doesn't so we have a kind of a sense of who's actually following those policies we believe the state is doing that some of the districts have gotten their results of what happened and we have not heard about our results can we just do that internally well I I'm going to talk to this other uh third party that's coming on board because that's one of the things that they could do for us they also will do a penetration test to see you know if we have any weak areas and we also have things that are provided to us through through the
035insurance company okay well thanks for making this a focus I I think it's going to ease a lot of mind so I appreciate it yeah especially after the power school andent appreciate it okay go ahead um one question and you don't have to answer it here if it's not um secure to answer it but a prior um school system I worked for the largest school system in Maine they for decades required us to use our social security number um prominently you don't do that I don't know if you did do that but if the answer is no great so all the no I laugh the Social Security I have a bicycle that was bought for me when I was young in wh and Massachusetts and the way that they had you come down and etch
036on the bike my dad's social security number in case it ever got stolen I still have that bike just to remind me that that's that's out there so okay great all right thank you thank you thank you so much great thank you so our next presentation is the first presentation of our fiscal year 26 budget I can if you can get it up there we go I know don't mean yeah and I want to um thank Durk and Donna for uh that presentation that's um part of your board approved strategic priorities for the year um so uh that has been a focus of the districts along with um a few other ones but if you recall back in um August when or September when you approve those um that has been an area that our
037Safety Committee has been focused on with our tech department U making sure that that plan uh got completed this year so it's actually earlier than I thought it would be it's great um so tonight I am presenting the FY 26 um budget for your consideration this is the first step and many steps um that will be taking place over the next um actually three months until there's a budget referendum in mid June so I'll be going through the current budget fy2 just um quick uh preview on that making sure we know where we're at with that budget getting into strategic priorities uh expenditures and then revenue and tax um just starting with the value of your investment msad51 has long been recognized for its academic athletic and arts accomplishments we offer rigorous educational experiences our
038outcomes are evident by our exemplary student performance our district is always at the very top of any list of high performing school systems in the state of Maine your investment is not made in vain you have much to be proud of celebrate your Student Success our Student Success as if they were your own and they might actually be your own looking down the table here so here's some key points and I'll be going through these through the BR budget presentation uh this is responsive to continuing enrollment increases in our district um our enrollment increases um are now moving up they've been moving up as well for years um GMS 6 eight you'll see some additional expenditures there more funding directly to the classroom expenditures balanced with thoughtful reductions one campus project debt is not in
039this budget we're not carrying any debt at this point uh we have taken on a um fond anticipation note but there is no effect to the FY 26 budget from the one campus project just want to make sure people know that uh the GMS Debt Service is retiring this year so we can all celebrate we're going to retirement party 20 years um so ticker attac and that's a huge drop in debt service state subsidy increase um of a little over $1.2 million will help with taxes and then we have this really fun idea hanging out there called the unknown Federal funding um issue that we're figuring out how to um deal with and we need a backup plan obviously and I'll explain that in a few minutes so so just I'm not going to go
040through all this but um you know all these are our schools at this point we're in the process of about to start ground on a brand new facility as all of you know um we have two schools that are Under One Roof essentially in our district right now 2,234 students uh in our district right now 435 regular staff members we have a little over 2500 parents and Guardians because people always ask me that's really similar to the number of students you have because many families have multiple kids uh that's why that number is there four schools three buildings Two Towns one campus and one and only of course Ranger Nation this is our current budget 50 just over $50 million it's our gross budget for the current year we're currently bringing in $15.8 million in
041Revenue most of as state subsidy and a current tax uh rate in Cumberland is 3.98% % for this year and 3.1 uh 3% for town of North Yarmouth that's the current tax rate for the fy2 budget so uh one thing that I don't usually report on during this presentation it's usually later in the spring is the federal grants um you'll see that TBA is for next year that's because we don't have any information we usually get information later in the spring I don't that's why I don't present this this early but I wanted to give you information about we're currently get getting in federal funds uh we get money through Title One and title two um about 100,000 100,000 uh each year so we're at 105,000 this year we have $552,000 that we uh receive
042in special education um for staff uh professional development and supplies that's in addition to the general fund we have just over $10,000 for prek salaries that we get from the federal government um we also get $100,000 in value um from the USDA uh and this is Food Service Credit it's we're actually it's like it's not actually paying there's no money exchange but we get food on this credit that's uh that we have $100,000 for so we get USDA food um that's a $100,000 value and then we get um direct subsidy from the federal government of 200,000 so all told our federal dollars um this year are just over $918,000 um that's about what we got um in 2023 24 just a people have asked that question many times over the last couple weeks so I
043thought I'd um just provide those numbers for you so getting into the Strategic priorities and I want to thank the finance committee um for really helping with this area of the budget as we go through it just to reminder that the You Know M much of the budgeting revolves around these four big buckets of the Strategic plan that were developed back in 2018 skills for the 21st century early childhood education uh every student College and Career ready and wellness as we begin to build a budget for a learning organization we're taking into account that most of the budget is fixed for a school district that's existing salaries and benefits Debt Service utilities operations inflation all that factors into the the vast majority of the budget um and that accounts for more than 80% really probably
044talking 90% when you're talking about salaries and utilities and all of that um if not more strategic priorities are the things I'm about to outline um in just a few minutes but those are much smaller portion of things that we need to do to maintain um our district as being a high performing school district and then there's changing conditions and that's often enrollment for us it's been enrollment for about 10 years uh but it's also things like federal funds um and just kind of watching those dollars and any other conditions that come up that we may not be aware of or we need some more answers on so getting into the proposals um that um this is again a draft budget it goes to the board for consideration and in the new proposals there's four
045categories uh this year that we uh decided to place these things in the first one is enrollment so as we continue responding to enrollment um these are uh priority needs uh for next year Furniture requests as we continue growing um our furniture is breaking or it needs to be replaced um or we need new furniture to keep up with the enrollment so you probably have seen this line every year for the last few years um it just seems to increase in most of the furniture requests this year at the middle school next year we're beginning three transition committees they'll be prek to one 24 and 58 those are the three new configurations High School is staying the same so beginning of September the principles will be heading up um a transition committee with with that
046new grade Span in mind and there'll be time set aside for that um outside of the school day outside the work day so those are stiens for paying staff members to participate uh on those transition committees which will be going on all year the next one for enrollment is access points projectors whiteboards for the new two uh room unit that we need to put in at GMS um that is because the enrollment is just continuing to grow there we currently have six rooms so we're adding two more to have eight and um this is part of um a lease purchase for this equipment which will actually Outlast the modular classro that we're putting there so we'll use that in another space when it's finished because it's a three-year leas we've also signed or or tonight
047you'll the board will be um asked to approve a 2-year lease um which is a continuation of the modular at the middle school um we have six rooms and we're adding two so this will include the two additional um plus um redo that lease at the middle school and replace some of the Aging rooms um and want to thank Scott for um cutting a good deal with uh scavy they've been good to work with with us um and they consider us to be a good customer so they they've really worked hard with us there's also two positions in this budget um at GMS 68 and that is purely enrollment um GMS 68 enrollment was steady at about 475 480 students for probably eight eight years it was it didn't change more than five students every
048year and now we're at 5 and um 30 I believe it's 53 30 students right now if I remember correctly I can go back and we'll go back and look uh 515 and um next year it is expected to go up uh another 50 or so 50 or 60 so um part of that also when looking at Staffing um there's a lot of things that we can do internally do some reconfiguration move things around uh but those two teachers are necessary to keep up with enrollment as well as a quarter time Spanish teacher which would be um we do have um a couple part-time people um at the uh in the district and the idea is to add that time to somebody who are already is working for us so the uh total for enrollment
049that we're proposing for additions are $479,000 the next area uh for priorities for the FY 26 budget Safety and Security this is an area that we have worked steadily and very um diligently with the Safety and Security Committee of our district um one item that was on the budget list last year but got uh removed uh during the process was what we call crisis alert um crisis alert is a um program that is being used more and more Across the Nation um it is a a program that our Safety and Security committee I would say unanimously backs at this point um we've have multiple um presentations from the company um that supports us called CICS um and the Safety and Security committee really wanted to advance this item this year um this is a um
050a really secure system for helping our schools and um I think it will add a huge boost um to our safety measures in our district the next one um might be an item that I hope we can remove from the budget $5,400 for Behavioral threat assessment um the state of Maine has a contract um with a company that's been providing us with training we have um I believe it's three teams right now that are trained in our district uh around behavioral threat assessment being able to respond to behavioral threats um within students visitors Etc um the state might sign a new contract and if that's the case we'll be able to remove that item the next one is um a bus these are budget to actuals the next two items uh cameras on buses and
051a bus Zone R so that parents can actually see on their phone we'll be releasing this uh soon uh be able to follow a bus and know where a bus is on their child's route um it's confidential and they would have signin privileges for just their child's um bus but being able to track their bus and know where it is if it's going to be late or whatnot um and then the cameras we've already installed uh on the buses we have external and internal cameras they were installed at the beginning of the school year and um so those were expenses that we had not counted on were not budgeted however we now need to carry those expenses uh in our budget so it's budget to actual the next one um Durk uh and Donna just
052alluded to it a network contract um some of that is that we um have not had a contract for our Network we've had more of a fee for service and um that company that we've been using is dropping that and is requiring a network contract um and and then we're in the the process of also securing a cyber security um contract with the company as dark mentioned so that's just an additional amount that we've already got um some money in the budget already this would be U providing both of those things and then finally cow cares um I consider this Safety and Security because this is a a club of um actually initiated by high school students very active it's probably the most active chapter in New England called C cares um and um we
053don't currently pay the staff member who is running or leading this club with the students um and because it has been such an active club for two years um it's time for us to put that sement in the budget and support this um incredible um Club so 9,23 um for Safety and Security next area is instructional support and Allied uh Arts um we currently have a three-day a week uh board certified behavior analyst bcba that's a person who has really some of the most knowledge around student behaviors and how to develop plans to work with students um and we would like to bring that person on um the person who's in that role is interested in working full-time for us um we split between two distri districts so this uh item would bring that person
054into our district five days a week um so it would be 100% time and that's the difference in salary we have $400,000 uh earmarked in this budget for out of District placements for students um on IEPs um these are actual costs that we believe in the next year um could be a very real potential and so we have to be responsible and go ahead and budget for those expenses if we um these are actual students that are on a Continuum and um it's very there's a good potential that they will be placed out of our districts um and so we therefore have to budget um the money in order to support that and that's required about federal law esol um so students whose language um is not English their first language is not English they
055have another language and they're learning English um our we have a teacher in our district that teacher's um time is um there's not enough of her to go around she also teaches ASL classes at the high school um as part of her job and um years ago we had an edtech um that was supporting this uh teacher and um we are able to um make a reduction for a while and we're seeing that those needs um have really grown and um so we're putting this in as a need for our district next year as a edte 3 that supports that teacher $9,500 um for seventh grade overnight so the Middle School 68 um is uh just about finished coming up with a uh new agreement with a new seventh grade uh overnight night trip there
056was um a place this year that the seventh graders went to it wasn't as well received as we would have liked by many people um and so uh the middle school will be pivoting and they found a great spot um I won't give details yet because that's Dr sel's place to do so um but we're holding this place um for staff SI stiens um we were not paying our staff um enough nearly enough to spend uh two nights overnight away from their families um and so this will pay for not only teachers to do that 20 teachers uh but also pay for several Ed techs um their uh hourly rate um to work uh oneon-one with students that they need that are uh in seventh grade and are going on the trip so this supports
