001To the flag of the United States of America to the reps, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Welcome everybody. I'll take with attendance Laura. Okay. I will accept a motion to approve the school board minutes from March 26 26. >> Any omissions, additions, subtraction, anything? >> All those in favor? All those opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries. I will accept a motion to approve the special budget validation meeting minutes from April 2nd, 2026. >> Any additions? >> All those in favor? >> All those opposed? Motion carries. >> No public comment. Okay. Uh Mason, uh so uh the fourth quarter is in full swing here at the high school. Our sports uh our sports athletic season uh is uh um ramping up here at the high school. uh they've all been working very
002hard and we are ant and we are eagerly uh anticipating what their seasons have have in store for them. The softball and baseball teams have their first scrimmages this Saturday in Poland. The track team has their first official meet on the 20th. Um girls tennis has their first uh has their first match next week. Uh and the high school environ uh is competing in their regional competition uh on the 29th. Members of the junior and senior class are excited to be part uh are excited to participate uh in their uh uh Europe trip um where they will go to Barcelona uh where they will go to Spain uh staying in Madrid and Barcelona. Any questions for Mason? Thank you, Mason. >> Uh, so I don't usually go where the rest of the board goes, but
003I'm going to go here. Um, so a member of our board, this is their last meeting, and she has served our district for more than 30 years teaching and six years on the board. Uh she's given her heart and soul to this district and would like to thank her very much for your time, for your effort, for your thoughtful dedication. It's much appreciated. Any other board comments? >> Thank you, Elaine. I'm sorry this is your last meeting with us, but you can always come back. >> Um, I just want to mention one thing. U this week uh Sun Journal paper and the Lmore Falls advertiser had an article about a high use and one of our teachers was quoted the article on page two. I got it here. I'll leave it to you when I
004get done. I just wanted to mention one paragraph that's out of it and it's talking about how AI is affecting schools and she said the consequences of using it too much can not only be detrimental to the environment but also to our cognitive abilities said adding that it's super important to always have human and I thought that was a nice thing that we our teachers think that it's important to have people involved in the process not just for life to do our thinking for us I I think that's a good message. >> Okay, you may be sorry now for all the nice things you just said. Um, I have a lot of thank yous. Yeah, I have been here six years. feel some days six going on 20 and others days it's flown by and
00590% of the time I've absolutely enjoyed kids because I'm passionate about doing for our kids and for our staff and for our community and that's what being a school board member is all about. We're here for our kids. We're here for our staff and we're here to build community. Um first thank you is to Scott. Scott, you're an amazing leader. We are so fortunate to have you. I appreciate your wisdom, your guidance, and your true care that you put out for our staff and our kids on a daily basis. And you've even extended to us, which is amazing. You're amazing human being. Thank you for letting me vent when I needed to and for being understanding and a wise a wise comfort to go to. So, thank you. Um, I have to thank all of
006our staff. They do an amazing job every single day. They do it all day. They do it in the evening. They get up the next morning and they do it again. They do it over the weekend. Uh, if you believe teachers get the summer off, you're sorely wrong. They do not. They work throughout the summer. Wherever they are, they're either picking up something to take back to the classroom or they're working on something new for the classroom. They're the most dedicated professionals. They need your support. They need us to make their jobs so that they can do it efficiently. And that means decent class sizes. It doesn't necessarily mean what the state approves or recommends for class sizes. It means class sizes where we can actually, especially the youngest grades, have enough kids per get
007staff per kid to be able to do away with other jobs. If you're thinking long term in the budget, there won't be the same need for RTI and for title one and those things. We've just seen that report on phonics. That's a whole thing our teachers don't have to deal with now because we're doing it so well and having to deal with our what our teachers did coming back from CO where they found their kids so lacking and it's not a good situation for anybody. They made the best of it in terms of behavior socialization. Our principles have done a wonderful job, especially with that, and I thank you for following my request and letting me know how that's going. It's better every day. I'm thrilled with the reports you're bringing to us. Um, the
008administration, uh, you guys do an amazing job on a daily basis and many times it's thankless. I know that in my own philosophy, I see administrators as facilitators. Listen to your staff. They're the ones doing it every single day. There are times you got to throw down a rule. I get it. But your staff, be a facilitator for them. Be willing to work those problems out. Come to me is what the administrator needs to say. And together you can do it what's best for your kids. Um, I want you to please keep informing the public of the things that are happening in our schools. There are so many uninformed people about what is happening in our schools and what we are doing for our kids before, after school, during the day, and their achievements. Everybody
