001announcements tonight. Um, welcoming Joanne McKenna, who is appointed a board member from the town of Parsonsfield, joining us for her first meeting tonight. Um and Finley, uh Hendrickk and Josephine Connelly, who are the new student representatives to the board, also joining us to give a report tonight for the first time. Um we do have a hearing of delegations tonight regarding graduation date. Um and before we start on that, I'm just going to review our policy on um rules for public comment at school board meetings. For those in attendance, um we do include a public comment period not to exceed 30 minutes of the agenda at regular business meetings. Comments by individuals are limited to a maximum of 3 minutes. Um and individuals may not relinquish a portion of their aotted time to another speaker. Speakers
002will be recognized by um the board chair, myself, and comments should be addressed to me. Uh requests for information or concerns that require further research may be referred to the superintendent for further action or answers for us if we need clarification. Uh each individual who wishes to speak will be required to state their name and town not city town or city of residents before beginning their remarks. Um and discussion of personnel or individual student um matters are not permitted during public session. So no names um etc. Okay. >> Do we have someone who wants to speak first? >> Um yeah I would like to. Um >> can you give us your just your name? >> My name is Heidi Edwards. Um, and I'm just I know I spoke with Carl the other day and like
003one of the questions he had asked me was um you know what is this pertaining to or where is it all coming from? Um it's just the right thing to do to change the date. I mean it's always been the first weekend in June for the Special Olympics. Um and you know it may only affect a couple of students each year. some years none none of them but as volunteers and family members we have to decide which way to go whether we can go to the graduation or go to Special Olympics um you know I have gathered a bunch of signatures for people who are on board with changing it even if it's changed to a Thursday evening um or a Sunday because Sundays never affected us we were able to go enjoy the activities
004and stuff um by having it on a Friday it just makes it very challenging. Um, these kids would have to do graduation, then drive up there late at night. Um, and they just wouldn't, you know, the next morning it's an early morning, they'd miss the parade, they'd miss a lot of the activities. It's a weekend long event. And these kids look forward to it so much each year. And I mean, if anyone who's ever been part of it or even just gone and witnessed anything there, it's really about empowerment and making everyone feel included. And so as a whole really is trying to push for everyone feels included. And I think by having graduation on a Friday, it's excluding these kids um or making them have to make a tough decision. And that's just it
005just feels like it's the right thing to do. So, um, just for the record, so it's in the notes, what town are you from? >> Oh, Parson's Field. Okay. >> Is there anyone else that wanted to speak here tonight? >> Am I allowed to speak since I didn't email? Because I was told that I wasn't allowed to. >> Yep. Oh, okay. >> So, so long as it's not about a staff member or an individual student, but in general, >> it'll just be talking about the kids in general. Yeah. >> So, state your name and town. >> My name is Alicia Chambers and I'm from East Baldwin. Um, I honestly don't I would like for the graduation date to be changed because the kids look forward to having that opportunity to feel normal and to feel
006included and this is their one time to actually be able to feel included with multiple different choices of what they get to do. They already make enough tough decisions. I don't feel that this should be another one that they have to make or the family members especially whenever we are from small towns we don't necessarily have money. So being able to make those decisions and plan it I just really feel that it should be moved for them. Yeah, they're the minority but in the end I just really feel passionate about this being moved for the kids in general. So, if you guys would please take that into consideration, I would greatly appreciate it. >> Anyone else wanted to say anything? Jordan. >> Sure. She wants to >> What's that? >> Would you leave those the
007copies with us? >> I can. And one of the wrote a note. I don't know if you want the note or not, but >> if you leave them here, I I can return them back. Yeah, that's um so everyone that's here knows um Mr. Landry has collected some other information for us because we knew that you wanting to come and talk to us about it. >> Um and it is we probably won't act on it tonight. We don't have an action item on our agenda, but we as a board can put it on u our next or future agenda after discussion. >> Yeah. Um, we feel like we >> I know I, you know, we've gathered the signatures. There's been a lot of I'm sure we could have gathered more, but you know, working every
008day at the school, it's not always conducive to, you know, doing that. So, um, but most of the students that I've talked to seem to be fine with it. I mean, we're not trying to take away from their day to shine or anything like that. We're just trying to give these kids the opportunity to shine in their own light. you know, and I just really hope you would reconsider having it set in, you know, having it set for that Friday. I mean, it could be any Friday. And I get the point of having it a certain day every year so people can count on it. I understand you're not going to always um make everybody happy all the time, but I mean, they're part of our district. They're part of our schools. You know, these
009kids are in the halls every day. We try our best to keep them as part of the group. Um, and this should be something they shouldn't have to make a decision about and decide a tough choice cuz you know they have a lot of tough choices every day. So, and you've all had the opportunity to read my letter. I guess other than that, not much else. >> Thank you for coming and speaking. Great. Okay. So, on with the rest of our agenda. Attendance. We're good, right? >> Yes. >> Consideration to approve the minutes for the September 3rd board of directors meeting for a motion. >> Jill say, >> all in favor? >> Anybody else? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Consideration to approve the proposed agenda for the October 8th, 2025 board of directors meeting.
