001I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Laura, you good with attendance? >> Could I just uh take a moment and uh thank all of our veterans. Um, of course, Veterans Day was this past Tuesday. Um, for their service, Don in particular, >> our board member. Um, >> very welcome. >> Without uh without their service, >> TJ. Yes. without their service uh thank you >> we would not have the free country that we have. So thank you all very much for your service. I have uh adjustments to the agenda um 16.1 and 16.2. I will ask for approval for the school board meeting minutes from October 23rd, 2025. >> So moved. Do I
002have a second? >> Second. >> Any adjustments, omissions? >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Any any abstensions? I will take a motion to accept the resignation of Paula Pratt, special education teacher. Spruce Mountain Primary School, seconded by Dawn. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion carries. A retirement notification from Brenda Merrell, accounts payable at the superintendent's office. Um, we'll take a motion to accept her retirement. >> Seconded by Elaine >> with with regret. Um, all those in favor. >> All those opposed. Motion carries. Uh, we have in our packets a report from Anthony who will not be able to make it here tonight. Uh, if you can take a look. um at that uh when you get a chance. Public comments. Um we'll have three minutes
003as usual. Uh Linda Dean. Hello. Okay. Good evening. My name is Linda Dean and I'm from Liverour. Our school polic policies should be grounded in fact, law, and the lived reality of our students, not in talking points from outside organizations. At the last meeting, a board member said policy AC/DC had been put to rest. With respect, that's not how democracy or accountability work. When a public body adopts a policy that conflicts with main law and harms vulnerable students, the conversation is not over. It was said that this policy represents sound governance based on federal guidance. But this language didn't come from local educators or families. It came from a political advocacy group whose members aren't parents in this district. Boards may review ideas from many re sources, but responsible governance means weighing multiple perspectives and
004verified legal counsel, not adopting one group's agenda. We also heard that concerns about insurance coverage and legal exposure were speculative. Yet, the policy itself is speculative. It addresses a problem that doesn't exist here. There's been no complaint, no incident, and no transgender athlete competing in RSU73. Passing a discriminatory rule just in case is not caution, it's unnecessary risk. It was further claimed that this policy rests on strong legal footing under the supremacy clause. That is incorrect. The supremacy clause applies only when Congress passes a federal law that directly conflicts with state law. A presidential executive order is not a law and cannot override Maine's Human Rights Act, which explicitly protects students from discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Maine's Supreme Judicial Court confirmed this over a decade ago in DO versus RSU26,
005ruling that denying a transgender girl access to the appropriate facilities is discrimination. Policy A CDC contradicts that decision decision which has never been overturned in any court and exposes this district and its taxpayers to risk. resend policy AC/DC and show that RSU73 respects our courts, protects every student, and values the rule of law over ideology. Thank you, >> Ellen Grlat. Good evening. My name is Ellen Grunblat and I'm from Jay. Six months ago, the board devoted an hour of its time to a presentation by parents rights and education or pre Can you hear me? >> Okay. Is this better? >> Okay. Six months ago, the board devoted an hour of its time to a presentation by parents rights in education or pre supplied the script for the AC/DC policy, the lawyers who provided legal cover
006and a philosophical framework that is based on a profound misunderstandings of science and law dismissive of com concepts of discrimination and violation of human rights. That framework remains ironclad, unmoved by considerations other than the ones that PRI, a national anti-public school organization, wishes to espouse. PRI appeared most recently at a town meeting in Tiny St. George to convince the community to bar an 8-year-old transgender child from playing basketball on a town team. This is what protecting girls looks like. No, this is what bigotry looks like. It's illegal and it's immoral. The St. George Select Board voted after hearing all sides to uphold main law to allow the child to participate in the team of her choice. Pre's actions in St. George offer us a lesson about where these policies lead. What would this school board
007do if it were faced with a similar situation involving a young child of this community? Would there be some recognition of the hurt that could be done to a child who is excluded, barred from an activity freely open to other children, or would it stick to the script, allow the puppet strings controlled by pre to shape your response? Back in May, the board chair stated that she would listen to all sides. All sides would include organizations such as Equality Maine, Glad Law, P Flag, and the Maine Human Rights Commission. So far, nothing. And the board remains untouched by and unexposed to information necessary for good decisionmaking. And to recap a question asked at the last meeting. What happens to the student who is interex, who has testicular feminization, adrenal hyperandrogenism, genetic mosaicism, the list goes