009likes to say, "Oh, look at the test scores." We're having all kinds of smaller wins, and that leads to better test scores. Test scores are picture, a snapshot in a moment. They are, that's what they are. We got to look at the whole hit and keep telling the board, give the board the information, get that information out on social media. Um, I just shared with the rest of the board a newsletter that I didn't know existed from the middle school. a staff member brought it to my attention and I said, "I'm getting it out to the school board and I will ask that person to contact Laura if that's okay in the future to get that information out to board members." Um, it's important that we're all on the same page. Um, and my fellow
010board members, present and past, uh, we may have different beliefs, different positions on things, but we need to operate with respect and for the most part, I think we've done that. Um, we're all together for the same reason. It's the kids, and we need to keep that in mind. In the future, I would like for our board members to be familiar with the school mission of RSU73. Did you know you can find it on our website? Um, get in there, read it, see what it really is, because that's at the forefront of everything we do here. Uh, there's a quote that I've loved for years that I had in my hanging in my classroom. The relationships between adults in a school, teachers, staff, and leadership are deemed more influential on school quality than any other
011factor. Often functioning best through trust, collaboration, and shared responsibility. That's the mission. We're part of that in the future. I'm going to ask for stuff. I think it would be really helpful. We've made a policy change that includes the handbook from the main school board association which has such information. I wish I'd known that. When I showed up for my very first board meeting, uh it was 15 minutes before the meeting. I got a quick rundown. You can't do this. You can't do that. And here's a copy of Robert's Rules of Order. Yeah. Okay. Well, you might as well give me the plans for building a rocket because that's what that book unless they have the addition for dummies. It's not in my vocabulary. I need it spelled out. Yes, I'm aware of what the
012main law says school boards need to do. I need some more details and that provides that detail. So, it would be great if upon getting or meeting with the board chair before the first session for new members and and people that are still on the board and will be going over should receive a copy as well. Mission statement, a copy of that section two from the main school man uh board association. The policy of what are the responsibilities and power of the board. I keep mine in a little in my book as far and also code of ethics both sides. We got to know, you know, we send our our teachers in the classroom. We want to make sure they have the tools they need to teach. We need to have the tools that our
013kids are going to need to learn. We need tools as board members to understand what our job and our responsibilities are. And I think all of these things will just help make us better. I know recently on policy which I've never been on before. I went to that booklet and I the handbook and I read it. Well, what is writing policy all about me? This would be a really big help. Um I have purchased enough of these lovely folders to have all of that information stored in one place. I'll even run it off. I'll stuff them so that as of next meeting in May, every board member can have that if that works for everybody. We also need to be prepared for careful balance. A careful careful balance is like a threelegged stool. And that's
014our job. Our job is one, number one, the kids. That's one leg of that school on that school. The second is our staff. We need to provide them with the facilities, the materials, and everything else they're going to need to do the job. And the third is to build community. That's for our community. We're building the future here. And if one of those legs is too short, that school's not going to stand. So, I need to thank the community and our staff and our leadership for the privilege of serving our students and our staff and to be part of the future and I thank you. >> Other board comments. >> Okay. >> Good evening. uh got a chance to start reading again the classrooms. I read to one fourth grade, one kindergarten, and one TK
015classroom this week. And actually, I'll be at the primary school twice tomorrow reading to a kindergarten class and a prek class. Uh we started negotiations with our cafeteria workers this past week. Uh I also met with the leaders of the Western Maine Education Consortium where we discussed and looked at the surveys about the rendevous day, that workshop day that we had on March 20th. Um and they voted to have another day in three years. It takes that long to actually work that out and plan. Uh there was over 1,800 educators at UMF that day. So it was fantastic. Uh also had a meeting with the Western Maine superintendent to discuss a couple of bills that before the legislature. One is safety arms for buses and the other is some of the changes that could be
016coming to the EPS formula. uh what was shared earlier looks like might not actually be happening. Pulled some things already. So, it'll be interesting to see when it actually becomes law what some of these things are going to look like because what they look like in the beginning isn't necessarily what it looks like at the end. questions for Scott. >> Sherry. >> Oh, look at that. Fancy. I would have never noticed that. So, thank you very much. I'm a lot tired today. Um, special education, we currently have 345 students. That's the same number as my March report. This includes 20 open referrals, which is two fewer than my previous report. At the primary school, we have 78 students in the IEP process. That's an addition of one. The elementary school we have 88 students which
017is the same number. The middle school we have 74 students which is an addition of one. And at the high school we currently have 105 students which is down two. We continue to have 14 students at out of district placements and special purpose schools for day treatment programming. Three primary, three at the elementary, four for middle school and four for high school. We are starting to transition one student back after April vacation at the high school. He's an eighth grader, but the hope is that he will start high school in the fall at Spruce Mountain High School. Um the 14 continue to be the same as my previous report. And a quick update on the transition of FAPE, which is the right to free appropriate public education for fouryear-olds with the transition from CDS to
