MSAD #51 School Board Meeting, December 19, 2022

001all right five seconds five seconds okay welcome to the msad 51 school board meeting for Monday December 19th 2022 um I will call the meeting to order we have a couple of absences which is Tom McGinnis and Anne maximovic and I think Tommy's going to be here later after his swim meet hopefully and Jared will be here momentarily I think missing anybody else that's it okay so thank you everybody for being here happy holidays um and um just doing is the second night of Hanukkah so thank you everybody for being here uh there is no recognition tonight uh we'll move on to the approval of minutes uh for December 5th 2022 do we hear a motion a motion to prove the minutes of December 5th 2022 as presented thank you Vanessa thank you Mike any

002discussion amendments anything else okay all in favor unanimous motion carries thank you all right so we'll move on to public comment um are there people here to speak on about the edtech contract raise hands okay so um I'll just remind everybody at this point the parties are involved in mediation by state law everything said at mediation is confidential and the board would like to remember uh remind members of the public of this and ask them to act accordingly so with that um please I'll open public comment and please come up and introduce yourself and share foreign hello my name is Kelly kite although some of your kids probably know me better as Miss Kelly I've been a Ed Tech at Mabel I Wilson school both in the special ed program and as a response to

003enter intervention edtech I also did a long-term sub in kindergarten Mike Williams daughter was in my class before coming here I was a classroom teacher in Portland for 17 years I love my job I consider it an honor to be able to support your children in small groups as a substitute teacher on the playground in the lunchroom and in the classroom all we are asking for is what we deserve what everyone deserves a fair contract and a livable wage please do the right thing and support those of us who support your children during all aspects of their day thank you it's hello my name is Carol McDonald and I'm a regular Ed Tech at Mabel I Wilson school I am here today asking the board to please agree to a fair respectable livable wage contract

004for our esps I live in Cumberland and have four children two in college and two are recent college graduates I am here at miw because I love working with young children and I love the team of people that I work with I was hired to provide literacy and math support to the children at miw over the three years I have been here I have done that but have also been asked to do so much more all of the esps in this room and at home have been asked to do so much more and we've all stepped up time and time again now we're simply asking you to show us your appreciation for our efforts by giving us a fair and Equitable wage contract thank you for your time [Applause] hi I'm Jeff Brooks longtime resident

005of Cumberland a longer time employee of the district I'm back tonight partly because of the bad taste that was left in our mouths by the board's misleading response to our please the last meeting and of course because we have esps are still without a contract I won't repeat the whole speech my wife when I get gave it our last meeting instead I'll just give you our thesis and supporting ideas like I used to do when writing essays with my fifth graders like Avery uh okay our thesis was something like this msid 51 should give the esps of the district a fair and competitive contract and our supporting ideas number one msad 51 should give the esps of the District of fair and competitive contract because they've been working without a contract since June 2022 and

006so without a raise since July 2021 this paragraph could of course talk about the high inflation rate and how a fair wage increase should reflect that and how other districts have greatly improved their ESP contracts supporting idea number two msad 51 should give the esps of the district a fair and competitive contract because it would show them that they are appreciated and would help keep them from migrating to neighboring districts that offer better pay and or benefits this second body paragraph could talk among other things about how loyal the esps are to the district but also how they're having difficulty making ends meet the third supporting idea was msad 51 should give esps a fair and competitive contract because they work hard very hard to support students teachers and administrators this paragraph could talk about

007how much the esps did during the pandemic are doing now with the current triple democ and due day-to-day day in and day out to help keep the schools open and successful if this was an essay the concluding paragraph would of course repeat the thesis and supports and maybe try to connect them to a bigger idea more of a universal truth such as Maybe all workers deserve to be paid fairly to earn a living wage and to feel respected and appreciated thank you [Applause] thank you Jeff I'm ingridvani um I've been an ed Tech in this district for the past seven years and was a fifth grade teacher last year again I was hoping I wouldn't have to sorry um be here speaking again this week but I just wanted to say that during the public

008comment at the last meeting I was feeling really hopeful seeing so many of my colleagues stand up here and speak from their hearts gave me a feeling of being supported and that maybe some progress would be made but then listening to the board's response a pre-written legal statement not taking any of our words into account that were spoken before that statement was read brought the disheartened and unsupported feeling right back before walking out of this room it's really hard to be positive and to stay upbeat when time after time we feel like we get the door closed in our face without being listened to this season isn't even about a raise all we're asking for is a fair contract and a living wage which again our neighboring communities have found ways to make happen to

009support their staff I'll leave you with this thought when your own employees aren't supported it trickles down to our students also not being fully supported thank you [Applause] I hope my dramatic entrance did its job hopefully that made my point my name is Nicole Carey and I really appreciate you listening to me tonight I am a parent of three great greeleys I like to say and I'm coming to you with quite a lot of passion and what I have to say tonight but lucky for you also some funny jokes because I do stand-up comedy so here we are let me start with saying I've Been Everywhere man I've Been Everywhere let me tell you I have taught trained and rolled my own offspring and listened to many many hours of stories of educational dilemmas from

010Friends colleagues and partners I was a paraprofessional at the top elementary school in all of Massachusetts the top performing state in our country and that was when I was 21 years old not that many years ago I promise I've done lots of helping things in my time here on the planet but that's not what I need to tell you tonight I need to tell you why I care I left here and I moved back to my home state and let me tell you Vermont's not so shabby with education so it's not like I went anywhere too terrible but I'll tell you this I've returned after less than a year away myself a single mom with three kids and it was a lot of work to move back and forth why did I do it because

011my heart actually ached for this school community and I mean I physically felt it my children felt it my son although a little dramatic will tell you he still has nightmares about not being here and needs therapy he would get it here and he has I didn't even have to ask people just offered to help I don't regret for one minute my decision to move back here and so that means I'm also coming to you telling you I'm a Greely supporter through and through I will always get your back I do in every situation I can I volunteered more hours than I can recall and I will never stop even probably after my children graduate I will be there when you need a substitute and I will be there to help out a chorus teacher

