001well you know there you go there's that and you can bring it with you thank you so resident much glad that you're stepping off the board but extremely happy that you're going to be involved in the town so it's it'll be yeah so 2018 2021 and chair during one of the movies oh my god thank you we hope we have the right dates 2003 again [Music] yes we appreciate your thank goodness appreciate it a lot of fun yeah [Music] okay the first public input session is a 15 minute session having no longer than three minutes in which to make a statement but a second public input session may be held at the end of the meeting if allowed by the board chair these people will give his her name address and reason for speaking public
002public input is designated for district residents a board chair may grant residency opportunity to express under the law regarding executive sessions for example matters involving personnel cannot be made during public input and you may leave your public campaign click on the link at the top of the agenda in person yeah yes please do yeah okay outside so my name is jenny and i live in north berwick and i have worked at noble high school for over two decades now and unfortunately it was with great sadness that i resigned from the district this year my decision to resign from noble high school is based on two decisions our district made this year that defended my most basic values and left me feeling painfully and ethically compromised leadership's refusal to stand with the current best practices to
003address racism and inequity in our communities and leadership's decision to withhold the actual code graduation requirements from students and families the later in my opinion was a decision that caused unnecessary damage stress and anxiety to our most marginalized disenfranchised and hurting students and families it was painful to lack the ability to assure struggling seniors a week before graduation that they had met the standards that i covered and were going to make it the first quite simply and painfully shows that our district is currently failing to find the courage or ethics to stand on the right side of history in the midst of a civil rights movement in this country leadership's refusal to publicly support endorse or mandate the maine department of education's equity statement has left me downfound it is beyond my moral comprehension on
004december 11 2020 the maine department of education along with other educational organizations released a statement declaring a commitment and support for diversity equity and inclusion in maine schools and i quote we proudly and steadfastly support the educators and districts in maine for taking on the work of understanding and dismantling racism and inequity in our schools and communities we urge all main schools and educators to accept their own responsibilities in examining and addressing the inequities that have long existed in our society and institutions over a year and a half has passed since this statement was released and leadership has refused to heed the call you have refused to release a statement to the community ensuring every student family and teacher that our district is prepared to address issues of racism in our school your refusal is
005a clear and painfully disappointing one i am dismayed by the lack of courage vision leadership and win although i appreciate the letter sent to staff after school on tuesday for a professional development plan for the next school year this is quite simply not enough our district needs to endorse the statement over the past semester i've witnessed other schools across maine and dorset surrounding schools have also shown courage and leadership with the current racism and hatred our asian pacific population is facing in our country leadership was asked to release a statement in support of asian pacific awareness month in may surrounding schools did so but alas our school was again silent we have an issue with racism and confederate flags at noble leadership's refusal to stand up against the blatant racism and hatred is heartbreaking in
0062021 our parking lots and our classrooms cannot include this dangerous and hateful symbol but again you refuse to address it i was informed that in order for change to occur students would have to come forward and share their concerns i believe strongly that is unfair and unacceptable to ask students to leave this charge i know firsthand how students of color are impacted when they walk into this building and have to pass confederate flags in the parking lot i have collected some of their stories in writing but i will not ask a young adult to confront this hate personally this is unfair and unethical by a mission you are making space for racism in our schools and your silence caters to an incredibly small faction of community during my decades in this district i've had profound
007experiences working with young adults and bearing witness to the truth that when they know better they do better i believe in this community our students are extraordinary and they are capable of true greatness leadership's quiet refusal to acknowledge these historic and essential issues is unacceptable the equity coach recently hired to assist with this work has already asked leadership to endorse the doe statement months ago but you refuse by choosing silence and asking for more time i fear our school is falling painfully short our schools currently need and deserve leadership who possess the courage and vision required to ensure we create and foster schools based on our highest ideals with all due respect your silence is hurting students of color in our schools your silence is hurting our entire school community i cannot be a part
008of a system that refuses to heed the call of history to do the hard work and navigate the challenging conversation that ensure we are sincerely dedicated to creating just equitable and inclusive schools classrooms and communities if you lack the ethics or courage to provide the leadership we need that i humbly on behalf of the students i love and respect so very much beg you to reconsider your ability to effectively serve our community in this time it has been a sincere honor joy and privilege to work at noble high school over the past two decades i plan to complete my career here and i could not love the multiple pathways program more but i cannot continue to work within a system that refuses to address the most pressing issues of our time and it sincerely breaks