018public schools. When we joined the cohort this fall, we were anticipating seven students age four for the fall of 2026. We are now anticipating 14 age four students with IEPs. The special education services are paid through an allocation from the state of Maine Department of Ed at 100% based on the quarterly count that we submit to the DOE. This process has many moving parts. We have to plan a budget for special education services based on an estimated allocation using a funding worksheet that they provided us. But remember, our student count continues to change. So that's a difficult part. Parents don't have to choose to send their children to RSU73 prek service prek, but we're still responsible for that special education service. So, if we have currently I met with CDS last week um and we
019have some students who attend Head Start and then we also have a couple of students at the Children's Center in Farmington and Early Learning Solutions in Liverour. Those two are special purpose placements that would be reimbursed through DOE. But those that are attending our Head Start program, we would need to provide services for Jenna. And I met with the CDS case manager and administrator for our region last week. We know where the students are currently attending, but we do not know how many or who will be registering for the RSU73 PreK program. So much information is changing as this process continues to evolve. We'll do our best to implement a program that's best for our students in the fall. The most positive thing to come from this transition is that many of our preschool children
020were not have not been receiving services through CDS prior to kindergarten. I feel strongly that we have the ability to provide services. We just need to figure out the logistics of who and where to provide those services. In the fall of 2027, we anticipate implementing special education services for threeyear-olds. We have to pick up the three and four year olds by 2028. I've not started planning for this yet, but I feel it's important for the board to be aware that the special education services are anticipated to be funded at 100% by the DOE as it is for the four-year-olds. However, there is an additional state statute that requires all threeyear-olds with an IEP have at least 6 hours of general education programming. There is no discussion at the state level of where that funding for
021public schools to offer three-year-old general education programming would come from other than some districts have folded the three-year-olds into their four-year-old prek program. One important point is we have 60 slots in our prek program and developmentally three and four year olds are not at the same level. So, we will have a challenge ahead of us for that at this time next year. Finally, as we wrap up the seven most difficult weeks of every school year, I encourage you to take a minute to thank a teacher, an edtech, the bus drivers, anyone who works in education. They definitely deserve it. >> Questions for Sherry. Tanya, >> when is the registration for four year olds, Sherry? Does that happen like a kid registration? >> Do have the dates haven't been set yet. >> They're in May. >>
022In May. Okay. So, then we'll have an idea number-wise what you're looking at. >> Yes. >> Um, one big difference is we always have transition meetings for our incoming kindergarteners. Like those are scheduled for May already. um they are not planning to hold transition meetings for the four-year-olds. So, I'm pushing that. I'll probably be in IEP meetings in July, but I don't think that that's I don't think it's right to not have those transition meetings. We need to know the kids. >> Other questions for Shar? Um so not so much a question um but a statement as a parent uh rather than a board member. Um as everyone on the board knows and everyone who knows me knows we are not secretive about this. Um my own son has special needs. Um and he came
023to me the other day and I asked him how school was like I do every single day and he said mom I was looking through some history books. I'm like okay that that's great. He's like, "No, no, mom, listen." I'm like, "Okay, I'm listening." And he said, "I was looking at how they used to treat special needs kids and what it's like today." And I walked around school and I looked around and it's not like that for us. And it's because of our teachers that it's not like that because not just parents, but the teachers have been advocating for us. And can you thank them at the schoolboard meeting? And I told him, I'm like, you know, it's funny you mentioned that because um our special services director is going to be presenting. And he
024asked me, can you tell her? I said, thank you because what it's like for me, it wasn't what it was like when you were a kid. It wasn't what it was like when grandma was a kid. And please thank them for that. So from Dante and from every other child in the special needs services, thank you. Other questions for Sherry. >> Thank you, >> Dassy. I completely forgot to put this in my report. Kindergarten registration is next Thursday and Friday. Um so there will not be kindergarten um students attending school. um we have had 10 um parents sign up for registrations, but we know we get that's usually the norm around this time and then we'll get an influx over the summer or even later on into the year. Um but that's kind of where
025we're at right now. And then after kindergarten registration is over and we focus on prek. Um so that'll be coming. Um enrollment now is 317. Last time I was only here two weeks ago, so I figured I'll focus on attendance and behavior. So Dino students, who is also the attendance coordinator, wrote up a quick report for me. Um, our attendance data continues to show chronic absenteeism as a significant concern. Um, our numbers haven't changed. I noted the last time I reported on attendance, 4% were um, between the 80 and 90 uh, sorry, have attended less than 80%. Um and then we are actually at 19% of students who are considered chronically absent. Um 15% of these students have attended between 80 and 90% of the school year. We attended attendance as behavior um session at