012I do that and I say this because it was a it was not a question about why I came back it was how fast I could get back here and I need you to listen to me because the earnest nature of my voice is coming from a very real very personal place and I promise you that I know what it keeps what it means to keep a well-oiled machine going I do it every morning by myself since my children were one two and three and now they are older and it is work and I know it's work keeping this machine going and frankly I've got to say a lot of things you do are really great and I don't think I've been here before and I don't think I've argued and I don't really see

013that I ever would need to except there was free skiing every Friday where I grew up and that'd be really cool but baby steps we'll talk about that another time so um I mean your course teacher literally gives me a hand as a single mom because I only have one good working hand and helps me wrap my gifts at the holidays that's above and beyond I know what above and beyond is and I'm sorry I need to use this phone as a promo prompter but my para educator many years ago once gave me this powerful tip because sometimes people say I go off on tangents I don't know what she's talking about but I will tell you this I've done a lot of public speaking and people think I'm okay at it so thank you

014to my paraprofessional and on a personal note I need to share that I am a person who grew up when it was not cool to need extra help in fact I remember my own family telling me and asking me to pretend I didn't have a disability the brain scan would say otherwise if you wanted to see it this is likely ages me telling you when I grew up and I don't love that but you know what it's worth it just to make my point here so I posted on my Facebook today thinking you of thinking of you a lot today dear Christine Laro as I prepare for my school board speech advocating for the glue that truly binds in any school system paraprofessionals para Educators educational technicians whatever you want to call them that's the

015most important support that really produces the good stuff in my humble opinion anyways thank you again for helping shape me to be my best self less than one hour from posting I get from her thank you for the credit but you did it yourself all I did was believe in you and then you believed in yourself and sword I would love to hear your speech let me know if you ever get the urge to revisit algebra that was a hard no not once did I feel judged misunderstood like a burden or less than in fact frankly I didn't feel like I had a disability that's what a parrot can do because they're not a teacher that has 63 people or 85 in chorus or anything and they and those teachers know why they need them

016I promise you and those pairs know why they're needed and if they don't know ask me any day how well I do given what's missing from my brain in case you're wondering if I needed her or if she impacted me and I'm sure everyone tells you that it matters but I will tell you this we message and we support each other emotionally on the regular and my daughter does have her same name she mattered I received that same support care Grace and Credence from almost all of the staff here at this school and all of the other schools that I've been part of as long as you keep showing your support to them you will keep having me as a volunteer like I said and you'll get three pretty great kids again my humble opinion

017it's what I'm known for and you know what it's funny that my own daughter told me if you get someone's back they'll always get your back for you I believe that here's a corgi story because we need to lighten the mood a little I have a corgi so when I walk up a mountain which I have to do so I can keep walking every day if I fall he will not even take a moment to go and get anybody to come back to me to save my life and I know that because it's happened four times and I've had him for four years it's a pretty good return on an investment and let me tell you not once says my Corgi Wonder will I get fed will I have a job tomorrow am I insecure

018am I secure in my dignity and my sense of self or what I'm here for or how powerful important what I do no because let's face it still a dog you don't feed them probably not coming back I don't know how different that is from other things not that I'm comparing humans to dogs but dogs are really cool so if I did that's okay I'm very sorry interrupt these are supposed to be three minutes oh I didn't know so actually that's really I uh as usual shared a lot and very quickly if you want to know more or you need some extra time to digest this because I do share a lot that's totally cool besides any of those support staff probably could help you to better better understand it all anyways now I must

019leave because I wish I could stay I want to hear what everyone has to say but I have a contract with three little people whom I respect a great deal so I made a contract with them to show them safety security Comfort hope and belief in supporting their dignity and sense of self and let me tell you so far so good so thank you for your time [Applause] thank you all any others okay oh go ahead hi my name is Jen janako I am the parent of a middle schooler in a Greeley High School student and I'm here just to say that I think it's really important that we get this contract settled for Ed techs and for our support staff last spring I worked at miw as a substitute because at the time I

020was working part-time I have a background in teaching I was a middle school teacher years ago um and so I bring from both my experience in the spring and also my teaching background to say that the folks that help run our schools are like the crew of a play right they're the ones behind the scenes they're the ones who are helping to create the set and to set the lights and to sew the costumes we only get to see that great finished product because they put in the hard work to make things happen behind the scenes and so I feel like it's so important that we support them and that we make sure that we recognize all their contributions through the last few years we all know how hard it's been and it's time to

021just make sure that we support them in the same way that we support others in our community those faces that we know a little bit better the parents the teachers who we oftentimes see but remember that that support staff those folks especially for me walking in as a substitute teacher they help me get to the right places at the right time times they help me figure out the problems that I was having they jumped in and just did whatever I was that I needed to help move the classroom forward and I really appreciated their help both as a teacher from years ago but now more importantly as someone who could walk in and just help out in my community and really feel like I did an okay job even though there are lots of things

022that I was unclear on at the beginning so I just wanted to say that I support getting the contract resolved thanks [Applause] anyone else okay seeing none I will close public comment um appreciate all that um I don't think there's any disagreement that it's very important to get this finalized as soon as possible and we certainly want to reward our employees to reiterate the board cannot comment on the status of these negotiations in compliance with state law concerning confidentiality in labor mediation that's that okay anybody Scott negotiator Chief negotiator want to add anything no I'm all set thank you All Right Moving On somewhere here there are no presentations tonight um item six superintendent's report there is none so moving on to committee reports can just pause for a moment no I feel you I

023was just I think you're giving up to me okay Vanessa Finance Finance we have um finalized the schedule of events throughout the next year in in January we're going to highlight key dates but we're also going to be able to post that on we're going to do the whole schedule the whole schedule and we'll be posting that on the website and our next meeting is January 15th I think you're close at least January 15th we'll call it that that's it okay and then encourage the public to watch that next meeting and pay attention the schedule some um it sort of lays out the whole thing from how it works from starting at the schools all the way up to the Finish Line in the referendum so I encourage people to pay attention to that okay