010>> Jill, Jen, >> something with you, Jen. >> I know. All in favor? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Student report. Welcome our new student reporters. >> Good evening. The beginning of the Sockby Valley School year has been a great success. Fall varsity sports have been racking up the wins and the crowd turnout at all the games has been immensely impressive. Upcoming games include the homecoming games, football in the 10th against Helstar, field hockey and girls and boys soccer on the 11th against Lisbon. In other extracurriculars, the fall play has been announced as Radium Girls, a historical play centering around the infamous Radium Girls, factory workers during and after the First World War who are forced to ingest radium daily without knowing the deadly consequences. The other show dates will be uh November 14th, 15th,
011and the 16th. We invite and encourage everyone to attend. Other upcoming coming events include the homecoming dance which will be on October 11th with the theme of a night in Rio. In academics, ninth graders have begun a new goal setting tactic where each week they create a goal on a sticky note and if they complete the goal by the end of the week, they get to crumble it up and put it in a basketball hoop. The upcoming National Honor Society induction ceremony will be on October 29th at 6 p.m. In the middle school, Newbury Honor Award-winning author Cynthia Lord is visiting 3rd through 8th grade on November 4th through 6th. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions about the writing process. >> Thank you very much. Questions for them? Can I make a statement?
012>> So, I went to the I go to a lot of the games, but the um opening game for football was very well attended. Lots of staff was there, teachers, and families. And yeah, it was good to see. Plus the kids. But >> okay, business finance report. >> So I'll take these. So we're doing two months at once and they're both the same and they probably been pretty much the same for the last 10 years. State subsidies been received and recorded. The five town revenues also come in received and recorded. Food service expenses at the start of the year do uh exceed revenues. We'll catch up as the year goes on. Very common practice for us. uh and adult debt revenues exceed expense are in line with the budget. The only additional piece I have
013this month that I don't usually have, our auditors uh came last week to start the audit process. It'll be several steps. They will ultimately, as you know, report to the board at the end, but preliminarily they were very happy with the work that Peggy and her team have done. Peggy deserves a lot of credit and we'll have the full report hopefully before December 31st. It lately has been March before we get the full report, but uh initial signs look very good. So Petty Peggy deserves a lot of credit. That's finances. >> Facilities. I'll take that one as well. Is the most action we've had in a long time. Uh so recapping from last month, as you know, Isaiah Fields did a generous donation to expand the wait room facility at the high school. We waited
014some time to get fire marshall approval. We put out for goods Johnny Wing. John Wing was the winning bidder. John Cervantes will meet with him shortly and try and shore up all the details and make sure it comes in uh like it's supposed to. Hopefully, it'll be done before uh January 2nd. So, we're pretty excited to have an addition on the wait room. Uh the trees uh 10 or so trees that they outlined that that need to come down have been removed from the property. So, that was a board suggestion. I thought it was a great suggestion. That work has been done. So, we finally got a couple things done that we've been waiting a little while to finish. And the new news, uh, the high school home varsity boys baseball dugout has a pretty
015significant crack, uh, in it. So, we'll try and get a Mason to come and take a look, but it looks like that dugout will need to be a repaired or bac. Someone uh has stepped up and said they would volunteer should it need a footing. I'm getting out of my depth and embarrassing myself with my construction, but like you put a home with the forms, someone volunteered to do that work should it need to be replaced. So, I'll keep you posted. It's very early stages, but that dugout definitely is going to need some work. The high school football team has raised enough money to renovate the practice field, uh, tilling 6 in the field, regrading, hydro seeding, and watering. That would come out of their football funds to try and improve their practice field after
016the season's over. Uh that's more good news. Board members that have been around for a long time might be aware that uh we bought three U-Haul trucks to take trash to the Tritown Waste as a money-saving technique. We used to pay a company to haul our trash to Portland. It's been a mutually beneficial relationship. Time goes by pretty fast. They looked it up. I think we bought those U-Hauls in 2015 and they were old when we bought them in 2015. So it's now 2025. We've had those three U-Hauls for 10 years. We've certainly gotten some uh life and years out of them. It's time to probably start replacing them. We did buy a new 2009 Ecoine 450. So, we are now looking to sell a 1999 Ford E350 box U-Haul trash truck that has only
