001do I have this record all in favor okay great and now as I alluded to recognition facilities tab can I turn that over to you Scott tonight what we'd like to do is recognize our facility staff for their hard work every summer and every day of the school year it doesn't matter whether it many of them drive the buck for us as well as whether it's empty in a truckload of paper cleaning the facilities assembling furniture making repairs painting the buildings just looking at things like setting up for special event everything from responding to staff issues during the course of the day to students who are in the building and looking for the lost backpack to adjust everything from a day to day basis and keeping these facilities clean and ready for the community students
002and staff so at this point what I'd like to do is to have each one of the facility workers to come up as I call their name and what I'd like to do is just recognize that this is a team that takes pride in making sure that our facilities are ready for everyone and give them a little recognition tonight for their hard work especially in light of this past summer when we basically pulled off in about six weeks but normally being a full summer of almost ten weeks so it was incredible this year and we'd like to recognize them so so first Maryanne Anthony [Applause] [Music] [Applause] with authorities a retired but we driving by so thank you [Applause] navel I will swing step barrington my coward [Applause] Jeff Miller Jim Murphy beau Ramsey I
003[Applause] work in maintenance in bus driver thank you Richard Riley [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and finally at the lab for the alphabet that that ensures that everything's ready for the start of the school year it doesn't matter if it's lining the field making sure the grounds already cleaning the facilities and like I said moving back from one location to another this is the staff that pulls it off and the summers pulls it off during the school year please you know work with me and congratulate the board might have had one today as well I just want to echo what Scott said I've had a chance to get to know many of you on the facilities crew and in different areas of the district namaste thank you very much for everything that you have done each and
004every one of you your contributions you're the backbone of the district and you keep our buildings running in our fields and our grounds and we really appreciate it and many of you drive bus as well as though you're doing a lot of different things for our district and sometimes you're the first and last people that the kids do you're also the person that sometimes some kids gravitate towards in the building they need something they're like and I see you doing that a lot you guys are just incredible people and we're very fortunate to have such an incredible staff in the facilities departments well thank you very much and on behalf of the board I echo that I think so many of us you are when our kids are just embarking upon their curse transmission both
005the school year and the day those bus drivers you you're welcoming arms and a friendly smile and then there are so many little ways that you show how much you care and sometimes we get focused on the large things that are exciting things like the Performing Arts Center or this incredible project that was pulled off at Mi W but please even though it might not be said we are very much aware that the Devils in the details and when you are tired you keep persevering and do it for our community and for our children so they are safe secure and so really on behalf of all of us thank you so so much we really appreciate you and thank you very much for coming out and letting us tell you thank you to your face
006we really are very grateful especially on a Monday night my turn [Applause] we're going to go ahead and move on to presentations I think our first call to order is going to be I use these terms I don't know why but our first item is equipped so taking curry good evening thank you very much for the invitation to come and they're out of the room but I would still like to offer my congratulations and applause four of those individuals who were recognized are former students of mine from my classroom in the last 20 years and if it wasn't for everything they and everyone who trained them and everyone who's worked here has done then my work would stop that is reaching halt almost immediately though from Windows I leave open overnight unfortunately to other things
007that they are the absolute core of everything we can do as classroom teachers thanks to them still I'm here tonight with Katie Dexter from the high school John Lane one of our athletic Coaches also Jeff Masterson who couldn't be here tonight is also a proposed chaperone for this trip the trip is going to be to Europe in June into July of 2018 we're very enthusiastic about this I have shown in the field trip request form a number of different educational objectives both from the social studies standards and also some English standards foreign language Department standard and some of our schools guiding principles which are state mandated that we're able to go to the Department of Education that our students can meet and by all means as the students come through and do this field trip
008for example open-minded towards other cultures and evaluate multiple viewpoints this can be portfolio item for our students who want to graduate where the guiding principles here in the district if they summarize their experience on the trip make that part of their graduation portfolio or the guiding principles aspect then it can really be a benefit to the students as well the itinerary for the trip is proposed to be June 21st July 5th that is several days after the end of the school year so if we have a lot of school days cancelled due to snow then we will have to try to make alternative arrangements with the teachers to do their final exams perhaps get them done early we would not want snow days - to make a student as seriously impacted or a teacher I'm
009a classroom teacher I don't want to see us seriously impacted so we will advise the students along the way and especially as we get snow day after snow day to make proactive arrangements with their teachers for those final exam I don't know how much of the paperwork that I submitted the members of the Board received there was the two-page fieldtrip request but there's also a full packet provided by explore occur the company that we are going through for this trip there were many details of currents and transportation safety and emergency plans that are covered in the paperwork provided one thing I will tell you about grip organization between 2000 and 2007 I ran seven trips to Europe with really students three trips to Scotland and four trip to the continent most of which included France
010and Italy and from capacity one of which also included Greece and Turkey so it was a fantastic experience every time the students that came back said that was the trip of a lifetime several of our foreign students that we've taken on these trip have ended up working internationally now they've gone on to be translators in foreign countries one of them got married in Madrid to a Spaniard when she went and became a translator there and is now moved back several others are working for government offices a couple for the State Department so I certainly am NOT going to claim that this trip was a watershed moment in their lives however it's another brick in that golden road to being a global citizen I'm happy to cut up mountain answer any questions you might have where
011members could go but what are the fundraising things like say there's a student that's identified that could be a really useful life event for them but their families can't afford it are there mechanisms for that there are mechanisms in place there's some offerings from the explora company themselves just that I have a webpage for that purpose I am also I also asked mr. Lane and also mr. Masterson to help coordinate a more visible fundraising drive if and when that called for in addition to that there's little perks and benefit that the company gives the organizer as a thank you for doing the organization and I myself have already contacted the company and asked that in the case of some students or even some of the chaperones that might need a little financial help is that
