MSAD #51 School Board Meeting November 20, 2023

001we'll go oh right in time right good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order um and is out this evening Scott Scott has the evening on Scott has the evening on well deserved um and we can move to approval of minutes if everyone is ready um can I get a motion to approve the November 6 meeting minutes I move to approve the minutes of November 6 2023 as presented second thank you any questions all right all in favor and Tom you were absent yeah I'm standing great thanks wonderful okay so it is now public comment um the board welcomes and recognizes the value of public comment to ensure public comment is fair and orderly we follow procedures outlined in our board policy BH and we ask that all members of the public do

002so as well we follow the policy to help keep the meeting civil respectful and productive we also hope this allows for all community members who would like to speak to be heard we ask speakers to use the designated Podium when they're making their comments and speak into the microphone if you're interested in speaking please wait until recognized by myself the chair comments by individuals are limited to a maximum of 3 minutes at a meeting a clock will be visible on screen to help keep track of time after 3 minutes the timer will go off and comments should be wrapped up when you're making a public comment please state your name and town of residence before beginning your remarks residents and staff members will be given priority over non-residents within the alloted time frame our policy

003allows for a third allows for 30 total minutes of public comment although it can be modified at the discretion of the board as a reminder public comment is not a time for discussion question and answer or debate between the board and the speakers rather's a chance for members of the public to express their opinions on school and educational matters the board will not comment on remarks made by speakers during the public comment period please know that this does not mean that we are not listening and does not express any agreement or disagreement with your statement all right I'd like to invite anybody here for public comment okay thank you next we get to move to presentations we'll start with the athletic Sip and update by David shario thank you so I want to connect to

004so you can see my presentation here bear with me I might need a little assistance with that what do I log into to make that show up on here from my computer okay how do I get that to pop up your uh got slide presentation up all right Miss Kaden shortly a presentation are we good to go first of all thank you for having me up here tonight uh my name is David chyro I'm the athletic director uh for grade 6 through 12 here and just to give you a little bit of an update on what's going on and um couple goals for the future here as well so first and foremost um just want to make sure everybody understands what our overarching goals are uh for athletics and we like to think of and

005enact that um our Athletics programs are part of what we do academically they're not they are co-curricular so it's education-based Athletics is what we look at here and to give you a little bit about that uh I think it's important to you know steal some of the language that we use for our classrooms the three Rs and those three Rs I know there's a lot of acronyms uh would be rigor relevance uh and relationships and those are the three underpinnings of what we do and we're really fortunate and uh again the educational model for athletics everything that our student athletes decide to do is an elective so it's part of their curriculum it's part of their education and we really our coaches look at it as such as well and so we're really fortunate that

006we have some outstanding uh coaches here so a little bit of a a piece that helps helps uh exemplify what we do really well um is our football team from just this past year you might have heard that football is now back in uh at gy after a little Hiatus working with fouth for a few years uh it came about because we had a an interest from our student body and we wanted to help uh help them see it through and not only did they you know come back they came back in full force uh we had more student athletes uh playing football this past year than we've ever had in the history of the program so that is a huge turnaround and uh that is really all on them they did all the work

007uh so at one point uh into our return to gy football uh through our first 11 games we'd won one we went 0 for last year uh that's almost the entirely same group of kids uh you might have heard ended up playing in the state championship game so um that is I think what really gut us there was not only the coaches knows know their exes and O's uh and Not only was it relevant to those kids and we were held them to a high standards but they really nailed the relationship piece that we had a group of kids who hadn't played a whole lot of football to be able to come together and play really well together uh was really a testament to their building the relationships we had from the coaches to the

008players and the players among themselves and I can candidly tell you that we had as many we had some kids that saw more time in the detention room than they did on the field and to find a way to bring all of those types of kids together to be able to be successful that is outstanding teaching and so that's what we uh hang our hats on in our athletic department whether that's you know grade six through 12 and some of the programs we offer they are educational based in nature and we want them to we put a lot of emphasis on practice wins and losses we say take care of themselves but if we do a good job in practice getting them prepared uh and teaching them lifelong habits those are good good things will

009happen so that's kind of the underpinning of our program uh so I'll give you a little nuts and bolts of what we have you can see it up on the screen there that our athletic participation has really rebounded since uh uh since covid so we had 252 uh student athletes at the high school we had another 160 at the Middle School uh a high school all of our teams made the playoffs uh a little bit of the uh boosters just to say a word of thanks to them publicly we have booster groups for almost every one of our sports teams at the high school and they do a phenomenal job of supporting our students um um and just really appreciative of that uh along with that we really appreciate they really appreciate what the district

010has done for them recently and that is that we pay for the majority of the the stipend every varsity team has a head coach and an assistant coach uh at all the levels the head coach at every level is paid for by the district now that was a significant piece of what the fundraising was for boosters prior to this year so big thank you for that um other things that we're able to do you you see we have huddle in live stream uh there there's a camera in the gym there's a camera out on the on the hutch right now that captures all of our uh home games and it's a great thing for our kids a teaching tool for and also for statistical analyses and for those that really want to bring it on

011to the next level to play collegiately they can make their own mixtape if you will of their highlight films and send them to prospective schools and coaches so there's a lot of benefit of what we're be able to do with that and some of that is paid through uh the booster groups some of it is paid through the district and some of it is paid through our athletic advertising uh that is part of our athletic Advisory Board uh so we try and get as much bang for the buck when we do things like that and this certainly helps uh the other piece of that is if you have relatives from afar they can watch our home games uh and that's a really big benefit to that um so we're happy to be able to do

012that oh another piece you see on there too is a concession uh building and the bathrooms that we have down there again that the district put put those out over the last year plus is a sign significant help uh and it really makes for a much more enjoyable experience uh on game days here so many thanks for that so those are some improvements we've had a couple things that we have done in the preseason and and still currently do we do have an Athletics advisor Advisory Board uh we have uh students on that members of our community a school board member sitting right over there and uh and myself and Eliza Miller is the chair of that and she has been the chair of that since prior to my time here and I've been here

013over a decade so it's a really uh we do some of the behind the scenes things policy uh try and get things out there getting feedback from our student athletes about things we might want to do whether it's um you know add huddle or do some improvements in the uh in the weight room number of initiatives that they've taken under um their tutelage to make sure we pass them through um we were fortunate to have Lawrence Alexander uh come in the preseason and meet with all of our student athletes uh for the fall uh that was great good interactive uh with him we had Lanny silversides come and talk to our student athletes about mental skills training so a little snippet of that is um Studies have been shown uh they used a couple different

014uh test groups if you will and one went through X's and O's pregame uh a little extens of that another one was more based on some of mental skills to do work on pregame whether it was visualization or other things that you could do to positive uh reinfor course what your your thought process your mindset is to going into to participate and they found that the kids who the student athletes who had gone through the mental skills part of that exceeded the um the level of play of the ones that were just the X's and O's and doing what you need to do now that's not for everybody but to give our student athletes more tools that will help them not only on the field of play um but in in school you know how

015do you get ready for a test how do you get ready for an interview uh that you're mentally prepared to be able to do these these things uh these are lifelong skills that you know they'll be able to take with them um and for no particular reason you'll see the next few things on here about our are women in leadership so St Joseph's College and Lanny silversides who did the mental skills training also ran a strong women's strong girls United program and so girls from across the state met at St Joe's uh earlier in this year this fall and had a conference just about female leadership um and we also had a piece of that at the Western Main conference uh leadership Summit and along with that giveing a fair my information here um Becca

016kelker is our women's lacrosse coach here and a few years ago again pre-co uh we had a women's leadership U seminar here that we did for any of our female student athletes who were interested in participating they didn't have to be a captain and just to talk about you know different items having to do under that umbrella uh we're going to revisit that again uh after the new year uh so she and several other coaches of females are do be involved in that um so there's some good information there for you the next thing I have on here is some Turf and I wanted to chat with you briefly about that many of you might be new to the board and where we are and the grand scheme of things for that and so I'm