026the WMEC and in the entire room there was a consistent message um and that is parent behavior not necessarily student behavior. Um my kids are 5 through 8 years old. Um so when kids are chronically absent, we need to focus on something a little different other than students. Um so based on what we're seeing dayto-day, this is not main mainly an issue of students refusing to come to school. When students are here, they're engaged, willing to participate. The bigger challenge is getting students to school consistently in the first place. In many cases, absences are not due to appointments or transportation transportation issues. Instead, we are seeing patterns tied to inconsistent home routines, difficulty getting students up and out the door, school not always being treated as a daily priority. When they can't get their child
027to school, they call the child out with reasons such as, "I can't get my child out of bed." Hence why I post reposted on our Facebook page our excusable reasons per state DOE. We regularly encourage families to use the bus as a reliable way to get students to school. However, for many of our families who are chronic, this is not happening often because buses arrive early and students are not up and ready in time. We're also seeing an increase in family mental health challenges which can impact a caregivers's ability to maintain routines and follow through with getting students to school each day. These factors combined have led to a high number of absences that in many cases can be prevented. This means our work has to focus more on family communication, support, and accountability, not
028just student motivation. We know that our consistent tier 1 supports are helping with the majority of other students who are attending regularly. At the same time, there are limits to what a school can control. We can reach out, offer support, communicate expectations, but we cannot directly manage what happens at home each morning. In some cases, families don't respond to outreach or are not able to make consistent changes, which makes improving attendance difficult without additional support or accountability measures beyond the school level. We've created attendance plans for students. They can earn stickers, get a family incentive, and this hasn't been successful because of parent behavior. So to address this, we're increasing communication with families about the importance of daily attendance, reaching out earlier when attendance concerns start to develop, working with families to build more consistent
029routines, connecting with families, connecting families with mental health opportunities and supports. Improving attendance will take a consistent effort between school, families, and broader supports to make sure students are getting to school each day. We're simply running out of ideas to help our students who are chronically absent when it's parent behavior, not student behavior. Kind of go back to that three-legged stool, right? We're cutting one short. In February for behavior report, I reported the number of referrals were going down each month. It was a great celebration. Boy, has the past couple months been a doozy. In March, we had 213 um behavior referrals. When you get your notes, I did break down the majors of how many um instances for specific behaviors such as aloping, emotional outbursts, fighting, physical contact, and that. Um however, in this
030month alone, and it's only April 9th, we have 49. It's a lot. Our students are ready. our our staff are ready for April vacation as well as our students. Um, it's been a month. In 129 instances this year, a child needed to be removed from a class for whatever behavior that was, meaning myself, the dean of students, our teams have had to assist in that. We've had 13 in school suspensions, seven out of school suspensions, seven calls to crisis or law enforcement for support. One ongoing challenge we are facing is a lack of consistent parent support in some cases. While we continue to address student behavior concerns at school, there's often limited follow-through with the strategies and recommendations we share, some even refusing it. We are also seeing a significant need for social emotional learning
031among students. Behaviors such as work refusal, difficulty accepting no, and resistance to simple requests like cleanup time are often common triggers where the child needs to be removed. Our teachers andcl support staff are working diligently to implement interventions and provide support for these students. It truly takes a collaborative effort between school and home to create meaningful change. Without consistent parent partnership, it becomes much more challenging to effectively support and improve student behavior. Teachers are feeling deflated and defeated. We have three staff who are not safety care trained consist and cannot assist with some behavioral needs. And we have a couple who are limited in what they can do. Lastly, Elaine, thank you for being a board member on our PBIS committee. You have helped and been a great voice to help with that. Same with
032the ELA committee and getting some board members to come and join us for our trick-or- treat walk. So, we appreciate your dedication to the Spruce Mountain Primary School as well. >> So, how can we help you with the behaviors? I mean, >> it's parent behavior >> and is it you need more time to train some of the staff in in how to deal with the behaviors? >> Oh, no. the staff are working. The staff and it's not >> it's okay. So there's really nothing as a board that we can do to to support you. I mean I feel I feel helpless. >> Yeah, >> it's challenging some days. It really is. But again, it's we need parent support and we need parents to follow through on getting these kids, their kids, the help that they