024uh policy Jared please so only one item to update at this time there's policy code ihbea which is programs for English learners this is a policy that has no updates to it no changes required it just needs to be reviewed and the the date of review updated I'm not sure if this is just because of the amount of time it's been since it was last reviewed or put in place but we reviewed it as a committee and it is now uh being put before the board okay so tonight will be first read and without objection it'll move to the next meeting to Second read and for um for approval at that point anything else for policy nothing else this time okay facilities Mike please uh yeah very short update we're going to be meeting on

025Wednesday morning um mainly to start mapping out uh everything we're going to be dealing with over the next year so got some really good feedback from both Leanne and Anne in terms of um core agenda items uh that we're gonna go over throughout the next year so but that will begin to be sorted out starting Wednesday and that's pretty much it unless Scott do you think there's anything worth mentioning uh just that we're going to probably have to get on the fast track at facilities the solar project that we're doing with the Town of Cumberland I actually spoke with Bill Shane today so okay yeah we have we're there so for folks who know we had talked about this previously uh about doing a joint solar project with the two towns um and they're going

026to be a a there's going to be a presentation in early January to the board um so possibly January 3rd we're not quite sure really early January all right good I'll only support that that's it okay very good thank you um moving on to curriculum Tom is out does anybody else I can fill in for that um we had a meeting on the 12th and it was very productive we had Aaron Blanchette talk to us about the results the I ready test and we're going to have more details offered in the annual report we talked about that because um you know in general there's a lot of concern about the the students having fallen behind which indeed the test showed they had however there's a lot of positive news that most of the grades have

027indeed caught up so math has been more of a challenge than reading but there has been a lot of progress made shown in the last testing so more details in the annual report very good thank you all right moving on Equity Jared please okay um before moving on to that just to follow up on policy with apologies to Heather who joined us tonight there was a provision that pertains to ijj a selection of educational materials that was going to be put forth at this meeting and then given some feedback we got when we had a provision reviewed by Council we're actually pushing it to the next meeting to review that provision and just got this finalized and I just realized and singing in the audience that I should have passed that along to you so

028my very sincere apologies as well as gratitude for all your assistance with that provision that should be hopefully being wrapped up at the beginning of the next policy meeting yeah anyway he's with a pilot go ahead Mike thanks for doing that Jared um the uh the next policy meeting is that also on the third is that right away uh or is it I don't it's I mean it's on the calendar so it is the policy meetings he's on the third yep okay cool thank you and to revise it's January 23rd the finance committee going over strategic priorities okay with that um moving on to equity there's a fair amount to update first I'll do sort of a general update on our last meeting and then I'll invite Kim if she wants to chime in with

029anything I leave out and then I'll give it more of a general update on a different matter uh so with each meeting we're fleshing out a different area of the responsibilities of the committee that ultimately will help to form the components of a plan pursuant to policy ACA we began last meeting going through an illustrative sort of draft committee structure that Susie put together with Jeff's assistance which she got after studying the different structures of equity committees elsewhere in the uh at other schools nearby and she kind of broke down our areas of responsibility into four General categories policies and protocols academics and programming family and Community engagement and student leadership with different sub-bullets for each of those areas and I'd actually be happy to pass this along to the other members of the board

030if you're if you're interested and the committee generally thought this was a pretty good structure and way of thinking about our various areas of where we could of areas of responsibility and these could form the bases for eventual subcommittees if there's substantive work to do in any one of these areas in our last meeting our my co-chair Tim Valente started the meeting with an interesting exercise where we were talking about the theme of defining impact and sort of the ability to measure success of the committee essentially and he submitted a link where we went into another screen and at the top of the screen were four questions that he asked each person to address for 10 minutes on their own essentially by writing a virtual Post-It note with their thoughts under each of the questions

031and the questions were how do we define success how does Equity or how should Equity reflect itself in the annual report what data is currently being collected that will allow us to know our impact across groups and individuals and do we currently have the capacity to understand if our policies and procedures are Equitable and if not what additional information would we need and this actually made for a very rich and interesting discussion and the answers generally fell into two categories some of which some of them being anecdotal in nature others being and an urge or an interest to have more quantitative data and that led to a discussion about what are the current surveys that are either done or are scheduled to be done either by other committees or otherwise in the school as well

032as what what data quota should we be collecting that could ultimately form a basis for comparison in future years so the notes from that will hopefully lead to further thoughts that would be included in a plan and we then talked a little bit about student leadership and about the opportunities that were available in the school and sorry when I when I invited Kim to comment on anything that I left out I should have also extended that to Avery because forgive me um and we talked about both the opportunities as well as the challenges of this seems to be kind of Rich opportunities for getting involved in issues related to equity at the elementary and and Junior High School level or middle school but there were more challenges in in maintaining that sort of um kind

033of interest and opportunity level at the high school and so we had a little discussion about that and uh for next steps at our hopefully at our January meeting we might be joined by Lawrence Alexander at that meeting and when we have confirmation of that we'll also ask members of the committee just to circulate topics of interest that they'd like to discuss at that meeting we also had to postpone having our first meeting in person here in the geiger room because of the I guess you'd say mini plague that was essentially ripping through the elementary school in junior high school we'll try to get together in person for the next meeting when Lawrence comes I can take questions or see if Kim or everyone to add anything and then go on to the next topic

034was really comprehensive um I I wanted to point out that one of the the things that really struck me is when we talked about collecting data is hearing from the students who are uh most um affected by any inequities that we have and that includes students who have left Greeley I feel um very that it's very important to consider why a child would choose to transfer out and so I'm very curious to hear what kind of follow-up there is when when a child leaves because if it is as a result of a failure on the district's part to to see them and support them then that is something that we need to know so I thought that was um I'm really glad that we started talking about areas that we were missing because I thought

035that was an important one so yeah thank you I'm looking forward to really digging in to that and I also want to thank Avery because your honesty about students how excited they are to get involved in um Equity work and then just kind of how that it doesn't always match um or they feel a little frustrated with it I really appreciated that Honesty because I think that that was something that we needed to hear and to remind ourselves that we need to rethink how to get students involved so that was really important to hear that thank you I um uh yeah I I really thought that the work we did at the last meeting especially as it pertained to how we can support um student leadership when it comes to different groups um uh was