008on and on. Who doesn't fit into the convenient dichotoies that the AC/DC policy presupposes? Who a student who wants to play on a team or use a bathroom consistent with their gender identity? What guidance can you give your staff or indeed yourselves in dealing with this reality? AC/DC is far from settled. It's against the law and it is in violation of the oath all board members take upon their election to quote faithfully discharge to the best of my abilities the duties incumbent upon me according to the constitution of men. >> Thank you, Ellen. And the laws of this state. So help me God. board comments. >> I think >> Hold on one second. >> Do you guys have them? Okay, go ahead. First quarter closed and grades are finalized on October 31st and the end
009of the season fall sports banquet was held on Sunday in the cafeteria and the upcoming winter sports sports banquet is being held this Sunday. Football defeated Mount Arat on Saturday, November 8th and is headed onto their state championship game against Camden Hills this Saturday. I just want to report on the fun Halloween that a number of board members, Miss Dillow, I got to think of everybody's name. Miss Wlette, Miss Stout, myself, Miss Moffett. Thank God your names are up there because I get so confused when I start talking. We had a blast at the primary school. We dressed up. We passed out crayons and book activity booklets about uh Spooky the square pumpkin and some small prisms, visual prisms that were provided by um Phoebe and it was just it was a great time. We
010loved seeing the kids. We love being involved in the activities and we are looking to do more in the other three buildings to get board members in the building. I'm working on Mr. Emory right now because he'd make a great Santa for the primary school. But I've talked to Scott about getting uh the information to our administrators that we're interested in being involved with activities so the kids know there's a school board here that's active on their behalf. um and for us to see what they're doing and what our great staffs are doing. But I just want to thank everybody who was involved and donated and it was a great time. Thank you, >> Pho. All right. Um I do have a couple things I'd like to say, but first for any children watching this
011view, um when she talks about um Don Emery playing Santa, that's because Santa Claus is so busy. Um, so of course we would have the board involved. Just for any kids watching at home, just want to clarify that that's why, you know, because he's very busy, especially around this time of the year. Um, >> thank you. >> Welcome. Just for clarification. >> All right. Um, so the things I want to talk about, there's a couple different things if you guys will bear with me. Um, first, um, this is a hard time of year for our community. Uh we are aware that food insecurity is very very real. Um our schools are doing the best we can to assist. However, there are also food pantries and I'm sure um a lot of you have probably already
012seen the posts that have gone online through the school website. I a Facebook page uh talking about where these locations are, how to contact them. Um so >> the resources are out there. U please look at them if you need assistance. Um if you do need additional support, reach out. There's no shame in asking for help if you need it. None at all. Um the next thing I want to talk about is our custodians and our bus drivers. They are doing a phenomenal job. The winter is coming. Um as you can see, we've already had a couple little snow drifts that have melted away, but the storms are coming. Please, when you are on the road, look for those flashing lights. They are not a suggestion. Please stop when you see those lights. Keep our
013kids safe. Keep our drivers safe. Keep our community at large safe. Um, we want to teach the kids. We want to have them go through their whole day. We don't want to explain, well, this bus is late because somebody drove past you when they shouldn't have. That is not a conversation that we should ever be having with children or anyone else because the adults should know. Stop when you see those flashing lights. Um, we've seen some disturbing news reports in other states where other drivers have not followed that rule. Don't don't let this be that district. Please, I am imploring all of you to drive safely this winter, especially with the deer out. Thank you, >> Tanya. Um, I would like to congratulate our two sports teams. Um the field hockey for making it two
014states >> and the football team for participating in the state game on Saturday. Those students should be very very proud of their accomplishments and we'll all be cheering them on. And thank you Mr. Finley because I got to see a lot of games because of you. Thank you. comments >> superintendent report. >> Good evening. I got to read to one kindergarten classroom over the last couple weeks. Uh also we attended the policy meeting. We have two policies to go over tonight. Uh I've also been busy doing groundwork in preparation for negotiations that are coming up. Uh I met with principles target and special ed director Parker to discuss space issues for next year's special education numbers at the high school. Uh had also attended the western main superintendence meeting this past week. There we discussed