057all of our seventh graders doing an overnight experience um and for years and years I don't think we were paying quite frankly our teachers enough money um to do this experience and so this um increases from $100 um to I believe it's $350 um per teacher plus the hourly rate for edex and then finally leadership team stiens um this is an item that we don't currently have in our budget um to support our high school department heads um and so it's a new item that we are including in this budget so we're uh asking for at this point or requesting $523,500 is operations um so if Durk was here he'd be very excited he knows this already um but um as part of our um technology infrastructure there's a lot of items that we have
058put on hold for many years um and some of one of them is core switches um core switches are those switches that basically everything comes in um and goes through these switches to everything else and when those switches are not working in our uh District and they're aging they've aged quite a bit um our network does not work as well as we'd like it to um and so we've been putting this off for a little bit and we just we can't put it off anymore this is too much of a risk we know we're going to have to replace them in the middle of the year if we do that so it's $24,000 as part of a lease purchase um lease purchasing helps us to defay cost over multiple years instead of trying to absorb
059the full cost um Scott does a great job managing those uh lease purchases for us so that we can do that $66,000 we cannot least purchase um uh Network Hardware um that's not allowed um so these are licenses Network Hardware licenses um that we never did during the covid network upgrade we got um essentially a free upgrade uh with fiber um in our district uh brought into our Network during covid from federal funds the one thing we didn't have money for at that time when they did all that and we had the option of paying for it oursel and we didn't do it uh because we were during Co times and budgets were tight not that they're not tight now uh but we never went ahead and um um prepaid those licenses for more than
060I think it was four years Scott four or five years yeah we knew they were going to expire um after a period of time so we've they're now expiring and we're going to have to go ahead and renew those licenses for our Hardware so we could have prepaid them we didn't have the money we knew it was going to catch up with us we knew we were going to have to pay for this so here it is um one item that we were able to um we usually try to replace two school buses each year we haven't been doing that very well this year we're still only asking for one bus um the original request was two we're able to fund that without adding anything to the budget because we have a lease purchase on
061a bus that is retiring so as it retires we're going to take on a new one and it will not add add anything to the budget that's why you see a zero we have not replaced any of our vans since we started purchasing Vans about five years ago and so we have a van we're trying to get into a replacement um cycle now we have a van that's rusting out on the bottom and it really is not worth um trying to fix anymore so we're looking to replace that that's a lease purchase as well uh digital records retention um we have student graduation files with a company right now that has discontinued or is discontinuing access to those files and they have rerouted I think they're going out of business they've rerouted us to another
062company that they're affiliated with and we have to um now pay a the fee to do that and to have all those files moved into this new company so that's that will cost $5,700 if we don't do it we do not have access to all of our archived graduation files over the years our liability insurance um this was one that we got news of just last week um sometime we get different fees that come in different companies give us information and unfortunately our liability insurance is going up like everything else 15% hike for next year $40,000 increase and then finally um grade grade two Chromebooks uh we lease purchase these every year um we have them on rotating um lease purchases so this is the lease purchase them out to provide all grade to students
063Chromebooks we do that they take them with them um all the way through elementary school until they get to middle school and then they get um the mlti machines from the state uh but we pay for the second grade ones each year uh we don't have a retiring lease purchase on this this year so we're going to have to bear the cost uh going into next year so the total operations requests are $195,700 we do have reductions um we have $35,200 in staff reductions we have three teaching uh positions or or specialist positions that we are recommending for reduction um I'm not foreseeing that there will be any um actual people cut with these positions at this point um at this point we believe it will just be um reductions that we can make to
064our budget but we've done some reorganization in areas um and we'll be um making sure that um that reorganization aligns with this number of three reductions for teachers and Specialists the equity consultant we've been uh we've had an equity consultant for the last five or six years in our district um and there's two reasons we're proposing this one is that person that we've been using who's great um now has a full-time job at college and is not really available to us as much um and we are going to continue using him on a feif for service so we left a little bit of money in that account I think $4,000 is left um but this is the the amount that we really don't need to be spending uh going into next year with that consultant
065professional learning grants um the teachers new contract includes a um self-directed professional development day that was negotiated into their contract through negotiations um we still have money for professional learning grants which teachers can apply for every year there's a committee that reviews them uh but we are um because of this new self-directed day uh we U decided that we can reduce that uh reduce our assumptions around funding um the full 25,000 One calendar it was a great idea a year ago when we proposed it um and I want to give lots of to the Town of Cumberland for trying to work with us on it make it work um but at the end of the day um the lineup of software and what our needs are and what the town's needs are didn't work out
066quite the way we were hoping um but we want to give a lot of um thanks to Pete um Bingham junor for his efforts uh hero efforts to help make this work um unfortunately I think just the way that we're designed is very different we have a new um uh new strategy that does not cost any money that we've developed internally um so we'll be able to replace this expense so it's a reduction for the budget curriculum software uh I ready toolbox this is something that um we'd like to do we want we still have we wanted to do it through uh supporting RTI but we also we talked to the administrators they said this was something that they didn't feel was absolutely necessary to support um mtss and rti in our district and felt
067it could be reduced as I mentioned earlier we have Debt Service retiring at the middle school this is the 20-year Bond no longer have to pay on it it's a reduction of $87,900 orator who's new is not using those materials like the former one was um advisory programming um was something that um is a reduction um and they're not using that that money or don't foresee using that money next year so the total of reductions that were um recommending are 1, 25,7 one to the current budget I'm not going to go through these U proposals not Advanced but I will just tell you that will show you that there was um almost $1.2 million in proposals that were asked for requested by administrators um and are not advancing in this budget two that I'd like
068to point out uh one is that um Mabel I Wilson school we have um we had put a teacher in for prek to three um Corey mzy and I have been monitoring kindergarten registrations and we've also been looking at class sizes at miw and we feel at this point I'm pretty confident that we can remove this position now during the course of the budget process if there is um a change in the registrations and registrations go on through summer um we usually get the bulk of them by the end of March um if we see a pretty drastic change in this I may be coming back to you before the process is over um but at this point um both Corey and I felt it was we were comfortable taking this out um of the
069initial requests the other item I just want to highlight is a digital visitor management system um this was a safety system that um actually put you put license into a system and staff at the Wilson school don't have to keep asking people if they're not sure who they are for their license they've already got everything it sets it up in a digital system it's a lot more um efficient um and and the reason this is uh we were able to pull this out is that the cix um crisis alert system actually comes with that for every school that's just a part of the program they offer it's not an extra it's just part of their base price so we're able to pull that out unfortunately all these other uh positions and again I won't go
070through them are never did not advance so just looking at the priorities themselves not the whole budget just the priorities the new priorities they that were advanced in this uh recommended 26 budget $1,297 6694 U but there was a a reduction as well um to the budget and most of many of those are priorities um that we reduced but did not feel like we need to prioritize it for FY 26 um is $1,257 so the net effect when you look at the new priorities that are in this budget and the reductions that we were able to look for um there's just a net effect of under $100,000 um to the FY 26 budget that's being recommended so let's take a look at expenditures these are the cost center descriptors um I obviously this will be
071posted online if people want to look through these the state requires 11 um cost centers um and that we have to account it's called fund accounting we have to account for all of our um every single that we spend must be in one of these 11 cost centers and we get audited annually and the state also tracks all of our expenses um as well but we have to be independently audited so and they have to follow this fund process that's in state law so I will just say that there's two that we don't use we don't use other some districts put all kinds of money in other we put zero dollars we never have the other one we don't use is career and tech ed doesn't mean that we don't have students that go to
072paths or Westbrook um for uh part of their day it just means that the state now uh even though they left this this cost center in um the state now picks up the cost up front and does not build districts years ago uh we would individually get bills for that um so now we send students but it's comes off the top um before it's ever allocated uh to local districts and Vocational centers so just a summary of the major budget drivers um just to give you a high level look at this the this is again increases to the budget so these are the increases that we're looking at um total salary and benefits um for all of our bargaining units all of our employees and the district all 435 plus we also have temporary uh
073salaries in coaching substitutes which is probably another 80 to people but we're looking at uh 3,251 749 um for FY 26 um I'll talk about that in just a minute in more detail temporary space lease again going back to those priorities if you remember earlier was 150,000 was to put that two unit in and also replace um the Aging units at at uh GMS we have enrollment uh the enrollment expenses that I also um talked about earlier that has to do with just the enrollment growth for $479,500 th000 legal costs um we have continuously been incurring uh Rising legal costs fees have gone up but also legal situations have have gone up um over the last I'd say since covid we've been seeing that steadily rise so we're anticipating we'll need another $50,000 um in
074legal costs for next year again these are increases and then finally safety um and again these numbers probably look familiar because I talked about them earlier 99,2 so those are the biggest drivers the big the biggest six drivers in the FY 26 budget if we had to boil it right down so here's your numbers um again I'm not going to go through these um in particular but you can see um I removed the other in career and Tech U because we have zeros in those um so just focusing on the nine cost centers that we do use in our uh in our district um and you can see that there are some fairly significant um percentage changes and uh from the fy2 to FY 26 that we're proposing and again if you go back to
075the priority slides that I mentioned um you would be able to follow along and uh kind of track this to the percent changes so in regular instruction which is the largest cost center we have that's where all of our um teachers are that are are not um teachers of special education regular education teachers regular education Ed techs um we have specialists in there Librarians um all kinds of folks are in the regular instruction line um so we have you know again driving that 9.81% uh we have two and a quarter teachers that we added salary and benefits uh in E ESO edtech and Furniture it's making up that 9 81% special education we're up 8.72% again that was the out of District placements salaries and benefits you're always going to see that that's in almost
076every cost center um as we negotiate with bargaining units um their salary benefits are are placed into um our budget obviously um for other instruction um we have uh TR a lot of stiens the new stiens that I mentioned already um are located in this other instruction cost center for student and staff support um a lot of that increase 19.2% uh is in technology U that's where technology lies along with other areas uh but all the technology pieces that I was talking about you'll find there um looking at system administration that's the district office um a lot of that increases due to Legal um the legal cost our liability insurance going up um and then salary benefits School administration is primarily uh salary and benefit increases and then some other uh incidental costs that uh
077administrators need to leave their schools for transportation again salary benefits it's the cameras that I mentioned replacing a van that's uh Allin Transportation facilities and maintenance salary benefits and the modular unit um that is being added to GMS and then finally Debt Service you'll see is the one cost Cent are going down 29% and that's because of the retiring debt so hopefully you see a corresponding um piece between all of the priorities reductions um and this page right here as your as your summary so the total recommended budget that we are presenting tonight is 54,5 n39 which is up 3,755 1832 over the current current year or a 7.47% expenditure um increase so here's another way of looking at this breaking down the um cross centers by area um we are spending um 73.6 7%
078is going directly to the classroom um that the state average is 68% so we're spending more on the classroom than the state does and we're spending more on the classroom than we did a year ago or during the current year we're proposing to spend more uh we're at 71.5% uh right now so we're up just over 2% more on Direct classroom uh costs so regular education is the biggest uh area of course as I mentioned that's 44% um of the budget uh special education 19% or just under 19% and then you can see everything else is um a much smaller um much smaller percentages um but I'm glad that we always like to move in that direction we want more money going directly to instruction into the classroom obviously school districts have lots of other
079expenses that they have to pay for uh but the more that we can get into the classroom the better and I'm glad we made that move in the positive direction okay let's talk about Revenue what do we bring in and what do we think taxes are going to be estimated at for next year so here's our Revenue our state subsidy came in as I mentioned U about $1.2 million more so just over uh 1.2 million more in state subsidy uh that we are expecting starting July 1st so for FY 26 so um that's good news uh the state of Maine has um been trying to make good on its promise of funding 55% of the cost of Education in Maine and I can certainly say from our district standpoint Maine has made good on that