017226,000 miles on it. So, that beauty is going for public sale in our shopping guide. Uh I don't know when we can get in uh Miss Connor and Miss Day. Probably next Wednesday would be my guess. >> You should be able to. >> Um so it's my duty per policy to inform the board when we sell surplus items. So again, people that are here, you don't have a crowd. Hot ticket item. It's a 1999. It uh to be fair needs more work. It's rusted out and they were questioning giving it a sticker, but it is one sweet ride. So uh we'll get that ad out. And then the other thing that we're looking to sell, equally beautiful, is a 1978 950 John Deere two-wheel drive tractor that comes with a snowblower, mowing deck, and bucket
018loader. We don't use it. It is unsafe and worn out. All for the starting bargain price of $2,000. So, you will see that ad. We uh got those starting prices. Johnny Civanti checked with the John Deere dealership about what would be a reasonable starting amount and he checked with U-Haul company to see what it would be a reasonable starting amount. We might not get that Dean. I don't know. But it's my obligation to tell this board over 500. I tell the towns if it's 5,000 or more. We haven't crossed that threshold. Now maybe someone will bid 20 grand on one of those beauties. Get them. They're going to go fast. Um that's the We don't usually have this much excitement in construction, but tonight we're rolling. That's where I have uh construction report. >> That's
019exciting. >> It is exciting. Yes. >> All right. Moving on. Curriculum committee report. >> Uh we met on September 10th and we had um most of the principles, some of the school counselors and social workers and um special ed director join us. Uh we reviewed our graduation rates for um uh five years. We don't have all of the rates for 24 25 yet, but so we reviewed um those rates. Um and we also looked at um Mrs. Day presented some great information from the rural dropout prevention issues and solutions um from National Dropout Prevention. Talked about um why dropout prevention matters, the strengths of our uh rural schools, which we have several strengths. um talking about, you know, lower pup p people to teacher ratios, um a high level of teacher commitment and strong relationships
020with some of our community partners like the Saki Valley Health Center. Um and talked about a lot of our um programs, character strong bar programs that are used in our schools um to help with those dropout prevention rates. Um some of the challenges um talking about um physical resources, lack of support services, um mobility, um some of those things. Um we talked about why students drop out. Um and some of the um some of the reasons for uh youth in rural settings um talking about you know conflicts about moving moving away, getting jobs, environmental influences, things of that nature. Um so we looked at the you know different factors. Um there are push factors and pull factors and fallout factors that we all we reviewed. Um and we're looking at solutions obviously um for drop
021for student dropout. So um uh talked about um some of the interventions that are used for dropouts. um assigning adult advocates, providing academic support and enrichment all throughout their their school years, personalizing learning environment and instructional processes, and providing um vigor and um rigor vigor and relevant instruction. Um and so we are um looking at some planning and implementation of interventions. Dr. talked about um a book called The Disengaged Teen and how they'll be doing a book study with his staff this year. Um and we're going to continue to um meet do some dropout prevention discussion and develop an of an action plan and we'll start that at our November at November 12th meeting. >> This is great. Thank you. >> She asked me if I did these things. I said I did not. That
022was Suzan Day. Oh my god. >> No, I will not take credit. That's really great. >> It was a great It was a great um presentation they did. So, >> uh wellness committee has not had a meeting. Their next meeting will be October 20th at 1:15 p.m. Lake Region Vocational Advisory Committee has not had a meeting. Next meeting October 24th at 9:00 a.m. I think. Um, adult ed advisory committee has not had a meeting. Their meeting will be October 28th at 300 p.m. Which brings us to policy committee report on the September 10th meeting. Uh, the committee decided the following policies are ready for a first read at tonight's board meeting. Uh, GBGAA, bloodborne pathogens. GBGE, return to work and reasonable accommodations administrative procedure. IHBA-R the referral procedures and general education interventions administrative procedure IHBB
023gifted and talented education. Um we also reviewed IHBAI the special education independent educational educational evaluations and decided to revisit that one. This says October, but it's really going to happen in November um meeting because we had some unanswered questions and we our next meeting was today. Okay. Thank you. Which brings us to our action items on the policies that were just mentioned. Um so I will be looking for a motion for consideration to approve the following policies as first read. GBGAA bloodborne pathogens. GBGE, return to work and reasonable accommodations administrative procedure. IHBA-R referral procedures and general education interventions administrative procedure and IHB gifted and talented education. Is there a motion to approve those as first read? Jill >> Jen voting. >> Sorry. Thought you were raising your hand to speak. All right. >> All right.
024Discussion. No. All those in favor. >> First read. >> Thank you. >> Consideration to approve the following policies as second read and adoption. EFDA. School nutrition program collection of money. EF competitive food sales and EFBA menu development options offer versus serve. >> Joe, Jen, >> those in favor. >> Sure. So, uh, for folks here, we usually don't have that. And for folks watching, appointments, Nicole Eaton, special edtech at the elementary school. Leslie Crotto, special edtech at the elementary school. Jamie Bllelock, special edtech at the middle school. Darlene Bean, joining us as a evening custodian at the elementary school. And a resignation from Greg Treser, middle school boys uh basketball trip coach. Truck and tractor sale we have covered. So, graduation date. Uh Heidi mentioned to me that she would be here. Uh, so just wanted
025to recap a little background on graduation, how we've gotten to this point and certainly let the board have a conversation if you'd like or whatever Missy would like to do. So I think for many years we graduate and there are people that have graduated here and come to school here and been around a lot longer than me, but um I think we graduated traditionally on Sunday. Uh there was a push I want to say gez around the time maybe I started as superintendent tennis years ago a little longer uh maybe Friday night under the lights would be cool. Uh so I think for many years back over time we had votes. Do you want Friday night? Do you want Sunday seemed to be what the votes uh came down to. Typically around 70% of the
026folks would vote for uh Friday night. 30-ish% would vote for a Sunday. No graduation day comes without cons. Uh, everybody has different concerns with different days. So, we've sort of settled on Friday night. I want to say for the last since 2020 co it's been all Friday nights that we've graduated uh once. My mistake tried to put in rain. Never do that again. So, if you want the certainty of when graduation is. So, we're never going to have a rain date again because is it raining? Is it not raining? My family's in town. But we've settled uh pretty decently on Friday night. So we knew this was coming. Tried to check around. The two most popular days for graduation seem to be among high schools. Friday night or Sundays. Those are the two most popular
027days. A few of our big neighbors, Mass Bon Eagle, Sanford do like Tuesday night, Thursday night. I think primarily, I don't know this for a fact, but they rent big arenas. They're huge crowds. They go to the civic center, whatever. Um, so, uh, the board, what are the schools that have Friday nights due? So, our, uh, one of our staff members contacted about eight or nine schools that have Friday night graduations. And this is awful to tell you, and I, I know I'm TV, I won't mention the schools, but most of them didn't even realize it was a problem or a conflict. Several of them didn't know it was the same weekend as Special Olympics, so didn't really get good advice there. Uh, and then the one district that did know about and answered, and
028this is not the popular thing to say, and I know that I know we have people here, but to tell the the facts, said, you know, kids make a choice whether they go to graduation or special Olympics. I'm not saying that's right. I'm saying the one district that gave us an answer, that was the only answer we got of all the Friday night crowds. Um, so Sunday, some of the some there's been some cons of Sunday, the heat of the day, but it doesn't conflict with school. the majority of our people seem to want Friday night. We set uh so we had voted the past three or four years. So this year trying to get ahead of it, the board voted Friday night. Let's put in the calendar so people can plan because the people
029can't plan. They don't know when to come. People fly in. People make plans. So we set it and obviously uh Heidi uh has brought this concern. So that's how we got here. It's a board sets the calendar. I'm going to try and put it in your lap, but um it would be a board decision as to what the pros and cons are or Friday, Sunday changing it, Special Olympics, uh etc. That's the research that I did. I don't know how useful that that is. But again, Friday night and Sunday seems to be the most two popular days to graduate students. And and just to clarify one point that I made, you can't really change weekends because you have to graduate within five days of the normal end of the school year. So that pretty much
030is the weekend. The board doesn't have discretion to say, "Let's do it the week earlier." I guess the board would have discretion to go a week later. Uh but anybody that's worked with seniors, uh keeping them a week beyond everybody else to graduate, um you know, I think seniors and we had I put you on the spot. seniors tend to want to get out as soon as they >> can get out and it's been been that way for a long time. So I think if the board worried whatever the board wants to do but I think that is the weekend because of how the school calendar falls. I don't think there's a lot of flexibility in weekends would have to come that weekend and I know there are other things and sporting events and track
031meets and we've heard that in the past. I think when there was a track meet on Saturday and you graduated Friday night the kids would have to choose project grad or the track. So, this is not a unique uh conversation. Super appreciative for the folks bringing it to the attention. That's everything I know. >> All right. I appreciate all that leg work. That helps answer some questions for me. So I um being a recent having a senior and then doing project grad and trying to figure out because of the state track meet and having project grad and having a senior who couldn't get a weight to leave school and is not really in it. So I do wonder if Thursday might not be the day. And the only reason I say that is because well
032obviously they want to get out of school. I when you're doing the project graduation if we did it that night after Thursday those seniors aren't really required to be at school after graduation >> if they would graduate on Thursday. That's correct. >> They would not have school. So I don't have a lot of interest. I feel like there's a lot of staff uh participation that on a graduation on a Sunday and they did have a vote when my daughter had it, but they voted the kids voted the kids voted for Friday night and you know those parents who told their kids they wanted Sunday probably pick Sunday. So, I feel for you guys, you know, and I know it's a hard choice for everyone to make and hard choice for us and every year we
033seem to be debating graduation, but I think and we want to get to a point where we're not doing this anymore and and Thursday might become our day. It's just my thoughts. >> Sorry. Go ahead. Okay, >> I recommend Thursday as well. At least try it for a year and see, you know, what happens and if it actually works out for everybody and then great, we'll stick to it. But if not, then you might have to revert back to a different date, but I'd be open to trying to go there. So, for all my years in high school, I always volunteered in what they called the WOW room. I don't know if they still call it the WOW room or not, but it was uh it was the special education room. And I went to
034Orno a few times and before I graduated and I tell you it was a absolutely thrilling experience and it was huge and it was um it it was just a nothing short of amazing to watch these kids be able to um be involved in such big massive crowd of events and be so proud of all the work that they had you know, work for and accomplished. And um so I don't think that they should have to choose. I think that it should be a Thursday night thing. Um because these kids should not have to um they shouldn't have to choose between I mean this just going to Orno, it was just massive. I went through three years and it it just is so I don't know. I I can't describe how much the kids looked
035forward to it when I was in high school. Anyways, I remember a lot of the kids I still love, you know, a lot of the kids that I've worked with and everything. And and um I um they they shouldn't have to choose between graduation and doing this event that they've worked for and worked for and worked for to go all the way to Oro. I think it should be theirs tonight. I'm totally in agreeance with that. As we know, graduation is a big family event and uh I'm glad to hear it was mentioned that uh not everybody can be satisfied all the time. Um we wrestled with times debates particularly weekend and uh obviously when it comes to family uh not only parents but uh ensl grandparents and so on so forth and friends are
036involved the number within the families greatly surpasses a few students student uh participating in other events. Um so the strength of our decision did revolve around convenience to to the family and particularly those who travel a distance uh earlier on the weekend Friday or Saturday is better than Sunday because there's you know they have to return to work on Monday and quite often with the families after graduation it involves family get together and parties and drag down another day and so on so forth. So, so I I think uh it should be strongly encouraged to keep it on Friday night for uh more the convenience of the number of participating the families and particularly those who work. Okay. >> Um I think we should consider changing for sure. um a group has come to us
037and requested it and I think a week night is going to be problematic because if you get a Thursday night graduation now Wednesday evening afternoon whatever senior assembly I can tell you other athletics and clubs are going to have problems that week. Anything that's in playoffs is definitely playing that week and that's going to be a problem. So I think perhaps we should consider going back to Sunday. I think it only changed from Sunday because we had the fancy lights and all that and I think we should just consider putting it back on Sunday. I know it's heat problem. Request people to bring water, bring an umbrella. I don't know. Um I think if we go on a school day, weekday, you're running into problems with other groups and I think you're going to be
038in the same situation that we're in right now. Whereas Sunday, I don't think there can be any athletics in the NPA and I don't know about anything else. >> I don't think we have any insurance. I understand the travel issue, but I think if it's important to you, you'll find a way to get there, and you'll find a way to get back home on time. I think if it's important, you make the priority. But I think the priority for us should be students and students being available to go to it without having to make a choice. And I don't think these students should have to make a choice, but I also don't think baseball or softball or track or anybody else should have to make a choice either. >> Um, so I think Sunday as