009my heart i stand here today because i care about this school and the young minds who look to us for guidance wisdom and support as they navigate this very complex world i have always prided myself on my dedication to honesty and ethics in my work with students in order to maintain a sense of integrity in my work i am forced to resign from this district i do not appear before this board to cause damage or humiliation i am here to ask leadership to provide stronger courage and vision as we move forward in the 2021-2022 school year our students are depending on you thank you very much thank you john would you would you mind emailing those there were just a couple of things at the beginning that i couldn't hear and i would love to
010read here so we do have a piece of public input this is from shannon mcgrane i believe in the g-r-a-n-d from berwick i have seen a confederate flag around town and have recently found out that the converted flag is not banned in our public schools i am writing to share my discomfort and outrage on this point there is no reason the confederates flag should be allowed to be flown anywhere in our town especially in our school where our children's views on the world are being shaped the flag represents a disappointing and hateful time in our country's history our other states plans and organizations have banned the confederate flag state of new york u.s marine corps saving and it is unacceptable that our town and school systems are still allowing the symbol of slavery to fly
011i have spoken to other community minorities parents and teachers in our community who agree i plead you to ban the catholic flag from school district for the sake of our children and diversity inclusion in our community that's uh the other piece that's in there at this i'd like to see this topic on a future agenda of discussion i'm not liking what i'm hearing that i was not aware of um we can have lots of conversations about for sure it's on our on the radar and um when we do a little piece under other tonight we'll just kind of update you on what we have been working on and we'll go for that is there any other public input all right um [Music] new board numbers let's see we were hoping to have you come in
012before uh the board meeting but that did not work so catch up sorry no no no no so we do have the oath of office are you ready to be special sure okay um [Music] so i just read it away now do swear that i will faithfully discharge to the best of my abilities the best of my abilities the duties incumbent on me as a regional unit board director of the market [Music] yeah sorry um to the best of my abilities the duties incumbent on me as a regional school unit board director of lebanon oh i'm sorry i'm of msad60 so okay according to the constitution of maine according to the constitutional name and laws of this state to help my god i mean of course not you could sit i realized that i answered
013that backwards i totally understood what you said so victoria we can do official um introductions now just so excellent thank you very um i'm lynn much i represent north berwick and i've been uh six years seven years now what's going on yes uh i'm nancy uber and also for lebanon and i've been on five years uh denise mallett from berwick and i've been on the board for four years and i'm andre bilby the superintendent sues the assistant superintendent stephanie hagenbu lebanon [Laughter] hi i'm rebecca i'm from north berwick and i think it's been five years i forget at least five years and we're missing chavista byron who is from berwick and our new board rep from northbrook is kate leyland so we're hoping that she'll feel the fun of his next meeting and we have
014a seat open right now because linda so we'll see i'm thinking they're meeting next week i think that's the point yeah tuesday victoria will uh meet we usually do the meeting before this meeting so you kind of get the lay of the land but we'll we'll catch up and go through the process again all right thank you nice to have you thank you um do we want to do the new chair advice yeah okay so can i nominate you can um or no somebody else should somebody else should probably okay would somebody like to nominate me advice yes sure all right um so that's that we just do a vote all in favor we're backing into here okay all right so denise you're a free woman that's a good one so now we have an
015excel student presentation we do you ready yes i am okay okay so my name is griffin ivy and i'm in fifth grade i currently go to the middle school and for myself project we were going to try and help solve a world real world problem so this is my presentation confederate flag in schools origin of the confederate flag the confederacy had three battle flags in their history the modern one was made in 1885 and is the one you see today the confederacy changed them because they were flaws one looked like a surrender flag a little bit in the wind this is how the confederate flag came into the scene during the civil war which was started over the owning of humans how the confederate flag came back the confederate flag kind of disappeared until around
016the 1920s when the kkk revived it and made it more popular the kkk uses the symbol at their meetings and rallies the campfire flag boosted during important civil rights moments such as desegregation confederate statues and monuments also skyrocketed during the 20s but also went up in the 60s explanation of slide ahead at certain times in american history the confederate flag was flown more confederate was flown more confederate monuments were erected and schools were named after confederate soldiers and leaders to scare and intimidate people of color to include children desegregating schools as the graph shows so many times include during plessy versus ferguson when the supreme court justifies separate but equal spaces even though separate is not equal explanation continued other times include in 1909 when the naacp was founded or the national association for those