036really meaningful and yeah appreciated that um can circulated some nice notes after the meeting which will be incorporated into the broader notes that we send back to the group secondly there was a kind of a from a broader standpoint stepping back when when Tim and I looked at policy ACA which was passed at right at the end of last year by the full board among other things the the uh the policy talks about diversity equity and inclusion and within Equity the policy says we believe that the likelihood of success should not be predetermined predicted or limited by personal characteristics including but not limited to gender race religion age socioeconomic status or place of birth and when we looked at the The Landing the web page for the equity leadership steering committee on the landing page

037it described our our Mission as being the equity leadership steering committee provides continuous learning skill building and dialogue and msad 51 to create an anti-racist inclusive community and it it struck us that that provision seemed to be narrower than what our actual mandate seem to be at least as described under policy ACA we did ask the committee especially for members who'd been around who'd been on it for a few years or since the beginning for their comments or thoughts on that um one comment that came back was that initially when they were first putting the committee in place the amount of responsibilities ahead of them was so daunting that they said it'd be hard to tackle everything at once and let's say it's a very specific area but this seemed to be pretty broad agreement

038that our our mandate today or at least what we were focusing on seemed to be broader than how it was described in that mission in fact most of our some of the kind of anecdotal issues that have been raised I guess with myself but also with other members of the committee this year in particular happened to pertain more to concerns over discrimination based on religion or based on sexual preference or gender and that could be different in a different year but that just happens to be where more of the focus has been this year and so we raised the question about whether we should change the mission to have be a little bit more Broad in scope one question that was raised was that it should be clear that even if we broaden this out

039that it's meant to really apply to protected groups there was some discussion about whether we should list all the groups individually and that led to comments by other members of the group's group that said well the definitions of what's included as a protected group have they tend to change and they've evolved over time and listing them all out might necessitate updating the policy periodically is there a broad way to Encompass this more conceptually and we worked on a different version and circulated it in between the meetings and and solicited more comment so essentially the the first version which says the equity leadership steering committee promotes continuous learning skill building and dialogue in msad 51 to create an anti-racist inclusive community we kept the first part of that prior version and then we looked to the

040policy ACA itself and at the end of the Preamble it says the board is committed to providing a learning and work environment in our school unit which is inclusive and strives to eliminate barriers to inclusion and success for students and employees and then we had the thought to add to that the concept that are having the goal that to create an environment that is free from discrimination that is meant to really touch on the fact that this is pertaining to members of a protected class that we're here to make sure they're experiencing an environment of equity that is free from discrimination so we put that together to a revised draft that read the equity leadership steering committee promotes continuous learning skill building and dialogue in msad 51 to create a learning and work environment in

041our schools which is inclusive free from discrimination and that strive to eliminate barriers to success for all students and employees and generally that version was well received and I'll also invite Kimber Avery to have any any comment um we we asked if there were further comments and generally that the group was was pretty pleased with it and felt that it was more broadly encompassing our our current mandate or at least where we were spending our time in focus so with that I would um I guess I would invite Kim or Avery if they want to comment it all or or take questions from the board about the change in the yeah um so this is my second year on the committee um and I've you know over the the past two one and a half

042years I've kind of seen it change um and I honestly think that uh this was the right move this was a step in the right direction I think that kind of broadening uh our Horizons to think about all the different protected groups um uh will really be more beneficial than kind of narrowing it I agree with all of that and I appreciate Jared the way you laid that out you guys took really detailed notes so that's that's great to hear since our meetings are not recorded and I um maybe we need to um I don't know post the notes or something for people who are really concerned with how we arrived here because it was a really good and robust discussion about it um so I appreciate that it was all of us who who

043came to that conclusion and I think as we go into those four circles which if you guys haven't seen those yet the the different circles on that chart um just to constantly keep that in mind that the original point of creating the equity team was to respond to racial issues and disparities in our community and that um you know as we think about specifics to to just come back to that so that people know that we're not disregarding it we're just as you said opening it up and that's any time that something comes up that has to do with racial disparity we go back to our mission statement and and we we look at the mission statement and we realize that if that is happening we need to address it based on um you know

044free from discrimination and barriers and so it really does encompass anti-racism and I feel I feel confident and comfortable with our statement because that Mike yeah I really appreciate the uh the clarity uh and the explanation um and you yeah you said it really well um that it's we're trying to capture a broader but the broader system of Oppression and discrimination I understand that especially given a lot of the anti-semitic uh situations we've been dealing with in our community and country um I do want to note though that the free from discrimination is uh and versus anti-racism it doesn't I understand that the free from discrimination is is broader um anti-racism being uh more narrow in a sense but it's also more robust in another sense um the free from discrimination is is you know

045creating that that that vacuum uh of you know people that are infringing upon the rights the anti-racism is it's it attempts to capture the proactive elements of eliminating systems of Oppression we're getting I'm getting semantic and I don't want a word Smith this to be frank but I just wanted to put it out there that um I understand the point of going broader but sometimes going broader covers up everything and makes it so we don't do anything and so I'm saying this publicly not not as an attack at Jared at all but just as a statement that I'm fine totally fine with this but this can't be a way to paper over anti-racist work as to just take it a step up and go 60 000 feet so that we don't have to do the

046harder work the more proactive efforts to eliminating systems of Oppression in our community that was a little bit clunky but I hope that made some sense yeah it wasn't meant to dilute it in any way it was just meant to tackle other areas of discrimination Beyond just race but no and I I appreciate that and support that um I wonder if it at some point and again I don't want a word Smith wordsmithing sometimes it we it you take people take time at wordsmithing and they don't actually do work um and so but just noting that perhaps including at some point or some reference to and you know when we're talking about eliminating barriers to success you know also eliminating systems of Oppression the communities of some kind just something to consider I would just

047like like I'm completely comforted to hear the comments from the committee that you all feel progress is being made that's awesome um however I think I understand it's difficult to record every meeting so I understand why that meeting is not being recorded as a person that cannot meet at that time in person um I I'd really encourage you to find some way to communicate what is being done at the meetings good or bad communicate with the public and faster I mean I don't know how to do that whether it's notes or some audio not visual recording something so that people feel they know they understood there is a very passionate topic so if people feel they know exactly what's being done sooner I think it prevent it'll get get out ahead of it um so