012I am able to cash in some of those benefits they offer to me and we'd use that directly to bring down the bills for the students if you have the hot lien problem of having more than 38 students wanting to join how will you handle them that's an excellent question I have already taken information from a number of students who have expressed interest and those students names have been run by principal McKee on and also because administrators are sometimes they can be boy stirred in in their office and don't get the chance that sometimes these students that need extra attention I also went to both of our school secretaries and had them look at the list of students and in all cases tastes that there's no disciplinary issues here any student that wants to come
013in I would first review their information with the administrators the secretaries if there are some behavioral issues that might make them a student that would be a risk to bring to a foreign country but other than that I don't have to static criteria at this time or how to make that cut off what at the end of the clear supposed to be at the end of the school year the district officially is June 18th if we have five storm days so this being the 21st that does allow us with bystanders according to the calendar I have in front of the year always bill beyond five used to be so you're already paying to be beyond it okay that's practical all right my other question was when if you have 38 students the max number of
014students for taking five chaperones for Catherine's actually that's an interesting scenario because there are or melt a perón's currently three female chaperone is currently plus there's one parent who decline to be a chaperone but he still wanted to be on the trip so he plans to attend as well so there's going to be sevens to provide area dolt which is about a five to one ratio okay and all seven of those the dogs are willing to be part of the pairs that supervise that night and go around and make sure people are okay requisite I mean I'll be honest me the other part that worries me is you know when kids are have up too much time on the hands it doesn't look at them any time and he's been going to this but usually
015it's at the end of the evening and so I just make sure that you're expecting two people every night in rotation yep to me and that's I think that's enough to keep track for 36:38 kids given the fact that they're going to be in these specific wings and that they can walk back and forth up and down the wing I think that'll be enough to do it per night but if you travel on your own tour because here's the large number is it just you or the other groups to with that is dependent upon the company if we can fill about so to speak they won't take a small school group from another state and add it to us and that's why I set the bar where I did because I'm hoping that we can
016have enough to make it just perfect so that it's really stripped and Greeley's alone on some of those other seven trips in the past we've been the tiny school that's been added in the forties come ten kids comes down other state and we've been the big school and they've taken five kids and a chaperone from somewhere else it tends to have the computer and especially when they're kids and our kids socialized in ways that their chaperones might be okay with and we're not so far right then I said one other thing in the camp and where I saw it but it said like there's a fee for stay behind or something that's entirely possible do people everyone comes home with you that goes right unless they arranged it specifically with their parents or their parents
017to meet them before the end of the trip or at the end of the trip to stay as longer for a family vacation and who did that handoff that would be as a whole one person camped in an airport because you leave and then the parents are supposed to be flying me and like four hours later or something right hmm we would try our best to make arrangements with the parents to them to get an earlier flight this that's going to be the case the only other possibility might be that power tour guide that provided by the company might stay behind and accompany them and build a handoff and that one person who's done Explorer employee is trained that it verified etc and that that would be the only scenario where I could be not
018making the handoff myself as part of the whole rhythm my journey I've had I'm aware of experience there are other families that gone and has not been through a school program at all but leaving a student with a train you know person often these individuals are not much older or you know the travel agent they're the people that are traveling with you as a group up in our in the early 20s or something and their idea of what supervision supervision means until that hand up is complete can be very different from where ours would be in there as a school system so my preference would be that we know that the students are with you um if there's gotta be arrangements that the parents are you know there they come in a day in advance
019if they wanted yeah that would be preferred in anything right all right I will definitely put my foot down then okay I'm I'm only one voice but that's where I would if you can arrange it at the parent coming in a day prior in case there's a delay in the planning and then you the whole thing you might I don't want to or have not been left behind absolutely there hasn't been any expression up to this point from any people who have expressed interest that they want to stay behind or that their families are coming at the end but should they do so I will make it explicit and up grunting from the very beginning that they are to arrive before the end of the trip so that it doesn't cause any state fee or
020travel concern one thing I would if in fact we have our ratio gender ratio become that it's more female significantly more females than males and we have a three females trapper own ratio to potentially of five let's try to get I think I would like an overnight day and maybe just keep a little bit more proportionate in terms of checking in and we're being able to stay in the rooms or someone needs extra help through the night just a little bit more reflection of gender balance with the bathrooms and like I said maybe maybe I'm old school I don't know but I think and I've only dictated by what your demographics are in the group that actually find that but one for one but just mirroring it a little bit and then what I would
021what I would ask is that it's great result you know I hate issues thought and then this all really exciting and it's so exciting that I'm just making sure that and I think you're already doing it even by being here is that it's getting a wide scattershot advertisement not just people who are kind of in the loop who may kind of have their ear to the ground sometimes these things you need to just sort of pick up on one kid who might not be the person then it will fly oh it's cool to go and so this is exciting opportunity and I really applaud everyone for putting this together and it's great and you're absolutely right I mean I think Sally and rats and everyone's been talking about you know the global citizen and so
022there's a really nice buttress thing of that so I appreciate that with that would like to make a motion on the field trip request its number it's number four a in our Blue Notes I'll make the first think you to prove the field trip requests to Europe as presented is there a second any further discussion however I don't want it to affect Happy Trails thanks very much for coming in weather site improvement plans and Scott I think you're our first our first presenter thank you very much again and here to talk about from the facility's human resource and operations standpoint the slight improvement areas that we're looking at the line with the board goals and the strategic plan the first item that I have is working with the Facilities Committee and Finance Committee to update
023our five-year capital plan so this is about our long-range facilities plan as far as enrollment and you know buildings instructor this is about to prepare for the facilities things like group repairs repointing a brick dare tread replacement tile replacement so we like to work on that and create that capital plan we already have it but work with facilities and finance and that way everybody knows what's behind that plan and get to buy-in and through the projects that we need to do to maintain our facilities the other area would be conduct a space study of the campus and that ties directly with facilities been actually the meeting that we had today where we talked about working with Steve black and doing a study on the entire campus based on our enrollments with miw and the space