015policy work, budget concerns, and staffing concerns that all districts are seeing. >> Questions for Scott? Lara. So, good evening. We received uh first of all, I'll just apologize for not being present at our last meeting. Um I was attending a DOE fall meeting. Um, but I just am here to report today to let you know that we have received our first USDA delivery on October 9th, which had a value of roughly $4,700. And today we received our second delivery, and that has a value of $19,500. These deliveries are absolutely essential for sustaining our meal programs and helping to reduce some of our costs and reinforcing our commitment to the well-being of our students. On October 17th, I had attended the first co-op meeting um that we participate in as a district. Uh during this meeting,
016we discussed procurement strategies. Dennis paper which is our um received our bid for this school year was present and we had a great discussion about buy American compliancy. Um we're focused we we're really focused on identifying products and helping us to be able to track these purchases to ensure that we're meeting our federal requirements. Um on October 23rd I was at Orino for the DOE's fall meeting. This meeting too provided updates to keep us aligned with state and federal priorities. Um the primary focus of this meeting was again on procurement particularly uh focused on local products and by American tracking. According to the regulations we must not exceed 10% of our annual food purchases on non-domemestic products. Um this requires quite a challenge to us. Um just being able to track where the origins of
017every single product comes from is uh daunting at the very least. Um and this is only going to become more and more of an obstacle during the school year of 2829. And the expectation is the cap will decrease down to 8% of um of our uh budget for food and during the school year by 2031 32 it's only supposed to be 5%. So this is going to continue to be an ongoing obstacle that we're going to have to deal with. On November 5th, the elementary school hosted a veterans dinner. Um we had the pleasure of serving 55 um veterans. It was a wonderful event that allowed us to honor those that have served our country. Additionally, on the 5th, I attended a webinar with full plates full potential where we discussed policy, public policy priorities
018for the upcoming school year with our um focus on where and what policies we want to target into legislation this upcoming school year. We continue to be short staffed one member um from our department at this current time uh which is affecting primarily the primary school. We currently have a long-term substitute position posted to address this gap but have yet to um find an applicant. Um and I think one of the things we've discussed is the rate of pay for that substitute um position. uh it's hard to get somebody in there when they can go substitute in another department for significantly more money. Um despite this challenges, all schools have done an outstanding job providing more scratch food items and I just really want to extend my gratitude um for my team's hard work um
019and dedication to the program. Uh additionally, we have successfully harvested our second batch from our hydroponics um of our lettucees and as well our herbs and we've been using those in our cooking especially the fresh herbs and we have some drying for the holiday season. So, thank you for your support. >> Questions for Laura? >> I'm a big mouth tonight. I have been so enjoyed the postings I've seen on Facebook about the homemade items and the variety that we're giving our kids. Uh it c when I retired it certainly was not that uh a lot of it was prepackaged and really not that great for you. I'm so excited about what you guys are offering to them and the great variety for interest for tastes and introducing some new foods to the kids. Um thank
020you so much. It's great and thank you for putting it out there on social media so people can see what we're really doing because that makes a difference. >> Thank you for the positive feedback. Other questions for Lara? Michelle, >> I just wanted to thank you and your staff again for continuing to recognize the importance of having like a holiday celebration meal. Um, I noticed it was recently for primary school anyway, or elementary, I think it was. Um, some kids aren't able to be able to experience that um, in their homes for different reasons, and so it's always a a bright spot. So, thank you It's our pleasure to do that honestly and we try to stagger them because it's it's it's a heavy work day. Yes, we did the primary uh the elementary school
021yesterday. The middle school was served today and it was um >> I think it means a lot to them. >> Next week will be the primary and the high school. >> Thank you. >> Other questions or comments for Lara? >> Thank you. Thank you, Chris. >> So, good evening. Uh, the middle school has an enrollment of 269 at the moment. Our daily attendance average is 93% uh year to date. On October 28th, we had our school pitchers and we'll have pitcher retake on December 2nd. On October 31st, we had choice matters uh present about driving and and making appropriate choices. Um the choice of matters presenter said the middle school was the best behaved uh school that he had been to uh this year, which is amazing. But what's even better is Life Touch >>
022called um and said that of all the schools they had done uh so far this year, our students were the best behaved and most respectful. So I want to be able to take those proud moments when we can. We don't get to hear that feedback very often and for them just to reach out and call and say. So it meant a lot to me. >> Um and to our staff too. I mean they put a lot of work into it. Um we had parent teacher conferences on the 3rd and the 5th. We had 94% of our time slots booked and then after that we only had four parents uh who did not show up. So that put us at 92%. um to show up for parent teacher conferences. Uh next Friday, the 21st, we'll have