048people don't get concerned and they don't need to be concerned or maybe they do need to be concerned but at least they'll know find some vehicle to communicate it's my only suggestion but you're doing great thank you all of you thank you sorry for only addressing my comments that way I'm giving you my back I also want to Echo whoa that sounds like a lot right okay um the the summary of the discussion and I found that really helpful at somebody who has attended some but not all meetings um and I'm excited to hear about the planning efforts and I just want to like encourage you um which I it sounded like you were to include the voices especially of communities that have been impacted but in the planning stages not just thinking about what

049outcomes you'd like to see from them they should be part of you know the conversations around planning um the work and so figuring out you know opportunities to to include those voices in earlier stages yeah that's actually how we left off the last meeting as an area to think about in between the meetings because that is kind of a priority and we're actually open to ideas on that but we'd like to find good ways to make that happen um and Jared I can't remember are we um going to run the mission statement by Lawrence Alexander since he was involved last year do we do we want to update that with him just to let him know I can't remember if we discussed that we didn't discuss it certainly couldn't hurt yeah yeah I think I

050think he he needs to know what our updated mission statement is um just so he knows where we're coming from and then um so I'm sorry I don't know why I didn't bring this up at our meeting um but then yeah he may have thoughts um similar to to Mike but I I think that if as long as he knows where what we've done you know or updated um mission statement I think that's going to be important yeah this is one issue which is I'm not sure I'm able to be at the next meeting so I might ask you and Tim to help take a learning role in that but that's a good idea thank you okay other things for Jared I will add um regarding Equity that um the first couple meetings I I

051thought were I was a little worried that we're going to go through another year with um you know maybe not like tangible things coming out of it that we could really nail down and um I was so pleased with the last meeting just how the whole group work together and as we know this is a tough topic um and I just I recommend Jared and Tim and the whole group for working together on such a tough topic and good things coming out of it and moving forward so much appreciated okay moving on uh student reports would like to go first sure I'll go first wait so there's three more days of school which is very exciting that's the big news like I don't know like less than 20. um yeah so we're kind of wrapping

052things up uh before winter break with what's it called winter wonder week and it's kind of like a semi Spirit Week where we do different activities we kicked it off today with a twinning day where uh I don't know you find someone and you go to school matching a lot of staff and students did it and um yeah we'll we'll see what's up tomorrow it's um anything by the backpack day I have high expectations yeah to add on to that there were the the principles and vice principals uh or assessment principles of the high school today were they had a really good twin they were they were like men in black with black suits and white shirts and ties and sunglasses it was it was really fun time it was very intimidating yeah I agree

053it it seems like they were almost out to get you but no they um but also there are a lot of pictures that were posted on the Greely website if anyone wants to see um some pictures of the twins of people twinning but um for my student report um I uh the the kind of winter sports season is really in full swing and I apologize for my lightness earlier to the meeting but I was at a swim meet and um the swim team's doing really well the basketball team actually had a really really exciting game where they had this big buzzer beaters kind of like the whole school was talking about it for a couple days um so yeah the the school spirit is High and um the sports teams are having a lot of

054fun on another hand um I have been to a couple Student Government meetings which a lot of students on student government have talked about they've actually been reading some policies that were put forward to the school board earlier this year including JB um and there there is a lot of like what Avery said about the policy committee there's or about the equity committee there is a lot of um Desire by students to like be involved and have kind of a say in these um talks so I think that that's really exciting that students really want to share their input and yeah are these uh Student Government um meetings open to other students or is it just kind of a yeah no they're open to everyone and um they're on Thursdays in Mr Taylor's room and

055but we even had a member of the GS a um come and talk about like as a representative almost to talk about what was most desired by their um kind of club uh and almost a representation of the um trans community at the school and it was really eye-opening to kind of hear what was desired on the part of the students um and yeah yeah do you think people would be interested in a a town hall of sorts so an actual opportunity for full throated dialogue yep yeah no I'm sure they would I think that especially on something as kind of hot button and con or not controversial but as a policy that a lot of people are really like invested in I think that that would definitely they would definitely be interest in that

056and um I also think that uh the students really do want to have their voices heard in the in the final policy rather than just rather yeah they really want to be like involved in in writing it yeah but yeah I think a town hall would be really productive I agree do you think that would look like a town hall between the students and student government or the students and you guys I think the board should be at least present if not full-on participatory I would I would worry if it was like this and students I don't know I don't want it to be that feels a little yeah too overbearing but yeah if we could make it participatory on one or two key issues and maybe it's a I don't know something we continue

057on on different topics as well for sure that would be fun and really interesting and very yeah because a lot of um stuff that has been brought up in student government has also been things that the school board has talked about so I think that there's a desire by students on a wide range of issues to give some input well I'm not piggybacking off of that I mean hopefully the student government knows that they can come to these meetings if they're able to and I'm sure any of us would be very happy to come to a student government meeting and just to be a presence to so that they know that we're listening to what they have to say so um yeah maybe let us know yeah when the meetings are going to be absolutely

058okay other questions for the students okay thank you guys all right moving on to ad hoc committee reports um so one thing that we can update regarding the new school um as we know the referendum failed in November um and we don't have all the answers as far as when that'll go back out um so one of the things that was interesting looking around at other communities is that there were four other large new public projects that also failed um by very large margins ours was actually the closest but looking at that as sort of a broader maybe you know Financial attitude in the country um I think the feeling is right now is that you know putting something back out to vote very early or very soon that attitude probably isn't going to change

059broadly so the schedule as far as um you know if we try this again that's a ways out um and we don't know what that project looks like however not having a better option um for land or a different option for land the board has extended the option on that land in North Yarmouth for five years at minimal cost um so we don't have to use that land we have an exit clause if we don't use that land and we have find a better option but without a better option it would have been irresponsible I think to allow that to lapse in the um the landowner was willing to do that a five-year option which is kind of insane and we appreciate so I'm happy to report that um that's what I can share at