033need that we can't get them. I whole other level. >> Um I I hear you. >> Thank you. >> And I guess in this case, my heart's with all the teachers because every time they're dealing with this, they're not teaching. and kids, everyone else, the 85% are not running. This is what we're dealing with. >> Um, you know, again, you're going to talk about test scores. Well, this is the stuff that we have no control over >> and we need the help of parents. And I wish I had an answer. >> We do too. >> I don't see it, but it's a helpless feeling from all of us. Um, except the only thing I can see is smaller numbers per room. >> Mhm. >> That's that is >> when I looked at some of the
034numbers that we were hearing from >> elective courses in the high school and I thought >> if we had those numbers K12 >> early interventions, >> we would be lose it. We we wouldn't have we'd have staff that we could let go. >> Um I feel for you. Please thank the staff. I know they're exhausted this time of year on a regular basis. been there, done that. But this is this is so hard. Thank you. >> Other questions for us, Daniel? >> I want to thank you for your honesty cuz it's refreshing to actually really know what's happening. >> It's very frustrating. My heart hurts for the kids that have to deal with the situations at home that cause the behaviors at school, >> but my heart also hurts for the middle of the road
035kids >> that don't live in those situations, but are coming to school and experiencing them. >> And it makes me sad to think that they'll get maybe immune to it or adjust to it. But that's >> I was just going to say they become resilient to it and they just know they tell the teachers, "Oh, you can't do this with this child here." you know, because they just and you know, the one thing I can say about the students at the primary school is they are understanding. They are they know they know what to do. They know how to respond and they are understanding and it's those kids that they actually have the sympathy for and they want to help them. They give them hugs and they they love each other. It's just it really
036is a family in those classrooms and they understand that some days some kids have a we call it the guard dog, right? We are teaching them all about brain and you can any student in my school can say what the three parts of the brain are that affect their memory making good choices and when they have their guard dog up they call it which is responding to situations and that's the social emotional learning that needs to be happening every day consistently in our school. I probably could have brought this up with Sherry as well, but and I have been talking about it and people have pointed out some of the pitfalls to it, but do you feel that our district would benefit from a day treatment program? >> Yeah, I do. >> I've heard some
037of the downsides of staffing is very very difficult. Um, but I, you know, Mount Blue has one, Valley has one. feel like it's it's a needed thing and I don't know how we would go out staffing >> given given the age range of students that we have in day treatment we would need to have two separate programs >> because primary school cannot be the middle school wise >> right so I feel like even costwise we have so many outside placements that may need that when you're paying for transportation you're paying for the outside school I mean would balance out in any way or do you see staffing just an obstacle that you can't overcome? When we had day treatment before, it was an adult program. Finding an inperson social worker to be part of that
038program. We have teleol at the high school because we can't find social. >> My heart is with you guys. >> Other questions? >> Oh, she she asked. Okay. I'll add to that in-house programming also has a really fast burn rate on teachers. If you can get them, >> it's hard to keep them because they burn out fast. >> So, it's a multi-aceted problem. There's no easy answers. >> My heart hurts. >> And we do we have all the systems in place and all the supports in place. It's just we need that other leg to extend a little longer. >> Oh, I'm sorry. All right. Um, so I've been digesting what everybody has been saying and it is a lot. Uh, I know it's something that we've talked about uh for the last few years. Um,
039we've had nights where we've had, hey, let's invite parents to come and sit and talk about these things and often we don't get the numbers or the parents that do show are the ones where their kids are already showing up. >> Um, and I've been racking my brain for a while trying to figure out how we reach those parents. Do you think it would be helpful if we were to have another one of those nights, but film it so that we can put on the page so that they can at least see it? because a lot of the parents that I've spoken to um have voiced, well, I don't have time to read everything, but they'll scroll on their reels. If we had reels, like do you think that that might help a little bit
040just for them to have like a short video that we can put on our website, >> you know, just something to inspire them to, hey, let's do this routine. Like, do you think maybe that might help even a smidgen? I don't know if it would reach the population of parents that it needs to get to, but I'm willing to try anything. Nope. Any other questions? Cassie, just a curious. Um, are we talking 20, 30 parents? I mean, how big is this scope? larger. >> Uh, no, I wouldn't say that. You wouldn't? No. >> I just wondered if uh we could invite the chronic parents who will >> they won't come. >> We've already had conversations with them one-on-one. We've brought them in for meetings. It's sitting at the We've done this work with them, >>
041right? It's just not following through. And as part of the PBS, I've been with them as they try to problem solve and it's getting more parents involved in school. Um it's great and as you said the parents who care and they're already doing what they need to do. They're the ones who show up, you know, let's have a dinner, let's get whatever here and and it's not the ones that we really need to see. >> So it's it's so frustrating. We all love to find answers, but we're going to have to start thinking out of box and I may not be here, but I'll be in touch. >> We appreciate you. >> Now, with the chronic absence, does at some point in time, do we report this to DHS? >> Only truency. >> Only what?