023our October student of the month, Phoenix award assembly. Uh any of you are more than welcome to come and attend. We get out reach out to the parents. Uh we put on a pretty good assembly for for the kids. We had a Veterans Day assembly on Monday the 10th. Uh we ended up having 22 veterans come and sit with our students. Uh at the assembly they presented the patriot pen winners. The 2025 and 26 theme was how are you showing patriots patriotism and support for our country. Uh third place winner was Noah Johnson. Second place winner was Lily Naidder and our first place winner was Lexi Heert and she'll be moving on to the regional uh final. out of all the veterans reported back after they went and sat with the kids that they said
024that they were very respectful and asked some great questions and had some really positive conversations with them about military service. Our first trimester grades close on December 5th and our staff is working diligently to make our middle school craft fair a success on the 13th. Um Dawn, we really have the real Santa Claus coming on the 13th. So come over and visit and say hi to him. I'll be an elf. >> Perfect. Um, overall behavior has still been good at the middle school. Andrew, our new Dina students, and Ann, our restorative room teacher, have been working hard facilitating circles, investigating student in reports, and overseeing accountability projects. Uh, we've had 15 out of school suspensions, six in school suspensions, um, 11 structured days, and we've completed 28 accountability projects this year. uh in school and
025out of school suspensions are almost identical to where we were last year and last year was a very good year. >> Questions for Chris? >> Uh that assembly starts about 7:45. >> And when is that? >> Excuse me. >> When is that? >> It's next Friday. >> Next Friday. >> Yeah. Um, not so much a question, but given all of the good news that he just provided about the middle school, I think he deserves a round of applause. Don't you guys think? >> The middle school staff is right. >> Other questions for Chris? >> Thank you, Sherry. Hello. Um, so we currently have 339 students in special education. That's an increase of seven since my October report and includes 18 open referrals. The primary school currently has 69 students, which is an increase of five
026and 10 open referrals. The elementary school has 83 students with IEPs, which an increase of one and three referrals in process. The middle school has 73 students with IEPs. That's um a decrease of one with one open referral. And the high school currently has 114 students with IEPs, which is an increase of two and there are four referrals at the high school level. We have 14 students um at out of district placements in special purpose schools for day treatment. There are two primary students, three elementary, four middle school, and five high school students. This is an increase of three since my last report. We were able to place one student who was waiting for a new placement. We had a student move back to our district who had moved away and they were previously enrolled
027in day treatment. And then we had another student move in who was already placed in a day treatment program. Um once it's in their IEP, we're legally obligated to provide that service and special purpose schools are our only option for our district. Um we continue to have one student who was discharged and we are pursuing new programming for that student. We have currently have um five open edtech positions. One edtech one at the primary school, one edtech 2 at the elementary school, one edtech 2 at the middle school, and two edtech ones at the high school. Um we have our next meeting. It's called the FAPE transition meeting, which is free appropriate public education with child development services on November 19th, where we'll learn more about the financial process of picking up um services for
028four year olds. The main department of ed is supposed to fund this special education programming for four-year-olds at 100%. But the process is different from the K to2 funding formula. We have a site visit on December 2nd with a representative from that transition team to discuss our overall vision and needs for providing these services. This will include talking about trend data with me and then touring our prek classrooms and meeting with our prek teachers to identify their needs. And finally, I really need to recognize the primary school special education staff for all pitching in and making sure our students received their services after some unexpected staffing changes over the last couple of weeks. IEP meetings and services all took place as scheduled because each member of the team took some on some extra responsibilities to
029make it happen and I truly appreciate it. Questions for Sherry? Oh, sorry. >> Um, besides trying to fill those positions, of course, uh, what can we as a board do to best support you and your team? Convince some people they should go into education. Um, we are fortunate that we have some long-term subs that are stepping up and filling at least part-time some of those positions and they're tremendous subs, but they don't want to be hired on full-time as edex. Um, but it's really about recruiting people and um people that want to work in education. Other questions for Sher? >> Thank you. Patrick, >> good evening. Um, I want to start off talking about uh behavior Dina students. Um, last year was a rough year for the elementary school overall. Um, the addition of Mr.