060this point others want to join or add on to that in any fashion a lot of people aren't going to be watching this right now um so I just want to make sure how else are we going to get this information out yeah it's sort of been holding off to you know trying to do something more comprehensive but we certainly could put that out um that piece that we know for sure yep happy to do that okay you can probably just add it on to Jeff's report I would think yeah that's yeah with a more comprehensive update in January yeah hopefully yeah we'll see yep okay other ad hoc stuff Liaisons and go for it yeah um last week the PTO had a parent University and they had the main Boys to Men and it

061was fantastic it was a smallish Workshop which I would very much encourage more people to take advantage of that but because it was a small Workshop it was also really really helpful and uh you know people really got to participate so that was a good thing but I just want to publicly thank the PTO for bringing main Boys to Men I knew what they did but I had never really heard a presentation or been involved in it and it it's fantastic even if you don't have a son I definitely recommend checking them out and hoping to do more work with them especially as we talk about our student leaders um and talking about Equity that could be a really interesting partnership with some training for them um so I just I'm so grateful that they

062brought that Leanne and I were both able to be there and again just to publicly say please take advantage of parent universities and all these resources particularly with main Boys to Men because they're doing some really really good work and just to add to that I really enjoyed hearing about the work they'd done with like coaches and other school staff and I think there's lots of great opportunities there so I'm excited to see how that could play out with some of the equity goals definitely yeah very much in line with what we've been talking about I had hoped to make that mediation that night went to seven o'clock and I I just went home I'm sorry yeah you're allowed yeah okay anything else for ad hoc okay moving on to Communications anything there okay happy

063Hanukkah to all celebrate from myself thank you thank you Mike said it already but I'm going to say it again thank you for being here tonight Mike we've got eight nights crazy okay moving on to number nine items for Action we do have one new position um do I hear a motion for that thank you Vanessa thank you Kim Scott you took us through that briefly yes um you have in front of you um a well-experienced uh RTI Behavior teacher and Charlie Sans uh Charlie forgive me if I mispronounced your name um and um uh like I said this was due to a uh opening or a resignation in the district and um over 14 years of experience very well qualified so we're looking forward to uh Charlie starting with us soon thank you Scott

064questions of Scott I should add four candidates one interviewed out of the four candidates yeah okay yep much appreciated thank you Scott is this um is this a a lateral move in the sense that we're hiring someone who is Charlie equivalent to the position that the person who held the position he filled or is this another example of hiring a professional no this is due clearly to an opening from a resignation that happened okay so okay so this is Australia it's basically a teaching position a teaching position thank you thank you others questions okay all in favor unanimous motion carries thank you okay so the next item um can I hear a motion first for 9B recommended to have Thrice lease purchase of two new school buses and the principal amount of 219 740 to

065be adopted and form presented to this meeting thank you Vanessa is there a second oh second thank you Leanne okay uh Scott can you explain this to us please sure so uh the purpose of the reimbursement resolution is that the district um when we purchase our vehicles or we purchase equipment such as you know many technology items um and uh Furnishings of that nature but in this particular instance it's it's strictly towards the purchase of two school buses we buy those units outright and then what we do is if we find that we need to least purchase those we'll then shop the banks and go for the best rate in order to do that so it's reimbursing the district but you know it's like uh you know paying for something then financing it after the

066fact and that's what this reimbursement resolution allows us to do because we don't Finance directly with the provider or the school buses we we shop for the best rate the other thing we do is we use the reimbursement resolution as a tool for the district that is we start getting down to the end of our fiscal year we may not least purchase this right now we might wait until we get closer to the end of the fiscal year see how much money we have in fund balance and if we need at that point to enter the lease purchase uh we will do it at that time so I don't know if anybody has any other questions on that this is for because we authorized a purchase this is to finance that the previous decision we've

067made the position we authorized the purchase through the budget process yeah and this would be the authorization to allow us to enter into that lease purchase agreement uh by and reimbursing the district you have to do this and then we have to do this resolution within 60 days of actually doing the capital outlay for the um for the buses so I would thank you that clarifies that I was mainly asking so this is not about additional but it's not about additional as I was going to say again which I've said and I know you all the time I know not voting on any more gas powered buses I'm doing my best trying to buy electric one so we're doing our best so Scott is this typical that you're purchasing all all or most Capital Equipment

068and then having this vote to approve the financing after yes it's very typical because um it authorized it basically also gives us the ability to you know whether it's Androscoggin whether it's you know Key Bank or whoever the bank is that we want to enter into the lease purchase with is allows us to shop those rates or or bid out those rates and get the best rate that we can but we might not utilize this correct if we find that there's money in our transportation budget lines as we get down to the end of the year remember our budget has passed on 11 articles so it's not as if we can just grab from this one to fund another one right we'll take a look at that and if we have money in the transportation

069budget at the end of the year we may choose not to enter into this lease purchase agreement because why earnings is something and pay interest on it if you don't have to I think my question was partially answered they're not replacement buses so much they are replacement buses they're replacing two buses that we currently have in inventory um and it's going to replace older buses with newer buses so we don't end up having to we're on a cycle of replacement of buses and you would have to purchase two a year in order to stay on your cycle to stay within buses within like an eight-year age and do you foresee a need of more buses soon with the increased enrollments I think that depending on where we end up and where what happens with a

070building project and also one of the things we're looking at is the timing of the start and the end times of the school and we may have to add some buses and several drivers in order to meet the start and the end times of school that we currently have due to the increased student population that we have okay so Scott this is the first of these we voted on I guess this school year you must be making Capital purchases all the time are there are there some times when you just decide okay this one we're just going to pay cash for so we don't need to free up this option and then other times when we say we should have this we usually put this option in place just so that we have it because

071if you don't vote on it within 60 days of having paid for the item uh you know then you could have a problem where you couldn't reimburse yourself down the road if you wait too long so so we put it in it's a tool and we utilize it and um uh look to see if we do need to enter into that agreement many times you'll enter into the agreement but there are those times that you don't have to saving us money because we didn't have to lease them correct okay correct and we voted on this last year that's correct and when you least purchase them you would at least purchase them over the security that if we have to lease you at least purchase them over a three year period and then you would end