017immense advancement of colored people they really just fight for equal rights treatment and economical fairness for all people of color another time is when ruby bridges a black child integrated in all white school in the civil rights act of 1964 which was just saying no matter what race sex religion or national origin you are you have equal rights and can be discriminated against so you can see plexi verse ferguson right here was in 1896 and then a really really boosted when the nycp was founded those just a few of the ones that are on here can i jump in for a second have um send us this okay so i can put it in the notes of the of the minutes as well so people can look at it because he that one in particular
018is a pretty cool yeah all right sorry confederate flag today the confederate flag means hate and pain today people fly it to counter blm protests it can be hurtful and open wounds of stories people have heard about their ancestors it can also make people feel afraid because the flag symbolizes violence in april i surveyed administrators at the middle school and at the high school regarding the confederate flag at noble four administrators responded the thoughts on the topics that i introduced are in the following slides what have you seen regarding this symbol in your schools student profile pictures and yes on a couple of occasions this year we have seen this on our campus you know what this symbol represents we have two yeses and the symbol came out in the 1860s as a flag of
019the confederacy in more recent years the flag has come to represent a mix of beliefs for many the flag is a symbol of slavery and racist ideals for some others the confederate flag me represents southern pride and there are a few that are confused about its meaning this one was also pretty much the same so what is the distance response to this symbol the question if it becomes a distraction of the learning we respond quickly when we hear of this symbol being displayed on school grounds we meet with the student explain how it affects others that in that it has no place in the school this has been very successful so far but i wish we could do more when a student is seen wearing or displaying the flag they are asked by a staff
020member or administrator to remove it throughout this year students have been willing to comply are you aware of any policies regarding the confederate flag in your schools three said yes one said there is nothing specific regarding that symbol but we do have harassment and bullying policies that can be applied depending on the circumstances was standing curriculum on the topic of the confederate flag two said yes one said not sure and one said it does come off in classroom discussions if so would a student's response student respond if not do you think students would accept curriculum about it i think students would welcome discussions regarding the history of the flag and the impact it has on students of color a noble high school students are taught about the civil war and the concept of slavery there
021are units throughout grades 8-12 that hit on that topic of the civil rights all students are required to take courses offered by a social studies department that cover these topics confederate flag in schools the confederate flag should be banned on school grounds in the student code it states my words and actions show respect to myself and others my words and actions show tolerance for people whose appearance beliefs and values are different than mine my words and actions create a safe environment for myself and others these are the reasons why confederate flags should not be in schools dress code any offensive alarming or disruptive clothing my whole point in this someone in my brother's grade wore a sweatshirt with a flag and my brother asked him if he knew what it meant and the kids said
022no my brother explained it to him and he went i never knew that is what it meant my point in all this presentation is that i believe the confederate flag should be banned on school grounds i think there should be more awareness regarding curriculum i believe we need policy around the confederate flag students should not be allowed to bring or wear anything with the confederate flag to school property i think the curriculum we nee we need needs to be before the high school level i think we should start incorporating a fifth grade through eighth grade and then like up into high school thank you thank you for viewing my presentation taking notice what i'm doing and trying to do i want our schools to be a safe and happy place for everyone i'm trying to
023raise awareness about why the confederate flag can be hurtful to people and could make people feel not welcome or afraid thank you again for your time thank you griffin i don't think so no i guess not no i think uh griffin just did an incredible job and uh i do have to say that he really really put a lot of thought into this uh he really came from he had to switch a couple of times you know what he was thinking that he was going to do for his actual project and but he the whole time right from the beginning up until this point really wanted to allow for tolerance of people's beliefs so he didn't want to uh you know continue with a bullying type of viewpoint like please do this or you should
024do that he more just wants awareness so i think he did a great job you know explaining everything and uh thank you for taking time to listen to him tonight thank you how long did it take you to work on your project this took me about i think like five or six months i would say yeah i'm trying to think all right so griffin reached out to me let me look griffin [Music] we have a lot of emails yeah griffin can you email me or update it i think i have everything except the last two slides that you have just recently done um but yeah we've been meeting since i feel like it's been since the beginning of the year like you guys you and miss tim kind of created your project and then he's
025been coming back and forth with me about how to present this going forward um so so thank you that was quite excellent yeah um and i do think folks this is you know as jen shared tonight her her concerns um it's a very complicated conversation and i just when griffin said to me that's my goal i want to be like a better flag i'm like i am not i am supportive of you it will take us a while to actually move through the process because it's a it's a big controversial situation that we need to work through in our community and it's it's it's worth addressing but it is definitely um it's tough stuff so we will we will be looking at this for the like time going forward i told griffin by the time