017just going to give you a little quick and dirty here um here's a here's a calendar from September the one on the left September use is that's what we currently have and the one on the right is what we could have if we had a turf field so that's September and another one same type of thing in May very little usage um that we currently have we only play games this is on the hutch the game field the one the one with lights uh so very little use down there and so actually it's about 169 hours a year that we use the turf field and minimally with a conservative estimate you can see what some of the times are the different usage groups that we could have here um we only have Varsity play and

018occasional JV play on our game field so so we could open this up to the community for greater use throughout the course of the year and certainly during the Sport Seasons and I think it would be a huge benefit to us and some of the things that we talk about are like the soft costs associated or the opportunity costs that we have and I'll throw those all up there um so you can see what I'm talking about uh we want to maximize the use of that field uh especially um in the weather that we have for instance our football team they practiced at Yarmouth the final week of our season our field was unplayable so we had to go over to Yarmouth and and play over there um all the NPA Championship Services um are

019are turf fields except for baseball um but field hockey football soccer and Lacrosse are all Turf I I told you a little bit about the opportunity cost and along with that you know I've talked to Folks at twinbrook that if we don't have to go there as much we would still need to go there on occasion it's just only a field here uh that would certainly open up recreational space and opportunity at at twinbrook and you know it would also a longer opportunity for us to safely be on you know that game field and practice on it on a regular basis too and uh again after talking with our you know student athletes uh 94% of them in the most recent survey uh from last fall and spring said they'd really like to have a

020turf field and they say the time is now uh they really like to have that happen um so one other little tidbit I'll give you here before I go go uh before I forget and then if you have any questions feel free to fire away uh we have 20 Varsity Sports here and of those 20 Varsity Sports that we offer we have 13 head coaches that are reallyy alumni so that is a pretty unique situation that we have here that speaks to what a wonderful Community we have that people stay here people go and they come back here uh they clearly enjoy their experience if they're coming back and that's not counting all the Middle School coaches and and assistant coaches that we have so that's a pretty remarkable number uh and it just speaks

021to the love folks have of our of our educational programs here so that's my Spiel for tonight and if you have any questions fire away I know you got a busy agenda thank you yes I know we're very proud here of greatly of our sport so thank you yeah um I'm sure there are some questions I don't do we just want to do people want to I'll start on this side uh thanks for the presentation this always excites me cuz I know just how important Athletics are to kids development and non-cognitive skills and so it's it's pretty cool um I just turned 40 so I couldn't read everything that was on that that uh that schedule so can you give a couple of examples of like just what how else we could use the the

022turf field absolutely I'm wearing my glasses too don't feel bad so you what I did I I color coded it so and that was I thought I'd put on one of these actually what those different colors meant uh but Community use would be in blue so right now we have no Community use of that field so whether it's LaCrosse or field hockey or soccer it's just varsity play that we have out there and I have things on here such as Ultimate Frisbee Youth Lacrosse You Youth Soccer this is just the spring one that I have up right now uh would be significant pieces of that and then just general recreational use and the thing that I didn't put in there also is physical education class throughout the day so that would actually add to the

023amount of usage that we would have that's helpful thank you y so I'm gonna lob in a real softball question you mentioned football at the end of the season yeah what happens at the beginning of the season when it's really rainy um and teams need to practice on the fields we we also go to our neighbors we've been to NY we've been to fouth we've been to Yarmouth because they have turf fields and then some days we just don't practice and that is especially impactful to the younger ones who probably need the exercise well just as much as anyone else uh but only certain fields are open at twinbrook uh during those rainy times and the varsity team will take precedence if we only have one practice that's what we'll do yeah anyone else on

024this side all right questions over here uh well I guess I'll I'll uh pedal off of that um kind of the opposite extreme do you know of any schools in the area that have not been able to use their turf field because of the heat no okay so it do that that is not an issue I thought I had heard that so not so much or not climate and what we would do well so that's uh let's see figures don't lie but Liars can figure um we wouldn't play during the heat of the day all of our all of those folks have lights and we would have you know we have lights here so you're not going to play in the hottest part of the day okay and have any of our athletes experienced any

025injuries any anything any adverse reactions to planing on a turf field not that I'm aware of you could certainly you know when you that's a great question and so I would answer that in terms of yes it's safe in terms of when our field is unplayable it's not a safe field um is it overall more safe it's really about the same you can get an injury you can have a non-con injury on a turf field if you're wearing the wrong shoes U but that could also happen on grass really the numbers kind of bear out that it's really about the same but for our purposes it would be a safer experience because we can play L earlier in the season we can play later in the season and we know we have a consistent surface

026um but that's a great question and and then Tim I turn 53 tomorrow so I I really can't see this at all um I would love if you could email this or or post this this would be so helpful to to look at close I was gonna ask a similar question to I think you know the answer that you just gave Kim following Aaron Rogers injury uh in football this season I know a lot more scrutiny came on turf fields and um yeah what those comparisons were between turf versus the natural plane grass surface um so it's good to hear that we haven't had those injuries for our players and it sounds like there are ways that if we do move to Turf that we can help make sure that those kind of injuries don't

027happen correct on equipment that kind of thing y good anything else for the good cause or that's your question sorry the students have any questions I guess not as much a question but I I know that a lot of a lot of students are very uh passionate about having a tur field um and I think that it's something that some students feel put us at a disadvantage and not having it when you have to go into playoffs and play on a turf field when you've been practicing most of the season on on a grass field practicing and playing um our home games most of the season on a grass field thanks Christina I just um I feel it's it's new and a lot of places have it now and we're learning a lot getting a

028lot of facts and I just want to find out more facts I know some professional teams I know the women soccer national team is questioning um all their injuries I mean caused by playing on Turf um I know it's much faster so I definitely have heard from my own son U playing soccer that there's a real difference I get that I just think the in my mind the jury is still out I just need a lot more information before um the investment is made I understand the passion for it and everything and I understand the time and you know but um yeah I just just feel like we just need more information and if it works awesome and that's fair we can we can certainly provide that yeah yeah yeah I know that one of

029the things that we'll be hearing a lot more of over the next few meetings is just as we look at our campus and an oncampus option is how how do we maximize our space and so I think having more information as you're sharing right now of how we might be able to maximize some of our space on campus be important part of that conversation happy to help you find that out awesome good thank you appreciate thank you great I how to kick me off of this now just close her up how does that go away nice picture yes they were nine years old at time that's pretty amazing that's awesome I know now the teenagers they won't go uhuh thank you thank you well we're lucky to have two presentations tonight and the next one

030is featuring our own Tommy thear who's uh giving us a presentation on the high school student survey forum and the survey results so you're up Tommy thank you yeah so I'd first like to preface kind of what a student for what student forms are at the high school it was a um a tradition uh and something that got started during covid where the student government surveyed the students and um just kind of about their General sentiments and also each each survey that is part of a student Forum has specific themes to it to look at specific um items that students that may particularly be affecting students lives so the actual student Forum that we had was on um November 9th and um I know that there were also a lot of people here who are

031also present at that at that Forum so um feel free to jump in if you have any insights to share so first um there's kind of information about which um which is which grades were the largest shares of um responses so 31% of responses came from the Freshman Class versus 23 from the sophomores 21 from the Juniors and 25% from the seniors so the first part of the student Forum survey that we administer is just kind of like a general temperature check of how students are doing with um many different factors such as mental health like under the kind of umbrella of Mental Health um including screen time time spent exercising and just kind of how they feel in school so the first question that we that we ask every survey is do you have

032at least one adult at school who you feel comfortable to go to if you had a personal problem so um for those who can't see all the way up to the um board the the portion of students that feel that they do have um an adult a trusted adult is around 75% versus 25 % who feel like they don't um this is pretty consistent among among the responses that we've gotten um in past forums as well where um it's usually about 34s feel like they do have a um an adult that they could go to and about 1/4 feel like they don't um kind of in that same vein of um support this kind of this question more looks at how often people feel without support and specifically lonely and without support um so the

033largest portion of responses said never which is good at um 37% of students feeling like they never feel lonely and without support um followed by 27% feeling that they are rarely lonely and without support um and 26% feeling like they are sometimes lonely and without support and most of those numbers are kind of um usual um but what we really looked at and felt was very important was the share of students that felt often um and lonely and without support every single day so it was around 15% of students that felt this way and while 15% is a kind of small chunk of the pie um it is a significant amount of students when you look at the over for all responses which were 377 so there has been a an increase in students who