080we've been seeing about a million dollars in increases I think this is maybe the largest increase we've seen but just around a million for the last three or four years um coming to our district and part of it is enrollment but there's a lot of other factors involved in that shig Island um when sh shig Island succeeded seceded from the Town of Cumberland years ago and from s51 um they uh still had to pay the cost of facilities and other expenses that was part of an agreement this is their very next year will be their very last year FY 26 having to pay um sad 51 for expenses so we've been seeing a steady decline in revenue from shig Island they're basically off the hook I'm sure they're excited um not to have to keep
081paying us um so next year will be the very last year and it's it's uh much less than than they have in the past and then miscellaneous Revenue um is up quite a bit uh almost $200,000 or so and um that's because of main care billing uh we've been able to build more in main care more facility usage we able to collect more in that area I can't remember there's another big area Scott interest Revenue interest Revenue it's another big one that so we're able to bring in that's just miscellaneous Revenue that um you know we try to forecast what we're going to be bringing in for the for the coming year so all told um we are up uh in our Revenue which is always good news for school district District up 1 point
082just over $1.3 million um in money that will be coming into the school district next year it's good news so based on all this information in the Town of Cumberland we work with our managers Town managers to get this information is very early and they are not finished with their budget process um and so this is all very preliminary and I'm going to couch that and say that um this will probably not be the final um information that you see on tax effect but the estimated mill rate increase um everything's a mill based on a mill is $124 for the Town of Cumberland or 5% for Education that means for every $100,000 of assessed property value not market value assessed property value so don't think about your the market value of your house we all
083get market value stuff coming along and it's just overinflated just think about what the town says the value of your property is so every 100,000 of assessed property value would raise approximately $124 in the Town of Cumberland um for 2526 now I'm going to say probably before I go to North arth I'll just say this I would be shocked if this number doesn't drop just a bit uh in terms of the um tax effect in both Cumberland and North Yarmouth because right now both managers have not calculated the growth in the community which we get part of that growth um factored into the assessment from each town when that growth is factored in we see taxes drop so we are you know I would say I'm very confident in saying but don't I'm not going
084to say 100% say 95 96 97% maybe confident that that doll 24 is going to drop it's going down Scott says it's going down I Trust Scott new property valuation all right North the armouth North yis estimated mill rate increase of 80 cents or 4% uh more for Education again $100,000 so kind of factor that in if you have a $500,000 valued home in the town it's $80 per every 1, 100,000 you can calculate that out again the North Yarmouth manager has not calculated in growth either um and after she does that we also expect the um tax effect for education to drop this is something that I think um a lot of people have um weighed in on this over the years so a couple years ago I put together this history of taxes
085and expenditures in our two towns um over the last 10 years um it just kind of shows you where expenditures have come in you can see in the last three years our expenditures postco have been a little bit higher than they were for years and years we we still are averaging 4.60% on expenditure increases from year to year um cumberland's tax effect an increase I haven't recalculated that uh but you can see that there's been many years of Fairly um moderate uh tax increases in our district including zero in two in 2020 um and same with North Yarmouth so we get that um final um tax effect or increase for both towns I'll recalculate that for you at the bottom um so when I do the summary presentation in April I'll have that information for
086you and then finally uh budget key points again same points that I made at the beginning so I won't reiterate it except I did add one salaries and benefits um we're a labor intensive organization 80% U of our budget goes through goes to people pay people to work with our students um and that accounts for for for the increase um out of the 7.47% expenditure increase that we're proposing for FY 26 6.50 uh out of that 7.47% or 87% is from salaries and benefits okay if you didn't know what I was talking about here you go you like visuals it might be easier so looking at the total increase um for expenditures 7.47 % and then line that up with 6.50% for um total salaries and benefits um I'm sorry just uh salaries um for
087all of our bargaining units and then 3.20% um of that is just the teachers um and I'm just bringing that up because the teachers settled the collective bargaining uh agreement and you can see the effect of that and you can see all other is 0.97% so less than a percent of the total um expenditure increase of 7.47% is other than contracted um contractual salaries and um benefits we also have an annual report and I'm not going to click on this but it's on our website it's been there since October if you like any of this information if you're really into this like Scott loves the budget he's just like constantly playing with spreadsheets but if you like just tons of data about our district go to our annual report because it will give you everything
088you ever want to know about this District plus we have a data dashboard on our um website and it has more information that you'll know what to do with about our District budget next steps there is a workshop for the budget that the board will be um having in public session but it's a workshop for the board to deliberate about the budget um it will be the next meeting March 20th at 6:00 in this room April 17th there'll be a public hearing on the budget at six o'clock in this room April 17th um the board will be voting whether to accept the proposed budget make adjustments um but it is their official adoption of the budget where it gets transmitted from me to the board um on the 17th and then on May 8th is
089the District budget meeting you invite anyone who is a um voter in Carland North Yarmouth please come out for that meeting can vote on the budget and then you get to vote again on June 10th um in a validation referendum so that's the schedule for the the spring and that is the budget presentation thank you I know a ton of work goes into getting ready for for tonight and it probably doesn't even feel like you're you're that far through this year to already be planning all these things out for next year um and thank you to the finance committee for all of your work um getting ready for tonight as well um really appreciate that um Kim Sean Sarah Kim is there anything as a finance chair I know we have committee updates later but
090since we just presented the budget not to put you on the spot but I am uh well also I want to thank Sarah and Sean um we and I want to thank Scott and Jeff because we were really pushing I mean we um I went through line by line in the budget I nerded out the budget like Scott um and really went through and we really questioned a lot we questioned class size we questioned um books and supplies we we I felt like we pushed harder than I felt comfortable um pushing and I feel like we did everything we could um and so I appreciate the the level of respect and patience as we we really dug in um and and I feel confident that we did everything we could thank you um to Scott
091in the finance office as well um Scott and his team um are often the ones you know the numbers and the crunching and what El we do this what does it do what do it how does it work um and then the finance committee has been um wonderful and trying to help us figure out the priorities what do they think the community can live with what can we support what can we advance those things and our district leadership team has been uh instrumental in getting uh working with staff to get our their budgets done and then meeting with us uh multiple times um throughout the process um to talk about budget items and bring us up to speed so thank you and thank you for keeping the slide on the the budget next steps I
092know we do have our our Workshop um um for the board this is like we said the first time the board has really seen some of these details um but I don't know if there's any questions now um that anyone wants or things that they might want to see when we come back in two weeks the one question I had was related just to the modular and I know that we've been getting um some money back from the state on the Modell and are we will we be getting additional offsets yes we get about $300,000 uh back based on square footage so are I think we've got a little over 700,000 in cost next year and we'll get about 300,000 of that in state subsidy okay obviously I didn't want to have to see us
093need to continue to invest in modular as we're about to break ground on the new school but we knew with the timing um that we were going to be off just a little bit at the midle two more years um until we get into the new building so having that space is important and as Jeff mentioned earlier the um Middle School Modell are older Modell with air handling units that are failing and um and do not have optimal air quality in them so we'd like to replace those for teaching and learning reasons and for our staff yeah that's that's good for the next few years that those will be heavily used yeah go ahead um I do just want to remind everybody that the finance committee myself especially I am absolutely available to talk through
094any of this um I I really do I Echo what Jeff said uh what lyanna said please come to the budget Workshop um we're going to dig in a lot more um but in the meantime please reach out if you have any questions I am happy to talk you through how we got here where money goes um all of that so this is meant to be a dynamic process so please please reach out and what gets posted this presentation will get posted yes it'll be posted tomorrow on our and the budget itself and actual budget line by line account lines everything will be posted tomorrow and I know a big wild card continues to be health insurance and when do those rates usually come in April April yeah okay yeah around April and stuff that's
095one of the um one of the larger pieces that we don't have yet so anyway and um you know this budget's live right up until we you know get through everything so we're still going through it line by line okay anything else from the board um thanks for putting this together I think I just want to be sensitive to the fact that I know you three really well and I totally understand um all three of you are definitely the ones that to question and push you guys all have that personality type um and so but there might be others out there in the community that don't know you all that well and so I really do want to encourage people to go to those meetings um because they do push and I think I saw
096this and even though I trust you guys very well I it was a gut punch I mean to see the increase that we're we're paying at the time that we're paying that and I think we need to be I think we are sensitive to that and I think the only way to really be assured of that is to engage with us at this point this is the time to engage um and what I can do from my end is if there's stuff in the facilities line that we can take a look at as a facilities committee um to just see because I'm it's great to see the stuff with teachers and the money that we've maxed out there but are there other spots that we need to save to make sure that we're we're we
097are cutting during a sensitive time even the ones that might be painful for us so I'm Happy from a uh facilities perspective to to help you guys if if there's anything we need to cross off or reevaluate there so yeah it was hard to see the slide comparison over the years that slide was really good I'm glad you guys showed it like the increase the average increase and you didn't hide and you broke it down that was excellent and if Melissa did some of those please give her our thanks which which slide are you refer to I think it was mostly it was the breakdown of the uh average yeah increases and then you broke down specifically what that increas is due to and I think that's really helpful for me to see because I
098was getting ready to ask it so um I was just going to say thank you for all the slides rather than the Greek that this is to me thank you for the English appreciate that a lot we have the Greek virgin yeah um I just want to um Echo the thanks to to Jeff and to Scott and um you know my first time running through this um budget and the budget season I have a lot of concerns about the continual increase I know obviously the largest driver is um student enrollment and um we can't do anything about that so but that's a concern um with our continual increases there's there's dollars to that and there's people to that um not only people in our school but our residents in our towns and I'm I'm very
099very cognizant of that um and have mentioned already that i' I'd like to trim a little bit more um um in as many places as we possibly can to reduce the overall impact yeah and I know we're all sensitive to the the school coming online or payments for the school coming online I think that that will start next year we'll see The Debt Service going to be in FY 26 fway 27 no question I did I had one other question um Scott do we have any Debt Service coming off next year we have declining debt and the real not quite as much but the largest amount of debts going to fall off right about the time we're taking on the new school so we've and we've actually worked a plan of finance that um softens
100that debt with the use of our fund balance until we get to where that major debt drops off so we've got a stair tread approach to doing that and uh so we don't feel the impact of that all in one year okay um I had one other question with the state and the budget deficit does that impact our additional money so the governor always rolls out her budget um in February or so and and we get provided the numbers for State subsidy um I don't remember it's been a really long time since the state has been different from what they've initially given us by just a little bit okay they might be a little bit here a little bit there um there's only one year there was a very it was long time ago I
101think during Le Page's um time in in the in office that they had a shortfall that was found out after the fiscal year ended gotcha and something happened I don't remember exactly what it was and we actually got a reduction our subsidy great after the fiscal year it started but generally speaking I'm I can't say that for sure who knows but generally speaking the number they give us now is the number that's generally what we get finding another million would be hard yes just saying and just for those types of subsidy loss issues that's why we do carry a fund balance and we do carry an emergency fund so anything else I get ready two weeks from now yeah okay um we are going to move to items for Action uh the first is related
102to a policy so anuka would you like to make that motion that sorry just looking something would you like to make the motion to approve policy FF naming of facilities as presented thank you an would anyone like to Second I'd love to Second thank you Megan um so I was not here for the first read but I know that Jesse and Tim well represented the work of the policy committee and bringing this forward for first read um and just as a reminder for folks since that was a ways back uh we reviewed this policy as the board is moving forward with the one campus project um and it applies to naming such as the recent miw playground naming or um you know reaffirming of name um it will apply to the new school campus you