030Charlotte Matt who's our dean deina of students has a big been a good one. Um it's allowed our behavior room, our step room to focus on the things that they knew they needed to do but not always able to do it because we're chasing down issues at recess, um lunch, those kind of areas. With the addition, Matt spends every recess outside. So he knows every kid, every behavior plan, every problem, everything that's going on. Um he's able to address it, address it in the moment, not we get to it when we get to it because there's so many issues going on. It's allowed me to be in the lunchroom every day for all three lunches, which has been a good thing, too. Um, last year we were averaging 11 suspensions a month. Right now, we've
031had 14 total. Um, which is a nice change. Uh, last year we were averaging about 53 majors a month. We're right at about 30. Um, so it's been a nice change just getting help, getting eyes, getting to be able to be in those high those high need areas. Um, where there's a little more freedom and sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes not so much. Um, Matt's always Matt comes from a lens of having been a director at group homes, so he does have a lens of like how to work with the kids who who struggle emotionally, um, behaviorally. Um, It's been good because he's been able to help us tweak behavior plans, come up with behavior plans. Just the other day, I'm catching him. He him and one of the students is folding laundry
032and I'm like, "What are you guys up to?" And he's like, "He likes folding laundry and that was a reward for him." And it was it was great. The kid was excited. He was helping fold some laundry and that's what he wanted to earn. You know, we've had other kids that want to help sweep and help the janitor in the in the lunchroom. So, we've had kids for each each age group, you know, helping the janitors clean up the lunchrooms. And I'm like, I don't know about you guys, but if when I was that age, that would have been a punishment. Um, but they enjoy it and they do it. Um, he's also taken an interest in uh the green houses. So, he's been talking with um some of our special ed teachers, our special
033ed social worker, and our behavior room teacher. Um how to get the those kids more hands-on. Uh they're looking at setting up the first greenhouse is kind of already set up for plants and seedlings and that but getting those kids out there um to do that and then finish setting up the second greenhouse for like our stem more like our STEM greenhouse. Um we have Lego kits, STEM Lego kits, you know, they're talking about creating power from plants, learning how to use like citrus potatoes to turn on lights. Um like STEM brain uh brain games like that. So he's coming from a gamut of all different he's trying to to implement and help and improve, you know, as long as, you know, using continuing to use our restorative approach um when working with kids, not
034just, you know, some of the kids, but all of the kids building wide. Um, you know, right now he's looking at attendance, like how can we improve in attendance because right now we have 90 kids who have perfect attendance, you know, how do we how do we reward them and celebrate them? So, that's one of his other goals. Um, just like on Tuesday, Veterans Day, he was out there in the houses, setting them up, doing work, figuring out what we need. Um, so it's been a great addition. Um, having the dean of students at the elementary school, it's it's made my life easier where I can, you know, do the evaluations. You know, we're doing the evaluations and the number of evaluations that we have to do, getting into classrooms, um, dealing with those kind
035of things. Um, so that's been a a good change for us. Um, Halloween. So, I need to give the community, actually, I need to give the community a shout out on two two instances. Um, Halloween, we had our we returned back to letting the kids bring their own costumes for Halloween, which was a nice change. Um, they came in, they had their their own costumes. We also had backup plans of kids didn't have costumes. Um, the community, as always, is very generous. Everything when we did our trunk or treat on the playground, everything that we gave out came from a donation. Um, so everything that the kids got came from the community, was a donation from the community. Um, the other thank you I have to get is Hannifford and we've been a recipient for
036the last few years of when you know when you guys go shopping at Hannerford, as you walk out, you can take your receipt and put it in a school. Well, we just received a donation from Hannerford from the receipts of $2,746. Um, also on top of that, they had done the the bag sale last year where you could get the little reusable bags. Um, we got an $80 check from that from the community, the number of bags sold. Um, so we got over $2,800 from Hannerford this week, which is a nice change, and we'll be able to use it for the kids. Um, we also, as Laura had talked, we had our Veterans Day celebration, and we changed it up a little bit this year. Um, our music teacher, uh, Mariah, had taught the kids