034um don't feel lonely without support and feel supported um however there still is a significant chunk of students who um do feel lonely and without support frequently the next questions um that we asked were about um kind of exercise and sleep kind of the the wellness aspect of the of the survey where um we surveyed exercise and uh sleep so um 42% of students said that they got a chance to be outdoors and exercise for at least at least 30 minutes per day and I'm glad that I did the presentation following the Athletics because that is a uh a sharp um increase in students uh share of students and that can also be seen through the increase in athletic participation which is um really exciting and then on the other end of the spectrum there

035was only about 5% of students who felt who who got um who got at least 30 minutes of exercise a day um for zero days during the week which um is a lot lower than in the past which is exciting and then the other question that we asked looked at sleep um and the average hours of sleep that uh students got on a on a nightly average um and the main the largest chunk was between six and eight hours with 60% of students saying that they received between six and eight hours um and then 20% saying that they received between four and six and 15% saying that they received eight and 10 and this is uh the kind of middle range where most students fell with little falling below the below four and little falling

036above above 10 um so this is pretty consistent um and we usually always see the largest portion between six and eight hours um and then the the I think this is the last question that um looks at the kind of mental health and wellness um which dives into kind of how students are feeling with pressure and um the weight of school with how often students check power school as well as how much screen time they are getting per day uh with um and with the question that asks how often do Stu high school students check power school about 50% of students said once per most days and 27% saying uh multiple times per day um and this this is a question that um we had some discussion with at the Forum with students saying whether

037it was a good thing to be checking grades very frequently or if it was a bad thing um and that's Up For Debate and interpretation but um the amount of students that uh responded that they check power school multiple times per day has increased over the last couple of years um and then how much how much screen time do students get on average most students said that they got between 4 and 8 and this screen time includes all um ways that they would get screen time through homework personal use social media um and also in school screen time so 4 to8 hours is usually um the the range the largest share of student the largest share um of students usually respond that they get between four and eight hours so the two themes that or

038the two yeah the two themes that we chose to look at in this forum um that are unique to this specific survey were high school students feelings on composting as well as high school um students feelings on the new schedule and the composting uh responses were a bit interesting and were kind of uh disconnected and didn't totally cooporate the the other responses but um we first asked how important is composting to you and as seen through the responses students have a rather neutral feeling um about composting with uh pretty even levels spread across one being um not important at all and five being absolutely very important um but the largest share of students at 25% um said that it f fell in that middle range of of three and um the next question we asked

039was would you be excited to particip ipate in the proper disposal of waste specifically looking at participating in composting um at the high school and this was where we saw um a large portion of people feeling like they would um not be interested in um putting down a one with 20% putting down a five saying that they would be very interested um we discussed with the student government that this the the wording of these questions might have been misleading and could have um been interpreted as would you be excited to participate in taking an active role um so if we were to administer the survey again we would uh try and clarify that and make sure it was clear and then um what kind of Mone the Waters of this question is the next response

040where um almost 50% of students do support bringing composting to the school so um it was it was interesting when we were looking at these results um um but it overall it seems that students are very um interested in having composting at the high school and specifically um having yeah with with over over 75% of students above that in that three or above range wanting to bring composting to the high school um and the new schedule was the other theme that I talked about that that that we had on the survey this is something that has been veryy on students Minds uh a bit of a preface the new schedule does not just pertain to the um shift in start time from 7 from 8:00 to 7:50 um there were responses about that but also

041the entirely new schedule that has taken place at the high school with the changing of advisory um and the lengthening of classes and the changing advisory to only two days a week um Mr Francis talked about the schedule at a previous board meeting um and if you'd like me to elaborate any more on um what the actual new schedule inails please um let me know but first we asked how students kind of felt about the new schedule um and in hearing from students particularly at The Forum we found that um they really were thinking less about the 750 start time and really thinking more about um the new schedule at the high school and how the new schedule had affected them with the advisory and classtime switch um and as can be seen in these

042questions with how beneficial is the new has the new schedule been for you almost 50% of students um said one that it has not been beneficial at all um and another 50% of students feel that there are one absolutely not enough breaks in the day so this really shows how um students at the high school are not um taking to the new schedule very positively and they don't don't love the change but as we talked about in The Forum um this is a pretty significant change from last year and it might take a quarter or two to get acclimated to the new schedule um so part of part of this new schedule is that uh the classes are seven minutes longer and there were different proposals that were put forward in how teachers were to

043use the seven minutes um and there was there was an aspect of the new of the previous schedule called Ranger support time which was taken out of the schedule this uh this time was specifically used for intervention and allowing teacher allowing students to meet with teachers and teachers meet with students about specific um about specific issues that they might be having in class or if they just need additional help um but as seen in this question almost 65% of students feel that um teachers have just used the additional time for a longer lecture um rather than uh adding in a needed break to the day or um using that for for intervention the next question um that we asked was do the longer classes feel much longer than the shorter ones um and this also

044saw with about 50% of students saying that um they do feel much longer and um only 10% saying that they um don't feel much longer and another interesting thing about this these results is that they're pretty consistent among um numbers with with how many students are putting um the extremes on both ends so so um if you remember back to the previous questions 50% has been put um in the more disfavorable category um for all three questions around hovering around 50% so this shows the consistency of the results and how students really um are not as big fans of the new schedule there are um a few student thoughts and comments about the new schedule and um I'll read those aloud if if um people's uh can't read them from where they are sitting um

045um uh and some of the comments said that I like the schedule but not the earlier start time uh another comment said advisory is a good part of your day to relax and make sure that you're collected for your classes since not everyone has a study hall another comment said new the new schedule is super complicated and it's just hard to remember uh another comment said some teachers utilize the extra class time better than others and it is helpful for in-class work but when the time is used for longer lectures it can be harder to stay attentive um and another student said I don't mind the new um schedule I just wish there were more breaks um and these are some of the Tamer responses that we took from The Forum there definitely were um

046some people that felt very very strongly about the new schedule um and even even used some some terms that I absolutely would not put in this presentation but um I think that it is it is clear that high school students are not as big fans of the new schedule and I think that this specifically boils down to there being not enough breaks in the day um the the lectures are feeling a lot longer and um definitely that the early starting time has become uh difficult to U make a new part of their routine and another thing that came up in the Forum um in the student discussion part was that uh the traffic and the um the feeling that many students it's taking them a lot longer to get to school than it has in

047past years and I don't know if this is because other factors or the earlier starting time but um a lot of students are feeling that it's been harder to get to school on time due to the earlier start time um and yeah that is basically the student Forum there were some um aspects that uh I cut out just because it wasn't super relevant to um this and also if anyone has any questions about about the presentation but also about um discussions that went on at the student Forum yeah please let me know can you describe the format of the student Forum yeah absolutely that was actually one of the slides that um I had taken out so basically um it happened in the library and we presented this information and it was followed up um

048so there there is a panelist of teachers and administrators um some of them were Mr Porter and um Mr Francis Miss Hayes and then some teachers at the high school um we try to pick teachers that are specifically um specific specifically might have Insight onto the um specific themes and topics that we had um had chosen so we had teachers and um and Ed teexs that were super knowledgeable about composting that we invited um and also uh Mr Francis and Miss Hayes to talk about the schedule um and then the the panelists of teachers and administrators um uh is kind of there to give their comments and have a discussion and allow for students to voice their concerns um so we went over the over this the survey results and then had some discussion questions

049and students were able to bring up their own um thoughts and ideas to discuss as well great thanks Tommy yeah questions so I I think you may have just answered it um so the word composting it just not that students don't know what that is I'm not saying that but to me when you first say composting I think of like you know that rectangular wooden thing in the backyard that got full raccoons and so we had to get rid of it so at some point did you define it on the survey or did you say it means processing separating things after lunch or how did you do did everyone get that information MH um we we had a little blurb at the top of each um little section that gave students kind of a little

050um idea of what they were answering about um I don't know if it was um um as clear maybe as it should have been given the inconsistencies and the results um and we also in one in the specific question about the proper disposal of waste we were um we asked about recycling as well um and I think that that might have like muddied the waters in terms of maybe um students felt confused and then it led for more inconsistent results and was there any question involving training the younger grades with composting and training because I know that's been a sticking point if you guys can do it you can teach them uhuh no we we did not have any um any questions that involve the training but we did have um an edte who came