024needs across the district so and our timeline on that from this morning's meeting was looking at something in January to be able to bring to the board the other areas that oversight of the Performing Arts that are construction you know I worked with the superintendent as the owners rep on this project and ilton clue them a tremendous amount of our time but that's an area that you know we want a successful construction project and a fee or other area of the plan so I have three very strong areas along with the other things that we do on a daily basis my ear in terms of timing to think study the presentation in January January will be the preliminary very one roll out okay and then and the options will have hopefully coming out of that
025meeting will have several options they discussed okay so I actually get to represent both family and I in this area for the last few years Sally and I have really begun to walk arms around instructional support for all learners Sally's title has changed this year to be about academic services as you guys know so we have a shared fifth in the areas of supporting all of our learners and seamless instruction and the three specific objectives that we're looking at are around RTI or response to interventions K through 12 and really looking at adopting district-wide it's the most support for our student so regardless what their need is we support them the second area which we began really discussing last year with GAF is around the idea of non categorical supports for students and this really
026intertwines with both IEP world as well as RTI world so if a student needs some sort of research-based instruction that they're not required to be on an IEP to get that instructor and they can get it through a response to intervention and we're building capacity and building resources for our job with research-based tools in literacy as well as beginning to really do more research and professional development in math and writing for students still looking at reading writing math and then also building support in both response to intervention and through non categorical supports for students whose behavior is impacting their learning or the learning of others and then the last area well it's a little bit more specific to instructional support fellows continued to lock arms around this report is really continuing to work on our
027medical plan for section 504 we've made great progress but it has been a little slower than I would have liked over the last couple of years and we still have some work to do around transferring those health plans on to medical 504 and really monitoring the number of 504 evaluations that we're doing over the course of the year so those three areas well sally has another step really hit our instructional support and academic services for all learners and it really made sense rather than us both writing those areas down on the step for us to have a shared dip in terms of the vision for the district around supporting our learners never thoughts especially I know it for people who are new to the board the acronyms or things are you know just just raise
028your hand and call out and you know what I probably the same question I'm just looking for is an accomodation law for equal octopus there are education and you can have either an academic plan or a medical plan so student you for example a really simple example is a student who has asthma and needs access to their inhaler during their school day they would qualify as having a medical 504 program because we needed to provide them equal access they can't participate in school if they don't have that inhaler and there are certainly more complicated examples as well of our students who struggle with more involved medical needs you can also have a student who required an academic 504 for example if they had attention deficit disorder and needed you know to not get close to
029that blower that's lonely behind me right now could that distract me and me when my inattention I need to sit someplace in the classroom that I'm more focused on the teacher I'm not be corrected by that mental health condition okay thank you sure just make a comment I think these things are we can't underestimate them I feel like they're we're doing such a wrap-around type work on this and it's a lot of work I mean it's so mean I've just gotten a taste of what a 504 plan for an asthma inhaler is and it's a lot of resources on the back end I feel like all of these three things are an iceberg and what even the board's these is just the tip do what you know the administrators are doing is this huge underwater
030you know iceberg so to speak and I things it's what's kept us apart you know especially in our elementary levels though you know who does to everybody that does so much with these you know three categories thank you thank you can I think that's really important too there is a lot of back work that happens and then what sort of on this therapist is this small amount and I feel really fortunate that we had that I have a partner in crime for that work in terms of you know it doesn't matter what a student's label is we're going to get some what they need and we're going to do the heavy lifting to make that happen and I think that it's exciting well well there's three indicators the huge amount of work and it's exciting
031that we're able to do that in a manner that just looks at students than what they need yeah my other question was because I think that it is so important when you are like even if somebody doesn't qualify for the RCI or the IEP we're catching them if they're not knowing their letters and numbers in kindergarten if there a way that we could label that in the district non categorical support that's sort of our cliched term that we made up about bringing on the walls and having it not have to be labeled a certain plan you don't have to be on an IEP to get a research-based reading intervention any longer right or you don't have to be on a 504 plan to get some sort of accommodation you need you come to our teacher
032with a profile of a student who's struggling and let's talk about how we're going to help that kiddo and then we'll figure out which paperwork it needs to go on legally and how we can best support that but we need to get the student what they need in the mean time so the only term we have so far is non categorical and it's starting to get a little track though great thank you I would just add that it's the I look at these and say okay number one number two we have over two thousand students so when you say we're going to have a response to intervention and adopt a district-wide model so that any other students who need any additional support at the classroom to thrive academically are going to get that that's over
0332,000 kids and growing and you know that I think just one so I know that Kate's point exactly which is the the goal seems you know you know a simple you know five word goal and yet if that's the implementation of that goal is dude so that the public needs to be aware of that and then it's true I can think of I can't I can't think of any child that haven't at one time or another or student needed some additional therapist for approach and maybe it was for a week it was for a month me maybe it was not you know a single topic or some things that are like the non categorical approach to services model and I you know I think that k12 if we can really accomplish that then we are
034touching every kid every day in a very positive way that's unique and now it seems like you've always been a goal and now it seems like it might being reached so it goes to the two of you for doing that thank you and your staff I don't mean to Susie any other thoughts on that I think the more we talk about this let me use different labels versus a parent gets a no home and you know your son needs a little extra help it's like oh my gosh like people donning next to him needs help and something else then Sally needs a little help over here for a week and so I think the more we're talking about these and not sort of special education terms but much broader I think is I'm hoping to