026you get out of here buddy we'll be moving forward so it's good all right i think you're all stuck griffin okay go finish your tour of the south where are you guys today we're in new orleans actually right now yeah enjoy so thank you all right bye-bye guys thank you thanks donna you can stay on and watch the rest of the board meeting if you want but you know all right so there we have financial summary um the subsidy all right this is denise van kempen our business manager thank you linda so we are talking the last meeting we had a conversation about the governor's proposal to bring school funding to 55 and the additional subsidy that would result from that for our district um in the week since we met i have been in
027touch with our attorney bill stockmayer and um i just want to give you some information that he and i have been talking about so the the thing is the proposal is not yet through the legislature i think they thought it was going to go more quickly um there is actually in the bangor daily news there's an article about this topic if anybody wanted to to go look that up but it looks like the legislature is adjourning without any resolution on this particular topic um in conversations that he's had with msma he thinks they'll adjourn and come back in july for some conversations but as of right now it's not through the through the budget process through the legislative process um also bill wanted to point out that um when the budget was passed it was
028passed by one party with a simple majority that meant the original budget was not negotiated there was no coming together to agree on a budget this supplemental budget needs a two-thirds vote so it may or may not come to pass so i think um i would recommend that that makes our decision for us we are not guaranteed to get this extra money um so i think we should sign these assessment warrants without considering that additional subsidy um so that inputs the three options that we have basically assigned until we get okay unless there's some future development at which point would you discuss it okay um i just yeah yeah so um what i have for you it leads into the signing of the warrants there needs to be a motion to accept and and audra
029has the wording on that and then before you leave the meeting if you could sign um almost like you do when you call the budget meetings and those things we'll have you um gather and sign on your way out so that we can give the towns their assessments tomorrow and you need to sign on the same line yes it's a similar thing where if you sign on the top left line sign the top left line for every every piece of paper and you'll get handcrafts but i'll be there with you so do we are we're doing a financial summary as well after after this okay do you want me to read the motion okay this is the motion or does a board member have to make the motion i bet i'll do it okay i
030move that the warrant for assessment of tax and the assessment schedule and notice of installments for each member municipality prepared by the treasurer for fiscal year july 1 2021 to june 30 2022 the approved and be issued in form presented to this meeting and that the treasurer be authorized and directed to deliver to each member municipality its warrant for assessment of tax and its assessment schedule and notice of installments wait a second second okay all those in favor okay and so um that cover sheet audrey will meet you thank you okay so everything so we'll eight we'll go at the end because the signing is there correct we can sign we don't want to we don't have to take up everybody's time watching s9 i guess we'll just do it at the end of the
031meeting um and um thank you thank you for that and again if i hear anything else or new developments come we can have that conversation again the next item item nine is the financial summary for may you should all have it attached to your agenda but i will also share my screen me get that i think this is the right page there we are i think we can see that well it's on your tent yeah it's just for people watching out there so this is the financial summary through may 31st of 21. um you can see that um we are pretty much right on track the state subsidy and the local revenue have an eight percent remaining which is the month of june that corresponds to the fiscal year you see down below it shows
032eight percent remaining that just means that the federal subsidy is coming in on schedule as are the payments by the towns um other revenue is slower to come in and comes in at all various points so we've collected some and we're still waiting on on others as far as expenses go i think we have healthy remaining balances with the exception of system administration we currently have and over an overage of 26 417 that is largely due in part to 68 000 of unbudgeted required payments um for um uh some i don't know how to phrase this i guess the overage in the yeah they they are required um legal payments that we must make um and they happen to be have to be coded in this area they are for the benefit of students but
033due to the arrangements and how things are they have to fall under system administration coding wise was that stuff that was not budgeted correct it has been budgeted for next time but this year so we take it out of the balance or whatever so um at the la i don't know if it was last meeting or the meeting before most years uh the board approves a five percent budget transfer between articles which means if you have an overage at one and under and another you can move up to five percent to cover that so this will fall well beneath those guidelines any other questions i'm gonna just say i would really like our superintendent to continue okay i got this one [Music] i'd like to make a motion to renew the superintendent's contract um with
034the planned three percent salary inclusion for 2021 and the renewal would then extend the contract through 2024. correct okay [Music] jen um has sent this out the survey just for the july dates she sent it out a few weeks ago but because we have new board members she's sending it back out so let's just say be on the lookout for that um [Music] because we have to schedule the the folks that are coming to the retreat so we're going to do rpg time we just need to get the cake so just respond as soon as you can if you could thank you all right next we have the donation okay so we have a backpack donation backpack program donation of 1300. from a student who is an elementary age student her name her first name
035is megan and she i can send this to you around just so you can look at it she um rode her bike 60 miles with her father following her to collect food and donations for the backpack so here's just a little picture of that very awesome so we think we thank megan and her parents the nice thing is it's been a very um consistent level of donation people really have found it to be similar to we also have the um employment closet in our academy so there's a regular consistent delivery system people are doing it right and then if we get a little bit yeah this was just pretty significant because it was one child biking 69 and a motion to approve the 1300 donation um and megan dumont um okay so we are um
036nominating jim or james winslow as the assistant principal um for the eighth grade of the multiple pathways program this position has um was vacated last year and not filled based on the fact that we had a hybrid model um our full student body was not in so currently um he um jim is a current pe health outdoor education teacher for us here at mobile he's been with us since 2018 um the interview committee was very impressed with his skill set and has a lot to be able to bring to the two teams he's currently working closely with the multiple pathways students he knows a lot of our eighth grade students going into eighth grade and multiple pathways students so it'll be a really nice um just a nice transition for for him for this position
037and for us for this position so if he primarily will work eighth grade and multiple pathways yes i'll make a motion they're all packed up uh appoint james winslow to be the um assistant principal of the high school all right is that yeah yeah eighth grade and local time yeah that's okay have them all here so the first one first um so these are our nominations for positions for the 2021-22 school year um pending your approval so we have michael hallinan who is currently a teacher at uh trailside middle school in ashland virginia he and his wife are relocating to this area and he taught he's currently teaching english he is being nominated for our high school english position here we have shannon jenkins who is currently a teacher um eslo lead teacher in atlanta
038georgia she is going to well she's nominated to teach french for us she has a great deal of experience teaching french k-12 she's done english as a second language e-l-l she has a wide variety and a big huge skill set so that's that nomination we have kailani andrei um anderson andre for hussy third grade she is finishing up a one-year position in buxton as a teacher she was doing um that remote you know how we added teachers here she did the same thing there prior to that she was at buxton as an ed tech for literacy math and then we have jessie colin young let me just check that one out and jessie is for the pe teacher at housing school yep um jesse is currently teaching at attleboro public schools in massachusetts and he
039is going to be returning to this area he graduated from marshwood so he's coming back up to may um so that's that and then we have aaron olson who um we are nominating for lebanon grade four she is currently the remote teacher um in the wyndham raymond area um and she worked that was this year and prior to that she was the interior as well we have rebecca cosgrove for third grade for lebanon and rebecca um has been on edtech at housing school she had a long-term supposition in lebanon last year and she's doing arts and media teaching this year for us with our remote k-5 students we have sarah millett we were nominating for english language arts at the middle school she's currently the social studies teacher for sixth and seventh grade on the
040remote team prior to that she worked as an ed tech um special education at nobel and noble middle school at hussey then we have abigail ackley who is being nominated for noble middle school math she is finishing up a year of math right now in the building it was a one year only position and somebody went to um remote on the math department and she took that place for the one year and we've had a position open so that is um for her she has done her student teaching at windham and raymond as well as somebody else so those are i don't think i just i think i got them all okay is halftime assistant principal halftime literacy coach in north berwick um applied for and was appointed um the full-time assistant principal at the
041market chase is and then jennifer england um read to you her resignation letter um so that's from multiple pathways from multiple pathways kelly mcglynn who is a special education teacher going into a different field um jordan larabee who is currently in noble middle school special education she's teacher she's going to stanford which is her hometown um and her family is there so that will be a nice transition for her family megan lyon who is at hussey school kindergarten this is she's finishing up her second year here um she um her brother and her sister are in michigan they're moving her parents to michigan and she and her husband soon to be husband are going to be relocating to michigan with her family as well so those are our resignations oh yes you don't need an
042action on that but thank you tracy hi noble high school guidance secretary yes thank you all right let's hope you'd like to make a motion for that i might know you may accept the resignations all those in favor good okay and we have one leave of absence request that didn't make it on the agenda and heather violet from lebanon uh is a kindergarten current kindergarten teacher i believe it is right yes it's a job share position and she is asking for a leave of absence um our window for the leave of absence is march 1st uh so this is coming in a few months late um so that is heather so she's not playing his face right now i can certainly read if you want me to read what it what it is sure okay
043i am writing this letter to request the leave of absence for the 2021-2022 school year my current job share position has been eliminated and i cannot fulfill a full-time schedule at this moment i have small children at home and an incoming kindergartner i'm looking forward to substitute teaching at my daughter's school in berlin and taking care of my son so if we vote to either approve or not that right leave of absence and then you guys take care of one of the applications yes you have any discussion not just like she missed it by the way yeah she must have been three months and so i mean you've been doing it introduces so far you think you can find a candidate at this point of school to fulfill that if she doesn't come back at
044all i think we would be able to do so yes yeah i think it's too far fast do we have to do anything if we're not um i think that if you don't don't make the motion to prove it then you just don't think it doesn't matter does that make sense over there in my processing right now if something changes in your brain we don't want to do we don't want to do it wrong we just want to make sure the position will be filled but there will be more we have one other employment piece before we move on to the next part the next agenda item um we have talked a little a bit about the high school principal update and search update and at this point we would like to talk about and
045um nominate aj dufort as inter principal we've asked aj to cut us coming here just say a few words and kind of give us a background on aj background on your experience thanks for coming aj yes no problem so yeah just a little bit um sort of about me so i have been 21 years in education um which really hits home when i you hear a former student you know nominated for a position wow that wasn't that long ago but apparently it was so of those 21 years i've been very fortunate that 17 of those years have been able to be here at noble high school as a teacher as math teacher for 14 years able to be a coach and then an administrator as well so um in the middle of that time i
046did leave for four years had an opportunity to be an assistant principal and then a principal at wells junior high school you know i i jokingly yeah very truthfully talk about that i was able to sort of make there as noble as i could um in my time so that's something i'm very proud of but when i had the opportunity to return um you know although you know actual hometown where i grew up is you know 15 minutes away as far as professionally goes this has been my home this is where i started as a teacher this will always be um you know the school and the district that that carries a lot a lot of weight with me so with that being said i didn't you know upon this return i'm very happy doing
047what i'm doing but as audra described we went through the process spoke with her and sue spoke with mr finley with his retirement this right now and talking to everyone feels like the way that i can best help the school and that is something that means a lot to me so if there's a lot of other folks that feel that way i feel confident in doing that having been a building principal and done those duties that are required of that role so i feel comfortable doing that [Music] and i think our high school's in a really good spot obviously like everywhere else we can always improve we always strive to improve but this is a this is a pretty great place so certainly if you folks have any questions of me go for it so
048aj this would be for a year yes and we would we would post the position like in april yeah and absolutely go through the process yep and that's something you know honor you and i have talked that's something that's really important to me i want the best possible person to be here if that's me great fantastic if it's not i'm okay with that too so that i think i want the process and everything to be super transparent the district the students our staff deserve that so absolutely i'll just review what i said earlier not in public but um you know you've got a lot of you've got a lot of fans amongst the students and i can't speak for teachers but as i was sharing with the board as a parent um you get first
049first-hand feedback absolutely and thumbs up um but i i think the student body has a ton of respect for you right and um appreciates the work that both you you know that all of you guys have done yeah absolutely i think you would have a lot of support yeah no thank you yes absolutely and i think that's another part that's very important it'll continue to be a team effort i think it needs to be it functions better that way having those checks and balances so i think you speak to that perfectly it is a team effort and it will it would absolutely continue to be a team effort just one thing i would say just looking over the past few years i hope that and it's hard to find a balance between being out in
050the months of kids and being in your office and doing all that stuff but you know i just hope to keep touch with the kids yeah absolutely well and that's something i mean again is it hard is it challenging at 100 is but that i mean for me personally i will always be a teacher like even in the role one of the things i love about being in that assistant principal role is it's easier you know because you're always in classroom you're always in the hallway so you're always you know i'm always able to help kids with math homework but that is something that absolutely needs to stay because if it can't i won't be able to continue in the role because i won't be happy doing it like the kids need to see yes
051the interacting with kids yeah absolutely that's what it's all about like that's that's the really good stuff so um do i need a i don't know what your actual full name is roland rowland before you don't get that out of aj huh that's a tricky one a one-year interim principal position at noble high school i'll second that all those in favor thank you guys very much [Music] the i would love to rather than later for somebody to give the board some information and guidance on the uh ld um bill that is um the right to strike and binding arbitration for teachers okay i hear strong things on different sides and um i guess i would like to have a more holistic um sort of explanation and some background i think there's something for the storm
052well no i think they're voting on it i don't know do you guys know when is that i'm not exactly sure i think it's probably gonna get lumped in with that july work that would be my guess it was it was when i i'm thinking it's gonna get lumped in with that july work that's what i think i don't i think it's coming up pretty soon yes um anyway so we can get something we'll figure it out we can get yeah just like some more yes it's definitely been something that obviously the superintendents have been thinking about in our you know not to pass kind [Music] because i really don't like reading minutes but did we not have any minutes that we had to approve uh we i um um just very it just went
053out off without a hitch very very excited students they you know just thanking us for every single one yeah it was great it was great yeah and denise got to hand off and travis got to hand off and it was smooth and you know yeah it was a beautiful day it was the students were seemed so happy to be there and um it was uh my highlight was standing next to the alley and her microphone and watching her orchestrate like nobody's business yes and it was that was impressive but she's got the air piece in and she's saying aj adrian what are you doing over there you get alex over here [Music] anyway it was great and then i will add on to that um that i already sent my thanks to to aj but
054the project graduation which was eight o'clock that night to six o'clock the next morning was apparently fabulous and it was um you know they had they just kept them going all night long they had a magician they had a hypnotist they went bowling they you know had fireworks a bonfire i don't know what i'm forgetting and they watched the sunrise on walls beach and it was apparently just phenomenal and i think it was like we were just chatting out in the hall i think it was these students they didn't realize how badly they needed to come back together in person yeah and it just sounded like it was everything just got returned like from a kind of social standpoint and um and it just sounded like every kid enjoyed themselves it felt very normal like
055the graduation itself was really very normal it was um the only thing you didn't do because it wasn't enough time was to have the kids do the marching practices so they just walked yeah yeah it was fun it was really fun yeah it was all the cats were okay yeah and they were actually not many the whole weekend was very very very well done um [Music] just because i called her at the last one and said jen can you do a little overview we just wanted to update you a little bit about the diversity and equity work that we actually are doing and um i want to acknowledge jen and the fact that she's frustrated i feel that there is the momentum is growing but it's hard and so i i hear her frustration with
056the slowness um but it is it's a difficult piece that we're working through and we were doing quite a bit um and we did quite a bit like the other piece and shannon can talk about that if you'd like to but we work with all the different coordinators in the in the surrounding communities everybody's really wrestling with this work to make sure that we do it well that we do it in a way that is respectful of all um and it's uh it is it's unfortunately a little bit of a dance and i recognize jen's frustration with that i truly do i truly do jen do you want to just talk quickly about the like an overview we had a really awesome commercial video today yesterday that i think the teacher folks can talk about
057too much of like how they responded to that yeah sure so um and i'll spare you guys i'm already in my pajamas i wasn't prepared um i just want to talk a little bit about this year i mean what a crazy year right not only navigating a pandemic but really navigating some critical work and foundational planning and how we're gonna approach our diversity equity and inclusion work so this year some really amazing pockets of thing things have already occurred so for example adult ed offered some great series of workshops we had a dedicated group of high school and middle school teachers meeting monthly to talk about this work we had some civil rights groups at the elementary level our librarians across the district did a collection analysis and i know that many of our ms-860
058staff participated in some dei workshops that the department of education offered and at the same time while all of those like kind of isolated things were going on we were really in the throes of foundational planning in creating a more comprehensive dei framework for the district what we didn't want to do is start this year and offer just a hodgepodge of one-off trainings that weren't connected to our mission in terms of our dei work which is really just to ensure the success of every single ms 8060 student using equity and social justice as the framework to really further the goals of our district i think if we were to just offer random trainings here and there without really thinking of a common thread we wouldn't have a long lasting or sustainable impact right like this
059work is complicated um we're not just doing it this year we want to make changes that are going to last so it's not that things weren't happening this year like i said they were kind of happening in silos as we really spent time researching um reaching out to consultants who can help us guide us in this work and really coming up with a more district-wide collaborative plan for next year so that work really kicked off yesterday we had the associate vice president for institutional diversity and equity from keene state college came and spoke to our staff they had an amazing presentation you could just feel the passion she really put the work in context for everyone why why this work is important um and really try to get a common language for everyone um so