051from a school in Chicago and she was one of the panelists and she implemented a composting system at that school um prior to coming here and she was able to talk about kind of getting students involved and how um you can teach teach students and get them to um get them to participate and and so they really really know about what they're doing and what it means yeah so my question is what we do with this information um and you know could be related to the composting but certainly also hearing that 25% of students don't have a trusted adult or that 15% who are feeling lonely and without support every day um what do what we do with that information to to help improve those numbers and maybe that's not just a question for Tom

052but yeah um I think that I think that um one of the one of the reasons we have these forums is so students can come and voice um their feelings to administrators and um to the the um people who might be able to enact change um I definitely think that there are actions that need need to be taken um but I think that uh we we in the in the specific um in the Forum we didn't have any uh specific ideas of how to move forward I think that um specifically what you bring up about the trusted adult I think that's definitely something that um really stuck out to us but was not as much um stuck out to us specifically in the student government and when we reviewed the results but when it came

053to the Forum um many of the students that came that were not part of student government didn't um talk as much about the trusted adult and feeling lonely and without support I think that mainly um the schedule was a bit of a hop onon issue and really um really made made um students come out in in favor of talking about that um but I definitely think looking back um at the previous responses and looking at um that question about feeling lonely and without support and teachers is definitely something that um is important to look back because as you said it is a significant number of students okay so can you I've got a couple questions but can you talk a little bit more about the process itself so who wrote the questions how that was

054formed and then also how it was administered was this during advisory time was it uhuh yeah so um we have as part of our Student Government we have a student Forum committee um and that is headed by Grace Banger and she did a really amazing job of um taking the the voices that the discussions that we had in student government and crafting this this survey um to really uh try and get the information that we wanted uh so the the students that's kind of on the end of how the questions were made um in the student Forum committee with uh with Insight from the whole student govern government and then the survey was given to students during advisory time and was the activity for that day to fill out um the survey during advisory and

055so since it was during part of the school day I mean as students do you have any sense of why people wouldn't finish the survey yeah that's definitely something that um was brought up at the at the student Forum where uh teachers talked about participation and getting 3 77 responses is definitely less than the total student body but in looking at past forms we have gotten as few as 150 responses so um it definitely is an improvement um obviously we do want to get more than just 377 and try and get more of the student body but I think that when looking at the responses it's definitely an improvement and it kind of allows us to look at a snapshot of the school even if we don't have all the numbers exactly and then my

056last question was about screen time so first of all do you really think that four to six hours is a realistic number and um I'm just kind of curious the the power school issue um that so your feeling is that students are spending a lot of time checking their grades so that that is a a sense of maybe how much pressure everybody's under right as opposed to Google Classroom right where isn't Google Classroom more where you're finding out if you're missing assignments or or to keep up to date on assignment so what what do you think the difference might be or did was that not even really considered yeah I think that power school I think I think that one power school it doesn't um like it doesn't make for Meaningful screen time so like

057checking Power School very frequently wouldn't increase the amount of screen time that you had it would more kind of be a barometer of how much pressure students are putting on themselves um but really with Google Classroom from the student perspective and definitely sopia you can talk a little bit about this if you want but I feel like Google Classroom um it's it's more of a tool rather than rather than like the grades that you get in power school are kind of the stressor and the pressure that's being put on rather than what's coming through in Google Classroom well it's just like as a parent of a high schooler I get the notifications from Google Classroom if a certain someone is missing assignments um but but then power school also like like sometime and sometimes they

058don't agree so I was just curious if that was a factor at all but what about the four to six hours is that a realistic number do you think it's higher than that I feel like you guys are I mean every you're on a screen all day at school so yeah then at home home I agree I think that I think that 4 to8 hours um I think less than 4 hours is pretty inacurate but I think 4 to eight hours is is reasonable I mean I know from my personal experience I think it's usually between eight and 10 hours of screen time per day um but that does as you said come down to having a computer in front of you in most every class and um being on on that computer for uh

059and and doing homework and with your phone um outside of school but yeah I think that I think that we kind of lump all of these screen time screen time like all the different ways to to get screen time together because it's more easy to answer and might um provide more meaningful results but I think that I I I agree that it might not be the most accurate and there may be students that are spending much more more time um on their screens than just curious if you thought that was surprising sorry I answer asked a lot of questions please tell everybody they did a great job and we we really appreciate all this information question down here um I think this survey is super impressive and I think the mental health umbrella questions are

060um really commendable particularly because they really tie in with sort of Public Health in general particularly the question question about loneliness and just what an important marker that is so I think it's awesome that it was included in this just because that is going to be one of these questions that your grades will be asked as you continue through life it's we know it's an important market for public health so the questions I think were um really well thought through um so yeah please say um thank you for them I have a couple specific questions if I may yeah absolutely um the question about the trusted adult was that an adult at school or in your life it's at school oh it's at school yeah as at least one adult at school um okay so

061it's like a a resource that somebody can go to specifically at school okay um back to the the screen time question do you do you think that or had you talked about breaking it down at all um I'm sort of particularly interested in the the screen the um sort of so social media piece of that pie which I hear what you're saying hard to to divvy these things up was it ever kind of a question that you thought you might throw in or not so much um these these questions stay pretty consistent from form to from survey a survey so um we haven't looked specifically at screen time I think if screen time was um one of our themes to a specific student form then we might look at okay social media versus school time

062versus um other use breakdown yeah and I really I appreciate Ana's question about sort of what do we do with this information because this is really good info this is super important data um which may sort of come into play in The Wellness committee I'm not sure because we haven't had a meeting yet but um I think it's it's really valuable information well done thank you thank you first of all this was really impressive um I watch people present survey data all the time and this this is just as good as the professionals that I I watch um a couple of observations one was about that trusted adult item and I would hope that there's a cumulative aspect to this where seniors are much more likely to have that trusted adult versus first year students

063who are new to the school maybe they don't have that person yet um so it would be interesting to like do a cross tab of those two items to see if that that is the case um the second thing that jumped out at me is that um students are not getting enough sleep and I I don't know how how we fix that like think about my own house I'm begging my kids to go to bed every night um uh but so maybe that's something for the wellness committee to explore um how can we emphasize that with our students because it is it's really important um and then yeah oh my other only other thing and I did a sidebar with Tim here is that maybe it's a little much to expect people to be excited

064about composting and maybe interested would be a better report absolutely absolutely I think that I think that if we were to readminister the survey I think that that section would would would need a particular um like a a relook at it to to make sure it was more specific uh Tommy you know how excited I'm excited but this excites me um you know I love seeing data and we' I think we've talked about before in another committee that like when you show data and people want more that is a huge part of the success and I I definitely want more so I'm I'm kind of curious too of what kind of the The Next Step I'm I'm really thinking about that adult question too because I know just research is pretty heavy on the number

065of adults that you trust versus their success um and so is there any way for us to be able to I mean did you ask any kind of like grade level or um are they participating in a sport so that we can start breaking down like somewhat like what groups these students might follow in yeah I think that um that kind of similar to the the screen time I think that given that this is just is kind of like a snapshot of like this whole mental health section is kind of a snapshot of of how students are feeling so I think that um we we if we expanded this more and had more questions related to it and maybe had it in its own section it'd be able to um shed more insight and that's

066definitely something that I'll talk to the student government about in terms of maybe having expanding this trusted adult section in in a future forum um but I think that and also we could kind of going back to Tom's Point as well we could look at the the other the other questions and how how they interact with uh this specific question looking at grade level and um other questions but I think that we that was not something that we necessarily anticipated um a lot of the focus to be on during during the student form so that's not something that we necessarily dove into um significantly yeah I mean I would want to encourage that the Forum or another group to take the next step to be like okay we've like peeled a layer off here and

067so now what do we do with it um because if we just wait another year for the same kind of questions you probably would get like you said the same thing because we haven't done anything to intervene with that result um and so I'm excited to see if there's another survey out or what kind of what do with this information maybe that's the wellness committee but um I think it says a lot that I'm leaving here knowing way more about where the students fall on a couple of issues I'm thinking about as a parent like sleep and screen time and stuff like that and even though they're my kids are not in high school I know it's already starting to like freak me out but also prep me for that so this is really valuable