035see those vital for medical plans but I know it's not a reflect on anything the two of you are doing but that's an example of where education for parents is really important and that and I know that's the where the rub is so I think the more we talk about these no one categorical approaches to basically you know we want to give everybody the best opportunity to succeed and this is how we use the jargon we're using you know your educator but other than that that's really what we're trying to do it's it's wonderful yeah I echo what Vicki says I mean you guys are doing such great work and it's really about confirming you know cuz I think you do a great communication in the confirming the availability of these services and the accessibility
036and and really that it is taking it out of that it's even just the nomenclature of being a problem or an intractable problem or you know it more everyone in life we add in we flow and and we have different strengths than we have different weaknesses and it's just I think it's really laudable to recognize that and even to keep students and their family that it's those individual areas at needs going up it's good to recognize me and take them on but this this was really great and thank you very much blood any other comments thank you hearing one more all right a little help with my sleep settings the third site improvement plan is one that comes more under my office directly and I think you've already heard about this from each of our
037schools because one of the things that is really exciting that we are doing now with the Jeff readership and our strategic plan is the district of the direction and we work together in a coordinated fashion on it and so I am just thrilled that at the right time for us to be working on an ongoing project where we map out and have a clear articulation of our learning progressions per student by that I mean from kindergarten through twelfth grade what is the social studies they're going to learn what is the English they're going to learn how do we put this all in one place and gives me goose bumpy to talk about it what will happen when we can be cross grade levels our intentional learning outcomes and those assessments and start talking to each
038other with that in mind so if the next guiding project is started last spring it'll be completed this spring as an initial draft and then from here on the fair and feeding of the what is our articulated plan for learning and is it aligned could it be improved is it tight what are we doing it's just going to be an exciting time for up to be able to be much more thoughtful about the learning outcomes because one of the cool things about education is that instruction works and the things that we are keeping kids they learn and so our work is to decide what are those very best the most powerful things to be doing and working together we will have a better viewpoint and a better understanding each of us in our individual roles
039so that is work underway and Jack picked off the year with it and each school has embraced it and this is just going to be one of those lifelong habits from here on in the effective goal area is that we have been working on over time and it's where we called it our assessment audit last year we started the work with an inventory of all the assessments in our schools that we administered a student this year and leading into next year I think this Billy might take us the time it takes us because one we have to really come to a shared understanding of what is the purpose of this assessment how does it relate to the state goals of proficiency levels by grade level how are our assessments that be giving on the inside
040of our district predicting student performance or aligned with other measures of proficiency outside the district and what do we think are the most essential assessment that ought to be going on for students that are the kind of assessments that they call obtrusive or stop the learning there's a lot of wonderful assessment you can do while students are learning but I think the other part work we're going to take our time with this is really also to listen to the Wellness Committee because being really clear about you know how much assessment we want in a student's life and how clear we should be about the essential purpose and asking ourselves how much is too much is part of the work that you know it is going to be our ongoing work but at that point in
041time we've completed the inventory and part of our assessment work we have the administrators are working to bring in an expert this year to really help us to analyze and study our data and think about our assessments as thoughtfully as possible and we think that from this type of a focus and the signaling that we ought to be really thoughtful what does assessment for is this the highest and best use of instructional time how will this assessment advance learning when we complete this work retreat our initial attempt at it we should be able to stand up show you our assessment collections and explain exactly why each assessment is included and how much time we're taking from students for assessment purposes so we started with a new state Heather this is the first year where we're
042really getting information back and we fasten our focus for this year is to start with a state task unpack it and really be concrete and clear about what's being asked the students and continue with this analysis work so those are the two goal areas that there right from the strategic plan and I'm just really excited to be part of it I'd love to only because you were so excited over there just a couple things tally it is unbelievably exciting on a couple different levels that the fact that if you know what you're driving toward with the assessments rather than that feeling that a lot of people have kids as well as parents that we're doing assessments for the sake of the assessments I think that clarifies that so well and then taking the curriculum and
043helping people to see where they're going and where they it's like I'm all at the map at that tap at the mall there you know you're here and this is where you where you can go I think that's really exciting the one challenge that I think that that we could have is continuing to build that narrative for parents that begins at on the very first day of school each here to lay it out in the way that you did because it will help people understand a lot better where their kids are going what they'll be experiencing thank you I love the notion of a narrative and I do think that unless people have heard in a way that makes sense to them we still have work to do you know what jump out on that
044last section to thank God my new friends over here were asking the questions that were on my mind and gg's we talk in jargon so many times and we get lost it and and I do think it's an opportunity where as we break those down people feel a lot more comfort in what the kids are doing and I would just say that instruction works we know that when we teach kids they learn we want to be really thoughtful about the times that we interrupt the learning for assessment and we want to be able to explain clearly why that was an important step sort of a detailed good um will there be anywhere telling me the path they can take us far as you know you have to take algebra this year to make experience next
045year will that be expressed I think that already exists the I school worked a couple years ago the talk and math out I think they call them close heart or progressions by subject area now things change but I do think that if we look in the course catalog that was how we asked our departments to think about representing courses but Madeline I I think there's another question back to a Kevin's idea of a narrative I wonder about working with kids to see if we could make those progressions are those blow cars as youthful and clear as possible let's go if you have any time I'd be happy to talk to you about what does exist and ask if there's a thought that you have four Republican or thing differently because obviously you know you've gotten
046this far doing very well without looking at that but other tapes might really we want to make sure they do know those things so we can do better on the articulation but I think it exists I'm sorry about that Julie okay so I won't forget if you won't forget thank you very much anything else yeah I was just going to say that this is we you have heard the board has heard eight out of nine state improvement plans that have been presented over the last few weeks we have one more to go which is technology and I believe that's the next your next meeting and that will conclude that we've been doing this every year that we've had a strategic plan this is the third time and believed that we have spared each school and
047departments state improvement plan and the reason we do that is to show the alignment between the district's strategic plan the work that them in the schools and the departments and from there our administrators help our teachers and our staff align their goals as well and so we're trying to throw this continuous alignment of the work that we do in a lot of the work that got Julian's Valley do in particular really dovetails with and kind of thread through all the work in the schools and other departments as well in the district so the strategic plan is a critical path breadth and the work that you're staying up here that they have put up here is only obviously a fraction of the work that really gets done these the work that we're highlighting this is the
048work that we're hyper focused on during a particular year and each year that SI p is tweaked or changed in order to highlight what is the most necessary areas for the district school or department thank you very much I care well I don't have to tell many of you today we had our crystal groundbreaking ceremony for the Performing Arts Center wonderful ceremony great weather for we had nearly 200 students and I want to thank the Performing Arts Department that includes our music and our drama programs for coordinating all of our students and singing and doing a reading a drama dramatic reading as well for quarrel and band so we had students participating across the grades elementary schools through high school and we had approximately between three and four hundred people that attended this event so
049we really are looking forward to it construction for the Performing Arts Center is on schedule later this week I believe Thursday they will begin the process of installing the foundation which will take weeks to complete it's a large building but it will start on Thursday along with the construction of the foundation also will come the fill that will surround the building and we have to fill in a lot of areas in order to support the Performing Arts Center foundation so all that work will begin later this week and I think it's going to start to take shape and be very exciting we received our ATP scores and if you want to know what hdt stands for it doesn't stand for anything okay it actually is just HDPE it did stand for something years and years
050and years ago and they decided they didn't care to do that and it's just like SPT they just decided that it's tasty tea so we've received our HTTP scores again and they're above average again only a fraction of our students go ahead and take the ACE DT scores but it's yet another indicator for college-level coursework 65% of our tested high school students are ready for the rigor of college courses and that's compares to 46% in Maine the were way above the state average and that includes 100 percent of our students are ready for English Composition Joan that must be good news family 1% are prepared for algebra 82% for social science and 76% for biology on the HDP score so those are good numbers and we are pretty consistent each year in the on the
051a speaking scores I'd like to congratulate the Greely sailing team the board about a year ago I believe sanctioned the beginning of a sailing team really and in their first inaugural year as official officially recognized team they came in first placed in the Clipper regatta on September 23rd so we were very proud of them they've been feeling for a while but this was their first year as an official really scaling teams though I want to thank the board for recognizing 10 sanctioning that team so ready for proficiency okay this is my next proficiency primer so if you remember last meeting we started talking about proficiency based education and this one is around assessment so assessment which tests quizzes project should have a direct relationship to the standards that are thoughts the one a proficiency based
052system we are aligning our assessments duct to what we say we should be teaching so that's very critical and it may sound like well yeah of course you would do that but I think we all remember back to when we were in school sometimes the test and have a whole lot to do with what we were taught or it was kind of a surprise and today we know proficiency-based education and good education tells us that we should tell kids what they're gonna learn and then we could assess them on what we teach them and hopefully they will learn and as Dali's dead it really works if we do the right things kids should do well if we and then we provide additional support if they don't do well but we should give them a fair
053shot and actually as best what we say we're going to be learning about so it's trinity that gotcha although like many of us who are in school many of us turn the same generation there was that bell curve many of you remember the bell curve don't only some students could get an A only some could get a B a big group got a thief and a smaller group got a deer and even worse than that and I'm sure none of us do that right so in proficiency-based education there are no bell curves the bell curve you can just throw it out the window it's all about standards and measuring your learning against the standard and not against how many kids in a particular class or grade level or in a standardized test should be doing
054well or not well and that is true learning instead of the bell curve so that continue to be formative or they can be summative and I always think some of those easy to remember because it's a summary it's a summary at the end of learning basically you planed what you think students to learned you've assessed them at the end on what the summary of their learning is and how they are making progress towards that learning target informative assessments are assessments that are completed basically along the way and they're kind of check-ins a teacher will check in and give a formative assessment and see how a student is doing and those might be your traditional quizzes or basically even though thumbs up or thumbs down on something that's being taught in that moment in real time
055so more and more of our teachers are moving in that direction towards using formative and summative assessments and matching them to what is being taught and then reteaching re teaching or providing extra challenges this is also part of proficiency and based on the assessment we are now moving the direction of if a student has been doing well in the assessment instead of moving on well maybe it's time for them to get additional support as well so that is your assessment snapshot for a proficiency-based education and if you like to learn more it will be in my blog tomorrow or the next day this week I also like to say the crumbling climate action team has reviewed our energy bills and has determined that through the district efforts to convert to natural gas sizable energy projects
056that the district has completed or isn't is completing electric charging stations for vehicles purchasing of energy wrecked we have after they reviewed all the bills that we provided for energy conservation we found that a 40% reduction in the carbon footprint in our district from two or three years ago when we started tracking this that's a lot we thank the Cumberland Climate Action Team for working with us on that and also doing all that auditing or so that's huge and that kind of what we thought was going to happen but we didn't know until we actually audit it I'm stole all of those things that the board has been supporting are starting to pay off which is really really great I'd like to put a plug in for our community dialogue which will be held on
057Thursday November 9th 5:30 to 8:30 what dinner will be provided in the Greely middle school gym and this is our kickoff event or the strategic plan the next strategic plan because at the end of this year we are going to retire in June the current strategic plan and we of course need a new strategic plan in place so this event will basically be the kickoff to get the community's dialogue he issues importance to be placed in the next plan and finally and Julie's gonna help me with this part of it we'd like to give the board an update in the public on pre-kindergarten and this is just a quick update but I think it's important the state has now signaled that they will be introducing a bill into the legislature with the governor's support for