039well. I graduated Sakia in 1990. Um, on Father's Day, June 17th, it was the hottest day of my life. Um, I was the grand marshal. We were out there in the blazing hot sun on the baseball field. Um, grandparents were dropping like flies, but they were happy to be there. Um, it was always a tradition to have it on Sunday. It was because of the lights that we got, fancy lights on the soccer field. Um the the kids that were talking about missing something already miss things in their life. Um they shouldn't Special Olympics has had an established weekend as well. Um, and I know it's been um a tough decision not only for the students and their families, but for um many of the staff that work at Sakipe who want to be part
040of Special Olympics and be part of graduation. Um, I think these are really special individuals who participate in Special Olympics and are graduating from our school and to say, "Oh, well, it's that's it's just not right." Um I think that they have every right to be at both um both events that are very very important in their lives. Um so I do think Sunday um I I been to graduations many years here. Um many times they were rained and we had to have them in the gym and they were much hotter in that gym than they were sitting outside in the sun. So, I think, you know, to say it's going to be a hot day, yeah, it may be, but it's going to be a hot day if it's in the gym, too. So,
041um I think that the the students are that we're talking about are way too important to say that we're not going to change this graduation date. So I'm just going to come at it from a different perspective because I have overseen the seniors for the past I don't know 10 something years maybe. So much like Amy said some of them are done when they are done long before we start marching practice. If um I do going back I graduated long before Susie and it was it was never an option to have it outside even on a Sunday. was in in the June. But um I do think that over time it's with the weather it has gotten hot there have been people that like you say dropping like flies and so the evening is better.
042I want to go back to the and I was going to ask Carl whether I know the five days before the last day of school whatever we have in the past one year I can't name the year we doubled up on and don't anybody tell Dr. Wolf that I'm saying this because he would hate this double up on senior assembly and graduation in the same day to do them both on Thursday. It is a possibility. It's a long time if you if we don't do anything on Friday from the last day of keeping seniors in involved in school till Sunday. And times have changed since I was in school because we have to have something that they're doing to keep them invested in not making poor decisions. Maybe that's my word I want to use.
043Um, so I do think that it is possible to I mean and not every school has senior assembly, but that is a Saki tradition that has been around for a long time. So it is possible to double up on that. I I do agree that if senior assembly was on Wednesday and graduation was on Thursday, that's going to be difficult for people that are flying in or driving in from somewhere. But that would keep everybody involved so that the students could attend >> is um you said Sunday was also a possibility correct? >> Yes. >> Usually so on Friday. >> Can we have it at like 9:00 a.m.? I mean >> 9:00 a.m. We're not back yet cuz usually we leave Friday morning. They do the parade through all the schools. So all the kids
044come out and cheer them on and stuff and they look forward to that. >> We drive up to Orino. So Friday night they have a big parade. There's opening ceremonies and all that goes on Friday night. >> Saturday morning they're up a little after 6 having, you know, events. It's a long day. >> I remember. >> And then they have their dance at night and then Sunday morning we get up, pack up, have breakfast, and usually we're back in town by like noon, 1:00. Um we we shoot for noon is typically when we come back but it's just you know Saturday is a very long day and with them you know the van is a great option but they'd have to do graduation and then drive all the way up there get up there really
045late first thing in the morning they'd have to up early early to do their event and you know they're missing out on a lot come Friday night. So, it just ideally Sunday afternoon or Thursday. >> Um, I agree with Jen that I feel like any day, weekday that could potentially host a school event would become a conflict at some point for us. And my feeling about this is we need to pick a day and kind of live with it forever more. I mean, I'm a planner and if my kid was a senior this year, graduation date is already in my calendar and everything surrounding graduation is already planned out in my calendar and I've already told my whole family that that's when it's going to be and this moving target year after year and opportunity
046for people who have conflicts to come and then we change it again. I think it gets to be too much over and over for everyone involved for us to try to set a school calendar for administration to try to plan year end and school year things for potentially sports teams. Right. We've seen it before. We I think the last time we talked about this was because there was a baseball game or something going on. >> track me. Um, so I think we need to find a place where this lands that we're not doing this over and over again and we need to commit to it. Um I mean I've heard tradition saki tradition mentioned at least four times in this conversation here and I think people plan on that right like oh graduation is always