068information so thanks for sharing it with us in the and the community yeah absolutely yes thank you and I really appreciate the in fact this is a student L effort and very professional one at that um and most of my questions just related to the the wanting more yeah understanding just differ by grade um and understanding yeah are is one grade feeling more connected than the other so um I do so one of the other key themes that we actually haven't touched most on because I think probably a lot of us don't understand the schedule differences but that seemed to be a really hot topic um and I don't know what next steps are is that is it being looked at again for next year if was that some were there takeaways from The Forum

069from the the panel I guess with next steps yeah um we definitely as a student government have talked about ways to possibly ready remedy the situation in terms of um coming back better and uh enhancing the schedule to make it better for next year um the these are ongoing discussions that we're having with the principles and um discussing with uh the principles and the the admin the the group that had looked at advisory so it's it's an ongoing theme and it'll be something that we continue to look at because as indicated through these survey results they're very it's very it's a very strong and potent issue in the in the high school and that's definitely something that you also feel um not just in this in the survey but also the day-to-day experience of the

070high school it's something that students talk about a lot yeah and I know the earlier start time came to the board um and that was a decision for other reasons around busing and being able to get kids to school on time but it I guess it was good to hear that wasn't as much of a highlight because the schedule was I yeah I actually I I meant to say something about that when we were looking at the new schedule and talking in student government and um when when members of the student government were talking to other um students in the high school and we explained the situation of why the earlier start time was needed students definitely understood and they said like yes that makes sense that's logical like I'm not happy that I have

071to show up 10 minutes earlier but at least I feel like it makes sense that we shouldn't be spending this extra money on buses um and and we shouldn't be spending this extra money on buses for just an extra 10 minutes of sleep so um it's I think the students are very understanding when it comes to that it's just that the initial shock and maybe the fact that they didn't understand first like initially um made students feel differently about the issue it's good feedback Christina do you have I was just gonna ask about how many minutes did we change it so you answered the question okay 10es okay um and my last followup um was just around being able to take these results either to the wellness committee and I know they can maybe potentially

072be complemented by the main integrated use survey um because I know there's some similar questions and be interested just to have have both of those alongside each other so it's great yeah the stakeholder survey results to the annual stakeholder survey results have some of these questions on there so it would be good to correlate the three actually and triangulate it um I just want to say I attending the Forum and seeing how many students showed up and this was on a Thursday afternoon after school before a long holiday or long weekend with three days that room was full and that's a testament to the student governments um and the cake well that cake was very important and I did have a piece Miss Hayes basically made me ate it made me eat it sorry um

073but uh and it was good but uh I do think it was really the students had very good questions and really interesting comments um and I was I was just completely Ely engaged the entire time and I think everybody in the room was just by the level of information um that was provided and the back and forth dialogue with students in the room and it was very interesting um I think you I really want to commend student government for an outstanding job and I do think there's some actionable steps I also think some of it is informational um that just kind of gives you a temperature check which is what Tommy said at the beginning around where our students um there are some things that I think the school um in the district can do

074to help um when the time comes I mean composting is in is in the beginning stages of it and one thing I heard from some students um in the room was that they remember in Middle School what it was like to compost and they kind of want to do that again at the high school so they actually have a reference point so um I think it's not a Hard Sell and definitely we're helping at the district level to do the big stuff to help the students in the school get there um so so that started but there are a lot of other really important considerations in that data and I think it's it's it was very valuable and I thank you for doing that are you going to do one of these again or yeah

075and that was actually another thing that I wanted to say um we we have done these quarterly in the past I think we're going to do them um once a semester now because there there's a lot of other stuff that the student government wants to act on so these these take a lot of time in terms of um planning planning the survey and planning the planning the actual student Forum itself but um when we do have another one I I definitely love to hear input of maybe what the board would like to hear more about in the high school um and maybe these specific questions that you'd like to dive that that we could dive more into great thank you thank you okay so no items for Action this this evening um so next up

076is the superintendent report yes the superintendent report no items for action on the superintendent report we'll see how that goes I get it up here as you're getting it up because we added a meeting next week so we had three meetings in a row we were able to kind of Shuffle things around between these three and um this meeting may end up being on the shorter side which is why I'm so glad we were able to have the the student survey as part of it this this is not W um yes superintendence report's not that long either um at maeli Wilson School the students and staff honored 12 community members I think this is double from last year think there were half a dozen um Veterans of the Armed Forces um and they had a

077special veterans assembly there are two assemblies at mael Wilson school now um because all the students can't fit in the same room um together but it was very festive and thank you to the veterans uh not only for their service but also for staying for two two assemblies um to be honored each of the veterans received cards from their um from students and also a hug from their child um most of them most of them had a had a child or many of them had a child in the school um so it was just very nice um to recognize so thank you to our veterans and to the school GMS 45 um this is uh always been a highlight um we had to take a couple years off obviously from this but this is a

078highlight um of the fifth grade um American history study and it's really focused in fifth grade around the revolution colonial era the revolution uh going up until the Civil War um but the Freedom Trail is U such an important part of the study uh in in fifth grade and really those early years of the Republic um and becoming a republic um and what a gift it is to have um just less than two hours away you know so much of the American history here so we've always taken advantage of it um great to see the students um enjoying the fif the uh the Freedom Trail um every fifth grader has this experience um in our school district and I I think it's an amazing experience for the students at the 68 um they recently had

079a combined band and and coral concert um that was held at the art center and um we had a lot of students lot of students participating in fact our banding um and chorus U programs at the middle level are always huge um so it's a really a great Testament to the the teachers um at the middle school music teachers um and staff for getting the students energized around this um and being able to see these programs at the high school the National Honor Society um inducted um and I had counted the number of students actually in the program and now I've forgotten but um a large number of students who um got in there's a baseline which is grades um and once um grades that Baseline is met there's three other pillars of National Honor

080Society Service uh character and Leadership uh Beyond academics um and so we had um many students most of them are Junior that get accepted into NHS we have a few seniors uh every year as well so very nice event also at the high school um the senior we had many seniors who ended up going um to Quebec City at first um I think students kind of held off um putting their interest in to see if they were going to go and then all of a sudden um we had a huge swell of students that express interest in going on this trip um it was a three-day it was over the believe the Veterans Day um weekend um just a nice cultural Excursion to Quebec City um and seeing the U specifically the old part of

081the city and then the Rangers Rock um addition um the lady Rangers um obviously I could shout out every team for makeing it to the playoffs but um there's two obviously that uh Mr shapo has already talked about um the girls cross country team won the Western Main Class B title this season and then the Rangers football um took the eight player large School South final and made it to the state championship so um congratulations to those teams but also to all of the teams uh this fall U to be able to see that kind of resurge and student interest in athletics is um just amazing and it was a nice fall for that as well nice weather and then um superintendent's notebook tonight um we have um ordered and they have arrive now all

082we will have all of our buses um outfitted with interior cameras uh in our Fleet we have about 30 buses in our Fleet um and uh we only had the cameras on the newer buses that we've we've purchased over the last few years so we went ahead and just um ordered all of them it is a safety issue um and I had informed the board a few weeks about this weeks ago but I thought I'd just put it out there publicly um this really helps us in a lot of different areas um it helps drivers um be able to review something or to be able to check on what um students are doing even if it's after a run and be able to get on it the next day uh helps administrators review footage if

083there's a um an issue that arises on a bus and they need to be able to check on that um but also it just um in general safety purposes um for students to know that there are cameras on there and they've got to take safety seriously um that that's an important piece um um Staffing levels I'm very pleased to report that um we are at 99% um we were at 85 to 90% most of last year um so we are at 99% and the remaining positions at this point are daily substitutes and lunch and recess AIDS so if we have anyone that is watching this program and you've thought about being a substitute uh we pay $130 a day um and if you're interested in just working a few hours a week as a lunch