058the education of three and four-year-olds who are identified with special education needs to now be educated in the public schools and not through child development services which is a branch of the State Department of Education I'm sorry it's own entity so at this point this change in service delivery could have a substantial impact on all districts in the state of Maine and I've asked Julie if she would just talk a little bit more about it I think I'm just gonna give an overview because we have a board workshop coming up shortly where we're gonna really delve into pre-k and we have a lot discussed that realm but I think a couple of things that Jeff and I and Sally really wanted to and Susie really wanted to highlight for the board was well we're really
059committed to early intervention and programming for all learners and well it's really the right thing for students to pick up our three and four-year-olds there does not appear to be in this legislation very clear vision around structure or financial support around how to do that and there's a pretty substantial impact on our school district I'm filmin a levels I mean the first that come to mind are just sort of things in transportation what does that look like in staffing but there's also that just really these which are all things that we'll delve into more at the board level but there there is pretty substantial impact and I think that that means that we need to do some thoughtful thinking about whether or not we're moving forward with the task force recommendation that we had made
060around a 16-room prequel one that was gonna be really cozy with 16 kids and really exciting this is the substantial legislation that would change that data that we didn't have when that task force was to really think about fully about what makes our communities we just got the information a couple weeks ago it had been kind of out there but Child Development Services is in debt basically in the red and has been in the red for a while so part of it is a financial situation the other part is I was at a regional meeting with superintendents from all the New England states and they were saying we've been doing three and four year old education of three and four year olds universally for years Maine you just need to get with the program that's
061basically the message that another superintendent for Maine and I heard very loud and clear they're being nice about it but basically like yeah we've been doing this for a long time you guys got to get on the on the bandwagon here and it makes sense for kids it does make sense for kids I think our only caution and worry is the mrs. Primm all superintendents I mean right now how do we what does it look like and what the implementation timeline what kind of resources are we going to need and what exactly does this mean this is there are a lot of questions have been answered by the Department of Education we're being told the legislation will be introduced in January in this best in the sport session of the legislature and that it's being
062pushed very hard by the governor by the Commissioner and by many members of the legislature and I think the only other really important point in terms of time payment that we have been told there are nine cdf sites in the state of maine and that the first five are going to close for this coming school year so that there would be five of the nine sites will close the first year and the additional four will close after that those five sites have not been named yet although there are rumors about what part of the state they fall into and our part happened through those the rumors but we don't know that for sure yet but that's how quickly they're intending that this implementation roll out is that by the September art of neck cool year
063we would really be adopting our three and four-year-olds in terms of the PDS child development services one thing that I hope I know we're we're kind of workshops that that I'm just particularly interested in is also if we do this while I understand you know the low-hanging fruit is going to be the mandate will be what is obviously the first thing we have to address in terms of special ed children but is then also the entrance ramp onto regular education and academic benefit in the developmental benefit also for not only the fish alleged children to be with the regular ed but that the regular and are also with the special ed as opposed to you know just not as though special it is also just like we won finite faith in terms of how it
064manifests then and I mean I I get a little concerned about sort of the you know little separate Enclave early on well I understand the services but in terms of just really becoming that grade becoming an integrated whole so can't really be a standalone service for a lot of reasons I mean when you think special education many people think about our students are self-contained and how substantial needs wait there's also the bulk of the students are like speech and language only do them exactly get like 30 minutes a week of beat they're not going to come I mean their least restrictive environment isn't a specialized setting their least restrictive environment is a preschool right right and so unless there's a universal pre-k program for all three and four-year-olds I mean there are very few students
065that we adopt every year into RK that are actually that level of special education that they require a self-contained classroom so that that's a lot of what we've been working okay regard workshop is to really look at what is least restrictive our students how do we develop models that look like that but but I think there's two paths one is how do we manage the legislation and provide feedback about legislation as it goes to the session which is critically and how do we plan for if there needs to be an implementation in September that's substantial budget implications and heavy lifting in terms of work in order to ensure that we're ready for those but it was at that time frame and and that's the piece that I really want us look to try to address
066in part during the workshop is because it's moving rapidly is what's going to be our board's response to the legislation and you know our going to have you know our unified you know a letter that we send are we going to be growing up doe dying are we going to be coordinating with other districts and you're developing some response because you know a piece of legislation is fine but it's getting a little difficult the number of pieces the legislations that get cranked out that have no funds attached to them I know and I would think that our Commissioner of Education given his background and experience and love for all of us here in MFE would you know sitting from our side of the desk and having to talk about unfunded mandate you know because is
067open to that discussion with us this has a substantial implication and one that I mean the reason that I had dates our job that Brent had an update is because well I think from a regular ed perspective there's a substantial impact from a special perspective there's even more because you really have to think about the laws and regulations around those threes and four-year-old and how to make program decisions and staffing decisions around that and it's not as easy as we adopted this many kids each year so those are the number of students that were now responsible for and you're right I mean you would it's a very substantial piece of legislation that doesn't yet have a vision around an infrastructure to support that financially and so well it's the right thing for students and nobody's
068denying that there's there needs to be work done I know just who can get there from just the biblical standpoint alone by next September so I think we'll be talking a lot more about it I just dig knowing that I'm not sure the conversation with the workshop was initially designed for is gonna be the same conversations we're going to be having now given the legislation yes that's absolutely true and I will say that the Cumberland County superintendents are this is a major topic that we're discussing right now in our County meetings and we're continuing to do just the same things that Karen mentioned how do we advocate first of all that this is our you know we're not debating I think anybody's debating that this is a bad thing I think having three and four-year-olds
069and educating kids in the public school system can be very positive but how are we doing it and what is the approach in the implementation timeline Julie and I are meeting with representative Tenno and standard Breen together this week later this week and we are discussing only this this legislation and how it needs to be thoughtful and how it needs to be handled carefully and they are all ears and would like to talk to us about what we you know what we're thinking and where we think we're going to be going with this and how can they help when that legislation is introduced so they're being very proactive and I want to thank both of them for coming and meeting with us this week great all right thank you I don't think there's any public
070comment so let's go ahead and we'll roll out committee reports by Karen finance you know again I had it all up here now okay thank you the Finance Committee met on the 19th and it was that first first meeting of the year so we did a little bit of a finance primer on what's like to be on the Finance Committee and what to expect we will be doing in Scotland that's not to bring us through that we will be doing poorly general fund updates after run will be April 2nd meeting in October we talked about least purchases and what's a typically used for and what might be what we might be seeing along those lines this year we talked about the Performing Arts Center and how the stopping of the debt would occur over time
071and as the debt the Performing Arts Center was brought on and that document that we used during the Performing Arts Center discussions last year was shared with everyone our audit is complete and the audit will be if they're done with their work variant out Talbot but they'll be presenting the audit just gotten Jeff and we'll probably be looking at it in December it's a Finance Committee meeting I'll let you all know specifically when we also are developing a budget calendar obviously based on when the referendum is and then backing it up from there to the date - Jeff wants to be able to roll the budget out in time to have a certain number of public hearings on the budget it's better so that's fun worked up ahead of us we also talked to abstracted
072we've already brought up the five-year capital plan and this base studies and in fact my colleague over here Mike and I've already talked about a joint meeting in January between the Finance Committee and the Facilities Committee to talk that the last thing that we recently had to go out for additional funds to to fund the development of the or the building of the Performing Arts Center so we went out for another bond anticipation note for the pack and part of our profile was that our district was had very modest debt of eight point three percent of our expenditures and that 69 percent of our debt will be declining over the next ten years our profile is also noted for the strengthened reserves and it's teacher plan the strategic plan is something that like Standard and
073Poor's look for when they're looking to give your determine your rating our capital plan and our capital projects were also a plus process the district and identified as a strengthen our profile as well as the fact that we maintain a strong fund balance so those are all just good things for the board to know that it does benefit us when we need to go out as we've discussed in the past and bond anything and based on that the other rating that our district received was the highest short-term rating you could receive from Standard & Poor's of one o'clock and that affirms our double a-plus rating from Standard & Poor's which is our long-term d'etre our bond ratings though those are just did I say that alright they leave anything out there Scott okay so and
074it's just actually two more little things that they've talked about which I'll forget talked about in our audit is that our approach to budgeting which is the zero based approach where we basically zero out everyone's budget from last year and say to our district leadership team you know talk to us about what you need this year and what we're funding and also our ability to track our budget to actuals and and not only our ability but the fact that we do that on a regular basis then present that as well we're two other highlights so that I think I've covered it all so I just want you know we should obviously fiscal management or prudent physical management that got us into this and positioned and path boards have worked with Scott and Jeff future boards
075will continue to work with Scott and Jeff and it's important for us all board members to understand the basis for why we build the capital reserves we build the fund balance and things like that so great that's all I got that's a good report I might take things that order if you reference I think it might be a good segue Mike why don't you go ahead right into facilities and then I'll circle I'll circle back up just because define you so I'm just giving you on your toes understood yeah this morning the Facilities Committee met for the first time this year we collaborated to identify the time that worked for most people most of the time we're going to be connecting on the first Monday of each month at 9:00 a.m. the one exception to
076that is Monday January 1st in recognition of the holiday and because we didn't want Scott to have to come in that day is probably going to snow based upon earlier report we're going to convene on the second and do sort of a joint mid-year check-in with the Finance Committee there's a lot of things that were undertaking over the next year that will definitely have some overlap with the financial components including the five-year capital plan really strong group hits the ground running this morning already met with Steve Blatt making some plans as it relates to a study just conducting an inventory of what's currently you know available for space in the district and how it's currently being used and then identifying what our future and long-term needs are going to be and then the stock to
077new tonight we got the whole board out there with trouble started digging a hole for a Performing Arts Center so I think it's really going to come together it's a good thing okay well then well thank you for that and thanks for getting it really actually was a really great ther emoni and I don't know if I thanks also to Ashley Caswell we're putting that together it was it was really nice and so it's not here but Ashley Caswell on the ether you're getting and thank you why don't we go ahead to curriculum to Anna you Karen the 15 I and actually we met and then we're gonna meet with curriculums going to be well actually one of the things we need to look at is preschool so there's there's a number of items like
078system programming preschool and so on so I think we're just going to try to meet probably more quarterly I don't think it's a monthly meeting the bulk of the work was done for persistence they you know getting very first emergency but there's a number of items stem preschool and sort of looking at the curriculum mapping that's been done and these were all hand these are all quick notes between Sally and I evening but we'll be adding to that and so when you say you're gonna meet quarterly one with your next meeting actually we haven't had a full meeting yet we've what we've been so we're your your plan always point back or Viki we put back next meeting on that actual calendar I will eagerly await you do you have anything else to add up
079to date information particular perspective proficiency based upon wisdom right all right well good we'll look forward to to hearing from you stop negotiations anything you can share on that nothing dies this part all right well then we weren't taking care of facilities I'm gonna bounce on over to Kevin was teacher planet thank you um so we had our first session I guess it was last week on the 25th and the group that came together is kind of an exciting group to have a mix of board members a number of faculty members administration and some spectacular people from the community and we began really with the discussion about what we're driving toward or what everybody in that committee would would determine to be a great outcome and there was an enormous amount of passion people that
080are interested in providing a legacy to the community to the students to everybody involved in it it's a great trip to be part of we spent some time getting an overview from the superintendent on on the purpose and direction of a strategic plan what was really exciting is the work that you've done and the previous committee did to get to the point that we are because it's a it's a strategic plan that's in Jordan as part of every meeting we begin the work talking about some critical dates and where we're driving toward the first big date that we have is November 9th and that is the community dialogue session and we we began to discuss a number of different directions that we could go in terms of what the construct of that meeting would be