103know and any new campus roads that haven't been named um for which we've already received one request and in reviewing the policy we reviewed similar policies from other school districts in the area and the updates that were made were intended to better Define what is meant by facilities um a building a portion of a building a campus or a portion of a campus expand the scope of the policy to naming after organizations in addition to individuals and clarify that a request may be made or may be referred to an appropriate existing committee or group um as opposed to only a new committee and reinforce our commitment to getting stakeholder feedback on namings and there have not been any changes that I'm aware of between first and second read so any other questions or comments from
104the board great all in favor great no one oppos that pass thank you we're we're excited to start having some of these naming conversations so the next item for Action is a vote to authorize the superintendent to execute on an extension of employment contracts for administrators can I get a motion so moved thank you Sean can I have a second second you already one Sarah we'll give that to Sarah um do you want to just remind everyone about this item thank you this item s in your packet um and it has a list of the administrators um that are recommended for uh continue employment um and uh also you'll see um it's indicated there's administrators that indicated that are probationary um and then the rest of the administrators are um are continuing administrators so there's
105an evaluation difference between a probationary administrator and um one who's continuing um great thank you any questions we have quite the Slate of talented administrators yes there are um all in favor great it's unanimous thank you can I add one thing um just as we sorry um as we think about it we just passed but I just want to just too late I know know it's a good thing um we didn't really dig into this too much we'll dig into at the budget Workshop but um given the number of legal costs the number of um extra work that the district leadership team has to take on um that was something that we did discuss during the budget of how to alleviate some of that and that was one of the things that did not advance
106so um since we just approved the contract I just want to take a moment and acknowledge the many many many many hours that our district leadership team puts in and um wish we could do more thank you yeah yeah thank you for adding that all right Tim do you have the motion in front of you for the next one you want to do I do all right all right would you like to make a motion too sure uh I moved to award the contract to construct a new Maintenance building on the gy campus to Benchmark construction which submitted the lowest bid in a competitive bid process and to authorize a superintendent to negotiate and sign said contract thank you Tim can I have a second I'll second that thank you Megan building committee um questions
107or should we also just kind of present I'm like I know I've seen it but that's probably because I'm on the I go to the facilities committee meeting so um maybe just giving an overview of how many bids that we received yeah do you want me to do that or do you want to do it Tim sure go ahead okay um so we had um seven uh we had seven biders that came in they were all qualified they went through pre-qualifications and um they were um the low lowest base bid was Benchmark which is being recommended for approval tonight uh at 1. 1537 million um and there are two alternates uh alternate one alternate two the building committee um discussed that um and decided to um wait on those alternates um and not add them
108to the price right now and just wait um because we have other parts of the project that I that need to be um we need to wait for and see what the pricing will be on that um so anyway there were seven uh very qualified applicant but that was the low bidder yeah we're thrilled to get a number of competitive bids and um yes that the The price came in under some of the estimates we've been receiving so other questions the board it's so exciting it's one of the first like formal things that we're really getting to to move forward on as part of the building project all in favor wonderful thank you all right Jesse are you ready for the next one want to do this all right so I'd like to move uh
109that uh we vote uh to award the contract to furnish an install a Synthetic Turf system on the grey campus to geosurfaces which submitted the lowest bid in the competitive bidding process and to authorize the superintendent to negotiate and sign said contract thank you Jesse can I have a second I'll second second close we'll give it to Christina she was on the turkey thank you questions comment comments just want to put it out there to the universe this has no P that was the precondition of the committee and particularly with Jesse's lead the public really should applaud him he was like a dog with a bone and he pursued all the options the one we were going with if we so vote has no infill there is no conflict with what the Town Council has
110chosen to pursue um the committee had made its decisions about No Pest before that decision people have expressed concerns that oh my God you know now now it's in Conflict no actually our decision preceeded that so um frankly kudos to the committee there were many different public members on the committee and um we went for it we found it and if you vote for it we've got it just wanted the world to know that thank you Christina and yes we had a really incredible um Turf committee uh with both board members and under J's leadership and some incredible um ad administrators students and then also Committee Member community members um this was a really great process and fun to be part of I'll just I'll just know we did we did have some alternates uh
111for a more expensive shock pad or a thicker type of the product um and I wouldn't recommend that we go with any of those alternates that we go with the base bid after looking at the safety specifications and we're going to be using it for multiple Sports and the performance specifications um I think the base bid that we got is is the wish you go with and I'll note it's coming in under budget and the product that we are selecting has a 12year warranty which is longer than any other warranty for any other product so it may seem slightly expensive but my son who's in kindergarten will be playing on this field so I think it's exciting to be looking at a environmentally friendly as much as it can be long lasting good value for
112money product great can you also just plug for the concussion rating yeah yeah I mean so it has a shock pad underneath that you has a sort of guaranteed level of uh a gmax rating which is how hard you can Bonk your head and so yeah there's like a guaranteed level of safety I mean so that's in in the contract that's part of the warranty you know that you know you you'll Bonk your head and it will never go past a certain C certain amount so like that there's just a baseline level of safety there that we don't need to worry about and we reviewed this and the other bids at the building committee and I just want you to know how far we've come cuz the the other bid that came in was a
113product that probably would have been in like our first round of consideration and almost everyone was like ew no look at these past standards and all like Jesse has really educated us on it and the disgust on us around the other bid what they even dare try to put something like that in front of us at first like that's what it felt like and so while that was another was a probably a very good product where we've shifted in terms of our priorities what's good for our town has been immense and so uh yeah kudos to the turf committee for doing that yeah and and just to reiterate this this portion of the turf budget came in under um we still have groundwork um that's going to be bit out separately but um the expectation
114that the project INR will be coming in under budget so that's really exciting all right any other questions or comments all in favor great it's unanimous moving on um can I have a motion to approve the new and extended modul modular leases as presented so moved thank you Kim can I have a second second thank I'll get mine in um any additional I know we kind of already talked about this I is there any other questions or anything to add it's an um it's an extension of the leases at mael ey Wilson two of the modular at mael ey Wilson um there's a third at mael ey Wilson which is an addition which will come up again another year but uh but it's the extension of those leases and also new uh new leases uh
115to replace the three buildings that are there now and one additional new building um at the middle school that's what that is and I'll just add that even though I made the motion it was one that I really wish I didn't have to to make a motion for I I genuinely wish this was not necessary and I pushed and I asked and I the rest of the finance committee did too and uh we had to be convinced that this was needed and it is absolutely needed there are no other options and we we really really tried so um I make the motion regret regretfully but also confidently I know I think at one point I was like no but then I it had to be just well yeah well I was just going to ask
116maybe um whether it's Kim or Scott if you could kind of give us again that rationale that convinced you um in terms of you know enrollment um just kind of reiterating the need maybe as well as the timing um for why this needs to be voted on tonight I mean I can speak to the timing which is just which is just based on the new building not opening for two years and that these leases will expire the summer that the building opens okay the new the new facility opens as far as a need for enrollment and stuff do you Jeff do you want to talk to that because we we spoke about that in the great configurations at the middle school yeah I mean the enrollment as I mentioned earlier um at at 68 and
117at 45 have both been going up over the last few years I think you all know that it was below 800 students 48 and now we're just just below 900 students so I mean we're going to we keep going up and we're we're forecasting another 50 60 students so um it is absolutely needed we did and as much as the finance committee pressed on us we pressed on the um School administration at the middle school and really asked um some tough questions about do we need this can we try something else can we how can we get through can we move a space around in the middle school and the answer is we just don't have anything left um we're out and that's why we really need a new building which is I'm glad we're
118getting in order to handle all this enrollment which we knew was coming forecasted all of it um so um it is it's necessary our our short-term facilities plan had more of a setup very similar to Mabel ey Wilson School uh but because the which was going to be a modular building of multiple classrooms uh with bathrooms in it and facilities in it um because we're actually going to be open opening the new building in two years we chose not to go that direction and just stay with the singular Modular Buildings which have far less cost to them than the structure that we have at melai Wilson school I mean melai Wilson school we literally have a school outside the school um so and do we know yet what um classes will be in the modulars
119at the middle school for example I know a lot of the modern languages are in the but that could change the um the administrators have not decided that yet I think they first of all make sure we got to this point in the budget process before they really started talking about it but it they will be making that those decisions together okay and just to clarify my question on the timing um it was more about tonight versus as we continue on in the budget process oh that's a great Point well skav is our our carrier and we have to we have to sign an agreement with them in order for them to get this work done um over the summer if we wait any longer it's not going to it's not going to we're not
120going to get it their brand new bill buildings and they require lead time in order for construction and so that's why we have to order them now and enter into the lease now there's several other components there's the heating and cooling units which are separate which get delivered separately to the Factory and then the modulars have to be built so if we were to wait further on in the budget process we wouldn't have these modular in place for the start of the school year because we wouldn't hit the timing of the construction in the lead time and since we're only using them for two years is what what is the reason for cross needing brand new ones uh aging modulars across the state uh if you look at the ones that are down there now
121they have old air handling units in them and the old air handling units you can't even get parts for any longer the ones at mayel I Wilson school have the newer air handling units which do heat and AC and they're far more quiet and better air quality into the building so um and there's practically I mean modular are being used all across the state there's not like a market there isn't like a parking lot somewhere with 20 modular in it that we can take from so and that's really the issue okay and can you remind everyone how long those modular have been maybe you said it and I missed it but how long those the modular have been at the middle school three um might be it might be longer than three I think it
122might be four yeah we started yeah we added another one so yes it's it's been four years I believe the Middle School came after Wilson Wilson's been there for eight or nine years at least um and it's um but there were Modell that were at melite Wilson school that we moved had moved to the middle school so those ones were actually at the Wilson school to start with so okay those same on those same ones other than one of them was a new one most of those were there and then we shipped it them over to the Middle School the time so they're more than five years old yeah and there's also I mean there's a you know there's a cost to setting them up there's utility cost alarm cost um you know uh this
123set up and tear down um so it's not just the lease costs there's other costs that we've had to carry in our in our facilities budget that are for setting those units up sprinkled they all have to be sprinkled now which was something that was new you know four years ago so and they this will cover us for two years we're not coming back next year and saying this is two years and then the only thing that I could see is an extension of the one at mayel I Wilson school for a year maybe well let me let me just also reiterate and on top of that so there is one more in the summer of 2026 that we're going to need um so there's two rooms to handle the Roman between now in the
124time we open the building we need two rooms this summer and two more rooms the summer after due to enrollment so there's no way we can get away with just adding two rooms and that's we're done with it so we're going to be adding two rooms and then in the summer of 27 or 26 we're adding two more rooms so four rooms altoe need to be added in order to handle the enrollment at that school and we did ask the planning board to go ahead and approve it in advance which they graciously did um in order to allow us to do that did that on the site plan review when we went for the I mean I do remember when we were talking about the plans for the new school that this would be coming
125it's just still hard to um and is there so we're going to have to go back and do more work next summer yes to add one more this coming it won't be replacing anything it'll just be adding that last one so this Summer that we're coming up on okay as we come to this particular summer there'll be the removal of the old units there's already electricity network cabling um phones all that are already out in that location we and so we'll be replacing those units on that area there'll be a gravel pad that'll be spread down and then there's also one more modular the new one that'll be coming on which will have to have internet technology you know power sprinkler system added to it as well so and is there any cost savings by
126just doing the work once I don't believe so I because what we've done is we've gone through all of this we've actually run the conduits large enough in anticipation of pulling the cables through and doing the setups and so forth and I don't see any economies of scale to buying more equipment because the equipment is just X cost for setting up the buildings in terms of networking you know like the the pieces of equipment I don't I don't really see that and then the sprinkling of the building it's you know so much per foot for sprinkler system Etc so right I guess like just putting in the the additional ones that we would need next summer now there's no there may be some economies of scale with some of the site work but I think
127it would be minimal other questions I have to be honest I'm struggling with this one yeah um because and my kids are this I don't want to I don't want my kids necessar like my kids are right in this age range so um I don't want to even really consider those other options and want to put them into different spots but I think I need a little bit more than we talked to the teachers and and we couldn't think of anything so I think I need just a few more specifics so like is it possible or what would prohibit us from for 2 years increasing class size like what would that look like what are some of the other options that we could do to prevent this or is there just no other actual feasible
128way like how did you push back to the the staff so I will say that the four all four of 48 has some of the largest class size well they do have some of the largest class sizes in the district as 48 um so prek to3 we try to keep the class sizes down and also in the 20 room rooms that or 22 rooms classrooms that we've got in the modular atel Wilson school we have to keep some of those class sizes a little bit smaller because they're modular classrooms and they're smaller than the other rooms but at 48 um historically and we continue those are our largest class sizes already so if you go into a 48 classroom you're you're at 20 plus is it possible at least not even just like is it
129even possible to add more or is that would that be get into a safety concern uh it would not only get into a safy safety concern I think it gets into a whole instructional and learning yeah for definitely yeah for that I I get that it definitely would um and then we're talking about staff reductions at that point because we wouldn't need as many staff if we're going to put more kids in classrooms um the space at GMS I mean it's a very large facility but it's running to schedules and there's a lot of duplication of services because you have to you have to have four or five you have to have an elementary and then Middle School um we've made efforts and I actually think we have a little bit more space and don't
130have to add more than two rooms because we are doing a little bit of consolidation of programming as we've gone over time to bring the 48 programming together and we're continuing to do that for next year so we're actually I think saving the the fact that we would have to add more rooms we're trying to add as low amount that we have to um yeah I mean we've asked all these questions and it's it's just it's hard like really we only have two more years till we get into this building can't we just we ad him we didn't want to add it wasn't even part of our our initial our list yeah the district office list um until later um after we continue having discussions and looking at everything but but as we did our
131enrollment projections when we were looking at when when the building project failed we looked at our enrollment projections we knew we were going to have to put these modules in place yeah several years ago I mean this this should surprise original We hoping to have a school open to not do this and I I do remember um that this come up it's just really hard again when you're actually gotch to voting on it and not that I would put a condition on my vote tonight because who who knows uh I'm in the last of my third year term um for next year but I would love for us to not have to come back and add the other two if there's just anything else that we can do to not I would like to not
132come back and add another two too I think we have when we looked at the short-term facilities plan and we looked at this year in particular there's that I don't see another way around it I I'll be very honest and say I have not dug in that deep for a year from now yet even though it's in our short-term facilities plan and that was approved before the bond passed but we haven't done our homework yet for a year from now um we have done our homework for this next fiscal year we'll be doing the same thing again a year from now so I mean it's unfortunate it's $700,000 in leases that are a sunk cost um you know when we didn't have a project that passed and there's also a lot of cost in the
133setup I mean miw was huge cost to build that complex I mean there was a huge cost affiliated with that because we didn't have a building project that pass so so we've had that sunk cost that we've had to absorb over these over these years go go ahead Katie um I was just wondering what grades are in Portables is it one grade in specific and would that is it it's multiple grades yeah it's World languages right now that are in the six rooms um we because now there will be eight the administrators aren't sure that they want to keep that model but we don't know yet okay and then is it all World languages or are there some World languages that are inside um I think all of the I'm trying to remember I know
134all the Spanish classes are outside there's a couple that are inside because French is outside too yeah French is but we have a couple of teachers that actually teach we have one teacher that teaches inside languages and art so her classroom is inside the building so I can't say it's all World languages okay thank you yeah mw's second grade and second and third grade thir grade both two whole grade level so second and third grade are importables as well at mael Wilson at Wilson okay so is there any like emphasis or like attempts or could there be to keep students maybe not in the same consecutive year in a portable to like provide that social kind of change and like CU like I know you were talking about the class sizes get smaller while you're
135in Portables and could there be more emphasis on like taking a student who might be in second grade in a portable and making an attempt to have them not in a portable third grade or would all classes be in portables for those grades yeah there it would be almost impossible for us to move that around now and with only two years left I wouldn't want to um and I think it's been a lot of lengthy conversations with the staff and the administration at that school um to do that and I I will say that they move Portable Buildings from second to third so it's kind of like they're in a new space again um it's it's kind of I I wouldn't say it's exciting but it's different go to a different building and um so
136they are getting a different experience at least they can look at a different window thank you oh sorry Christina don't know how I follow that up um I was just going to say I I agree I mean it's it's really sad we have to absorb this cost and there it's sunk cost which is gone um however it's not for lack of trying to get a building sooner it just wasn't to be um I would note so there's the cost and there's also the the isolation the environment for the students it's a bummer they have to be out there and they're isolated in some regards from the other um the rest of the school however um as a teacher I would say honestly the number one thing that could make or break my enjoyment or Life
137as a teacher is class size I mean you can talk about salary and benefits and days off and summer and whatever but class size and I think and I think we can all in a way relate to that because seriously whenever we've all gone to buy a house or whatever and oh you want to build that house or it's not available yet it's available in 2 years how many of us really choose like okay we'll just live in that two-bedroom house smoosh the three kids in one bedroom it's just two years I mean that's kind of comparable you're just smooshing them in imagine what that living environment would be like and that's kind of like what it would be putting on to the teachers if we made the classrooms the class size is that much
138bigger I mean yes I agree the cost the isolation is choose but really would we really choose that for two years for our house so my two cents thank you CHR and I would say that most of the classes I'm just off the top of my head trying to remember um are um 22 um or more at 68 right now and they are uh somewhere in that range for 4 five for most of our classes they're in that 22 21 22 23 student range right now so we're already kind of pushing it yeah so I'm just gonna point out that legally you can't go over a 25 to1 ratio for what is it kindergarten through 8 you can do it uh short term for 45 calendar days at the discretion of the school board after
139that you got to get a waiver from the commissioner and since we know this is coming it's like I don't love that we have to pay money for these stupid things when we have a school coming but also like we didn't vote to build the school early enough and so we have to eat the cost and to the point about socialization my daughter spent second grade in the Portables last year she's spending third grade in a portable building this year and she loves it and knows all the teachers around them because it's like a portable school like all of second grade is in a hallway all of third grad's in a hallway so second and third grade at mayel I Wilson is not suffering from being in the Portables we are suffering from paying for
140Portables that aren't a permanent asset that improves our property value like I don't love voting for it but also we can't go above 25 to one and if we're at 22 23 doesn't sound like there is wiggle room to do it so like we should have had a better school plan that we could get everybody to vote on earlier but we didn't and so like we kind of have to suck it up I guess I mean I don't I don't see another magic solution yeah so yeah mayel I Wilson the kids are fine and it's just language classes at the middle school and in two years we won't have to ring our hands about this well and they have bathrooms so they don't have to walk into the building to use we inst bathrooms in
141not at the middle school the middle middle midle but I been told that they students kind of like be able to leave and go the bathroom leave I told you it's a little bit larger grade level at the middle school to be able to go in so any oh Sarah um I just wanted to can we get the the dollar value between an a better used modular versus buying a new modular there are none available I mean that's the point that we're at right now skav has nothing else available um they've got the older units and they're actually parting out the older units to keep the some of the other units going and um uh but that's why yeah can we buy him through like some co-op I know sorry Coop I mean we looked
142at a lot of options we looked at stick building them then the problem is set up tear down what do you do with them at the end of the time so we looked at a number of ways that what was contact us when are you getting rid of your modules cuz we want them we need them oh yeah do we own any to sell and make some they're just waiting to have them so yeah we sell the ramps and the other pieces okay all right I will note that Source well you can get the box modul through the sourcewell co-op they might be over $250,000 so until the legislature fixes the loophole that doesn't let us use them for building projects cuz this is definitely a building it's not a turf field so anybody is
143a Cooperative thing is it Cooperative purchase we're doing well with skab because of our relationship and that's box skab is actually box okay they're the same company skav and box are the same company wouldn't be able to do it anyways until we fix the law but what don't we do the next District can benefit they were bought out by a big questions comments all in favor slowly all right great thank you it's unanimous and I appreciate we know that you've done due diligence and oh yeah no they're all good questions right we just through and yep we've been we've been doing modular for a while now yeah we um I still remember I know Shirley still remembers we did it many many years ago too behind the old Junior High we had portable City and
144behind the high school we had it back then as well yeah it was nice we had them so can we not like I've had a kid in looping for the last couple years and she keeps switching or or they keep switching back and forth in the ends and as a parent I have no idea where my kid is just like I've got and it's been a mind like mess up cuz I I have no idea where they're I just know that they end at someplace it's a mirror image that might be on purpose who [Laughter] knows all right last item for Action can I get a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar at presented so moved thank you anuka can I have a second second great thank you Christina it's been up on the
145screen for a bit um do you want to just talk a little bit about how the calendar gets put together I I would love to do that and I just had it okay um so basically we start and I know this is small on the screen I think it's also in your board packet um the calendar is built bu regionally we start with the region um there are I think eight districts that I work with um that send students to pth and that's state law so we have to make sure that um our calendars match up together and we don't have any more than five dissimilar days or we have to go back and start all over again um so we work together on that that's the first place that I start um the next
146place is that um we start to develop there's not a lot of wiggle room after that because there's we basically decide regionally when are you starting school when are you ending school where the vacations that's really important the vacations because I can throw off a lot of disimilar days um so you'll see that those vacations are in there um and then Mari TR bilcock in her roles the curriculum director um works on the cultural holidays which are attached to the calendar um and make sure that they um are lined up and designated and that we have those communicated clearly which is on the back of the calendar Mari also worked with a Community member and a parents in our community who is very knowledgeable about the cultural holidays um and she's been a great resource
147um for us so this calendar calls for um once again school starting after Labor Day Labor Day is once again very early it's the 1 so that means that we would start school on September 2nd um for grades um 1 through n uh grades 10 to 12 as we've done for a couple of years now would start on on the third we'd have just freshmen on the second Alone um and then kindergarten and prek um start after that so um we would be looking um trying to read that really carefully kindergarten starts on the 4th and PRI K would start on Friday the 5th as their first day so it's actually quicker than we've done um in some years trying to get all of our students in by the end of that first um academic
148week really important so this calendar um does have something that is only happens every once every seven years like a broken mirror I guess but we have two weeks for the holiday break this year um that was a regional decision so we don't have much say in this um we had talked initially about having school on the 22nd and 23rd of December um the regionally regionally um nobody really wanted that we went back and double check that with um with the uh Association and Leadership and they concurred that they really didn't like that idea either so there is two weeks in this calendar again it only happens every few years um there's only um two traditional weather days in this calendar and it's because we're starting after Labor Day and we have that two week
149break in December we have a little bit less wiggle room in the calendar um in order for school to end by June 18th um June 19th is a holiday so we have traditionally not um um gone beyond the holiday of June 19th and um so there's only two traditional weather days built in which means that once those two traditional days have done we we go to remote we've usually had three um when I checked in with the association leadership with our leadership team um they all thought that it was fine to take that gamble um instead of trying to cut back on the two-e holiday break or try to add April 17th which traditionally um that was actually an option the region did leave open to everybody if you wanted to have school on April