042>> Truency. >> But once again, the state doesn't help us here because there's no real bite to this. There's nothing. >> Nope. I even attended a workshop session with the MPA that that's what they said. There's no teeth. But we are holding parents more accountable when they do call the school. If you don't give us a reason that falls in those DOE guidelines, it's going to be an unexcused absence. So, we're going to see more truent kids for these reasons. And if they don't call at all, they become truent. So, what's accountability? Um, those attendance rules are law as well. That's not just our policy, it's a law. And so, everybody's kind of in the same boat. So, it's great that there's communication going on between all the areas. So, if somebody comes up with
043some great ideas, it's shared quickly, I'm sure. And a big thank you to the parents that are because it is the majority, right? It is the majority. We just need that small amount that is the to jump on board and help us out. I think you're all set now. All right. >> Sure. I have to go next. Good evening. I can't believe you're leaving. Well, I got to get my notes here. All righty. So, can I add to the last conversation just a little bit? As far as truency goes, you can call the state and they will give you every reason why or something is is just truency. Oh, it's just try. Even if you call and add in other things that you know are happening with the house in the house, it's just trunci
044and I have taken how many people have you taken to court and they've not one of them has shown up. It's Scott, myself, and the SRO and I don't even know what happens afterwards. I don't know if they're issued a bench warrant because they didn't attend. I don't know if they ever paid the $250 fine for their kids who are truent. But just to get one kid through truent can literally take the entire school year because you have to follow you have the state law that you have to follow and then you have the district attorney that added even some more steps onto it and then was it last year before they decided that oh they needed two letters from the superintendent to the parent because one wasn't enough. Um, so it's it is an
045uphill battle to get kids to come to school if their parents it isn't important. Um, I mean, you know, we've talked about getting Anthony a bus and maybe he could drive from house to house, but I don't know that that would go over well either. Um, but it is a challenge. Behavior is a challenge. Truency and attendance are a challenge. >> Um, and like with RC, I'm not sure what the answer is. Um, I'm not sure how to make people want to have their kids go to school. I'm not sure how to get people to want their kids to do well in school. I'm not sure how we break that cycle. Uh, and that's the challenge we face daily. Um, so I'll just go through my notes right now. Um, we're always talking about test
046scores. Um, so we've implemented using Freckle this year along with Star Assessment. star assessment we give every six weeks just to make sure the kids are heading in the right direction. And the last time that we gave it, um 60% of our kids made growth. Now, that doesn't mean that they're on grade level yet, but they're heading in the right direction. They're making growth from the last checkpoint that we did to the current checkpoint. Um so I was glad to see that. I know they gave the reading numbers. Um so I wanted to throw out some math numbers for the elementary school. we still have, you know, some some work to do. Um, but it's always good when you see 60% of your kids making growth in a 6 week time frame. Um, our readathon,
047our final numbers for the readathon, we ended up earning what's we the kids uh 9,9172 and they read 31,380 minutes. So, we're going to have an outdoor day. And we kind of came up with an outdoor day because I think one of the ways you get kids to school is they don't care about the testing. They don't care about whether these 60% went up or not. What they care about is that they come that they're loved, they're cared for, and they get to do things that they don't normally get to do. Um those those are the reasons why we've had snowshoeing this year. We've had the sledding this year. We're having an outdoor day where we've broken up the day into three. Uh there'll be three areas where the playground they'll get to do things
048like cornhole, spikeball, disc golf, things that they don't normally get to do. Uh the tennis court, we're going to do kickball, sharks and minnows, sledding, I mean sharks and minnows. The sledding hill, we're going to do whiffle ball, volleyball, and we got a giant connect for um board. Um it's things like that that I can control. And I'm hoping when we do these kind of things, getting kids hands on, uh, if anybody's seen our Facebook page, we had the the dirt, the compost, and all that delivered, and we put the kids to work carrying the bags. And the kids love that. They love being out there getting dirty, getting to do things that they normally don't do. Um, so that's our outdoor day. We're going to do that on Friday, April 17th. Um, we also