081and what the attendee list would look like and came to the determination that while we could debate for many many hours the subjectivity may accelerate our results and so two sub committees were formed one of them is focusing on stakeholder list to make sure that we get the right people within that room the determination of how we can make sure that it's truly additive process and the invitations will get out and then the second piece was was looking at the session itself and having the correct constructor will encourage people's participation as well as making sure that folks don't generally gravitate to the front of a group will be able to be heard fully that's where we are minutes will be going out very shortly the next meeting date is October 23rd at 4:30 at nearby
082Wilson great okay any questions for Kevin why I'm going to go ahead and ask students to report or student to report and then we'll we'll do files because persons I could read and then we'll take it from there anything first I have a bigger court here in became our next week bringing any to that along with normal class word and we're getting you the case in construction already they've already started working out a little bit out so where can you start and exciting and then we're also working on recruiting other students for the dinner on deliver to November great okay thank you good report um the one that I hate want to shoot a poster so you'll see for policies per first reading tonight I know it might look like policy works very quickly this
083fall but these are all policies the first and second reads the night our policies that we worked extensively on last year and we're kind of we tied up in the fall so here they are the three financial policies pretty straightforward you'll notice down under legal references many of them just had a simple statutory change as well as just kind of updating and cleaning up the language Scott would be the authority on those thus he kind of knows our policies financially inside and out I know he's already answered a few questions on those policy JD would be a new policy transgender student guidelines than this was the policy that it was just very clear from our administrators and our legal counsel that we need to implement this year though those will be voting on next next
084meeting do you want to go ahead and do yeah does anyone have any um well let me just say this I guess if anyone has any immediate thoughts or comments with respect to the first reads please go to Kate if there's um not at all dampening discussion now but probably for the first read begin to discuss with Kate and they can percolate up okay well yeah why don't you go ahead and I know I'm taking things a little bit out of order but why don't we just go ahead and go right to the specular okay we have second read don't they have five files bays tonight does everyone else know sorry for policy all right so we will take this the first one on our blue note number nine items for action number beans this
085is the second reading of GCF we use the social media by school employees so I'll make their emotion and we can have discussion if people would like to do that so I move to approve policy GT FB use the school social media by Eric sorry use the social media by school employees as presented second please but any discussion on that are people ready for a vote on that okay all in favor anyone opposed okay great we do the same for the room I move to approve policy d BG budget adoption process as presented second please one second any discussion are we ready to vote all in favor anyone opposed I move to approve policy dfa investments as presented do I have a second spaghetti okay comments all in favor anyone opposed I move to approve
086policy di F picked out that I've presented I'll second any comments all in favor anyone opposed I moved to approve Paulo PD End school personal school property disposition all in favor I'll second that oh sorry about that I was on foot your role okay great and are there any comments on that sure how common is this it's not common to have anything that's the next up to 5,000 many times even if it's under $5,000 we have something like this pool but there's nothing like that that we're disposing of will usually put that out together notification or contact several people who may be interested in it so it's it's unusual to have it one year we didn't have a tractor Kubota tractor that we did have to bid off and it was over five thousand but
087it's not there it's not that frequent thank you any other comments all right all in favor anyone opposed we will meet before the next school board meeting you can see the agenda it's already posted online if you have to cancel today's meeting and it would be it would be the same agenda though anyone who wants to condom share their thoughts is always looking now going back to kill some time with we need to elect a board delegates to the MSP a delegate assembly for October 26 2017 is there any board member who is interested in attending do you mind to be our delegate I will commit being the delegates correct I mean like that was fantastic would someone like to designate I'll nominate Kate to be our delegate to the MS be a delegate assembly
088on October 26 I was second up oh okay any comments I keep going everyone with this okay all in favor there we go anyone opposed anyone vocally publicly opposed by school ok can you know it and I think I do have one other time communication yeah okay yeah yeah I got my wires class because I was thinking about there is a I just the town of Cumberland is going to be is looking at the polls about what to do with 30 I think it's a 37 acre a lot and they recently put on their website that they're holding a piano discussion and people should apply through it we have to live in Cumberland though but then there are selecting people - I think they want between 125 people to be to participate in like a
089roundtable discussion about the options that are available for this parcel of property includes I think you thought something in the newspaper about it includes potentially a senior development multi-generational development no development like you do nothing with the land for now and I do know that some of the discussion has been around whether or not school your enrollment is declining or not which we all know it is not declining it is below presently right now where we've been at high in the past but we have been seeing steadily increasing enrollment over the last three years and the enrollment study projected that we're going to be back to 2300 or so I just wanted to make sure that all Cumberland representatives were aware of the meeting and that I think they're going to select I would recommend
090that everybody apply for it and you know because I think it will be important to have at least you know one-two-three representers from the board there because I'm sure there will be some discussion or about what is the school's enrollment or what was the enrollment study you know I agree I unfortunately am going to be out of town on business that night so I can't attend but I do think it will be important we can we can certainly talk about that and and just making sure that in terms of us being to the extent we have a consistent message in terms of what the enrollment study looks like whether or not you know I think all of us understand that we don't necessarily advocate for bigger or smaller populations we just we just serve it
091that isn't an objective of ours to increase or decrease size the community dictates and we educate the children so we'll keep ahead with that messaging and I appreciate that I think the conversation is a very good one and that's a great I don't think yeah and I again I think it's you're right you know we're not taking a commission but I think it's going to be important to have accurate and the other strings here and there yeah definitely so is there anything else with that I will take my favorite motion would anyone care to move to adjourn I'll live to the drum would anyone like to second that Vicki will second that are there any comments on the journey all in favor and I hope there's no one opposed alright great thank you very much
092[Music] you