060dottie morris dr dottie morris kicked it off for us we have had an administrative workshop already we are partnered up with dottie's colleague mary gannon and she already did a two-hour workshop for our administrative team we have a workshop scheduled for the board we have another workshop scheduled for the administrative team and then a combination next year we already have teacher workshop days with a dei focus we have cornelius minor coming who wrote the text we've got this um so he on october 8th he'll be here talking about equity in terms of what does that mean um as as a teacher what does that mean in terms of instruction we also have one wednesday a month for our late start early release wednesdays that will be dedicated to this continued dei work where teachers will
061be able to work in departments and grade levels and really think about uh their curriculum and their instructional practices in terms of this equity lens we are also going to have a k-12 dei committee so we have representation from all buildings and all grade levels to really look at the culture and climate of the district as it relates to this work um our administrative team and you as the board will continue to be involved in this work um we have i mean there's just a lot planned there's a lot that's already occurred we really are relying on our consultants they often say that this is a marathon and not a sprint and they're really guiding us so that we do things thoughtfully and strategically with the goal of really you know enabling us to have
062long-term sustainable change so i i don't know what i'm forgetting soon audrey feel free to jump in the reason i like was like shannon i just wanted to be able to like china's been working hard on this with our team and she is the mo the best spokesperson in terms of really being able to cover the whole um the whole story that we're that we're trying to to to present so that's why i grabbed her in her jammies and said please just use your voice because your voice is clearer than my voice right now so thank you dan sure thank you verna or jamie did you want to just touch base on yesterday or what you've been hearing or um i think we received some some good feedback from yesterday there was much appreciation for
063the letter that you sent out the other day um the association is going to continue to work in collaboration with the district and the mea in regards to this work in addition we have a member who is part of the dei committee at the mea christopher jones um so that's awesome so we have somebody who's kind of sitting on that committee as well um we're going to be we've been asked to be a part of the mary gagnon work that's going to happen this summer so we're um really excited to be a part of that and also to sit in on some of the committee work that's being done with the middle and high school teachers um the um nac um and so we are super excited to be a part of that as well
064so um again we believe it's incredibly important and want to be very thoughtful about how we implement you know and move forward with everything and appreciate the being looped into all the stuff that's happening so and can i just echo one thing that sue mentioned earlier i mean i do meet monthly with curriculum directors across the state in particular southern maine and you know there is a spectrum of where people are in this work and by no means are we you know way behind um there are there are districts behind us there are districts at the same point there are districts ahead of us we are all the curriculum directors are really relying on each other to share tools and resources it's been a great opportunity to just hear what other people are doing but
065i think across the state people are in different places and really looking for guidance for during this important work thanks shannon okay anything else anybody has what do we have a next meeting well that's that's the next one okay one thing i would ask can we do the summer like every couple weeks maybe just have an update for you guys yes what's going on yes absolutely well yeah especially with planning in school [Music] that things will be normal that's like you know everybody's moving back to their regular buildings we're going to start the year like the normal aspect of things what kind of response did you get for the middle school academy uh so we have 20 students signed up great yeah for the virtual middle school very excited is that what you were yeah
066we're kind of i mean you know you're always looking for a little more but it's a it reminds me so much of the merry heart academy like we're going to start with this small group and then we don't want to take students away from in person but i do want to be an opportunity for students who um are just more flexible in their in their looking at their families are more have that more ability i'd like to be able to welcome back some of our homeschool kiddos that have chosen to not be associated well because of that flexibility i think we can support students you know that have that um ability it's kind of nice to be able to be a little more flexible um so and we're just specifically focusing currently again we did
067think about reaching out to fifth grade we haven't really taken that consequence so it's six seven eight seven eight that's cool so once you get updated on it have we already hired teachers for that yeah we did that in april actually because we needed them to start working they're all current uh teachers for us and so they're doing a little um double friend in their brains but they're they're excited so that's good and then on tuesday evening at six o'clock oh yeah we have the presentation okay that was my next yes yes six o'clock at noble high school in the auditorium the presentation on the three editions if you sent it to voicemail [Music] yesterday yeah i think like four things went out yesterday not on purpose on this um [Laughter] so anyway tuesday at
068six o'clock um the architects will be here showing the plans for all three editions um and then the plan would be then to break out into each town to just do town specific plans and questions like that that night or additionally right so on tuesday and then schedule individuals and you said six o'clock six o'clock here yeah we'll do it right there again we'll get that out okay anything else okay your washer can't make me this time all right john just texted me it's going out tomorrow okay maybe maybe we kept it away because right there are so many other ones going on i'd like to make a motion to adjourn [Music]