037patriotic songs. So, when the veterans came in, they were singing patriotic songs. One of our fifth grade teachers had asked the community to send pictures in of their veterans whether they could come or not. And she created a slideshow of all the different veterans and who they were related to in the community. And somehow, I I think my wife's in on this, but she won't tell me. Somehow they got a picture of me when I was skinny and in my dress whites and the kids were like, "That's not you. It's too young." And I was like, "Well, you know, I was young at one time and they they looked at me and and I almost got one of the kids to believe I was 29, but it didn't go very far." So, it was great.
038The veterans loved it. I had I can't tell you how many veterans really enjoyed sitting with the kids, having lunch with the kids. The lunch was fantastic. Thank you, Laura, and the the ladies down at the elementary school. And I I can't even tell you how many of them were like, "You're gonna do this again next year." And I'm like, "I if I didn't, I'd probably get hurt." But so, yes, it's definitely that was a positive. Um, we also had tooth fairies at the building for last month that helped provide dental services for students. Um, we had 73 students um that were serviced through the tooth fairies um which was a great thing for them to get those services that they need right there at school. They don't have to miss much school. They can
039just literally the back door to the dental bus this year. Um, I do have to warn the board, there were quite a few community members asked me why we had this beautiful motor home in the back of the building and what we I'm like, we did not buy that. That is not ours. So, if you get questions like that, that's what they're talking about. Yeah. I don't know. I was like, that thing's nice. Um, parent teacher conferences. We had parent teacher conferences on Monday and Wednesday. Um we had right at about a little over 80% uh participation rate. Um at the elementary we have picture retakes on December 2nd and our attendance last month was 286 and now it is 283 >> Questions for Patrick. >> Thank you Patrick. >> Thank you >> TJ. Good
040evening everyone. Uh the high school enrollment is at 420, same as last time. Uh one thing that I want to recognize is our discipline report for the quarter compared to last quarters. Uh we're down 11 suspensions from last year. Um so that that's a big deal for us here at the high school. Um, and the another really cool thing that happened this past week, I had a community member come in um, right at the end of the day on Friday and handed uh, me a $2,000 worth of gift cards. Um, and it's anonymous. They don't want to be known. And uh, so there's $2100 gift cards for food and that's what it's for. So, right now, um we are uh looking at a way for all of our kids to be a part of this
041to prepare food for them. Uh also, another really cool thing is the uh um to build on the spirit of giving, uh the RSU73 Education Association is sponsoring a fundraiser to help address food insecurity in the community during the Christmas and New Year season. Um, funds will be collected through Friday, December 5th, and the association will match the donation up to $1,000. All district employees and community members are invited to contribute. So, if you're willing, it'd be great. The collected funds will be used to purchase Hannerford gift cards for families in our community who may need extra support during the December school break. Um, I'm just so thankful for our community. Uh and right now we have uh a major issue going on with our uh food insecurities and our students. Um and we continue
042to give out food each day. Um also uh at the end of the week we usually h hand out a bunch of uh bags of food for our students and uh I'm going to tell you there's no embarrassment. They come in and they want it and they're ready to go. Um that just proves that our our our families are in need. Um, and we're heading into a pretty rough time for a lot of families. So, if you feel the need and you want to help donate a little bit towards this, that'd be great. Um, but, uh, I do als I I really want to I I just couldn't believe that a one person donation would give $2,000. That's amazing, right? Um, and I every year at the end of the school year, the amount of
043money our community gives to our students, um, uh, it's just a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of this community. Um, this is my home and it's just really cool to see all these people caring for our kids. So, um, just a big shout out to that. I appreciate that. Uh other good news here at the high school, I'm going to start picking different departments to give uh some uh uh outstanding things that are going on in their departments. Tonight's going to be our unified arts programs. So in technology, uh Mrs. Bryant is uh providing game design. Students have been working hard on creating their own card games before designing game apps. Um, they have been, uh, they have had to develop their own rules, points, and gameplay directions. Um, I have no
044clue how that stuff works, but I'm going to tell you, the kids are having a blast with it. JMG, which is our jobs for Maine graduates program, um, if you ever have a chance to come in and see some of that work. It's outstanding for our students. Um, they start rolling out the main career exploration model. This model is built around 30 competencies that equip students with essential skills for their future. Um, Mr. Keane is our uh specialist in that program. Uh, if you ever get a chance to meet up with him, uh, ask him about his program. He does a great job with those students. Um, we also have bakery. So, tomorrow is our uh quarter uh assembly for our students. Uh, it starts at 1:15 tomorrow. So if you guys come in um
045but we always do a bakery contest. Um bakery students are starting to plan their cakes for the semester decorating contest. They have already done that. They're bringing the contest to uh fruition tomorrow. Students will be awarded best cake uh best design, you know, all these different things and it's voted on with the school. Um so the school gets involved in this. The the cakes are outstanding. we show a picture of them. If you're willing to come in tomorrow, it would be great. Uh yes, our lady field hockey team uh went to states and it was a great season for our girls. Um it it it was a bittersweet end to it when we uh got a runner up and I'm just so thankful for them and and how much they put in in for this
046year. Uh and to on Saturday 11:00 am at Edward Little High School. Uh that is our state meet. Tomorrow we have a little pep rally after our assembly. Again, if you want to be a part of that, come right in. So that's where we're at. That's it. >> Questions for TJ >> Eva? So I have a question about the um fundraiser for the food insecurity. How would I get my um like would I be able to bring my donation to the office? Where do I bring my donations? >> Yeah, if you if you want to bring a donation in, you can bring it right to the office. Okay. >> Um we'll take care of that and we'll get prepared for Thanksgiving and then we'll do another one. We always do another one in in Christmas
047time, too. So, um Yeah, absolutely. >> Yeah. Any of the schools. Yeah. For for Yeah, you can send it to any of the schools. >> Okay. Perfect. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Yep. >> Um, where were we at with absenteeism at the high school? >> I I It's so hard to do and I can get a better design of that. Um, because we do it by class periods, so it's not a full day thing. Um, it has been getting better and I can get you that information. Um, but it's a it's a little bit more mundane as because we do for our students it's a five classes. Uh, then they don't get credit. Then we go through an appeals process. Um, and I can give you those updates um, at our next meeting if you would
048like. Yep. Thanks. Yep. >> Yep. >> Wow. Pretty exciting stuff. >> It's awesome. >> I got to some field hockey games and I got to tell you, >> they were fabulous. It was so exciting. >> Um, >> can you put more of this information out on social media because I had no idea of some of these things. There's so much good stuff coming. And if you would like board members present for any kind of >> um awards that you're giving out or >> anything like that, some idiot to dress up, you know. >> Yeah. >> Um >> I have somebody dressing up. >> I have I have Yeah. No, no shame. Uh as you know, you know, your mother. Okay. >> Um but yeah, keep us informed. Get more of that out there. It's important
049our community knows what great things are really happening for our kids. They don't I hear a lot of um there's nothing for our kids in this community >> and they're not aware. They're not aware of the opportunities that they have during the school day and after. >> So yeah, >> please and thank you. >> Yeah. And next time I'll have my results of the parent teacher conferences. We just finished ours tonight, so I don't have the whole numbers yet. So >> yeah, that was tonight and last night. >> Yes. Um TJ, I know that at the middle school there was like a closet or something for kids that needed clothing. Do you have that? >> We utilize that one. So we share it. >> Same one. Okay. All right. >> And we just had some
050uh uh gowns brought in. >> I have some gowns, but I wanted to know about just like winter clothing and things like that because >> our kids do go over um and get clothes out of there, too. >> Okay, perfect. to the middle school. >> It's in the middle school. >> Awesome. >> Y >> are the donations specific by school like where we would bring them to or is it a one pot fund that gets allocated? >> For the for the association one, it's it's it's a dispersion all the all the schools. Okay. The high school one um usually the big one for us is December um for presents and things like that. Yep. >> So there I believe there was a giving tree in the past. >> We always do that. Yep. JMG puts
051that on and Yep. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> I know I'm very chatty tonight. Um, >> so this is more of a community member comment rather than a board member comment. Um, but my son had a parent teacher conferences last night. I ran into you. Hi. But I just wanted to say that they were very well organized. Um, all of the teachers had everything that you could want a teacher to have. They had answers ready for everything. Um, and they stay late. I don't think the community members realize how late teachers stay in general, but particularly on parent teacher nights and the secretary stay late, too. So, I just wanted to give them a quick shout out because you guys did phenomenal and the other schools too, of course. >> Thank you.
052>> I have a couple of things that I'd like to talk about. Um, firstly, thank you Elaine for coordinating the Halloween. >> So fun. >> That was a blast. Um, >> the wonderful part of my job. Um, and now the not so wonderful part of my job. Um, I'd like to take a moment to address generally some of the concerns and discord that have come to the attention of the board over the past several months regarding the conduct of one of our former board members towards employees both during board meetings and outside of school. First, I want to emphasize that no individual has the authority to speak on behalf of the board unless the board specifically authorizes them to do so. Second, board members are expected to follow and uphold the board code of ethics,
053which includes, among other things, refraining from publicly criticizing employees or board actions once a vote once a vote has been taken and treating all employees with respect. Yes, that includes the budget. Although board members will certainly have their own opinions on school related issues, the place to discuss those issues is at our meetings in a civil manner with other board members. Convent confronting individual administrators or staff is not at all how our board members should be engaging with our school community. Going forward, I hope and with the rest of the board's support, I'm affirming our interest, ensuring that the board, administrators, and staff will communicate in productive and respectful ways, regardless of our differences of perspective or views that we hold about what is best for our schools. The board looks forward to working with
054Superintendent Albert and I want to reiterate our appreciation for all of our administrators and staff for the positive work that you do and have done for our students and the greater school community. I know I've been silent on what's happened most of the summer, but that's mostly due to um behind the scenes things that have gone on. And and I would like to express that in no way does my silence condone anything that's happened over the summer. It just was not appropriate to comment until now. Um, and so I hope moving forward that we can we can all um have positive interactions with other with each other and hold each other to to a a higher standard than than we have. Thank you. Um, okay. The policy committee met and we have two uh new
055policies. The first one is the board officers policy BDB and the second one is student use of cell phones and other electronic devices policy J I CJ. I will accept a motion for the first reading of these two policies. >> So move. >> Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion carries. I will accept a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a personnel matter pursuant to 1 MRSA 4056A Pho and Elaine. All those in favor I >> opposed. Hey, I saw you coming. I will accept a motion to nominate Tony Condan to the position of Spruce Mountain Primary School special education research resource teacher room. >> I'm ready. So moved. >> Any discuss? Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion
056carries. Uh the personnel appointments are on your little pink sheets. Our next meeting will be December 11th. Um no school on the 26 and Thanksgiving on the 27th. Uh happy Thanksgiving everybody. Finance committee meeting at 5:30 >> at our next meeting. I will accept a motion to adjurnn. >> All those in favor?