049have the most improved. Uh, and when we do the most improved, it's most improved for anything. Most improved attendance, most improved behavior, most improved reading, math, science, whatever it is. So, we had 42 students that are receiving the most improved honor. And as part of that, um, they get to go to the Sea Dogs game on May 9th. So, they get a ticket to go to the Sea Dogs game. And while they're there, they get to go on the field and they get their name up on the Jumbotron um, for being one of the kids that was most improved. Um attendance, we've implemented our Dina students implemented an attendance award. Um so trimester 1, we had 63 kids earn uh an attendance word award, which means that they made 98% of the school days that
050trimester. Um trimester 2, which we just finished, and we'll give these awards out in about a week, uh it was up to 86 kids had made 98% of the school days in that trimester. Um, so what are we doing from now until the end of the school year? Well, we're ramping up for testing. So, we're getting ready for the uh state test. So, third, fourth, and fifth will be taking the main through year for reading and math. And then our fifth graders in the middle of May will take the state science test. Um, attendance. Last time I was here, I had and now I have 288. So that's all I have. If there's any questions. >> Questions for Patrick. >> I' I've enjoyed your newsletters like the newsletters you're seeing on Facebook and primary school.
051I always share them. And if we see them, if we can share them, that's all more people that get to see the good things happening. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Chris. So, Lane, you know, I'm looking for some more substitute teachers if you're bored. Just saying. I hear they got a really cool principal if you >> All right. Um, >> I didn't say that. The middle school has right now we have an enrollment of 268. Our daily attendance or year to date average is 94%. Um just a little shy of that 95% mark I'm trying to hope we get to. Our spring sports have started on Monday, April 6. Uh 30 uh 40 have signed up for track, 26 for softball and 29 for baseball. uh softball and baseball will keep 13 each on
052their rosters right now. On April 3rd, we had our February March student of the month Phoenix award and trimester 2 honors assembly. Uh trimester 2, we had 90 uh students make honor roles and 41 make high honors. And we also still right now have 20 students who are currently perfect attendants for the year. That's pretty good number. That's almost just a little bit under 10%. On March 25th, we had 8th grade students attend the Woodland and Pinewood uh Terrace Senior Living facilities where they played games, card games, crafts with them. I think they did a couple sing alongs and they the kids really seem to enjoy it. On April 16th and May 15th, we have community connection trips for more eighth graders. Uh they're going to be going doing some raking and then going down
053and reading to primary students. I sent home 17 possible retention and summer school letters uh this last trimester. Last year I sent 26 home and the year before that I sent 53 home for the same time period. So and then two years ago at this time uh we had 117 out of school suspensions and 35 in school suspensions. Last year at this time we had 46 out of school suspensions and 26 in school suspensions. Currently we have 33 out of school suspensions for the year and 26 in school suspensions. That's all I've got >> questions for Chris. >> All right. Have a great night. >> Thank you DJ. >> Good evening. Um, just to let everybody know if in case you didn't see the signs coming in, there's a mattress sale on Sunday, ju just
054one sign, you know. Seriously though, if you're available on Sunday, come on in. There's some reasonably priced ones. It's a great fundraiser. Last year we uh it was right around $7,800 that the sports uh uh got for towards a tennis mat uh tennis courts. Um so if you get a little chance, come on up. It's a fun day. It's a really good program. We've done it in the past. Um our first time doing it about was this like 2015 16 we made a little over 10 grand in one day and it was five kids that were doing it. So it was a it was only for that senior class. Um Nate Steel's class was the the the class that day. They made a ton of money. So if you come in uh buy a mattress.