15017th which is before the Friday before the break um we've usually taken that off and half the districts are taking it off half the districts are going ahead and having school that day we've never had school that day and um when I checked in with the association and leadership team nobody seemed interested so um we kind of left that left that out um other notes for them is that there is an additional teacher work day um that's was settled in the teachers contract so now that they're at 184 any member of the teacher um teachers unit um they'll be going 184 days um the 184th Day by contract is a self-directed professional development day so you won't actually see it captured on this calendar but it's noted and there'll be a process for approval as
151it was settled through the contracts um there there's 32 early release days both in this calendar it's a little bit higher than usual we usually average 25 to 27 um but it's just the way this calendar worked and traditionally in the calendar um if there is a full week of school five days everybody knows there's an early release if there's anything less than a 5ed day week everybody knows it's it's there's no early release on that Wednesday and that's been how we've done that for a very long time um some of those early releases are for parent conference days that are designated there four of them and then the last day of school is always a half day so I think I covered all the big points on this calendar thank you and just also
152reminder we had scheduled the first and second read both today because we had missed the first read in February and we just wanted to be able to start getting the calendar out but if there's major questions or issues we we can hold it but um we just want to give an opportunity if if we were able to get through the first and second read today um there is something and I I think this was in your note and I forget if you just said it or not uh to the board that um there is 32 half day Wednesdays which is much more than usual it just it happens to be how the calendar Falls um and I know how much you know we value these for our teachers to be able to have those half
153days but it is quite a few number more than they typically have um and I am I know from a parent perspective these days are a challenge and so I would like to suggest that the administration looks to see how they can reduce that number back to what is more typical which I think is 25 to 27 not 32 I think it's 29 29 run that 29 typical 29 um early release Wednesdays I think typic how many this year is that no I think typically it's 29 okay it's I have I have to make that calculating in my other job we probably count we should probably count up what we have this year I I don't remember and sometimes we're counting the I'm trying to remember parent conferences in those yeah and sometimes we don't
154right so I have to double check that but either way it's still either way is still a little bit more than normal just the way the calendar worked out quite and I will say that all the all the child carees all of the the the W camps and all of those things would would make their plans off the schedule so that may be supportive for parents so yeah I guess my suggestion is to consider recommending reducing the number since it is more than we have ever had I don't well I don't remember being this many I think it's just those it's a strange year where the two weeks and all that yeah so just wanted to see are there is that in the teacher contract anywhere that there's a guaranteed number of no nope would
155you expect that there would be push back from teachers or the association if we lowered the number well it's it's educational policy the calendar is educational policy so the board has complete say in how what days look like a student day or whatnot so that's within the the board's perview today to make that decision oh because we're second and first first and second any other 25 do you do you want me to count on this calendar last this year 25 this year 25 of the purple days which is early release and then the green days which are early release parent teacher there four so 29 29 so that is the 29 okay and the 32 is both the both okay so it's three more than we have this year yes okay yeah and I think
156I mean I I'm just trying to remember but I think 29 is even high for us in a gener generally speaking I think what it is is that it's just easier like I mentioned for people to remember you know if it's holiday week or whatnot but I know this has been a a topic almost every single year of the calendar comes up is how many early release days we've got right which then makes it yeah hard for me to not then ask if this is that many more than we typically have should we not consider I guess my next the only question I would have then is like is there an administrative good administrative way to pick days if we were going to reduce it we we would ask the administration to recommend I think
157we I would ask our leadership team to look at that and give a recommendation I mean if if you're let's just say that you're reducing three days or three release days um to get back to the 29 then I would I would um talk with the leadership team and I'm just making this up completely making this up they might say well it might be better to have full day student days in September so we'll just say the month of September we're not going to have any early release days just because we know that's like beginning of the year good learning time for all the kids um I'm making this completely up but that might be it might be to make it easy for people we just say that month we're not doing any early releases
158and then we start right in with the same schedule as usual after that if I was you know if we were going to talk about it I'm sure that's something that would come up from oh sorry from a parent cost perspective and Sarah thank you for sharing in your experience that would also be asking parents to potentially pay for three additional days that they don't currently have to pay for child care for am I thinking about that right well it depends on parents I mean obviously on early release days we have lots of kids that go to irq and then we have lots of kids that go all different places on early release days um at the elementary level um but it's not like aah get a lot s it's not like a set fee
159for the year I mean that would it would be whatever parent pays for that I'm assuming it's on a per day basis it would be three more days somebody's watching the kids yeah we create you create the C the the need base based on the calendar and count the number of day you know additional hours and so on and so forth um when does the ski program be oh I cut somebody up our numbers might be a little bit off because for the upcoming 25 it's not it doesn't come out to 32 yeah I was going to say it doesn't look it doesn't look like it's that much different when I do a a quick look at the calendar nothing jumps out at me yeah we came up with 31 including the last day of
160school being a half day so and the number I gave you for this current year add one to that for the last day of school being a half day so it's off by uh it's off by one I think the difference between this year and next it's not as as many as we were thinking okay uh I was just going to say when um does the ski program uh typically start that early release Wednesday one does that happen in December does anybody know um does anyone know I don't remember I think they I think they typically start in January and then it's done before it's it's done in late February for for early release Wednesday yeah I'm just thinking December might be another place to play with because if they already having the full two
161weeks off um and then just as a um an editing or a a nitpicky thing May does not have how many student days uh you know at the bottom each each month has um the number of student days May does not have that oh geez you know how many people we have looking at this thing like a a dozen to 15 people she's looking at our budget people so that's good yeah okay that's interesting and I one color question is there a reason why we need the blue and the yellow uh which where the blue you mean blue is the professional learning days teachers only know students yellow is flex days teachers only know students yellow's like tan really more of like a beig oh sorry yeah that's yellow is not yellow orientation and then
162yeah I mean that's um this calendar is obviously used by staff parents and students um and so those are the flex days that staff receive um when for conference it's basically for conferences okay they get that Flex day off Oh I thought green were conference days but anyway okay no those are flex days that's that's just for sta though it's not for everybody else okay Jeff I have one more question and it's about I think maybe my favorite school related thing is about snow days so um I do not envy your position although I want your position to call school days and snow days but how was like the amount of snow days factor into your decision to potentially call school and could we potentially like is there a rationale to get rid of some
163of those not get rid of since if we do have more remote days where let's just be honest like sometimes the learning is not as I don't think as great in the instruction remote as it is in person like perhaps we get some of that instructional time back or it's not as impactful if we had more full day Wednesdays so that's just a thought but just in terms of your philosophy in terms of the amount like how nervous are you about just having two days to call off in for full school well we've had a little bit more of a winter winter this year so I F feel it goes in Cycles so maybe next year it'll be lighter but it could be two in a row I just don't know I um I will
164say that um you know I don't get nervous about the snow I just get tired getting up at 4 in the morning but uh many days could call the night before uh I knew that was coming I know he into it the high school I get high a lot of seniors that like to every year the seniors because they don't have to make them up so they like to give me reasons why I should be calling snow days however um I will say that um on that note the board because it's an educational policy the board could adjust the calendar let's just say it's one of those Winters where it's like nine days or something it hasn't been like that forever but if that were to happen um there could be the board I would
165bring it back to the board because you said the calendar i' say you know we might want to think about doing some full days here we're not going to okay but the problem is that the state doesn't recognize that as being an additional day an early release and a full day are the same to the state in terms of getting the school days in so they don't recognize it but it would be a learning change a learning environment change the board can make that's helpful I'm just thinking more of like quality instructional time um just to make sure that we still get that and so Wednesdays are a possibility but that that's very helpful the other thing I will say um is that we have an additional day beyond what the state requires built into
166this calendar which we've had forever um and it's um but it also is a staff day that you know staff get paid to work it but I think uh I don't think we've ever oh no we did during Co one year we just knocked one of the days off um and then the board agreed to it um just go ahead and just get rid of it that was it so but that was a very bad covid time and everybody agreed so I just want to note to close off this conversation it is supposed to snow tonight it is Mr Porter this rain is turning into snow it's supposed to stop about 3:00 a.m. but you probably better get up at 4 just to be sure message with love we so is there any um other
167comments or questions about the calendar I guess is is there interest in putting any contingencies on the the Wednesdays asking to reduce by a few more I mean I have interest in at least getting back down to numbers that were were used to but I I don't know if we'd have to put another motion back out or um but I just am interested if there's other support I'm not not supporting that yeah and I would rather put it in September than I would December because I have these 12 kids who come and December is when we do all of our our holiday projects in those early release days so you you can tell the kids they can't make their salt dough ornaments I'm just saying finger turkey yeah if we had to do one could
168we just do yeah can we do a September 10th have like a full week of school to start just like really really crush the kids Souls by making them be there oh yeah a full week well back in my day we didn't have so um I mean the other the other I mean I we're brainstorming we so the other possibilities November because November is such a choppy month to be with it's so short and so it's very choppy oh but we um I'm just going to say we cannot put early release on the 12th oh it wouldn't be because that's not a full week oh perfect thank you yeah no I meant the two the two that are there yeah yeah this would just be taking away whatever number that we think is more in
169line with the number that we'd like to to see for next year are there um any considerations for when that when is more important I guess for the professional development um to be happening or what would be least disruptive to the professional development yeah it's kind of it's 50/50 like it's hard to say because I would say professional development is always um more purposeful in the beginning of the year or it's received better I think people are still fresh um but also instructional time is also Al better at the beginning of the school year too um I I I think it goes both ways another good month for everything is January everybody's kind of ready to go again so I'll be Consulting louan and Margaret we get finished with so I'll just put a suggestion
170um to make a motion to approve the 2526 School cend cend with some changes by Administration on reducing the number of half day Wednesdays back in line with past averages past half day the numbers of half days that were in the past and sorry what were the can you remind me what were the numbers of half days prior to well I'm giving you an average so an average of 25 to 27 but that did include now that I'm looking back it did include the U parent conferences so didn't it did yeah yeah so we're 30 I mean I'm sorry that 25 to 27 didn't include the parent conferences oh so then then but it's an average to that for the parent because we're talking about 30 days with parent teacher conferences yeah I think all
171in all you're talking about two or three more days than typ for this calendar I don't think it's that many I think it's maybe one or two I I really don't yeah I mean as I look through the calendar yeah it's um I I would say that there's there's one more but I can verify that at home I can't verify it well if we make this if we approve this and it's only one they can reduce it to one if it's five and they they can do reduce it to five whatever it is I think this I think if it's zero then they don't have to do anything yeah but I think the intent is to get back to or to make sure that we are thoughtful about those Wednesdays and just because the calendar
172is the way that it is that we have a standard of trying to have a a reasonable amount of Wednesdays yeah and honestly if if it get if the board approves uh doing that um and doing a reduction we would just look at something that was easy for people to remember because otherwise it you know I I think I'd almost just say at the beginning of this school year I'd just recommend we a leadership team um almost let's look at the beginning of the year it just makes it easier saying one month there's no early releases or something like that I just because otherwise people get really confused and then we have to keep messaging over and over again what the week is people get into our routine so we would have to make sure
173it was really like early releases start in October or something like that um and we follow that schedule um I think it would be hard to insert it in the middle of the year because everybody's got the rout seen by that time okay you know what I mean so so I guess the the question is is is that worth it to try to get the number back down I would say that's sort of the motion I put on the table would they could take it back and consider like what we typically have and maybe reduce it by one based on guidance of like it's easier with the calendar to not do the first one and then do the other ones or if people just want it as is and nobody wants the second we can
174put a vote out on the original motion did you make a motion I thought I sort of did but then I just kept talking so I guess let me try to make a motion again I motion to approve the 2526 school calendar with a potential reduction in the number of half days based on past a averages second okay that got me to stop talking any other and I'm sorry can I understand something and that this is versus just approving this C vers is just saying this is I got you yes if you just like this as is then don't as I call for a vote don't vote for the motion if you'd like to see some adjustments to align with previous half day numbers then we can call for another vote on this calendar yeah
175I I think um I don't know maybe it's unfortunate that we aren't more clear on the numbers at the moment um just because it seems like it could potentially just be one off but maybe more than that um and I I'm a little concerned I guess about hearing the idea of then just knocking off potentially all three in September so just feeling a little bit of trepidation well here's another idea and these are just Jeff's ideas these are only Jeff's ideas so even if okay I'm just making this I'm trying to help this process along um if we just said that we will begin early release days on September 24th for the school year um and going forward we've used the same routine we always do if it's a full week or if it isn't
176a full week you know if there's an release but we just start um and that way um if that's a I'm just suggesting it if the board would choose to do that it would make it easier to follow after that sure thank you any other questions okay so the vote on the table is to maybe make modifications to reduce the number of days following past precedent okay all in favor two three four five okay did I get all that it's one one more okay all opposed I'm I'm try I'm like literally trying to find this year's calendar just it's I have it I have it up you want me to tell you where I found it I am happy to so for a post Four PA five pass yep five pass okay that was good
177Television right there so I I've honestly I mean again I'll I'll need to consult but uh I think the easiest way to do it is just say we would we would just start the early releases a little bit later in September and then we would follow the same procedure that we always do like yeah I mean and I just want to make sure like I don't want to feel like we're taking anything away from our our teachers in this it's just trying to also I'm concerned about the extra cost on parents to find coverage for more days than we have typically so okay well we we got some no votes on things I we're OB you something okay thank you superintendent report I forgot but we haven't think you we're further along um all right
178superintendent report tonight um at mael Wilson School uh the kindergarten had a um an assembly that they hosted for um the entire School actually in two different assemblies and um students and staff reenacted The Napping House I think Mrs o was actually Mrs Mrs napping or whatever whoever it was the main character and um Mr Muny and Mrs o like to have lunch with students and um for the month of December uh Mr Stevens's class uh actually won the Bingo award for the month in the Bingo board um kids are caught picking up trash doing winter crafts um taking an extra recess they get items like that and they do things around the school um and they were entered into a drawing and they won lunch with the administrators at GMS 48 congratulations to our
179GMS special Olympians at the Winter Olympics Gregor Stout um Aya Jim jimino Ellie Sedwick Isaiah Soro and a Avery kelus I always get the um hard name names on these presentations I'm sorry uh were came in really well did great um in their in their events congratulations to Oliver pormi for his second place finish in the main stem film contest U for a short film on technology associated with weather forecasting so congratulations to Oliver fourth grade students observed and critique the artwork of Dean Russo who is known for his vibrant colorful animals look at these it's amazing uh just really really nice uh just going to brighten up the uh hallways in the School Mrs Harrington's fifth grade class joined Mr emy's seventh grade science class and they conducted exothermic experiments together exothermic is heat
180I had to look it up make sure I knew it at GMS 68 there is a shout out wall and uh that was created shout out to the GMS School climate committee for putting together this shout out wall this is a reminder that we all can take a moment and let somebody else know that we appreciate them after considering upgrades for the six modula classrooms at GMS the recommendation was to get rid of them and put some new ones in some grade six students um did a great job actually presenting their ideas to classmates and trying to um beautify the modular as as much as they can also congratulations we had a lot of Special Olympics recently for winter um to our high school special Olympians case Kent uh Ali Brooks Michael Johnson Adam Jacobson
181and pton brown and thank you also to Owen Pik for volunteering and at ghs uh theater classes um one of the theater classes was practicing the 12 Angry jurors and actually put on a production this was not part of the um theater production that we uh see twice a year but this is just part of theater classes and at ghs and I'm GNA I'm going to let um Sophia and Katie talk more about it so I won't say much but they did a um dialoguing across differences and I did have a chance to sit in on probably three of them three or four of them um and they were really well done and the students were the leaders of this they they trained together and then they uh LED other students students it was all
182students um for this extended advisory at the high school we now have the school store so thankfully that came in just as basketball season was ending but it's going to be used a lot um our fls classroom um at the high school will be operating the store as well for their school store they actually collect orders and then go deliver those orders around the district each week congratulations to our state indoor track champion ions congratulations to Eva du Sophia Dina Violet Armstrong beia Craig and ren Desmond for their well-deserved recognition of the main Regional Scholastic art Awards competition and violet B Ren and Eva uh Eva received honorable me uh mentions for their fantastic pieces and I'm sure Sophia can probably talk more about it um Sophia and uh Eva won the silver key award
183and their Works will be display at the main College of Art and Design in Portland actually that was in February um I think it's over but there's an art walk on March 7th actually isn't that tomorrow and is that yours yeah it's the chard you want to go point sopia there it is and U Sophia has it on display in the GCA as well not the actual one because it's still in Portland but I've got a print of it but you had displays oh yeah I have I'll talk about cuz I saw your I saw your name yes yeah you did see my name um we want to congratulate uh High School lead custodian Lori Libby she received I've got to click on this thank you oh I'm not going to be able to there
184we go we'll do it again it's only one second thank you so she received this recognition this is the ghs Maro and white gratitude cup she was really um she does a great job at the high school of that place she's always cleaning constantly um and she was recognized by the entire High School staff who gave her the Gratitude cup thank you gry Nordic team participated in the Western Main conference championships and girls team came in second overall boys came in third overall in the conference Tate Harvey earned first place in classic skate and pursuit Rowan bar um earn first place in classic skate and pursuit Keenan Barry Ninth Place in classic 12th Place in skate and 12th in Pursuit and Evelyn lass laass earned 10th place in classic sixth in skate and Ninth in
185Pursuit congratulations we've had a really strong winter season and thanks to the board goes back to school um I don't know how Mr francis's picture got back in here again but he was along with the ride on that one taking pictures of kids taking pictures but um thank you to the board members um everybody was able to participate in at least one which is great and I know that we had somebody who participated all of them we do so we have a certificate of recognition for our own Jesse Lamar Vincent who participated in all of them so congratulations I didn't get an award you're welcome amazing yeah put on the fridge Jesse reminded us that he did participate in all of them that's that's how I knew so congratulations and thank you I hopefully you
186found those um helpful I know the administrators has enjoyed doing them and just um this is the one campus I won't go through this most of this has been the newsletter but U this will be posted and if you want to go um we're just excited that um a lot of things are just falling into place thank you for your approvals tonight this gets the facilties going the the turf field going um we're going to be posting the earth work part of the bids later actually they've been posted will be they'll be due April 10th um and the planning board approved everything which you know we've gotten the permit from the State Fire Marshall's office for the facilities building now um we're waiting for a couple more permits that we hope are in by the
187end of the month and I do just want to take a second to pause some these are very big milestones the fact that you know we got through the planning board approval in that one meeting and I just want to do like a little bit of a round of applause and recognition for the building committee the administration The Architects um that have really set us up for success in this project um and on schedule so just a little yay think it sometimes gets lost in everything that's been going on these are these are great milestones and when you start seeing these milestones come that there's more and more and more so really exciting to be able to see things um falling into place so oh so that's it oh that's that's my report sorry yes
188great thank you um so we're going to move to the committee reports we'll start with our students um so despite some attention it's been business as usual at the high school um and it's been a long time so Sophia and I will try to cover it all but um right now we're gearing up for spirit week so exciting um we've been filming dressing up or well about to dress up we now voted on our themes for next week um we got a really cool presentation today about the blood drive that NHS runs and um some really inspirational speeches and then we just filled out our course request forms for next year which is so crazy Sophia didn't but I did um and and juniors a lot of juniors are taking the SATs on Saturday um
189so on after this that's what I'm going to be going home practicing for um and as just to touch on uh Mr Porter's point about the snow days in the emails for the snow days right before break my geoc class had a really cool presentation from Mr doosa who works in the high school and he's like a real life meteorologist and he actually spent I think two full years in Antarctica oh w super cool guy and he gave us some like really cool Insight on the following day which he thought might be a snow day and so I thought I might just relay that information to Mr Porter he hasn't he hasn't emailed me today though oh no I'll figure it out okay usually gives me a heads up but yeah here's an to Sophia
190so most exciting and most recent I would say is that senior art exhibition which was last night and yes my my Art's in it guys um but it'll be up until April 2nd if you didn't get a chance to see it I think there's about 11 of us and it's been it's a two-year class so it's been a lot of work and um it's really cool to see and I think you can see like all of our own personal Styles in our exhibitions um and I I did point out to Mr Porter that my exhibition is the one the one with my name on it so go Sophia where's your artwork she goes it's where my name is yeah sopia after IID spent a whole day hanging my art though so it was you know
191not very observant but you'll know it's mine because it has my name on it um moving on this is just a little plug to the library and Miss Perkinson they always have fun things going on in there and this month we have March Madness but for books so all the students got got an email and we got to fill out our top picks I hadn't read them all so I did base them off of some titles but I know that people do like to read them and they actually do um they the library does great things like that um and then the dialoguing across differences thing that we did in advisory was a while ago so I had to think back but um that was actually really cool and it was it was really nice
192to I think sometimes we try to have like these conversations about the school climate and like all our differences and everything but I think whenever there's student-led conversations it makes the conversations just so much more genuine and I feel like we're all able to connect at least like Katie was in my group and it was a little group of like six or seven of us and I felt like those were really good like times where we could just sit and reflect in small groups without having an adult coming and like monitoring us almost but but it was nice and I thought it was valuable time um other than that seniors are not filling out course request forms for next year because we are all waiting to hear back from colleges and on top of that
193we're also beginning work on senior projects and thinking about exams yes thank you Kim finance a anything to add after earlier well besides thinking forward for next year's budget um we are very much aware that we still have not U been able to present the second quarter of this current fiscal year so hopefully that is coming um it is not for lack of trying it is very much uh again we want to commend the district finance office because the amount of work that has gone into adapting to this new accounting software has been a very very big task and so we're we're waiting patiently for the second fiscal quarter update so that we can provide that um and uh we are also currently in the middle of our annual audit which a after which we
194will be able to uh confirm and publish where we ended for fiscal year 24 so that still that has not been officially presented even though of course we have a very good idea but it depends on the audit so um that is coming to a close and um we just want to acknowledge that we are a district who got really lucky that we have an auditor who is only a couple weeks behind where we normally would be many many uh schools in Maine are waiting a very long time um to get an audit because there's a lack of Auditors so we're in good shape thank you Kim Tim School okay well you know about the bids so so that's good thank you for approving that I want to Echo as well what lean said like
195we um I think had a lot of success or on time and that's um kind of amazing given it's this is kind of a short Runway so um kudos to the building committee and thanks for the the design team and the admin as well um so I think we've met twice um since we last met we did do an additional um I don't know if you want to call it I was there with a bunch of other rep leaders School leadership to talk about mw's needs um and so they are extensive and I think that's kind of reshaped our thoughts a little bit within the building committee about alternates um and as we keep getting budget info that comes through where we're spending our money uh how to be strategic about it what makes sense
196to put it in the 30-year Bond what makes uh sense not to so there's been um a lot of work on that we've also um established a couple of uh subcommittees within the billing committee so there's a technology one that's out that's primarily based off school staff um so thank you all the staff that are willing to participate in that we have a budget committee that's um reviewing the uh budget in detail um which I think we need to get another updated one when that becomes available um and we have a Communications committee which uh Megan is chairing and I'm very excited about that and some there's going to be some good stuff that comes out of that um so the the biggest thing coming up in our we have about a month until um