047or student senior assembly is always or I think we need to set something and stick with it and I see a lot of potential conflict for Thursday night if we have teams sporting things going I I agree that we need to land on something and just drive stake in the ground for planning purposes and and all that. That's you're absolutely right. Um when it comes to things like you know the season of a sport being extended because we've got playoffs and championship games and whatever there's nothing there's no way of knowing that. But there is a, you know, with this the Special Olympics, we do know when that is. And so, you know, surely we're smart enough that we can figure something out that at least the things that are fixed, we can plan for
048those. And if somebody has something else because the season has gone long, you know, then somebody's going to have to make somebody no matter what we do is going to have to make a choice. And to me, it just seems like if you know that something is a fixed event, then you plan around the fixed events and just hope for the best with everything else, you know? And so, I don't care if it's Thursday night, Sunday, whatever. But I I would love for us to be creative enough with either scheduling things at the tail end of the year for the seniors, like Joanne said, just something, anything that would accommodate these kids being able to go to Special Olympics. Oh, sorry. Um, I was just wondering if with project graduation, is it something they they
049have to leave right after graduation or can they leave the next day or like if we had it on a Sunday evening like at 5 or 6 when it's not so hot? >> It's a great question. I'm going to say something that I that I probably shouldn't. I think we're looking at project graduation as well because we haven't had a lot of participation in that and other I don't want we might look at project graduation in a different way. >> I was just saying if we could do it like a Sunday evening and then you know the old generation's not burning out in the sun >> that has been a real the project graduation piece has been super challenging. We're thankful to parents that that do that and that's so we are looking at that.
050We have some folks with some great ideas. It's just not ready to tell you yet. But uh if that piece were different, I think it would give us some more flexibility as well. So that's very valid point. We're looking at it. Yes. >> I guess the question I have is how many schools is there in the state of Maine? >> Gee, where if you look at just like I'd say high schools 100 and give me some flexibility here 130 to 150ish. >> Okay. And how many of them graduate on about that same day? >> Oh yeah. So the two post pops are Friday night, Sunday. Those are the two most popular. >> I guess the point is we're being asked to change that date. Maybe somebody should de be delegated to ask special Olympics move
051a week ahead or back or whatever. >> That occurred to me too. I had that exact same thought. There's >> I'm not I would say almost every high school in Maine is graduating some flavor of that weekend. A couple I guess a couple of the bigs are Thursday or would be but the majority of high schools are graduating Friday or Sunday of that week. >> I don't know. I mean it it might be a possibility. >> So I have a question about the date and the five days. So that they have to graduate within 5 days >> of the regular end of the school year. >> Okay. So do snow days affect that at all? the regular end of the school year, not inclusive of snow days. >> Okay? Because I just and I know
052it was a long time ago, but when I graduated it was June 17th. That was not the first weekend of J. You know what I mean? Like I don't know, but I know we don't. And often I will tell you that middle school and elementary school, we see graduation date and we sigh. I'm trying to figure out why it used to be that graduation date was set around January, February, and now it's set before school even starts. So, is it is it because we don't have to care about those snow dates because that's I thought the reason that it was set. I think there's a big misconception. It's that the law actually is not withstanding the subsection, the commissioner shall promote a rule to provide that local school units shall may allow secondary school students
053to graduate up to 5 days prior to the regular end of the year. Regular, not snow day, end of regular end of the year. >> So seniors don't have to go a certain number of >> Yeah, that's a big misconception in education almost everywhere. People say that all the time. That's >> that's the misconception. That's the law, >> right? within five days of the regular not snow day regular end of the school year which for us is June 10th. So within five days backwards five school days backwards of June 10th which lands on the weekend. Got >> Friday the 5th, Saturday the 6th, Sunday the 7th. >> That is a misconception within your staff as well. >> It's a misconception across the state of Maine. >> I will tell you that every year elementary school
