School Board Workshop and Business Meeting 03/19/2026

001Thank you. >> Good evening and welcome to the Scarboro School Board uh business meeting. The date is Thursday, March 19th, 2026. Um, would everyone please join me for the pledge of allegiance? I >> pledge allegiance 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. >> All right, Ray, can we call the attendants, please? >> Yes. >> Miss Jacobs, >> here. >> Miss uh Mr. Keller. >> Uh, yes. here. >> Miss or Mr. >> Miss Lindstöm >> here, >> Miss Mau >> here, >> Mr. Rockenstein >> here, >> Miss Tarpenion >> here, >> Mr. Piny Huff >> here, >> Mr. Skina >> here, >> and Miss Clarrett. >> All right. Thank you so much. Agenda item 1.4

002is the February 26, 2026 workshop and business board minutes. And if there are no objections, we will approve them as presented. Right. Thank you so much. Agenda item 2.0 I know adjustments to the agenda. Are there any adjustments this evening? >> None. >> Thank you so much. Agenda item 3.0 are uh recognitions. 3.1 is a staff spotlight award recipient. So for this, we'll turn it over to Charlotte. >> Thank you. Um for our March 2026 staff spotlight award, the winner is Emma Dickinson. Um, and the person that nominated her is Nicole Johnson. Emma Dickinson works at Pleasant Hill as a K through2 special education teacher and she started in the district in 2019 as an edtech and has been a teacher since 2023. Um, and then if Nicole wanted to come up and say a

003few words about Emma, >> um, I just wanted to say, so I've worked with Emma for it's been a long time. I don't know how long, maybe eight years. Um, we started out as edteex together at Eight Corners. Um, I've watched Emma um, become a teacher. Um, and we've remained friends throughout and I was really happy to be able to get to work right across the hall from her over at Pleasant Hill, which is where we are now. Um, and I think the thing that I'm impressed most with Emma about is her advocacy for the kids. She literally makes sure every kid gets exactly what they need and she will have meeting upon meeting to make sure that that they're getting what um they need. And in special education, I just think she's such a

004valuable part of our team. Um she's a master master scheduler, which I appreciate because she definitely helps me with that cuz that is not a strong suit for me. But just getting to work with her has been a real gift and she's amazing and I feel really lucky to call her my friend. >> Thank you, Nicole. And then we have um some videos from two of your uh your colleagues uh sharing some really nice things about you as well. >> Okay. Yay, Emma. I'm so excited for you. Emma is just a great advocate for the kids, for us edex. She's wonderful to work with. She's so organized and just kind to everyone she knows. Yay. Thank you very much. >> Hi, I'm Gigi Stone, speech therapist at Pleasant Hill School, and I am so excited

005to hear that Emma Dickinson was chosen for the spotlight award. Emma is a great educator who's always looking towards inclusion, a team player, and children love working with her, and we love working with Emma. Congratulations, Emma. Very welld deserved. >> And Emma, I have a an award and a gift for you if you wanted to come up. We welcome you to say a few words if you want to as well. Cheryl's like, I don't want to get his picture. Is that okay? >> Unfortunately, yes. >> Um, yeah, I'm not the greatest public speaker, but I feel really grateful to work in such an amazing school district. Um, and to just have the support. I see Mr. Roadie and Nicole. Um so just to have their support throughout my journey of becoming an educator um has

006been really important to me. Um so yeah, thank you so much for this. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. All right. Um agenda item 3.2 two is the Scarboro High School Winter Athletics uh recognition. So, for this, we'll invite uh Michael Gage. Thought I saw >> Oh, here he is. There he is. Rising from the back like a phoenix. >> Well, good evening. Thank you for having us. And uh we'll get right to it with uh having our coaches come up and present how their seasons went uh this winter. We'll start with coach Lever from competition cheering. Hello everyone. Um I'm Caitlyn Lever, the head coach of Cheer. This is Katie Reid, our assistant coach. And with us tonight, we have our seniors, Lauraai and Epha. Thank you for having us tonight. Um, and to our

007athletics department for their constant support of our student athletes throughout the season. The Scarbor Redstorm and Varsity Cheer Team had an incredible season filled with growth, resilience, and success. They earned first place at the snowflake virtual for a second year in a row, placed second at Rampage, SMAAS, and regionals, and finished as Class A state runners up, qualifying us for the New England Championship for the second year in a row. More importantly, this team showed what it means to be accountable, supportive, and committed to something bigger than themselves. Their success was built through hard work, trust, and the way they showed up for one another every day, both on and off the mat. We are so proud of the standard that this team continues to represent at Scar Bro and we cannot wait to take

008on New England's this Saturday. Thank you. >> Uh unified basketball coach McCormack. Hi, I'm Albert McCormack. I'm the head unified basketball coach. This is one of my um wonderful teammates or team members, Everett Devonish. Um very thankful that uh he accepted my invitation to come up and stand alongside me as I talk to you guys. Um our unified year was another huge success. We've got an awesome giant team. Um, one of the big changes uh with this year which is remarkable is that we've had to develop a partner application process in order to manage all the interest um for unified. I think that just goes to show uh how big of an impact it has on our student body and and how many kids want to be part of it. Um, and so it's kids

009like Everett on the team that, uh, that, you know, attract so many wonderful, awesome kids to become part of Unified. Um, we had a a wonderful season, lots of, uh, wins, lots of successes, lots of individual successes, um, lots of dance parties at halftime just like that. and uh and you know we we've been thrilled uh to have some wonderful characters uh on the team just like Everett. So uh we we are looking to many more years and uh and we're moving inching our way towards the botchi season which would be another success I'm sure. and Coach Watson with wrestling. Hi, I'm Coach Benny Watson and I coach the Scarbo Gorum cooperative wrestling team. The 202526 wrestling season found us much success. We finished our team dual meet record at 4 and 18, which was

010only one win shy of tying my single season best of five wins since taking over the program in 21-22. However, a combined 16 points separated us from two more total team wins and we dropped a heartbreaker the last duel of the season to perennial powerhouse Marshwood which only speaks to the progress we're making towards becoming a more competitive team. Uh, excuse me. Lola Vance from Goam High School placed second at the girls only state tournament in Belfast and Noble. Uh, she finished second at the states and was the first female in program history to qualify for the New England Championships. She was also second team allconerence and we qualified four athletes for the state tournament which was the most we've ever qualified in my tenure. And probably the highlight of the season for me as

011a coach was that we won our second consecutive sportsmanship award for class A South. And that, you know, just speaks to what we aim to produce as young student athletes in our community. Thank you. >> Uh, boys basketball coach Connley. um couldn't be here tonight, so he sent me this to read for you. Um so this is about the boys basketball season. First, I'd like to thank the school board for its continued support of our student athletes at Sky High School. I'd also like to recognize Miss Legage along with the athletic and activities department for their hard work and ongoing dedication. Our team had a very successful season both on and off the court. We entered the Class A South tournament as the number eight seed and went on to upset the number one seed

012in the quarterfinal round. Our season concluded in the final four where we competed in a very close game against Chevris. Individually, we had two players earn all SMAA honors. Carter Blanch was named to the second team and Adam Fitzgerald to the third team. Both Carter and Adam were also selected for the MABC senior all-star team. In addition, Carter received the Gary Randall Award, which which recognizes outstanding citizenship and sportsmanship as voted on by the SMAA coaches. We are especially proud to have had three players named to the main association of basketball coaches all academic team. Carter Blanch, Reed Threll, and Leighton Garrapy. This honor is awarded, if I messed up any of those names, I'm sorry, it's the pronunciation. I mean, this honor is awarded to just 12 student athletes across all classes in the

013state, making it an exceptional achievement. As a coach, I'm incredibly proud of these young men for representing our program with such excellence in the classroom and in our community. So that was boys basketball from coach Connley G. He may be watching so it was a good clap. He was out out ill today. Um Coach Geodano is next and I think we're going to promote him virtually. >> Coach Gadano is um goes to Florida in the offseason. So he's joining us from from there. So, I'll let Coach Gadano go ahead. >> Can you hear me, Mike? >> Yep. >> Okay. Um, good evening. Um, thank you for allowing me to join um, this meeting virtually this evening. I'm fortunate to spend time with my wife in Florida um, in the spring and in the fall. And

014that's where we are now. Um, I will refuse to tell you what the temperature is. Um, first I'd like to thank my support team. uh my support system which is Mr. Legage and all the fine people in the athletic director's office. How they help us with all the administrative pieces to make our season go the way it's supposed to go. And it allows me and my coaching staff to spend more time with the kids getting them ready to prepare to to play. This year we added uh a strong freshman class of 10 young ladies helping to boost our numbers. And now our numbers are somewhere in the average of what girls basketball in our class is in Southern Maine. Our season was uh we we had a record of seven wins and 11 losses. We

015qualified for the NBA Southern A tournament as the nine seed. Um we struggled this year uh with consistent play. Uh but to the credit to the girls, they continue to give their best effort every day and you and you wouldn't know that by their effort. Um, the girls hear me say this all the time. You truly uh your p your true personality comes out when things aren't going well or when you're having to deal with adversity. High school athletics allow student athletes to learn an awful lot about themselves. And I think we did just that this year. Our loss in the tournament was one of our best games that we played all year. It was a one or two point game with three or four minutes left and uh we end up losing to Gorum

016and that was the end of our season. Um, we had one SMAA allstar honorable mention that was junior Iber Alvarez. We placed three of our four seniors on the SMAA all academic team. And the team uh combined GPA was a 92.71. We graduate four seniors and one manager and we wish them well in everything they do in the future. The future is bright for Scarbo girls basketball with a strong eighth grade class coming in. Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you, >> Coach Horsing with boys ice hockey. >> Uh, good evening. My name is Eric Woring, uh, head coach for the varsity scar bro hockey program. I'm joined here by CJ Lebell, one of our senior captains. Um, first I would like to thank Mr. Le Gage in the Lake office. This is

017my fifth year with the program and it's really been an honor and privilege to coach here in the Scarboro community. This season, um, one of the things that we really try to do is establish a strong culture in our locker room and for our program. This summer, this past summer, the boys read the book, um, hard hat and it's about committing to being a great teammate. In that book, there are 21 principles um that we went through daily in our practices. And as we concluded those principles, the players as a team decided on five things that we would bring to every practice, every game, and every time that we were together. And more importantly, things that they would bring outside the rink and locker room um to their classrooms and the community. They were don't

018complain. Well done is greater than well said. Never take a playoff. Stay posit positive and contagious energy and love your team. Judging by those commitment to those principles, we finished with the best record that we've had in my five years here, a 1071 record and a fourth place finish in class A. That included tightly contested games with a class A state finalist. Um, Chevis and Thorn Academy. Chevvers lost to one- nothing in overtime and Chevous lost to two nothing. We also defeated York Bifford um who ended up winning the class B state championship. We were also one of the top teams not only in class A but in the state in our penalty killing which was at 94%. And we allowed the fifth fifth le fifth least goals allowed in the state as well. On

019top of that we also had four allstate selections which was the first most um that I've had in my tenure here. CJ, Cal Gamberella, and Nick Harmon were all second team. And then our goalender, Bryce Bellarose, was first team all state. Overall, we had a great season. We fell short of a victory, which is always to compete for a state championship and put ourselves at cross insurance. Unfortunately, we fell short this year, but it's hardly a disappointment between the effort and the commitment that these boys made to being great teammates, which will hopefully lead to being great people as they leave Scarbor High School. Thank you. I would like to mention something about our girls ice hockey program. Um we have a a girls hockey program that is combined with Skyro and Felmouth. Uh we're

020not the home school for that. Felmouth is actually the home school. But um the Skyro Felmouth girls hockey program is a cooperative team between Skyro and Felmouth with nine Skyro athletes contributing to a 15 player roster. The team had a strong season finishing 510 and three and earning the fifth seed in the NBA tournament. They earned a playoff win over the Portland co-op team in the quarterfinals before falling to the Chevish Yamoth co-op team in the semi-finals. Shavever Yamoth went on to win the state championship. Hope Muliski and Alex Serban were both recognized with SMA allconerence honors. That's a little bit about the girls ice hockey program as well. Okay, the next one is girls indoor track with coach Curry. Good evening. I have um Laurel Driscoll and Isabella Harmon with me. They are You've

021seen them here before. They're the captains and they're our seniors. Um they had a great season. They led our team um in the locker room or in the hallway, I should say. and uh and at meets their goal was to win another state championship before they graduated. So, um not only did they do that, they were all on on the all academic team. All our senior girls were. Um we had a season of 20 wins, four losses, and one tie. That was our regular season record. And we went on to win the SMAA championship and then went on to win the state championship. Um it was going to be a tough one but end up winning like by 25 points thanks to these two. These two scored over half our points and could have come

022in fourth in the state meet alone. So um they're quite a duo. So we are going to miss them. But we um have some really good freshman coming up. Our junior division really um went well. Um they also broke some school records that they'll um have in the books too. So, um, I'd like to thank our athletic director and the department for they great with getting us to a lot of USM practices now. So, we they have more effective practices that are really help helps our season. So, that's been great. So, um, they um are looking forward to outdoor. Thank you. and boys into a track with coach Fu. >> Good evening. Thanks for having us. Uh congratulations to uh all the teams and especially the uh girls on winning the uh state championship. I

023think um either the boys and girls have won a state championship in track every year back to 2015. So it's quite a run we're on. Uh so congratulations to all the coaches that are involved in that. Um we share a lot of the same coaches for the individual events. So uh a lot of success there. Uh the boys uh this year uh our record wasn't uh really indicative of what of what we had on the team. We had a lot of injuries and our numbers were down a little bit this year. Um the first meet uh we was a seven team meet. So we eight team meet and we um got last place. So, but after that, uh we went eight and six. So, uh we got better uh throughout the season. Um we had

024some good young kids coming up, uh distance runners, and uh we return a lot coming uh back a lot a strong junior class. So, uh we were working kind of towards next year. Uh the kids that were uh at practice every day were working hard and uh um advancing themselves. And we saw that on the track with uh personal best and uh throughout the whole season. Um our goal uh after the Southwesterns, unfortunately, our best athlete was sick and so you know when you lose a lot of those points, it's going to be tough to score when you uh don't have a team that's full of stars like we've had in the past. Uh but so we set our goal uh coming into the state meet to try to score more points and at least

025improve on our positioning. We didn't meet the points, but uh we did uh score 14th in the state meet, which was two points higher than we did in the conference. So, a lot of success there, and that was good to see. Uh school record wise, we did have one, uh Adakus Mariam in the 600. Uh we had some allconerence winners, uh 4x8 relay, he did win the conference championship, but that was null Heath, uh Colin Anderson, uh Jose Beno, and Damen Meisner. Um and that earned him first team all conference. Uh Adekus Mariam was also first team all conference in the two-mile. Uh and the third team in the 600 uh all all academic Jose Bencomo, Eddie Nudson, and Nolan Meyer. So it was great to see uh the athletes doing well uh in the

026classroom as well. Um that relay qualified for New England's along with uh Attekus and the mile. And uh at the New England, Adakus had his best race of the season. He was only fifth in the state championship but sixth in New England in the mile to earn all New England honors. So, uh that was great to see. Uh looking forward to uh these young kids developing and coming back finishing strong next year. Thank you. >> Okay. Swimming. Uh, Coach Gerard couldn't be here this evening, so she sent me this to read. I'd like to recognize the athletic activities department for their continued dedication, hard work, and supporting our student athletes and coaches. Despite a transition and coaching staff this season with swimming, we had a strong and successful year, finishing with a five and three

027record. athletes demonstrated significant growth throughout the season with many swimmers both new and returning, achieving personal best times across multiple events. This progress resulted in 14 state qualifiers, an increase of two from last year. At the Southwestern Championship meet, the team earned 16 top eight finishes with the boys placing six and the girls placing fifth overall. At the state championship meet, swimmers achieved 11 top eight finishes, leading to a fourth place finished for the boys and a 10th place finish for the girls. Overall, the swim program continues to embody educationbased athletics where growth, commitment, and character development defined success. This season reflected resilience through a coaching transition and strong overall performance. So, that's the swim program. the alpine skiing. Uh, Scar Bro and Gorum are combined for alpine skiing. Coach Burns is our Scar Bro

028coach um for that and she couldn't be here this evening, so she left this for me to read. The Scar Bro girls alpine ski team placed fifth out of more than 20 teams. Lena Asali, did I say that right? um finished 10th in the GS and seventh in the slalom while Claire Fra placed fourth in the giant slalom is sixth in the slalom. While Lea Leah Prairie competed in her final main high school skiing competition and despite a fall in the giant slalom due to a loss ski remained positive and demonstrated strong resilience. She followed with a strong solemn run, finishing in the top third of all competitors. Eevee placed in the top 25 in slom and Rosa delivered consistent performance in both runs to help round out the team scoring. These results came from

029a field of 97 athletes. On the boy side, Emry Miller competed in his first state meet after just his second season in alpine racing and performed strongly, showing continued development and limit experience in new equipment. A special acknowledgement is also due to the athletic and activities department who continue to support helps create meaningful and wellorganized opportunities for our student athletes throughout the season. In line with the principles of education-based athletics, this season highlighted not only competitive achievement but also resilience, adaptability, and personal growth. When day one of the state meet was cancelled, reducing the competition to a single run each in slalom and giant slalom, the athletes adjusted quickly and maintained focus. Despite this disruption, the team responded with maturity, positivity, and composure, reflecting the broader impact of high school athletics on student development beyond

030sports. So, that's a little bit about the Alpine Ski Team. And sorry if I messed up some of the last names. Did I miss anybody? Think so. So, that's a little bit about our uh winter sports. And I um not only proud of the kids that work really hard to balance both a rigorous academic um schedule, but also athletics. Um a lot of credit to them, but the coaches too. Really proud of our coaching staff and the people that we have on board. And I think you heard about not just about wins and losses, but as I typically say often at these meetings, you heard about um this kind of concept of education-based athletics and why participation in after school activities are so vital to a holistic education. Um you heard about great things too

031like sportsmanship banners um with wrestling and coach Worsing's 21 um points that he follows through with with the students on all those all those things that our coaches work hard to do provide those learning opportunities for our kids. And so I think those those things are extremely important to to our department and uh to what we're trying to do to support you know that academic side of things as well. So I think it kind of works together for the kids. So proud of proud of everybody with it. Any questions or >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Kate, I always say that somehow your presentation aligns with this night and one time there will be a student that stays to listen. It will happen. Yeah, >> we have two. We have two that are

032staying. >> This is true. This is true. >> All right. Um, agenda item 4.0 are presentations and 4.1 is our Bluepoint School presentation. So, for this, we'll invite Julian Dable up. >> Yeah, we're really excited to have Jillian present tonight to share with you some highlights from Blueoint School. >> Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to share with you some of the amazing things that have been happening at Bluepoint. I became principal halfway through the year. So, the beginning of my presentation is talking a little bit about some of the fun things that have been happening in second grade, which is where I was teaching at the time. >> Um, do I have control there. Thank you. Uh, so one of the things I wanted to highlight was that we

033were able to welcome Mrs. Vafiatus into our second grade classrooms. She's the world language teacher at Wentworth and she did an amazing job adapting her Spanish lessons for second grade learners. The kids loved it. Uh the teachers loved it. I even walked away with a little Spanish myself. I was very proud. Uh she did an amazing job and we were really sad to see her go when she had to move on to the next um elementary school. During Hour of Code, we were really lucky at Bluepoint to be able to create our BBOT slides for the whole district, all the second grade students. So, our IC coach, Miss Randall, came to us and asked us if we would like to create these. The students came up with the ideas all on their own. They made