197the actual new school project goes out to bid um and so our biggest thing that we need to work through is the list of alternates um and you know what we're going to prioritize in the bid and what we're going to have as alternates um and so I think think one of my concerns is and I'll just be transparent with the board is we have had we've had tensions around I think the exact charge with the building committee um among tensions among the other primary stakeholders in that which would be the design team um and the administration and so how much time we ask of the design team has to be on our mind because it costs us money to meet with them it's their investment it's also staff investment um we have a lot
198of work over the next month I would say based off the feedback I got from our last um our last meeting in terms of they need to see more information on the alternates they need more our building committee wants to see more timeline stuff we we also went over some finishes um and some of those finishes we have to know by the time we submit to bid um and so we need to look at our our building committee's requesting that we see alternates to those finishes because we really only presented one option and it carries on a theme seem slightly that I think there's an expectation from the building Committee of you know we we meet regularly we'll ask our questions and we pass through where I think we I don't know if we've been
199given quite the space to have the oversight that we that we need for me to feel fully comfortable I think we can get there for sure but I think something we're going to have to do something to kind of re-evaluate or reestablish the charge that that it important for the building committee that represents our community are the people that are paying for it the people that are um that we're sending our kids to the the building that we'll be driving by every day and so while I am so appreciative of the design team focusing on um spending their time with our staff spending our time with the administration I I can't have that come at the expense of the building committee and right now that's how it's been framed where the most important stakeholder and
200I appreciate everyone's other input um but can't come at that can't come at the expense of our time and so we have to figure out a way to I think and and we've been I think the design team has pushed back on the amount of time that we've had um which I actually think has been very limited as it's been as needed from the design team um and so I'm going to be asking for a little bit more time than they probably are comfortable with this month just to meet the needs of where we need to be before we go out the the bid um but I wanted you guys to be all aware of that I think the design team again they have really pushed us through to where we're at they've been trustworthy
201they've they've provided details um and I appreciate all the work that the admin and the design team have done um I just think that we need as a building committee a little bit more um a little bit more time this month than uh they might be comfortable with and hopefully we can get there so I just wanted you guys to kind of know the landscape that we're dealing with and know that some of the the challenges that we have but also we have a lot of successes and so we're meeting with um members of the design team on Monday to kind of work through what the rest of our month looks like and the rest of the year um and so hopefully that goes well but that's we have a busy month in the next
202month so we could appreciate we'll appreciate your support uh we meet next on March 12th and we we'll probably have a couple other subcommittees one around the finishes um and one around the budget before we go out to bid um and hopefully on the 12th we'll be discussing alternates in detail we still need to get that list of alternates um a little bit more detail with that so I encourage anyone that wants to come and look at the alternates and be engaged in that to be there um and yeah thanks so appreciate that update and yeah just just because I was myself getting familiar with the alternates so these are things that aren't necessarily part of the base bid aren't um like a requirement of the the building or other spaces but things that if
203there is budget um that we want to be able to to accomplish so some things at miw if there's funds um we want to be able to do more there because that school has been so heavily used with all the kiddos that have been in there um that we want to be able to accomplish some of those other things too if if budget allows so thank you I just wanted to add real quick if you don't mind um I think there there is a lot of AD alternates at that last meeting it was quite the list to go through and I I think there definitely needs to be some time to to dig through it cuz there's a lot of options and a lot of things that um we need to really come up with
204a priority list yes I think we had a lot of input uh really good input from our community members and the staff and everything like that and I think it's important that we take the time to look over it yeah and we're hoping and understand them well from the stakeholders positions yes yeah so we're hoping to get a a good list out before the meeting so people have time to take a look at it so um that is a big priority so thank you Le yes I just need to make sure that we are planning for and designing for three-year-olds as well as four-year-olds oh it's going to come on the same year yes and three-year-olds have very different needs than four-year-olds yeah no matter how small the program is going to be they're very
205different needs I know couple well and that's been really nice um blat and Associates the the building that they're fin finishing now which I do want to go do a field trip to at some point in scalan is 6month olds to seniors so we we've had conversations about the fact that we do believe three-year-olds will be in that building and so they've definitely kept that in mind um as we design our programming for those spaces so um but it's a good reminder to that that is coming and I can't read a list so I skipped policy oh anuka so I was just waiting for my name um so we had to reschedule a meeting that we had originally set for right after the Break um but even before that we had been trying to find
206a time to meet both in person as well as for a more extended period of time just given what we were seeing um in front of us in terms of the policy work that we would still like to get done this year um and so our next meeting is coming up on Monday uh this Monday the 10th and that will be in person in the district office conference room from 2:30 to 4: uh the agenda for that should be posted soon we are almost have that finalized um and we will then have another meeting I guess it is just then is it then the next week the 19th um which will also be in person um so trying to get some work done over the next couple meetings see how much we can accomplish and
207then you know look at our uh meetings from there one of the things from our last meeting which was February 10th um was reviewing the um Schoolboard use of email and electronic communications and also the use of social media by School Employees um I don't necessarily anticipate having those on the agenda for this coming Monday's meeting um but those are a couple of the things that have been in process thanks anuka Christina curriculum yes uh the last meeting we had was January 27th and we talked about the process um that the teachers went through to select math curriculum um and and books um they ended up choosing a consumable um meaning a workbook where kids fill it out they have sort of translate for we they fill it out they keep it they've got it
208themselves etc etc I asked why um they explained that they um the current books they were using are not being printed anymore by Hopton Mifflin so they had to go in search of another um however this one they're very happy with called revealed geometry um at any rate um it's aligned with common core and they have a digital version of it there's presentation software available as well that students could see at home to review information um on their laptops and also it has a I do we do you do approach so um as far as teaching um the lesson itself in class so they're pleased with that uh we also had an overview of the district wabanaki studies and how it's covered um basically the high school it's it's incorporated into world history in 8th
209grade they examine it um in particular main um tribes but also relative to us tribes um in 8th grade um sixth grade they focus on historical and economic aspects um of the um Native cultures and fourth four five they study it relative to Unity and diversity um units and cultural traditions and in prek 3 it's embedded in the literature so that is the different ways that they cover that um and and lastly the next meeting we did not have a February meeting because of vacation week March 31st is our next meeting and the um one of the main topics is uh advanced math great um and then to touch on that meeting as well um specifically with the consumable textbook it's really necessary especially with the honors geometry group because they do operate under a
210flipped classroom so they're doing a lot of work at home and then they're like learning at home through a video and then they come into class and they practice that and ask questions and at least when I was taking it I found it really helpful to be able to write everything down in my in my book that I would keep and bring to and from school and also with geometry you have those really in-depth diagrams and whereas if you wouldn't have had that book that you could like actually write in you would have to retrace those diagrams and so it's it's definitely necessary and we don't often use consumable textbooks but I think that's the only class that I really would have wanted one and if I didn't have one thank you that's really helpful
211excellent what she said excellent yes thank you great Kim Equity uh yeah plus a consumable math book is something to add to the end of your bonfire is always satisfying as I recall I thought you there G to eat them but um so quickly going back to finance I I realized I skipped one point um that uh we have a meeting on Monday uh Monday afternoon and those there's been a little bit of miscommunication about um wait we do we have a meeting Monday Friday afternoon I feel like it's next Friday it's next Friday Thursday there's been some miscommunication 13 13th Friday the 13th is that Thursday the 13th 130 Thursday it's a meeting next week how about that um but I want to apologize to the public because there was some miscommunication and meetings
212didn't get no noticed as quickly as we would have liked and so um just want to say we're we're are working on that um obviously I need to get my own um calendar set uh and what made me think of that is that we have a meeting next week for um the equity committee uh our bimonthly meeting so we have not met since January and it'll be great to come together and hear how each of our individual um subcommittees are doing as far as evaluating each of the areas of the equity plan so that will be exciting to to come together and do that and uh and I think just to to kind of renew our sense of how special this committee is what it protects it um it is for all members of our
213community who need to be um need someone advocating for them it is for all the students and community members who are passionate about that advocation and it is for all students and community members who don't necessarily even feel like they need it or agree with it Equity covers every student every Community member the goal of an equity plan is to make sure that every single student and Community member has the opportunity to thrive um with no obstacles no guilts no isolation no aeration and I am really proud of the work that the equity committee has done for the last several years to put that in place because we really do consider every single Community member so just thought maybe was time to remind us of that ANUK is there anything you want to add thank
214you thank you is there any ad hoc committee reports I have one great it's about the Safety and Security committee we had a meeting this week and it was an excellent meeting and um as I think we've told the board in the past we can't really talk about it um because we don't want to disclose plans that's the whole point um but one thing I think I can share with everybody is that part of our discussion was about stop the bleed training and kits which has been a Hot Topic online and via email and we did a lot of work um about that and I think that there will be more information that comes out because we want to involve the community a little bit but um we we've heard the community and I think
215we're taking it seriously and and building to that goal of getting some of these kids in the school a lot of these kids in the school great yeah thank you um any other ad hoc committee reports parks and wreck was cancelled again so we haven't met for the last like for a little while but the the uh this quarter's meeting was can canell but we are I talked to Peter recently and he wants to have like kind of a smaller meeting just so we can all meet so if there are any um requests or anything you want me to bring up in that conversation just send them me an email and I'll I'll address it and that reminded me that one of the um one of the things that came out of the planning board
216was around a policy that relates to the turfield and and usage um and we had talked about because I was just going to give the athletic advisory update um as the rep for that and that it would be a combination of like athletic wreck um and the school and obviously the um athletic director would also be involved but we're tasked with putting together uh a policy around use awesome okay yeah so update them um that is something that we'll need to be working on I don't know if I had an official name um turf turf use policy oh yeah we don't we don't have a name for it yet usage usage but yes it's one of the conditions conditions from the planning board um so there's that and so the athletic advisory meeting we did
217meet somewhat recently um couple topics were just related to the turfield coming online and what are some potential fundraising opportunities that they might um the boosters might pursue as it relates to that um also talked about just athletic programming at the high school there had been some questions around there's a very large eighth grade class that has had really high athletic participation coming into the high school and what just questions around how the high school is prepping and then it sounds like there may be a study at the MP around um boys volleyball as a potential future ad and they'll be starting to reach out to districts and just understand numbers think there's been a new sport added for a while but um think that one is under study great so yes just put in
218a couple plugs for foundation 51 and gy PTO um believe that Foundation 51 is still interested in additional board members if there are folks in the community who are interested in joining Foundation 51 or learning more about that opportunity also um applications for the spring Grant cycle are still being accepted due by March 15th um and then PTO wise there was a bingo night third grade bingo night last night maybe we'll see it in the superintendence report on our next meeting looks like they have some nice pictures online already um and then an upcoming grades 4 five trivia night on March 20th so for those who have fourth Andor fifth graders great um and just another note the the gy High School spring play is the weekend of the 21st 2 2 and 23rd um
219I know well you have to get your tickets all right so next up is Communications I don't have anything in particular to add to that item tonight um and then we just leaves us with items for Action um can I have any motion to enter executive session to conduct the evaluation of the superintendent of schools and discuss superintendent goals pursuant of State Statute 1M RSA 456a so moved thank you Megan can I have a second second thank you Sean all in favor great all in favor I hope everyone has a nice evening who is leaving now thank you it's great to seeing you it's been a while for