054and middle school teachers go really we can't believe it. So to I I graduated on June 18th, but when I I I went to school every year after Labor Day. >> So these kids are going to school before Labor Day. So >> I don't know. >> I don't remember when I started school, but back in the day, I'm after Labor Day. >> So to be clear, I dare not even say this. This board can certainly keep the seniors and make them graduate July 4th if you want. You can keep them as late as you want. >> This just gives you the >> But you're seniors. >> I'm just saying we're glad we have kids here. You can keep them till, you know what, August 14th if you want to, but it's that sets the typical
055weekend. So almost every uh district sets that as their weekend of Now, by the way, a couple districts have said the following weekend, maybe their regular end is the 15th and they can or whatever, but most of them are the weekend of 567. the year that we graduated May 31st, which was just a couple of years ago, terrible. >> I don't think special I was trying to like I'd have to look at it whether special ed was >> I don't think it was the same weekend, but I think that >> May 31st would have been a Friday because it was a Friday. Correct. So if it's always the first weekend in June, I just don't remember it being an issue. So I don't know that it's >> the first full weekend. >> I don't know
056either. >> Right. because I didn't hear this as an issue a couple that was only couple weeks or something because that was probably every five years we have a calendar that is screwed up. So like this year for example Labor Day was the earliest it could ever be great. So >> well and it may not have been an issue because we may not have had any seniors graduating. We may not have had any students where it was affecting anything. But now like you know we have two seniors this year. Next year we don't have any. But then the following year we have another seniors but we also have um you know like I go up and volunteer. I would have loved to have gone graduation last year with students that I've you know gotten to
057know over the years um and seen them graduate. I know we have other, you know, another senior here that's going, she's a volunteer, goes up every year, um, and absolutely loves it, but she'd have to choose between the two. And, you know, it's just, um, it may not have been an issue. But I don't think it was the same weekend that year either. I think it's the first full weekend in June. >> So, I'm just I hope people This is a It's hard to keep everybody happy and coming. It's not without thought. None of this is going without thought or caring or putting kids first. This is just a really and has been for us for some time a challenging issue and I'm sure folks will come the right decision. I think it's very challenging.
058>> What time? >> 6 p.m. we do it earlier. >> Do anything the board wants to do. >> Yeah, they want to go to their parade. >> Yeah. And I'm not even sure why we changed it because of the lights because I don't remember the lights. >> It's never been dark though. I Yeah, when we >> What year was it? >> One year we had it at seven. >> Just to use the lights. >> The worst window ever in my entire life. It has never been at seven again. >> So now it's at six. Yeah, that's true. >> But I think it was before the lights that the first time and I think it was earlier >> when you graduated in 04. >> You were out on that field. >> I think the lights were
059on but they weren't needed. >> Yeah. It was grand 2004 that we were going to have the lights. And so regardless of what happened, I just remember our turning on Friday night and having on the damn lights cuz they were like, well, you know, you can't shut them off all weekend now because they need to, you know, we took all that time to return them on and it was a whole big thing in 2004. So that's all I remember. >> Proud soccer graduates on this award. So, I just want just looking at these papers that that um Heidi brought. There's a large number of staff from the high school that signed this and there are many 2006 graduates who are going to graduate who have signed this. So, that speaks to me that that shows
060that it's not just important to a few. Um, so in the interest of not making people sit here all night and try to sort this out, um, my assumption is the board would like to take some sort of action to adjust this. So, we should put an action item on our next agenda and we will discuss and take action on one way or another. Yes. >> Is this the feeling of the board? Yes, >> the November board meeting. >> Yeah, >> there's a there's a variety that does need discussion at another meeting. >> But we'll put it as an action item and we will vote one way or another. Is that sufficient time? Then if you decide to change something, it won't throw anybody into a >> I well I I'm speaking I feel like
061November's fairly early. There was a time to raise point that we February or so. I think waiting too long might be a challenge, but I think you're the only concern about switching now. It's been publicized one way and you it's fine. Go ahead. But so I would say my view would be the sooner the better kind of thing. >> And as far as the project grad change, >> hopefully we'll have something I can make eye contact with my friend this day. Hopefully next month. >> I think it's definitely changed. So we take that into consideration with our decision. We would have a song really quick. >> That was my >> um >> we'll continue to pass these around. But uh that was all that was on our agenda. So I'm going to say meeting adjourned
062and we'll see you all next week. >> Next time, but next week for >> So this will be November uh action item of some sort, right? November. >> We have a special meeting. Thank you.