084or recess Aid or as a daily sub um we'd love to hear from you um call our office email us whatever you want to do all the information is on our website um if you're interested in applying but um that is the only area that we're really um we actually took our edte job announcement down for the first time in three years it have been continuously running for three years and we have filled every single position position and I hope there's not a vacancy today that I didn't know about um and we also have um I think we're going to be hiring our very last teaching position this is a position that's been open for a year uh because it's a very very specialized position and it's very difficult to find people in this position

085uh but it looks like we uh are on our way to finding uh finishing that very last teaching position that's been open for a while and um I've been attending uh staff meetings over the last uh few or a couple months um at each school and special education I'm trying to arrange time for the support services as well U but just talking about um the supporting staff plan including um being able to uh we've already moved on the pool we offer the pool twice a week now for 45 minutes for staff members only um it's a dedicated staff member time um we're going to be opening up the wait room and um we're hoping to do the gym this winter as well one of the gyms um as uh the way to support our staff

086and their Wellness um as well this is an area that we've been talking about for quite a long time and um The Wellness committee has also talked about this um for a while and that is the report great any questions uh just quick question the two new vans that are leased yes do they have cameras as well or um that is a great question I don't know I don't think they do I don't think they do I'm gonna ask something about that though and I will let the board know Jeff can I ask a clarifying question when we say Staffing just in general we also are including bus drivers facilities stuff like that yes yeah and we do have we do have right now two vacancies um in transportation yeah which is part of that

087yeah one of them I think is on on the way to being filled so I counted that piece um but yes that includes every position we have govern our district which I don't think a lot of districts can say right now no and we certainly weren't there a year ago we were way down way down great thank you okay we're moving on to committee reports like to start with our students Sophia okay um well considering we're meeting next week and the week after I don't want to spoil too much for to come um there hasn't really there hasn't been anything super significant going on I think a lot of people are really excited for Thanksgiving break considering it's our first like real Break um classes they have been short today because we have parent teacher

088conferences um honestly my short classes have been pretty fun today I had a party in history very fun um but yeah I think there's just a lot of people ready for a break and I think um people are excited about coming back after the break and being ready to learn again so catching up on that sleep yeah yeah that's I've got plans for that one so thank you yeah and on a similar note not not a bunch going on in the next week um today fall winter sports started um except for hockey which had started a couple weeks ago but um swimming started basketball started indoor track all all the winter sports today was the first day which was exciting um and then other than that not a ton also Thanksgiving break um and yeah

089the the seniors went to Quebec over the weekend and um I definitely heard that a lot of people had a lot of fun and it was really like nice to use the French and um be able to be able to be in another country and um I know that I've talked to Madame McDonald who coordinates that trip and um it's a it's a nice opportunity for students who have been taking French all throughout their time at school to kind of celebrate that and be able to use their their acquired French um in a in a fun trip so I know a lot of seniors had a had a great time had a great time in quack great thanks Tommy sure so I was asked um by someone in the community whether the high school whether

090conversations have been going on about the conflict in Gaza and whether any Jewish students are feeling um marginalized or or uncomfortable about conversations that might be H might be just curious if if if that has been going on how it's been managed how everybody feels about it I think um none of my classes really we touched on it a tiny bit in English a tiny bit in history um I mean I haven't heard anything from Jewish classmates that I know about but um not really and um we've talked about it more in history we're going to be diving into kind of Middle Eastern politics in the aftermath of World War II which is like kind of exactly the the stems of these issues so we're definitely going to inspect it more but we've talked about

091it a little bit and I know that um there have been some students who not not on the Jewish side but more on the on the Palestinian side who have just felt really uh just a deep sense of Sorrow for um what's going on and um they're they it's it's definitely a poignant subject and I think that um it's it's something that definitely needs to be discussed with with like awareness and with kindness um and I know that a lot of students particularly in in history have some very strong opinions about it and um we've we've discussed a little bit in all of my classes but um yeah I think that schoolwide though there's not um there's not a lot of discussion going on about it I think that it's it's something it's it's a

092touchy subject so yeah thank you great um Community engagement committee Megan welcome back you um there's a lot of excitement on the community engagement committee about planning some events to actually engage with the public particularly um as it relates to the new school option that's where the focus of the engagement committee has been and still lies is in communicating um and and hearing more about the options so I think that we're really um looking forward to engaging once we know a little bit more um so more to come on that thank you Megan Finance uh the finance committee will be meeting next Thursday uh November 30th to to get things moving on the fiscal budget great sounds like a madeup madeup year but yeah it's actually coming science fiction Tenny Tom um where do we

093stand on the year to date do we get a report at some point how we're doing are we on budget not on budget I'm talking about the 23 uh so that's a a Scott question unfortunately he's not here we we get updates at meetings as we get closer to the um approval of the of next year's budget the one thing that the Town Council does every every uh I think without commentary they just dump the overall you know big spreadsheet and so people can look at it and ask questions but they can't really find that now yeah Jeff do you have anything to add so it will be Scott will be bringing that to the finance committee on um the next meeting and then we'll that can be shared with the whole board yeah the

094update are you talking about financials like where are we at with this fiscal year variance analysis sort of a basic how we doing September 30th how we doing yeah because we encumber so much of our money and he'll he'll talk about that briefly at the meeting yeah when I saw him in person last week I was asking him about that and he was he was working on it so hopefully next week of the copy of it all right um I know that Ann was not able to come today um for the policy I know none of the policies of yet have made it back that are out for review no there's one policy that um it's circulating in the policy committee because we did get hear back from legal counsel I think it was bed

095um and it seemed like um questions that were raised at the committee were answered by legal counsel so it looks like it can go forward um that's up to an um to decide if it's ready with a policy committee okay Christina facilities so on facilities um we have a meeting plan for December 1st where we are going to interview the two architects that we've been involved with uh blat blat Architects and oako to see what they um would suggest offer think we can do on campus um both have had you know proposals comments on it before and so we've given them questions same questions to both groups so we can see what they might be able to offer so that we can look at what the possibilities are um so that we can communicate that

096so the communication committee can then take it from there so that's the date we'll be getting more information and we'll let you know as soon as we know great yes and under December 4th meeting that'll come back to the full board great thanks Christina um curriculum uh the curriculum committee is meeting next Monday um and our topic will be artificial intelligence great Equity kid uh yeah so we just met last week we'll be meeting again December 6th and at that meeting as a right now Lawrence Alexander is scheduled uh to to attend that meeting virtually um several members of the equity committee have not actually been able to interact with him yet this will be the first time for that so that'll be U that'll be a great opportunity and Lawrence will be focusing on

097just kind of reminding everybody what the the intent of the equity plan needs to be what it shouldn't shouldn't be and what the committee's role is in that and I think that that will kind of be the last thing that we that will as we come together then we'll be able to really move forward with um the adjustments that we've made are making to the plan which are not major and uh after that I think we'll be able to where the plan is to present the plan uh the first meeting in January I think it was yes that's where we're at yeah first or second yeah great plan for the plan wonderful that's right um next is any ad hoc committee reports great I'll just briefly mention that um so the Community Partners meeting happened

098last week with Foundation 51 and PTO and some of the highlights from that meeting we're celebrating the MW book vending machine which was a um a foundation 51 Grant from the spring cycle which has now been put into use there at miw and Je could certainly comment on that too but it sounds like it's been extremely well received and their fall Grant cycle I think has just come to an end so we should be finding out soon what they are what Foundation 51 is funding um for the fall and um you know they noted that they're seeing some shifting needs so we'll kind of stay tuned to see what is being requested um outside of the traditional uh budget for the schools and how that all intersects I'm just going to look at my other

099notes here from PTO as well um they were able to reach their ambitious goal of $155,000 through their parent power appeal so they were excited about that and that uh surely enables them to do things like increasing their um amount of dollars for enrichment per student which is $12 per student this year a dollar more than last year um per student and also building wide enrichment is $250 more per year than last year so uh it's great that they've been able to do those kind of increases and I think the only thing coming up immediately is the miw movie night on December 1st wonderful thanks for the update has there been any other ad hoc committees to update I attended um athletic advisory last week but um David I think covered um just about all

100of it one one thing I did want to mention from the meeting um I had raised some questions about Middle School sports and we got into uh into that um and I I appreciate um David and Eliza being responsive to that um mean I saw you lean on on the soccer field sideline this fall as we watched a team of 35 boys um compete um and uh I had questions about what are the goals of Middle School sports um and talked about the challenges of Fielding teams that large and um they actually pointed me to our own board's U policies that uh it's the the goal of of the district to um meet the developmental needs of of our students and those are extremely varied at the middle school level level um and it's a

101priority to um make these opportunities available to anybody who wants them otherwise if they get cut as a seventh grader they're never going to return to to this and what's the alternative that they go sit sit at home so um I me I've talked to plenty of parents um over the past year who have had questions about this um and I questions my myself and I'm I'm satisfied with the answers that I've received I think our our own policies make a lot of sense yeah thank you for mentioning that Tom I know as a parent it was like overwhelming to watch but the boy did those kids have have fun in the end right they did um and then I heard 45 turned out for basketball we we have a large the participation in this

102year's seventh grade I don't know if it's larger than usual but it it seems to be pretty big um and so it's it's great that they don't get cut at that level um because many kids are just starting to to figure out what their interests are so do they do JV and stuff like that so not I and I'm just learning this as a parent to at the middle school for sports like soccer and basketball it's just seventh and eighth grade because there is a lot of interest I think on if there in years there's not interest they might bring up sixth graders to those more popular sports but I think basketball they did split the teams yeah basketball has an expansion team um so the the team sizes are are pretty manageable I think

103this the seventh grade and I think each team has about 14 or 15 kids on it which is totally reasonable um but the issue there is finding people to coach and finding the gym time and it's a it's a real challenge so but the interest is there which yes which is great thank you last call on ad hoc committee reports okay so we'll move next into Communications um the first item is around a possible move to Thursday board meetings in the 2024 25 school year um earlier this board year we somehow ended up with a Thursday meeting and everyone was like that Thursday meeting felt really good like it people like Thursday meetings versus the Monday meetings um and so we sort of looked to see if we can make adjustments this year and it

104didn't really work out so we're trying to plan ahead for next year and I'll let jeoff kind of walk you through yeah thank you lean um so it does take a long time to get if you're going to make a change like this we have to put it out you know eight months um in in advance um because all the schools have events um sometimes they're held on Thursdays and they have to make adjustments we have concerts um you know you think of all the all the things that go on in schools open houses we have to really make those adjustments so even events that happen on Thursdays if this change happened um schools can still have things on Thursdays in events um just we're we always try to say stay away from board meeting

105Thursdays if possible especially because I know all of you want to attend open houses and all those things so um that's part of it but also if there's topics that people can't be in two places at once um so the schedule um was drafted with Thursdays in mind just so the board could actually see the dates um are a couple of things already we've gotten feedback on one of them is October 3rd um we would need to move that um as a as a possibility to another date um maybe the second um Wednesday the 2 because of rashash Shana um we did um get that feedback from a couple people so we'll we'll make that adjustment if this goes forward um The Joint meetings there's two of them October 17th and April 9th and they're

106both tenative the reason April 9th is on a Wednesday um it doesn't have to be on a Wednesday um it we we could move it to a Thursday it was on a Wednesday so we were assuming the towns liked it um on a Wednesday in the spring for some reason but we really haven't checked that out so it could easily move to Thursday um we are checking with the towns as well to make sure that there's nothing with our schedule that impacts the towns this is now been given to the leadership team today um to look at every date and see if there's any major conflicts that's been given to the uh actually was given to David Shapiro as well for athletics um we do Run games on board meeting nights obviously we don't have

107enough days if we didn't um but is there something that we we're not thinking about that would impact um and the reason the last meeting June 18th is on Wednesday is because the 19th Thursday is umun uh juneth it's a holiday so we can't hold meeting then but every other um Thursday worked out which I was surprised that when I went through the schedule with Melissa um even vacations um we were able to get the first and third Thursdays um even Thanksgiving is later next year so it worked out there um I think that's generally the schedule um again it's all very drafty and tenative and it feels probably very we never put this out this early but again if there's going to be a change we want everybody to know about it um and

108everybody to get feedback and be in the loop so that hopefully after the uh winter break we can come back and say we've already got a schedule and then we already have concerts start getting scheduled we start talking about next year's dates and events and all that um we just want to make sure that we're not impacting uh anything and then hopefully by the New Year early in the New Year we can put this out and say we've made this shift after checking everything out but that we're in the checking everything out phase so um obviously we need to hear from all of you if this is an issue um at all with this schedule so please let Melissa know um as soon as possible if you are anticipating an issue um or conflict um

109you know with anything your family work schedule whatever um we need to take care of that first um and then we're looking at everything else too it does take several months to make it's been a long time since Mondays have been the board meeting nights here and so um if there is an interest from the board um we will go there there is a policy that the board has called be and policy be would would need to be updated um because it's it's very specific and it says actually it needs to be updated anyway it says 6:30 p.m. for meetings Mondays on 1 and third of the month which Mondays change um and then we need to change it the time anyway and there's Monday holidays a lot too I think that's how we initially

110we end up with a lot of Tuesdays or a Thursday or we just end up with yeah the several a year that we're we're trying to get around um but this was actually a pretty clean schedule for um being able to get most of the Thursdays in there's a typo oh where's on Thursday December 19th this is 2023 oh yeah and that from 24 to 2 has the um the school calendar for next year been set when when would Chris or winter break start no you said that in March usually um so we start the process regionally um soon and so all the eight or nine districts that go into paths we have to sit and by state law make sure that we're not dissimilar more than five days so we have to do that

111first um and then when that gets done everything else gets put into our calendar our local calendar um and then we bring a draft to the board usually it's in March um and we try to most years we try to get the calendar done in March 1 and 2 uh because families start asking us if it starts getting into April they're like whoa way too late um because there's camps and everything else going on but I think a good thing is that everybody knows when the last day of school is that didn't used to be the case in the past and now um I think the board made a great decision um whenever it was two three four years ago in putting remote days in after the first three days um so and by the

112way the department of Ed did approve the board's um action at the last meeting to wave those two days um from October 26 and 27 so um the department did we just received the notice saying they had approved it so so it doesn't impact this impact this school year great so it sounds like what you're asking is everyone to take a look this calendar was shared um if you're going to be on the board next year if you're considering another year on the board and wanted to know what the schedule might be be like and if that influences or you just want to come to public comment make sure it's on the right night and always come back and speak and so we'll be voting on this after the holidays um yes basically I I

113think yeah well it has to be a vote because it's policy um so policy be would be your vote okay um and I think I had a question out to you and Ann as the policy chair to see if be needs to even go through policy or can just come straight to the board I think in this case it probably makes sense just to come straight to the board um but I know we're waiting to hear from Ann as well so on that great so Y is it possible to open discussion too about 6 versus 6:30 I think every I mean it's the board is in charge of the calendar and the schedule and their own meetings um and I think um whether it's done in policy or here makes probably more sense to do

114it here since these are meetings because you prefer 6:30 is that I I just know personally my work schedule I'm in Portland I have to go to Freeport and then come back and like I'll be chewing a lot it'll be really annoying but I'm trying to figure out whether that will work the six or not but that's that's me I'm just one person so yeah I mean I think that's a board board discussion yeah yeah I don't know if um it says in the policy that's supposed to be 6:30 Christina so and I don't know when it was moved to six last year last year was it last year it might be a year or two that we've had six and I think the part of the reason is the meetings were going long yes

115um and so because they were going long it was feeling like we needed to meet earlier to be able to accommodate that but if that's not necessarily the case then I like that part yeah so but if it's a Thursday it's a Thursday that's what it is go a little later on Thursday start at 9: [Laughter] then um so yes people want to think around the dates and the times um we still have a a month or so before we have to make a decision and put a policy recommendation up um yeah I mean start the start time I don't necessarily have a preference between 6 and 6:30 as long as we're out of here by 9: either way well you can also put that in your policy you don't actually have a written it's

116past practice but it could actually be a written so do that sleep that actually is part of policy be so you that's where you make your your changes so just um let Melissa know if there's a problem with this so she knows um and she can she's already made notes on uh October 3rd for example so thank you thanks for bringing that forward so early in the year no got to do it early you really want to move to Thursdays I well no Scott wants to he's not here he keeps saying Thursday Thurday over the weekend for sure okay um the next item is on Communications um is bringing the books challenge forward do you want me to walk through sure I put the slide up it's um basically just the process um just making

117the public aware I know the board's aware of the process but so and I can just read it since it's on the slide if if people can't see it there you go I can see it sorry so the book gender queer by Maya see I'm going to not be able to pronounce the name right Maya kababi kabobi thank you which is part of the ghs library media collection has been challenged under policy ijj a five member Review Committee has completed its work and is recommending that the book remain in the ghs library the complaintant has appealed this recommendation to the board and now we have a process that we're going to follow um as of today 11:20 each board member will receive a copy of the challenge book and is requested to read the book

118by December 4th at our next meeting which is a week from today on the 27th the appeal will be heard as part of the board meeting the committee recommendation um the committee will present their recommendation they have 10 minutes or less the chair Susie Robbins will speak for the committee in the 10 minutes uh SU will speak about the committee's recommendation and there will be chance for some q&as and then the complaintant will also have 10 minutes um of time and again it's to present their appeal and also have time for committee questions so the note is also up on the slide board members can ask clarifying questions of both the committee and the complaintant and the questions are one way in nature with the board asking questions only the boy the board is asked

119not to answer questions from either the committee or the complaint this will occur in public session and then on December 4th the step two is dedicated there will be a separate dedicated public comment uh on the book challenge so that meeting will have two public comments um the board will deliberate in public and then the board will vote on the appeal which is to retain or remove the book from the library and the board's decision is final so that is the process um and as I mentioned the book has been shared with all of the board members um and we have the next two meetings to go through the next two steps of the appeal uh did everyone get a book I hopefully everyone got it okay we'll make sure Ann U gets one she's

120the only one that's absent right and lean can you clarify is does the policy state that each board member has to speak about the book no okay no so it's it's a discussion and then we vote yeah deliberation is just like any deliberation you can choose not to say anything or you can talk as many times as Leanne is fine with um but yeah it's just complet it's just an open discussion it's that's all it is yeah and there's no time limit um on any of the step two although the public the public comment like I said we'll have two separate public comments um and while we have the same policy that will apply um again that's at the board's um the board can modify that as we are going through public comment but the

121same uh board policy applies to that public comment any other questions yes Denny yeah just a question on Staffing of the committee or the board uh the uh the complainant brought forward a legal argument uh which was not discussed by the committee as best I can understand and so maybe it came from some other litigation process so what I hope we can do is is not get bogged down on that where the complaint is saying well have you read this legal opinion because we're not going to be able to say anything about it and but we are raining attorneys so could we kind of spend a little time seeing what that's all about um yes uh there actually on step two um the uh legal councel for the for the board will be part of

122that um meeting um helping to facilitate it that's actually typical process and am I correct that the uh our committee did not interaction with this legal view you're right so their only job was to look at criteria and then make a decision based on the policy so the attorney we have it' be great if he could kind of weigh into that and say you know here's what I think yeah because I certainly am not competent and some constitutional law you know it's it feels a little bit like there was some cutting p you know from other y appeals on this book uh to me I'd like to nail that one down and any other questions of fact you know that we just could spend hours is it true or not true you yeah there'll be

123definitely a framing for the board on the during the second step there'll be a framing of you know what is the board's um role in this yeah and and how do you make a decision and what's the basis of your decision so based on policy yeah just thinking ahead given what could be public interest in this um is this room suitable for it do we need to add chairs like I mean when we've had I think one or two public comments that were pretty full and you know people were standing and it it it just got very stuffy in here um so it could be just more chairs in here we need to rearrange some things but just a thought for um maybe the next you know the meeting where public comment at least is

124available yeah there definitely could be you know we've had we've moved uh venues so I think that would be up to lean to think about um if you want to hold it in the GCA um because it might be a larger audience um or if you just want to stay here and just make sure that we have more chairs I I don't know how many people will be attending this but I do expect there to be interest um in the topic on especially on the fourth yeah and I think the other question that's come up is just around a signup sheet if for people who who may be wishing to speak I think that would be that might be helpful I agree with Tim if we can avoid it it would be good not to

125have a standing room only set up we have plenty of room in the GCA and so if we if we need to spread out I hope we can yeah do it so that doesn't becomeing we'll talk about that we'll figure that I do anticipate that um I I think you're right I think there'll be a lot of interest although it was standing room only at the Bandon chorus concert too yeah thanks for looking into that no we can do it um it's just based on your it's after the play too so oh yeah that's we we have to check to see if it's available too but um on a Monday evening it is usually more available but we'll see there's a lot of room in here too I mean I I mean we could probably

126get more seats in here I have no idea how big of a thing is but I don't even know if we could fit that way it could just be rearrangement rearranging where we're at but I think we should just anticipate that that our it people are ready and ready to book us where we to go yeah these can't really move much because of the cameras but um and the podium is set up with the cameras in mine in here fair enough so it does but it does take the tech department time to set up in a different space than the one that us usually and so we would have to decide that soon okay so we'll talk about it I noticed I think I'm correct that neither the committee nor the complainant weighed into what

127is pornography I don't believe it is even mentioned in all of that so that would be an area where you know there's a lot of definitions of that and if we could have some not not to get in the shouting match you don't know what it means and you know that's I think that's going to be helpful to have um the legal legal council for the board at the on the 4th will actually be helping famous one of course is you know it when you see it that was the Supreme Court Justice yeah and I feel like this question been asked it's been weighed in on from the legal sense before has it it's been challenged and M several times right so there may be some information available y great thanks for the questions any

128other questions okay um now we just we had a couple other things I just wanted to mention these were shared um just some in some board notes um they've come up over other meetings but I just wanted to share that um the the school district has applied for two more State revolving renovation projects the applications went in a couple weeks ago the ghs ventilation upgrade in the cafeteria um for [Music] $94,700 science Wing project so of a million dollars uh that will take place this coming summer so again um this is through the revolving renovation fund and we were successfully rewarded that project just wanted to share that update and before we get done before 800 pm tonight um with this being the week of Thanksgiving I just want to end with a note of

129gratitude um first I want to thank all the teachers edtec custodial maintenance staff lunch sta coaches bus drivers Librarians secretaries administrators and all the staff of msad51 who work so hard on behalf of our community and our students a school is only as good as its people and we truly feel that you're you're the best um and I think our our staffing levels speak speak to that as well um thank you to Jeff I was going to say thank you to Scott but he's not here so he'll answer for being such wonderful leaders in this this district and with this board thanks to our parents Guardians families who are all incredible Partners um we wouldn't be where we are without our volunteers whether it's a help in their classroom the library the PTO Foundation 51

130one of the many booster clubs and as a High School parent I'm realizing there are many of them which are on the court Trail track ice or field chaperoning a field trip bringing snacks to an event what we we are really on top of our parent support on this community and I want to just thank you because it really does make this District part of what it is um and thanks to our community and the towns of Cumberland and North Yarmouth for staying engaged um advocating for what you believe in helping us improve and provide the best education our district um thanks for Ryan Wallace and Lincoln and Zach who help make this meeting possible from a technology standpoint um they're always here with us in this room and you you barely get to see

131them them at home but you wouldn't see you wouldn't see us at home if they weren't here um and lastly thank you to the board um you're incredible from stepping up and putting yourself out there in the election which is not easy I know that from personal experience uh it's not always a comfortable thing to do but taking time away from your family and and work to serve this District um and to our student reps who have come to these meetings and other committee meetings and are engaged and prepared and jug in everything that you have from college applications to sports and activities um you're both truly incredible um thank you all for your trust and patience with me as a chair and again parting my reading I this is how I prepare so I'm

132continuing to learn from all of you and I'm so lucky to have each of you as colleagues um and thank and I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving at crowded tables and full bellies I know I'm really looking forward to doing the Turkey Trot on Thursday morning uh and then uh enjoying Thanksgiving in this beautiful community so thank you um and that's what I have for tonight if we're ready to adjourn well there's a lot of humble pie at the last meeting but there's a lot of thankful pie today love it I like the thankful pie that's nice motion motion second second all right who motion Denny Denny all in favor great thank you and Happy Thanksgiving everyone see you next week