055I know I have to buy a couple. My daughters took mine. Um Enrollment is 412 uh down from 418. Uh discipline stats, some big ones here. Um we went up for phone related detentions, we've gone up plus two, so to 24. Um it's gone down like I'm telling you like this is this has been pretty decent. um sent from class detentions or disruptions were up five. Um month of uh March is pretty rough. Um so phone suspensions uh we have eight uh other suspensions. Oh, and phone suspensions. We haven't had any of this since the last time I talked. It's been the only ones. Um other suspensions, we are up two and now we're at eight. It was at six. Uh, and then inschool suspension is four. So, that's where we're at for that. Yearbook
056is going to be on time this year. Uh, I know they're getting ready to send that in. We'll have the big uh reveal at dedication at the end of the school year. Um, some robotics stuff that's happened. We are not going to um New England. We did get invited, but we're going to go to a different one towards the end of the year to give our robotics team a little time to get prepared for that next one. They had some major breakdowns, right? Yeah. Um, student of the quarter. I love this stuff. So, listen. This is really cool. So, student of the quarter for upperassmen, Mallerie Richard. So, she was one of them. Our underclassman, Isaac Grooms. Our Phoenix of the of the quarter recipients, we have Jordan Breton for an upperassman. And we had
057another upper classman cuz we couldn't determine we had, you know, a lot of kids that were getting some recognition. Oilia Hughes. And we have an underclassman, Autumn McCall. All Phoenix awards. All right. And then, of course, the Spain trip is coming. 47 people are going on this main trip a week from tomorrow. Um it's going to be a big big event for them. Uh sports is underway. Really cruising. Um I do have the main principles association uh principal awards banquet this Saturday and the recipient this year is Analia Spear. Okay. Should be in the paper already. Um should be I know I sent it in a week and a half ago. So, um, our community service day, May 20th, that's our big day. All right, that's all I have. >> Honors banquet is the 30th.
058>> That's right. Yes. >> Anybody has not RSVPd, uh, please contact Mrs. Merrill. >> Yeah, great food, too. Make sure you tell us what food you want. Mrs. Merryill will be on it, you know. And I I got to tell you, um the uh the new food director has been awesome to work with uh throughout this whole thing. Um just awesome. So, good transition. >> Questions for TJ? >> TJ, what kind of activities are the kids going to be doing on community day? Yeah. So, it'll uh usually we we do stuff for uh the towns, the three towns, like they'll give us some things that we're going to do. Um we're going to be putting out within the next uh month or so to reach out to churches and if they have some shutins or
059whatnot that can't do their uh lawn this year, we're going to get out and do all that. Um and believe it or not, wood um like stacking wood in the spring um is pretty big. So, we have quite a few. If you know of people that want stuff done, especially in the immediate areas, like you can we can have kids in high school walk over to Forest Circle, walk into Lavoy Street with teachers and stuff like that. And because they're already in the community, uh the the woods behind the school, like they do a lot of terrain building and stuff, so the kids can go right down, do a uh uh a neighbor's lawn, um move furniture, like all those different things that it's really good move for them. So, >> yeah, >> it's great.
060It's great for the kids to do that and feel that sense of help. >> Um it's a wonderful program. Thank you. >> Yeah. And I have one more thing. Um Elaine, uh I've known you for a long time. Those Sunday mornings, um at my house, every morning, every Sunday morning, um it's been an honor to be a part of this with you. Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Tanya, >> are we going to have another dropout prevention meeting? >> Yeah. So, we're waiting for the uh the information from Dawn and then we're going to move. Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> No problem. Thank you. >> Thank you, DJ. I will accept a motion for the second and final reading for policy BBA board powers and responsibilities and EBD temperature standards and for schools.
061discussion. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Uh, okay. The proposed calendar is in your packets. If everybody would take a look at those. >> Remember with the calendar we have to line uh up with Foster Tech. Uh, You're allowed five dissimilar days between us Foster 58 and Rangely because those are the other schools that go. We only have one dissimilar day. Um they are not going the Friday before Labor Day, but we are because we also have one more workshop day in our contract. So this pretty much aligns with what uh N is doing. I will accept a motion to approve the draft of the school calendar. >> Discussion. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. And the school board calendar is also in your packet with the proposed dates
062going forward for the rest of the year after the um after validation meeting after August. >> Starting in August starting in August 2026. Uh I will accept a motion to approve the board meeting calendar as proposed. Discussion. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Okay. So this is the last meeting until the vote uh on the budget. The next regular meeting is May 14th. And I will accept a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor?