001Good evening. Let's see. Are we on attendance? All good. Uh we do have an adjustment to the agenda for the DFC grantformational report that'll be happening in just a little bit. Uh, approval for the school board meeting minutes for March 6th. Tina Riley, Danielle, Don, before we do that, could I make an a suggestion for an adjustment to the agenda? I don't know. Is that allowed? It's usually made beforehand. Any discussion on the uh or questions on the March 6th budget meeting minutes miss uh excuse me schoolboard meeting minutes? So all in favor of approving say I. I. All opposed. The measure carries. Approval of the school board meeting minutes for March 13, 2025. Do I have a first sir? Holly Jody. Any questions or discussion? Everybody in favor of approving those minutes say I.
002I. I. All opposed. And it passes. Okay. Communications from DFC grantformational report. It's on test. Test. Okay. Yeah, you're good. We good? Yes. Okay, great. Uh, thank you and welcome. I mean, oh my gosh. Oh no. Do you want me to start singing? No, I'm just kidding. Uh my name is Lyanna Lavoy and I'm the director of Healthy Community Coalition and I have Jade here with me who also works at the Healthy Community Coalition and is also working with RSU73. So today I'm here to talk about a grant that we received in collaboration with RSU73. And um this is just a one-pager and I'm going to kind of highlight uh what the grant is and why we have the why we wrote the grant and some of the work that we're going to be doing
003and then also offer um if anyone here wants to be involved in any of this work because it is a um an open um community kind of uh work that we're doing together. So, back early in 2024, uh, we partnered with RSU73 and wrote a grant to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to build partnerships and collabor collaborations aimed at preventing substance use among youth. Um, and so late last fall, we were um, uh, it was announced and we were awarded. It's a five-year grant totaling um, $625,000. um and that is $125,000 a year um each year for five years. And so we started this work in October of 2024. So just to to level set a little bit, the reason why we apply for this
004grants, we're seeing an increase in substance use um and the main integrated youth health survey for Franklin County. Um and we also have this data for um Spruce Mountain as well. Um but we have a 36% of high this is just high school student data. I also have middle school student data. Um, but 36% reported use of alcohol in the last 30 days. 20% reported use of cannabis. 34% uh reported report the use of vaping. Two out of three students report the use of cannabis once or twice a week poses no risk for health. One out of four reported they believe their parents would feel it would not be wrong to use cannabis. This is some of the data that helped inform some of the work that we're doing. Um what is also not on
005here um that I think is important to share is that over 50% of our youth in Franklin County feel like they do not matter. And when youth feel like they don't matter um they are at higher risk for engaging in risky behavior such as substance use. So some of our long-term goals for this grant um is to reduce the 30-day use of high school students reporting binge drinking by 5%. We're looking to reduce 30-day use of high school students who report the use of cannabis by 3%. Um, and the same for um students who report they vape by 5%. And then also looking at um reducing substance use among adults by 5%. So those are the long-term um over the five-year uh grant we're looking to do. So what's been accomplished to date? We've created
006a multis- sector coalition. This is 12 different sectors from across our community that meet monthly. Um we've hired a program coordinator which is Jade who she's amazing. She's from this uh this area. She graduated from Spruce. Um we are working on developing strategies with the coalition to address risk and protective factors, things that we know um that make a difference in um youth using substances and engaging in risky behaviors. Uh we have hosted one chemfree event in partnership with Spruce Mountain. We had over 130 students and adults attend um a sledding night over over across the street. Um so or across the bridge I should say. Um on the back of your sheet is Jade's information. So this is just a highle overview. There's a lot I I didn't want to overwhelm you with our
007very detailed work plan and our uh strategies and objectives, but this is just very high level. This is the grant um and the work we're setting out to do. And anyone is invited to participate in the monthly meetings and if you're interested in this work you can reach out to Jade and her email is on the back. So are there any questions? Yeah, Andrew. Thank you. On these uh program long-term goals, is this a monthly goal, a halfyear goal, a a yearly goal, or a a fiveyear goal since this is like a fiveyear program? Yeah, these these programs by 5%. Yeah. Uh these program goals are for at the end of the five years. The these are um county level um data that we get from a survey that's done every couple years with the
008schools. Um and that's that's actually hard to change. It's 5% might seem like a small amount, but it's that's that's a lot to change. Um it's a hefty those are hefty goals that we're really um looking to achieve. So that is at the end of the the five years we have yearly five years to 5%. Yeah. Yeah. For for um vaping and and binge drinking. It's a good question. Any other questions? I had a quick one was um the the numbers under the problem the 36% 20% use of cannabis um how accurate do we think those numbers are? Well, they are self-reported. Um so the students uh each school district engages in this survey every two years and the students are given these questions and they are self-reporting. Okay. Um that they've used at least
009once in the last 30 days. So it could have been they just tried it. They could what we don't know is if they're regularly using um but yeah. Okay. So it's it's basically just what the students say they're doing. Right. Probably under reportported. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. So, since this is a five-year plan, Yeah. Um, is this just for the high school or are you targeting middle school as well? Another great question. Both middle school and high school. Yep. Thank you. Does anybody Roger, I just want to say thank you to you guys. Uh, Jade dropped off some bags to my adultoriented business um that I otherwise would have had to go through a program that I wasn't interested in and it was free of charge, dropped off to me directly and uh
010we appreciate you guys. Oh, wow. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Thanks for having us. Thank you. All right. Public comments. And we've got Michelle Bran. Did you? Okay. Yeah. Good evening. I'm here this evening to speak on behalf of the RSU Education Association membership. But first, I'd like to share a little bit about myself. I graduated from Livermore Falls High School and I've spent my entire teaching career in the district long enough now that I even have the children of my earliest students in my classes. During those years, I've been trusted not only to teach students in the classroom, but also to teach outside our school walls, including watching a presidential inauguration in person with my civic students on the National Mall in Washington DC and traveling to Europe with
011multiple groups of students. I love working with my students. It's my passion and my calling and I take their well-being seriously because I know that every one of my students is also someone's someone else's very precious child. I think that's why it was so hard for me and many of my co-workers to hear the messages shared at the last board meeting. Just like everyone who works here, I was devastated to learn that one of our students had been prayed upon by another staff member. I know that when a child is harmed, it's natural for the community to want to have a crystal clear understanding of who is at fault in order to better protect our children moving forward. What I didn't expect when I attended that board meeting was to learn that district leadership and
012members of the community had decided that it was our teachers union to blame. In light of the situation, I think it's important for me as the current president of the association to speak tonight to rebut that message and to reaffirm our belief that the blame lies solely with the predator who was arrested for his actions. that this predator was not nor had he ever been a member of our association and that the members of our association are caring professionals dedicated to the education and well-being of our students who did not and would never help protect a predator. I think it's important to remind everyone present that administrators are the only district employees with the power to evaluate teachers, that we have a clearly outlined and publicly available teacher evaluation system that can be used to
013address identified problems, and that only the school district's board of directors has the power to hire and fire teaching staff. There is nothing in our contract language that slowed down the scope or process of the investigation. Nor is there anything in our contract language that could have prevented the board from firing the teacher in question if he had not chosen to resign. While our contract does specify that teachers under investigation will be placed on paid administrative leave for the duration of the investigation, it's important for everyone to acknowledge that that is standard practice in any professional setting here in the United States. It is not unique to our teachers contract. And finally, I'd like to emphasize that while our relationship with the board has been healthy and collaborative for the last several years, it was
014so incredibly demoralizing to realize last week that district leadership is so willing to let the community believe that we are somehow at fault for what happened here. It's plain to me who should be blamed here. His mugsh shot is now available for all the world to see. It is certainly not the dedicated team of teachers here at Spruce Mountain Education Association. Thank you, Ava. Welcome back. Hi. Lower this a bit. All right. So, hi. My name is Ava Moffett and as you may recall, I spoke at the March 13th schoolboard meeting. I'm here today to finish my statement about the transgender sports executive order that was passed on February 5th and how it um pertains to RSU73. At the February 27th um schoolboard meeting, there was a discussion of rolling back parts of Title 9
015to the 2020 version. With regard to Trump's executive order to protecting women in sports, it was vocalized by members that we should follow the legal advice from our lawyers and wait for the courts to address the problem so that we don't have to drive ourselves crazy. While this statement seems to make sense to appease to people, it is very deceiving because it doesn't do anything to take initiative and address the issue that is at hand. The school's district attorney, Drummond and Woodsome, is advising school districts to adhere to the main state human rights act, which is in opposition of President Trump's executive order to defend women in sports. These statements concern me for a number of reasons. While Drummond and Woodsome are the legal voices for RSU73, are the taxpayers fully aware of their intentions
016and procedures? The fact of the matter is that Drummond and Woodsome are simply not following the federal law. These lawyers are dismissing the voices of girls and women in our school districts and compromising their safety in the process in order to stay cordial with mills. I sincerely hope that when the policy board makes their decision that they don't emit the voices of our community members that believe that Trump's executive order to protect biological female athletes was done in the best interest for our sisters, daughters, granddaughters, and the children of RSU73 that that greatly benefit from the school federal funding. And I encourage RSU73 to take a stand against the state's misjudgment, to encourage other high schools in Maine to speak up about the problem. And additionally, I would like to encourage the community members to
017hold the school district and the school board accountable and not let this go dismissed. So, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Ed Walsh. Hi. Uh, so I'd like to start with, uh, good evening and thank you for letting me uh, speak tonight. My name is Ed Walsh. I'm a retired US Army soldier of over 20 years. I'm currently a licensed clinical social worker and I treat, uh, veterans struggling with addiction, co-occurring mental health disorders. My wife and I decided to settle in Jay over 25 years ago, recognizing that this was a community to raise our children. I am the father of two graduates of J School Systems, one veteran, one retiring in a couple months. I am also the grandfather of two students. Could you move the mic up so we can hear you? Thank you.
018Okay. Is that better? That is better. Uh I can uh I'll just invoke deeper voices. I'm also the uh the grandfather of two students of the Spruce Mountain School District. One of the major reasons for staying in Jay uh was that the acceptance for all people. All children regardless of background, rich, middle class, poor, white, black, gay, straight, transgender, all children were welcomed. I'm here today to address concerns of bullying. In the case uh in case anyone is unsure the meaning of bully is, let me share. Webster dictionary states, "One who is habitually cruel, insulting, threatening, or otherwise uh threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable." Whatever label someone chooses to place on another, the bottom line is we're talking about our children, our grandchildren, our nieces, our nephews, our
019neighbors, all children, our commuters children, the next generation of adults in our community. I've heard several adults speaking out against transgender children and youth participating in sports that do not align with their birth sex and recently realize we're only talking about two students in the entire state. Uh where was I? Uh when we as a community target one demographic, in this case our transgender children, we place them in increased risk of developing anxiety, depression, social isolation, and suicide. A 2023 US National Survey on Mental Health of the LGBTQ people found that 41% of the LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including roughly half of our transgender youth. How is this protecting our children? For some time, I've been concerned that our transgender children are being attacked by adults in our community
020in the guise of protection. Our children are being marginalized, stigmatized, villainized for being who they are. children that may be different from one another. If bullying is problematic in the school as reported, I would suggest that it is being learned by what our children are observing in the adults in our community. My question to the school board, teachers, school administration, and parents. When you state that you are protecting children, who are you leaving out? We protect everyone, but those that are different. I promise you, no one wakes up one day and decides they want to be different. Most children want to be accepted for who they are and to blend in. The bottom line is we all count or nobody counts. How do we protect all of us? And when we target one demographic today,
021who's next? Let's protect all of our people. Thank you. Thank you, Nicole Curtis. Good evening. My name is Nicole Curtis and I am a teacher at Spruce Mountain High School. I have worked for RSU73 for the past seven years. Having started fresh out of college, I jumped right in. Over these past seven years, I have worn many hats and taken on numerous roles within the district. I've coached three different sports for a total of seven seasons, ran the yearbook program for three years, served as the class adviser for the graduating class of 2022 as well as 2026. Served as co-adviser on the student council, as well as participated in numerous mental health curriculum and college readiness committees. I have taught 12 different classes, written over a hundred letters of recommendation and reference, and proudly watched
022close to a thousand students march across six different graduation stages. I have also lost a a number of students to forces outside of our control. The most recent being last fall, which causes a different kind of pain that I have to live with for the rest of my life. Students bet asked me why I don't have children. And my response has been the same since day one. I already have 85 of you. That's all I can handle right now. And while this is the everyday joking that I do with students, that answer holds so much truth. I have dedicated countless hours of my life in the last seven years to this district and most importantly to my students. I worry about them. I celebrate their successes and I mourn their losses. These kids mean the
023world to me. And my job goes far beyond that of just teaching a classroom full of teenagers. I wake up every day and choose this profession. I dedicate my life to these kids every day. And I have never once regretted that decision. But right now, myself as well as other staff who have chosen to dedicate their lives to this district have taken a punch to the gut. We have been labeled as part of, if not the problem itself. Social media and the harsh comments lumping us all into the image of this horrible monster who don't value this safety of children has gutted teachers like me whose purpose here is to protect those kids. And we've been serving that purpose since day one. I urge people in the community to not forget about the hard work
024and dedication that we have poured into our lives as teachers and into the lives of your children. And remember that there are so many staff members like me who are not the enemy. Thank you. Thank you Schwab. Good evening. Can you guys hear me? Yes. So, um, my comments today have a request, and that request involves, um, earlier this week, I found out that the board has requested a listing of all of the library books that are being checked out of our school libraries. And I thought to myself, A, is this true? And then I thought, B, is this information to what end will it be used? Um, it concerns me because in the past our our kids have been exposed to different opinions that are not supported under our constitution and different opinions that
025take away freedoms rather than grant them. And so knowing this, I I really feel strongly that if the board needs the information, which I understand, I would like to transparently know to what end will this information be used because my main fear is this very personal information about kids accessing literature could be used for harassment or intimidation. And I want to make sure that that will not happen. And and so I request of the board to know why this request was made. And I thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Scott, you don't want other board member comments? Oh, there are there any board member comments? Roger. I am absolutely appalled and embarrassed to be here tonight. The community comes up here and nobody recommended one thing that might prevent this in the future. Everyone's offended at
026what I said the last time I was here and this is my opinion, not that of the board. I said 98% of our teachers are absolutely fantastic. If you think you fall in the two bottom 2%, do yourself a favor and go away now. Why would you be here if you feel like you're in the bottom 2% of our educators? Okay. Transparency comes with giving the list so that parents can have that information. You're right. There are only two students that are defeating thousands, hundreds to thousands of girls in their sports. One of those two students led the cross country race from start to finish. That is the issue we have. And you you can't sit here and say that that we want to care for all students when you're willing to absolutely forget about
027the female athletes in our school. That's what nobody's bringing up here. I'm going to continue to pound this survey thing going forward. We don't have a threshold for these surveys. So my recommendation is that the bottom 1% of the surveys comes to the school board where they can be fired at will. And again, if anybody feels like they're in the bottom 1% of their job, why do they continue to stay at their job? I I don't think anybody here in the building feels like they're in the bottom 1%. I just I can't believe that's true. And I I mentioned the surveys not because I was blaming the MEA or or the teachers union, but the wording in the contract does make it difficult to terminate a teacher. the the student surveys would give us an
028opportunity to get rid of the 2% of bad eggs. If you care about the students and you're part of the 98%, you want the the 2% gone. Um I I don't understand how something so simple to prevent I I think if we had these surveys in place, the monster would have had several bad surveys in the last 15 years. That's why I recommended it. I wanted to make a recommendation to try to do something to be proactive about this. I know nobody else wants to be proactive. We just want to twiddle our thumbs and let this happen again and change the language on how we handle it the other way. That is absolutely ridiculous. You guys can say this stuff all you want and I'm going to continue to pound for these surveys because our
029children are more important than you. Tina, thank you. Um two things now. First one is I I don't recall any request for um a listing of uh checked out library materials or any such thing coming through wh sorry about that coming through the um through this board. And that seems like a fairly intrusive um request to make of school personnel, not to mention probably fairly time consum consuming. And I would think that the entire board um would need to to probably have some sort of a hand in a request of of that nature. It just seems excessive, although I understand that may be debatable. Um it's where I stand on it. Anyway, the other thing is um also in response to um recent recent uh board meetings, it feels like the RSU 73 community is
030reeling a bit right now. We have political and social upheaval as a backdrop and then some additional turbulence within the school community. And in times of stress, the most natural response in the world is to point fingers and find blame. We cannot afford to do that carelessly. Schoolboard meetings are an important tool for sharing information between the school system and the public it serves and for the board to make decisions as to its operations. When meetings are used as a public microphone to single out any individual for praise or complaint, or when it's used to air personal grievances or push political agendas, it undercuts the board's purpose as the needs of the school, its students and staff cease to be the focus and priority of the meeting. Broadly speaking, the core job of this school
031system is to attend to the educational needs of each and every student when groups of students are inappropriately categorized as threats to other students and are described at public meetings in terms that they and those who care about them find denigrating. Our objective, which is to serve the needs of all students, is undermined. While we will surely weather this storm, how we do it is up to us. I think the path to real success is to give grace, to listen, and to be respectful of all people and things, even those that I don't know or understand. Even when it's hard and I'm frustrated and I fall short. Even when I don't think it's worth it, because the baseline level of respect for our fellow human beings is a necessary core value for any highquality organization.
032To the extent that we give grace to each other, the progress that we all want becomes available to us because we become a network of partnerships with a common goal. Kindness and respect are not all that we need. But without them, everything else we do is diminished. The other path is to allow our anger to convince us to see each other or groups as us groups of us as targets. When we stop assuming each other's good intentions, and when we lose the grip on our own good intentions, there are no good outcomes. It will not stop the storm, but it will create more hurt feelings and division with an outcome that will in the end make no one happy. The Spruce Mountain educational mission/filosophy reads in part, "We believe that all students must learn in
033an environment that allows them to develop positive attitudes towards themselves and genuine respect for others. Modeling that genuine respect is core to the responsibility that we all share as members of this organization." Any other board member comments? Roger, you've had your chance. We we we all go at once. Thank you. Ollie, I would like to bring to the board's attention and to the public's attention that um I have a niece that got a scholarship to go to college because she excelled in cross country. And if there was a boy masquerading as a girl on the cross country team, she probably wouldn't have received the education that she received from Boston College. I currently have a granddaughter in 8th grade who is part of the track team. And if she had boys masquerading as girls, she
034wouldn't do as well. And that is just a fact. We don't need boys playing in girls sports. That's my opinion and that's a the opinion of a lot of people. And I think that it's a very important subject and our girls need to be recognized as athletes and that they need to receive the championships, the scholarships, and the recognition that they deserve. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board member comments? Elaine. Hi. I just have a question. It's been raised a couple times tonight. A request from the board to have a list of what books are checked. I'm not sure of this. Where does this come from? I never took a vote that asked our staff to do such a thing. And I I guess I'm asking, is this really happening? Where did this come
035from? And why? There's there has been no such vote. Um comment. I can comment. Okay. I requested I asked Scott to give me a list of what books are being checked out of the library. I didn't ask for any names of who's checking them out. I it was just a curiosity thing of how much our libraries are being used. I think that that's a valid question. Thank you. But I just wondered where it came from because it's being mentioned in public and as a board member I'd like to know that. So the usage of our books that's that's very important stuff. Um, and we're just saying how many books are being checked out or are you what are we going further than that? Are we just looking at numbers of students utilizing our books? I
036was asking of numbers of pe of students utilizing the libraries. I would I'm looking at budget numbers basically and the budgets for the libraries and other budget questions I have brought up. Um, so I was just looking to know how if we if there's a chance of condensing some of it. I we're not asking for titles of books um because that would that would to me interfere with people's individual choices and literature choices and that would that yeah if we're just looking at numbers of kids using our utilizing our resources that's fabulous resources but not titles. I did ask for title. I haven't received anything. Is it necessary to I was just curious to see what type of books people are interested in. It was a curiosity thing. It wasn't nothing that I was going
037to use in a nefarious way or anything. I didn't say that. No, I know. But I just am saying I was just if it's other books being used for maybe it doesn't have to be a title, but maybe it could be like a category. I would I would have no problem with that. You know, I think that's fine looking at our genres. Then we know if it's used for history class or, you know, for just recreational purposes, you know, just a lot of checkouts are recreational. But that's exactly Yeah. We don't know the purpose for that. Yeah. just to see how much the library is being used, what it's being used for, and if there's any ways of, you know, streamlining things or, you know, getting things the budget down in in many different areas,
038not just the library. But that was just one question that I had. Well, it went since it was presented as the board has said we will that that includes every member here. So, I just want to be real clear about that. I have no problem with let's look at you know how how are our resources being utilized, right? And maybe looking at genres, specific titles gets a little bit too much and that's a drag on our I would imagine that's hard for our staff to be able to do in their jobs as well. So, yeah, thank you electronic type of checkout thing that would just say thank you for that clarification, but it can just be genre. That's fine. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. Question. Okay. Do we need board approval from the entire
039board for a single board member to to ask a question or do an investigation? I we talk about transparency while we're here. If if a parent asked for that list and it didn't include a student name, as Holly just said, it's a digital system. there has to be a way to filter that information fairly simply. So, I don't believe that we do need the board to approve if a if a board member wants to get some information. Um, I think yeah, I don't think we need to have Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. And if we're going to talk about transparency, I think asking those questions is okay. Yes. And Roger, to be clear, my question was about it was presented as the board. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because I I
040have no problem with let's look at our resources. No, I understood exactly what you were saying. Yeah, I I see where you're coming from, Elaine, on that. It wasn't a request by the board. It was by a board member. Okay. Any other board member comments? All right, Scott. Good evening. I attended the final meeting on the book study Better Than Carrots or Sticks at the middle school. It was a worthwhile book study on restorative practices um that I am also using to complete one of my reertification goals. It was good to be back at the middle school uh working with the teachers and going over such an important uh factor. Uh it was I'm an old dog and I was important for me to learn new tricks. Uh restorative practices really wasn't around when I
041was a middle school principal. So it was good for me to see what they're doing and understand what they're doing. And as when you hear Chris target coming and giving numbers for discipline, etc. Things seem to be working. Uh also attended a couple of Zoom meetings on the Holland Strong tennis court project. Hopefully the project will be finished up by next fall, I should say this fall. Um, got to read to a second grade classroom over the last couple weeks. Also attended the policy committee meeting and we'll have a a few first readings of policy tonight. I also had a breakfast meeting with um Crystal Flag and the three town managers this week to go over budget information that we had shared with them earlier in the month. Thank you. On to administrative reports. Jenna,
042good evening. Um, so just I have a pretty small report tonight. Over the past month, I have been able to attend two conferences put on by Drummond Woodsome. One had to do with IEP team management skills and the other had to do with discipline, abbreviated school days, truency, non-attending students. Both were informative and based on federal and state laws. Um, I do continue to be worried about the future of section 504. Um, I know one of the last time I talked to you guys about it, it sounded like they were trying to make some changes to make it so that our students wouldn't be impacted. Um, but it looks like those changes maybe have not been made. Um, so once again, this is a thing for the future, right? This is Texas and 17 other
043states suing, so who knows how long the legal process would take. Um, but it's and it's not necessarily something we can control, right? Um, but I just do want to keep it on the back of everyone's mind that we have a lot of students that benefit from 504 accommodations. I've had kids that their truency was so poor and um then we were able to get them a van ride in the morning and then they missed two days of school for an entire year. And that's how um important accommodations can be for some kids. Um, I am disheartened and I'm worried and I'm scared. Um, I'm not scared for my job. I will survive. I'm just scared for the students right now. Um, and and I know this there's nothing that the state can do right
044now. There's nothing that we can do as a board right now. We just have to kind of wait and see and talk to our legislators and make sure that they speak out on behalf of keeping um, section 504 going for our students. So um when it comes to enrollment um we have had an increase of four students in the past month in 504. So at the high school um last month and this month we had 39 students with 504 plants. At the middle school last month we had 23 and now we have 25. At the elementary school we have 22 students last month and now we have 23 uh with active 504 plans. at the primary school. Last month we had seven and now we have eight. I have about um seven referrals districtwide. This
045is kind of the time of the year where it starts looking up because in order to um you know kind of be referred for special ed and those other things, you usually go through an RTI process and they try to help the kids and that sort of thing. And that can take months and months. So, we're kind of at that time in the year where things are starting to pick up. Um, one of the things that they talked about at the um the trainings that I did is that it's so important to have um staff and the community and school boards and everyone on the same page. Um, and I I don't remember who said it, but somebody did mention that, you know, what goes on at home does come to school. Um, I know
046the ladies at the beginning of the day talked about um some of the stuff that some of the kids um did a thing on and um I need you to know that marijuana use, alcohol use, um especially vaping is a huge issue in our district. It is. And these kids are not always getting it with their parents' help, right? they're finding ways to be sneaky and that sort of thing. And I think that is something that um the board needs to be worried about and look into. And I would encourage you all to remember that kids do watch these meetings and speaking to each other with respect uh even when we don't agree is so important. Um so please please please think of that in the future. We are all mature enough tonight to not
047target people and speak rudely to people. Thank you, Jenna. Any questions? Yes, Michelle. Hi, Jenna. Excuse me. Do we have any data um about the truency level in our district? You know, I put you on the spot. No, I don't know off the top of my head what the numbers are, but I know it's terrible. Okay. And well in my opinion it's terrible. Sure. Sure. Um and I know that so for some of the things that you guys might not know is that at the building levels what they do with truency is they send letters home. Then they set up truency meetings where the parents come in and then we try to figure out what is keeping the kid from coming to school. Is it transportation? Is it not having access to clean clothes? Is
048it um anxiety and they need accommodations to help them? Um and sometimes parents can't attend meetings because they don't have vehicles. So then we try to do the meetings uh virtually and that sort of thing. But um the backbone of this community is so hardworking and so good and such good people, but we have so many people in our community struggling and um unless we all get on the same page, things are only going to get worse. I would really like uh our school district I don't know exactly how this would be funneled or to but to take a closer look at truency um because I also know that truency can lead to gaps in learning and which uh also is part of the 504 and the special education picture. I think that's what a
049lot of people don't realize is that a lot of our truent kids are kids that jump from district to district and um a lot of these kids that are truent are the ones also bringing down our test scores. Not that we should be looking at one test score that you know tells how good a person is or how district how good a district is. Um but yeah, I think if people really saw what we saw on the inside every day, their hearts would be broken. And um I just would really encourage the school board to start looking at those sorts of things because that not that other things aren't important, but um this is a big deal. I'm also aware that our uh resource officer, I'm assuming I would not be surprised if he were
050involved in in supporting and helping with this effort, but they have gone to pick up students in the past to assist with this. It has been so wonderful having a resource officer um because It's true. Like so sometimes they have g they have had to bring kids home. They have had to bring kids to school. But also um telephone numbers change a lot. Emails change a lot. Voicemails get full and it's hard to communicate with people and legally it's our job to do that. Um so uh the resource officers all of the ones that we've had since I've been here and I think that's when it started. Um they have gone to these homes and they've kind of helped facilitate things too. We've also had outside counselors that felt that have helped out and um
051helped people feel a little more comfortable because I think sometimes families feel that, you know, our goal is to want to tell on them that maybe they're not doing something right when in reality we can see that people are having a rough time and we want to help them. We don't want to make things worse. Um but just yeah, just consider it. It's even with our dropout rates. Um I I'll put it to you this way. I had a kid in elementary school who is so truent that in their 504 plan we had to write in that the parent will use an alarm clock to wake them up that student's not here so I can say that. But um you know we have kids we have people going through some really hard stuff and it's
052hard. You know people get cancer and life at home is hard. people lose jobs, life at home is hard. Um, and I think that all contributes to our suicide rates and all of that stuff too, I think. Do we have a specialized truency committee? So, each building has their own little committee that does things and like legally the principles have to send home so much and um, Scott Albert, how many is it? you have to send home three letters or something like that or two or three once we get to level four I have to send home two letters we've actually even gone to court before um and then the parent and child didn't show up at court um there's not a lot of bite in the truency laws right now which is it's too
053bad it's not and it's not about being punitive it's like how do we get kids and hold people accountable to get their kids here to school and right it's the relationship between the school board and the school and the community and uh that's severed and it feels like we're just dividing further right now and I hate seeing that. Yes. Uh sorry Sarah. Uh kind of building off what Michelle started. Um it has to do with the the magnitude or the size of our program because I too am concerned about the future of the 504 program and maybe some other programs that we depend on federal funding. Um, I know you give us numbers for each of the schools, but how does this compare as far as like from the state perspective? Is RSU73 like see
054a higher percentage per student ratio? I can definitely get you those numbers for our next meeting because I'd hate to say something that's not right. All right. Thank you. My instinct is that our population might be higher than the norm because we are a title one district. And I know like just as the other like schools that I spoke to when I went to these conferences, they were like, "Wow, those are your numbers." So I think it would be nice in context to know how we might be affected. Yep. All right. Thanks, Don. That was funny. Well, the first thing I'd like to make a comment about is until the last couple meetings, I've been on the school board for almost a year now. for the last couple meetings was the first time that anything
055negative about ISU73 has been brought up. It's not that way online, unfortunately. But sitting here as a board member and watching this stuff on on YouTube, you would think we have a perfect school system because nobody brings anything negative to the school board. But you guys all expect us to fix things. We can't fix what we don't know is broken. Absolutely. So, we need people to actually come here and be honest with us about what is going on in the school system. I could not agree more. And like Roger said, you need to take action sometimes like, but we can't if we don't know anything. Very good. Thank you. Thanks. Oh, sorry. One more question, Roger. It wasn't so much a question for Jenna. Just I I wanted to point out that this year has
056been incredibly difficult for illnesses. Um, my nine-year-old has had walking pneumonia, influenza, a hand, foot, and mouth, and a stomach bug in a two-month period, and probably missed 15 to 20 days worth of school. So, some of that is illness related. Um, I my children are in the same thing, and I can promise you those are not counted in what I'm talking about. I'm talking about kids that are absent like 98 out of 120 days. Uh, and as far as respect, my daughter came home the other day and told me that one of her friends told her that I don't like their parents. So, I could use a little help on that as well because I don't share those sort of things with my daughter. All go ahead. I'm sorry. And it might be for
057Scott. I don't know. Um, does it have to do with what Jenna's Yeah. Okay, good. Thank you. Just want to make sure. um when a student is absent for a certain amount of time um do we get DHS involved? There are times we h do have to get DHS involved because I would think that would be a good way to get the truency down if and that is part of the process if the parent doesn't engage with the school but if the parent makes effort and like Roger just said if they give valid reasons like things happen in life you know people die people get sick kids are hospitalized those are all reasonable you know you good okay Good. Anybody else? Thank you, Jenna. Thanks, Norma. Hello. Um, don't have a whole lot for you
058guys. We've hired a new driver custodian who starts on tomorrow. Um, we have a prom event coming up. I teamed up with Paula Keller and Phoebe. We're taking some young ladies to the Foss Mansion in Auburn for a prom dress giveaway. Paula Keller has a permission form and signup sheet for any girls that are interested. They will also receive accessories to go with their prom dresses. The drivers will, and I don't know where we are at that. I haven't talked to Paul this week. Um, the drivers will have go to training on April 25th at Mount Blue High School. It'll be covering drug and alcohol awareness for drivers, wheelchair safety, and a couple of otherformational items. On May 17th and 18th, I'm attending a weekend professional development in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They're covering um special needs,
059children, discipline, stuff like that that's not usually offered to to us. Um, and it's a weekend event, which is great. So, I can fly out on Friday and come back on Sunday. And May 16th, um, we're having attending a ride and drive presentation about propane buses at Okconor and Augusta. I gave Dawn the thing to pass around. I only had one. I'm sorry. Um, with that information, if anybody would be interested in going, it's there's an RSVP at the very bottom for the guy that's holding it. And that's all I have right now. Thank you. Any questions for Norma? Roger. Just a comment. I want to thank you again for not jumping in the electric bus uh fed and and putting us through those issues and the early development of that technology. Thank you for
060looking into propane and and making a clean, wise decision. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Uh, I received the email you asked about board members attending the seminar in Augusta. Uh, do we have to bring anything special or what time we have to be there? Are we going as a group? 10 a.m. We can go as a group if we have the vehicles available. I don't mind. Okay, just send me. We'll find out. Thank you. Might want to bring a sack lunch. They're providing us with lunch. Oh, very nice. Very nice. Any other questions for Norma? Thank you, Norma. Thank you. And Wayne. Um, good evening. Uh grounds have been the focus this week at all buildings. Um as the snow melts and it uncovers all that winter's left behind the maintenance and grounds and daytime
061custodians have been outside cleaning up all the trash debris around the buildings as weather permits. Hope that we'll be able to start cleaning up the sand in the next couple weeks. There's quite a bit out there. So, um I've been visiting schools and meeting with staff to get some feedback on what they'd like to see get done over April vacation and the summer months uh coming up. Uh during April break, the custodial staff have the opportunity to attend one day training put on by WBM Mason at Coney High School. This training would includes techniques of cleaning and equipment maintenance as well as being able to talk to multiple vendors there. Um, it's always beneficial to brainstorm with other districts and professionals to make our district stronger. Um, taking care of our buildings here is top
062priority for me. So, um, at this time I have two custodial staff out on medical leave. Uh, we have one opening at the elementary, but as Nor mentioned, um, they'll be starting tomorrow to fill that void. I've been using subs here and there, which I'm grateful to have that group that steps in when needed to help us. So, that's all I have for tonight. Thanks, Wayne. Anybody have any questions for Wayne? Comments? You're off scot-free. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And Robin, good evening. As of today, we have 23 adult learners who have finished their high school credential, which is an increase of six students since I reported to you last month. And we still have many others on track to graduate for June. Our next culinary cohort will begin March 31st. The studentrun cafe
063will open later in April, and we'll begin making announcements on Facebook as that date approaches. The cafe will be open again on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will include a set menu with three to four options to choose. And you can order ahead of time and pick up right at our office. Courtney, our marketing and admin assistant, will be attending the national um adult education conference, what we refer to as COAB. She's going next week. Um, Courtney and one of our former college transition students, Ursula Stewart, presented Supercharge Your Adult Ed Marketing with Canva at our statewide adult ed conference in the fall. And the national president of COAB was in Maine and attended that presentation and asked them to come to Dallas and share their marketing knowledge on the national stage. So, congrats to Courtney
064and Ursula. Lastly, if you haven't already, um I've printed out a copy of the front page of the Livermore Falls Advertiser. Ernie, one of our digital literacy instructors, was featured on the front page for the extraordinary work he's been doing in the community teaching digital literacy skills in our local libraries at Adults Ed and at Fitness Styles. So, if you or someone that you know wants to increase their digital literacy skills, uh, learn both their phone, their laptop, avoid scams on the internet, we'd be happy to connect you with Ernie. All right, any questions? You must be getting tired. Thank you. and Laura. So, good evening. On March 7th, I attended the Capitol Area Co-op buying group that we um are members of um where we collaborated with other school districts and professionals to discuss
065procurement strategies, local food sourcing, and best practices for our meal programs. Sorry. Um, this morning I participated in the annual training for the summer food program. Um, went over the new regulations um, state and federal. There's a lot of uh, changes coming down the pike for us all. So, that was a uh, in a pretty intense six hours of uh, training this morning. And tomorrow I'll be attending a training hosted by the main school nutrition association and a um an annual meeting after that. Um over the past month for the past three weeks, we had a staff member that had been out um due due to a recent injury. Um, but we was able to use this last three weeks as an opportunity to not only uh train our new newest staff member, but also
066to crossrain um staff members so that we can really find um a lot more fluid with our staff to be able to to fill in as we experience shortages, as we go through um difficult seasons. Um and we was really pleased with the outcome despite the the shortages of all the training that we was able to achieve for multiple members. Um so that's really really encouraging. Um, looking ahead as we kind of wrap up this school year, um, you know, some of the things that are concerning for me are things that, um, directly impact, um, the department's ability to generate revenue, of course, because we are a self- sustaining, um, budget. you know, every every meal we serve is is how we um sustain ourselves so that we don't go to the town. Um and
067it's uh concerning when um we lose potential for revenue. So, I mean, it's something that we're constantly looking at. Um we don't want things competing with our nutrition program, basically. Um and looking ahead as we continue to um try to improve on our processes and have best practices to meet the nutritional needs and really support the student because we have a lot of very hungry students today. Thank you. Any questions for Laura? Wow. Thank you. Thank you. And here he comes. Okay, good evening. Uh, just a couple quick things. Um, I did have Laura forward um an email to you about the three kind of final programs for the reading program. I knew some people were interested in that. So, you can kind of look at those. There's even some links on them that you
068can click on if you're really interested in going and see the see what is in the programs. Um, and if you have any questions, if you happen to look at them and you have any questions, you can email me or call me or ask me. Um, and then the second one is just uh the sheet I passed out just a just a screenshot of a of a page we use now. Um we actually joined um the cloudfare cyersafe school program. Um it's cyber safe um cloudfare is an actual it's a forecast um company that does email security and things like that. But they have a program where if you're a small enough school, you have to be under 2500 students in your district. um you can apply to have them give uh give you the
069software and be able to filter out spam um and things like that and al and actually be able to watch and and see what's happening. Um and so we applied for that. It was a short form we filled out and and they um they accepted us and so now we're getting um just another layer of security for emails. Um you can see on it, you know, 11,000 emails and that's like in a 24-h hour period. So with a school our size, we still get quite a few emails. Um and it is and it and it even gives us an idea of what what kind of um spam and things like that that we're getting. Um so it gives us a little bit better idea of and and to be able to see what kind of
070attacks are happening. Um and it and it obviously it filters um a lot better than than just the Google filters do. Oh, you're done. I'm done. I can keep going if I I was I was I was looking I was Jeez, Jody, thank you. Save me. So, is this protecting email or this is just like an overlay program that's telling you what's going on? No, it filters. So, um, as the email comes into our, um, into our school, our IP addresses, it actually filters, um, and it's a it's a program that knows it's it stays current with the type of spam and and things that are going on. And it and it has a, um, library of IP addresses that are not safe and things like that. And if it sees them, it'll pull them
071right out. and then we can go in and see what it's pulled out to see if it is anything um that that we shouldn't be or if it was, you know, if it maybe was a mistake. But so far, everything we're seeing is um is basically spam and and people trying to get clickbait and things like that that is trying to get through and which we were getting quite a bit of. Um and so we think this is really going to help um start to slow that down and and and filter it right out before it even gets to anybody. Okay. So, it does filter it out before it gets to like a kid or a teacher or myself. Okay. Just because in my work email, I have to like hit this button. Yes. That
072says I'm being fished or something and I can just see my own child just hitting it and sending gift cards to everybody and then we're hacked. And that's the way in in Google that's the way Google kind of works. It's like a self-reporting system where this system is more proactive and it grabs it before it even gets in there. Okay, perfect. Um, and and right now we have it kind of set at a low setting, but we may start to ramp it up a little bit more. If we see that it's actually filtering out everything we want, then we'll we could even make it even more secure. That's great. Thanks, Chris. Y Michelle, thank you so much for that chart that you sent. I definitely clicked on the links. Was kind of that that girl
073that did that. Um, I guess I I found the chart really helpful. Um, but I noticed that there were still some areas of the chart particularly because all the programs look really good and solid and some seem to focus more on individualized or some group or some um I guess I guess what I'm getting at is there were some areas on the chart that were not filled in yet. Assuming that you guys are still gathering your information and discerning, right? Um, and my biggest question is or or just curiosity is um if you fill in the chart, can I still see that? Because I'm thinking um that the the programs all look really good, but discerning like how it's going to fit into the context of of you guys' schedules and days. Yeah. And you're
074looking at multi-buildings um with that literacy chunks and that whole piece of it, I guess, is where my curiosity lies for Yeah. That's a Google doc, so you should still see anything time we change it, you should see that as well. Okay. Yeah, we have um um because of the weather, because of the storm on Monday, we had two days set up to go down to RSU 10 and visit um because they're actually using two of the programs. Um, and Monday that that got snowed out and that was uh third third through fifth grade was going to go. But Tuesday we were able to go with K to 2. And so we actually got to see um two of the programs and talk to teachers that are using it and get an a better idea
075of what it might look like in an actual school. Um so thank you. Yep. Was there any other questions? I did I had a question if nobody else does. How long have we been using this uh this filter program? We just um we've been working to get to see if we could get it for for about a couple two three or four weeks. Um and just got it last week and and installed it and so it's pretty new, but it's already it's not even a week old yet. Yeah. Okay. Are you noticing anything? I mean, I see I see 25 prevented attacks. Yeah. And that's in Is that in a 24-h hour period? Yes, that well um yes, I believe that's in a 24-h hour period that 25 attacks were definitely recognized and it's already
076showing a percentage of the type of attacks that we're getting out of those. Um and yeah, so you can see what kind of attack it was. Yeah, it gives you uh it gives um that and kind of in the lower right it talks about the type of attacks that are happening. Identity deception, brand impress impersonation, things like that. So, and then you can even dig deeper into it to see exactly what it was. And some of them um some of them touch more than one, you know, it's like multiple things that it's doing at once, but Right. And this isn't going to stop everything obviously. I mean, Right. Some stuff could still get through and Yeah. Yeah. But any of the But it's a good Yeah. Because they because it's a company that updates their
077knowledge on a on a regular basis to try to keep up with it. You said what the company was. Who is it? It's cloud fair. Cloud fair. Awesome. Any other questions? Thanks, Chris. Yep. All right. The chair has nothing to report. Uh committee reports. Tina. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Um, under the policy committee, I'd like it if we could if we could do a motion on the first one and then handle the the the last five five of them all at once. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we pass um that we accept the second reading of BID, board member compensation and expenses as a second reading. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. And the motion carries. I would also like to make a motion to accept
078the first reading of policy ACA, ACA A, ACAB, ACA BR, and AC. and I will explain those after the motion is um accepted. I have a second. Elaine, any discussion? I'm sorry. I'll get you next time. Roger. Does this address the the sports issue that I feel like we're going to have to address in a couple I I cannot hear you. Sorry. Does this address the sports issue that I feel like we're going to have to address shortly? Anyway, let me read it first. Say again. Let me give my spiel first. Okay. She's gonna give her report and then I will come back to you. Is that okay? After I accept it. It's not usually how I would would conduct. Do you want to do that report before we vote? Yeah. Right. After we've got
079the second and and after we got the second, she's going to give her a report as part of the discussion before we vote and you'll be able to comment. Okay. I hope I want to be fair. Okay. So, Elaine seconded. So, discussion. Um, let me just give you the rundown on what we've got. These are It sounded like a whole lot of letters. It is um the policies that we updated just a few weeks ago really um to the to the 2023 standard I believe. Um those were rolled back at the title nine level and approved and it went through the courts and um those are being rolled back to the 2020 version of harassment and sexual harassment for both students and employees and for um discrimination against um and title title nine discrimination as
080well um and also the regulation the uh the the uh procedures for handling complaints. So, it's five different policies. They cover very close to the same thing. The reason uh the and the the policy committee had a pretty spirited back and forth on how much we should amend those the um the the district's legal advice uh advice from our lawyers is to just roll these back to the 2020 versions while everything else is tied up in court. The reason for this is that if we get ahead of what the courts have determined are the standing state and federal laws and we are sued as a district and we could be for instance if we roll back the part of our of our policy that adheres to the main human rights commission's uh the main human
081rights act and somebody sues us for violating the main human rights act, our insurance may not even cover us and we would be out in front of this in the courts fighting it out on this district's dime. And that strikes me as not being a really wise idea. So, we have rolled it back. We came to an agreement to roll it back to the 2020 version and wait until the courts have dispensed with whatever comes along u before we make any other changes. Roger. The only thing I have to say on that is our legal representation is absolutely politically biased in one direction and it's always going to come back to us. Whatever supports that and and I'm frustrated by that. I'm going to be voting no on this because I don't think we rolled
082it back far enough. I hear you. Any other questions or comments before we vote? Oh, sorry, Holly. I shouldn't sit beside you. You should. So, if we vote on the first reading and something comes to light between now and the second reading, we still have an opportunity to make changes if need be. We are in complete control over this. Right. This Yeah. So, this is just the vote on the first reading. Okay. Any other questions or discussion? All right. All in say again, let's do a roll call. Thanks. Appreciate you. Correct. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. Right. The motion carries. I don't see any unfinished business. Do we have any new business? No. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. On April 10th, just aformational piece here. On April 10th, uh it's going to be a
083double meeting. So, we're going to hold the regular meeting. Budget referendum meeting. Well, we're going to have the budget referendum meeting first. Then we're going to adjourn for five minutes. And then we're gonna go right back into a second meeting. That's way we're not having to take up two nights. Sound good? Okay. I really wasn't looking for a, you know, if if we don't do it this way, we go the whole month of April without a meeting because of the fourth Thursday falling on vacation this year because Patriots Day is so late. So, we'll have the regular budget referendum meeting, do a recess, and then we'll have a shortened. We probably won't have presentations, but this gives us the time to then do a second reading within the time allotted that you're supposed to do
084it. Um, and then we can have other if there's other things that have to come up that the board needs to work on, then they can work on it that night. Sure. Six and a half, right? Andrew, are we having the meeting in this room or the junior high? It'll be here. The budget the budget referendum meeting is right here. Um, that's when all the town's people can come and vote and we'll go through all the warrants. Laura's got her hand up. What are you going to add? Yeah. So, we'll meet that. Actually, we won't do the U because we need more room that night. We'll have more chairs and people here. Um, and we have to vote for a moderator. We have somebody who wants to moderate. So, that's great. Um, and once the
085vote is done, um, then like you said, we'll adjourn for five, six and a half, 10 minutes, whatever we end up deciding, and then we'll start a regular board meeting after that. Any other questions? and seeing that I'm probably not going to have anybody