072up paying interest on those uh you know and this helps you not have to do that if we don't have to run it into that lease purchase agreement so and then we also try um uh there's two buckets of money and this is the other area and I know it gets more complicated but there's two buckets of money at the state for how to get reimbursed for buses through the through the state of Maine okay for through doe through State subsidy so and the two don't mix together there's a pile for lease purchasing and then there's an Avenue for outright purchases so as we get further down the year and other districts may have not purchased buses we try to see if we can maybe capitalize on that and either go after the money for

073outright purchase or go after the money for a three-year lease purchase so so there's several Avenues of this in which we use this as a financial tool I like buckets of money but there's there's different Avenues on how to get State subsidy around um you know around buses and there are school districts that don't necessarily buy them because of the condition of their budgets and there's another round that comes out that we try to we try to access that keep their options open this sounds like okay great that's what this allows you to do but you have to hit that 60-day window or all your options disappear so we better vote correct go ahead so we talked a lot in the past about electric school buses are these electric no these are diesel buses and

074they're larger buses at 83 passenger we will try to access state or federal funding and also other state funding if we can um on electric buses we will try to do our best with that um I would add to that if I could have a moment the thing that I would add is we have had an electric vehicle on the campus we have had a ride in an electric vehicle and transportation has had the opportunity to look at one and test drive one so so we have at least had one on the campus oh nice okay are the buses that these are replacing were they also diesel they were also diesel most of them are yes yeah yeah we um we have all diesel buses yeah no gas the only thing we have gasoline is

075our sober vans that are running around our white vans so and this is a larger capacity than what it's replacing it is yeah we went with an 83 passenger um specifically to some of the areas that we're having to do large pickups and uh these will definitely help out with the capacity on our buses and hopefully with some of the timing of our overtime thank you okay thank you anything else anybody questions concerns okay all right all in favor unanimous motion carries thank you all right so moving on to 9C this is an annual certification of the superintendent now Scott has brought me up to speed on this um this is something that we've done historically every December it is um but uh we sort of learned that tonight we'll do it but potentially in

076the future we really don't need to do it unless the contract is expiring so um which it is not which it is not right no we'll just be looking at the process for this for the future but this is a standard vote that we've had each year and you're you're essentially um just certifying um uh who your superintendent is all right so do I hear a motion a motion to approve the annual certification of this thank you Vanessa second thank you okay what's the second I'm sorry I missed that Christine Christine Christine thank you Christy further discussion okay all in favor unanimous motion curious okay so let's see ah okay doing here a motion for 9 D I'll move to create an environmental and sustainability committee thank you do you want to share oh sorry

077we need a second thank you oh second thanks thank you Kim all right somewhere here I can read the uh draft to charge oh thanks there you go killing trees that's what I do consumer recycled I'm sure right um so Reed is the draft charge we had talked about this uh previously multiple times about the creation of a committee broadly focused on the environment and sustainability um we are finally doing it so I will read this draft charge and would love any comments or feedback this ad hoc committee was created by the board in recognition that the environment and sustainability impacts our district and world and that we have a responsibility to do our part this committee will be tasked with identifying the best ways that msad 51 can help improve efficiencies and minimize our

078impact on the environment locally and more broadly while there are many ways to achieve this we would begin by exploring ways to advocate for the environment when the district considers new projects or facility changes help build collaboration among the district and leaders and members of Cumberland and North Yarmouth to identify ways to reduce our carbon footprint and ensure that these efforts incorporate education for students in the community and identify and develop events or possibly curriculum to educate the community and or end our students and encourage a deeper appreciation of our environment thank you Mike all right comments from others on the draft charge okay I do have one go for it um just how are we going to put in perspective just coming from the financial side of this we know electric buses are more

079expensive and we do have the community to think about plus the globe so um working in Balance if not we've heard the electric bus the electric bus the electric bus but it is very expensive and we do have a lot of conditions to so it's that balance that I hope that we'll be able to work with when it comes to the budget at the end of the day I completely agree but I think when we look at the cost we should make sure never to look at just the initial cost but the cost over time so the cost of a diesel bus in terms of Maintenance and continually to pump diesel into it versus an electric bus where the cost of maintenance is virtually nil um for 10 ish years and then the cost of

080electricity depending on how we're producing it especially if we do a solar project is potentially very very low so I completely agree so long as we're taking into account the full cost the broader spectrum of the cost right and we had a new school that failed and that we oh yeah no yeah and so it's like we it's a fine line and I'm all I'm in support of that but we do have to keep a lot of things in perspective when it comes to the budget sure and and I would add to that that beyond the dollars and cents of it I would ask that we look at it more from a carbon impact and not just in our own Community but worldwide so Mike and Avery have yet to convince me that electric buses

081are the right thing to do for our world they might be better for Cumberland I'm not sure that they're better for the world especially where where the lithium is mined where that electricity is coming from if we don't have solar panels so I will ask you're giving me the chance you have the chance now you're on the committee so pretty clear it's pretty clear and it's not very clear to me no no I don't think it is come to our meetings then okay hybrids hybrids are clear to me no wow the carbon impact of the battery itself the long supply chain of the fossil fuel industry when you compare it to the supply chain of the inputs in an electric vehicle it dwarfs the okay what's that I said okay in order to do any

082of this we need to approve the committee first so maybe we should do that that's somebody and so can you remind me for from the committee perspective which where does the ad hoc committee fall like I'm just looking at the bylaws and like what governs like how the committee is formed and who gets assigned to the committee and who makes those decisions where does the ad hoc because there's standing other specials this is in other I'm sorry this is an other yeah because we're voting on the official creation of it it's an other committee unless I think we stipulate that it's a standing committee so last year we moved to uh other committees into a standing committee but we're turning because I don't I don't think do we need a full vote of the board

083to create an ad hoc I'm not sure but I think the secret to your point initially form it yep yeah but we should have clarified that this is the creation of an other committee okay and I know there's been a lot of questions around um committees and our bylaws and I would really like us to make some recommendations around updates to the bylaws around committee assignments and we're not talking about that right now okay but if we're going to add a new committee I would like to understand how committee assignments are made it's the same as it has been on any other committee this year the bylaw state that the chair puts the people on the committee of forms of committees if you would have interest in being on this committee happy to discuss that

084well but we haven't we have to vote on whether we have to form it and then the members will be assigned yep Christina and Mike have expressed interest Avery's expressed interest and I'm happy to hear from others as well so I I would just like to ask for some the bylaws be put I think it goes to policy to we're not talking about that right now that's out of order the item on the table is to approve this committee but if we approve I guess I guess I'm just asking what happens once we approve a can then the members will be assigned further questions anybody go ahead I weren't the members assigned back when the committee assignment no not really because the the committee was never formed so we we had those early discussions of

085people that were interested in being on this committee and and Mike and Christine and you would yeah you know tentatively word assigned but no the committee hadn't didn't exist yet so it was a wish list yeah it sort of got kicked down the road partly because of the new school project yeah I would just want to add that I think it's a really timely committee to have I mean the world over people are exploring this and clearly there are a lot of questions people don't have all the answers so I think it'd be great to have a committee where we can explore possibilities and educate ourselves and the public so other community members are interested is that an option I think so yeah I don't see I don't I don't know that there's any limitations

086to that I mean we've assigned community members before to committees so I'm open to doing that like and having some overlap potentially with the town and um yeah there's people that helped us with the new school committee that maybe they would be interested I don't know what what are your thoughts Mike on that that's strongly supportive of people from the community wanted to be involved uh either in an official capacity which under current bylaws uh you know is it's a little unclear but we can certainly add them but definitely in an unofficial capacity would love people from the community involved and love as other students you're perfectly representative Avery but certainly if other student voices want to be involved as well there are many kids far more knowledgeable than I on this stuff who would

087do a great job I ran the um draft charge by Peter Scott he seemed pleased and um who's the advisor for the Green Team I forget thank you isn't it Peter Scott well he was it's um it's a lady I forget um but I think it'd be great to involve the students as well yeah I just want to add that there are several great resources already in the community whether it's the Cumberland sustainability with Denny who worked with us at the new school the green teams at this school I mean just to collaborate and have board representation um with all these collaborations it's going to be fantastic Daniel is great on the new school committee and he's passionate about this stuff so maybe he'd help maybe he can convince you about electric vehicles you might

088be able to I have solar panels out of my house by the way so it's just a point on that this is more of a comment than a question I would just ask that in this committee I was encouraged by the intellectual rigor in all seriousness by which you answered Jason's question about that it sounds like this is a continuation of a discussion you guys maybe had before but um I like electric vehicles just because I spent a lot of time in New York and it was great for air quality to have more electric buses but in general if you if you talk to us purely about an environmental impact and the gut reaction from someone might be to say oh we should go to electric cars because you don't have to burn oil but

089then you say well where are you where are you generating energy to ref recharge the battery of the car and oftentimes the discussion stops there if there's not a good answer unless it's solar or wind and it sounds like you've actually done some research on that and when you measure everything out yeah you might be burning some natural gas to recharge the battery but maybe maybe that's well I don't know the answer but sounds like you've thought through the answer so my comment really is that if we're going to form this committee it should have rigor and and look at the true net impacts and sustainability and not not focus too much on on on buzzwords or on policies that might sound good to make us feel good but that don't really net out well

090in terms of the actual substance yeah I agree completely if it helps the issue of climate change has been my professional life for 15 years so um it's a bit of intellectual rigor involved so yeah I appreciate that appreciate that actually yeah the key word there Jared I think is is net you know for the globe basically that's my concern and uh but there's there's an answer you know and and I don't know what the factual answer is but it's uh the important things that we ask the question and that we actually recommend something that when you follow it down the supply chain is actually showing a net benefit and I could tell that you might gonna be Christina as well have actually done the research or are researching this and that's the important that's

091the importance I'm trying to emphasize and that we keep in mind if we're having such a committee Mike you'll be glad to know that because we take the standard offer in the district most of our electricity is hydroelectric oh I did know that um and I can tell you about the full mix of Maine's electricity generation also I spent the whole week before Thanksgiving doing a uh participating in a group of 12 people that created about 25 pages of memos on critical minerals and explicitly the supply chain how they interact with Renewables and electric vehicles so apparently some of those minerals are now to be found on in Northern on Maine soil Sunday River yeah yeah I thought you were going to say you were involved in the uh the fusion experiment last week no

092no no not those lasers no it's very very cool though well it just goes to show that the third goal or action item um of education is perhaps where we start just making sure that people understand why this is necessary and and to yeah people who are curious and don't don't have all the information yeah so that's going to be the probably the first one yeah other comments thank you for reminding me of the existing list um of member Community member assignments so under that it's listed as a special committee task force and so that's how it's existed and we're voting today to move it to another board committee I don't believe so the environment and sustainability committee has never existed okay so what's posted online on our board page um with the committee listing

093has it under special committee tests no it shouldn't it should not have been listed Fran posted it and it should not have been it no that's that's an oversight okay okay the vote is to make it another committee yeah the there's a standing committees and there's other committees and this would be an other pretty much everything starts as another oh crap like the equity committee started as another we had a we had to Hash that out last year because it was ad hoc but then by default when we researched it ad hoc was other other right yeah and then I got promoted to a standing committee and then we voted it in as a standing yep that's right yeah yeah this is the first year actually that Equity is a standing committee and and the

094rules around other or ad hoc committees are looser so okay other questions comments concerns okay so we are voting to form the environment and sustainability committee with the charge that Mike red okay all in favor all opposed okay thank you Leanne is dissenting motion carries thank you all right moving on to item nine D no nine e do I hear a motion for that I recommend to enter an executive session discuss property acquisition pursuant State Statute MRSA 4056c second thank you Vanessa thank you Mike uh questions comments concerns okay all in favor unanimous motion carries okay so thank you guys I think we can shut off the mics and the only thing we have