034blueprints with their teammates. They passed them in to Miss Randall and she was able to make the mats that you see here. They had math problems on their mats. Here are two vocabulary words and even a Spanish mat, which really was great to see them carry over their lessons with Miss Buffias. Some of the things we try to do is go out into the community as much as possible. And two of our bail trips that we did this year was the second graders went to the public safety building where they were able to tour the fire department as well as the police station. They were really excited to see all the equipment that they use to see the trucks that they have and to tiptoe through the emergency call room where they got to see

035the cameras. The town was really neat to see. And then our first graders went to the Scarboro Public Library and this was part of their unit on decoding tricky words. They discovered that they are word detectives and they would get clues um every day that they had to decode and the last clue they received was actually an invitation to the big library. And I really wish that everybody could have been out in the hallway to hear their excitement when they realized they were able to go there to tour. And we were really excited for our our readers to be able to go and do that. So, it was really neat. We have a kindness corner in our school where we nominate students that are caught being kind. Staff members will nominate kids that they see

036and the students don't know that they are nominated until their name is announced in a loudspeaker. And one of the things we did was we wanted to bring this to the community members. So, when um I became principal, we decided we need our community to see how kind our kids are. So, we added our kindness corner to our family newsletter every Friday, and the students were really excited to be able to show their families the kind deeds that they did and to show off their picture every week. I also wanted to know the students more because I only knew the second graders. So, I asked if I was able to come into people's classrooms to read a book to the kids and get to know their students more. And in true Bluepoint fashion, everybody was

037very welcoming. They invited me right in. I was able to read a book to every class every month since I started. And it was a really great opportunity to get to know the students more and um to be able to call each one by name and so that they also knew me as well. And that being principal wasn't always a negative thing but a positive thing. And I have many students that come visit me now to show off what they've learned and what they're working on. And I I love that being able to be that connection for them. We are celebrating reading the whole month of March. To kick off our reading month, we had what we call a reading train where all the students stop what they're doing and come out into the hallway

038with their book boxes and staff and students alike sit and read together. And I felt quite bad at the end of the 10 minutes when I had to stop them. They were so engaged in their reading. And we're going to plan to end our reading month doing the same thing. We also have a story walk at Blue Point. Not sure if anyone knows, but we had a lovely group of teachers who volunteer their time to put a story walk into our school. And we are now able to offer two books, one in the fall and one in the in the spring for families to come and tour. Right now, we have snow in the jungle available for anyone that wants to see it. It's located on our upper playground, and we love being able to

039take the students outside to be able to tour that with their classmates as well. So as I had mentioned before, we find community to be really important, but not just outside community, but the community within our building. So we have two um opportunities every month for all the students to have a chance to work together. One of them is called classroom connections. During that time for 30 minutes, classrooms get together of different grade levels and do an activity together. might be a STEM activity or an SL seal activity, but it really is a great opportunity for students to make friends across grade level and for the teachers to know every single student in our building. We really look forward to those. We also have comm community meetings every month on our early release days and

040during that time the whole school gets together and we celebrate student learning as well as really focus on our kindness. So, some of our community meetings that we've done so far was in December, our brave kindergarteners stood up and taught us all that they've learned in phonics, and they even performed their phonics dance. We got to learn a little diagraphs and letter sounds from them. In January, our FLS friends came and taught us about beat and rhythm. They performed a song that they've been working on in the classroom. And we also were able to hear our kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Lee, read all are welcome. And in February, we had some amazing teacher actors volunteer their time to act out different scenarios. And the students voted whether it was a think it or say it scenario.

041Meaning a think it might be something you're thinking in your head that you should keep to yourself. And a say it is something that's kind that you can share with others. And then during March, we had two extremely well disguised mystery readers read a book we are in. Read the book We Are in a Book by Mo Williams. Uh and then the students try to spend the day guessing who they were. We did tell them at the end who it was. And we also um had our second graders stand up and perform the song 50 nifty United States and show off that they could actually list every single state in our country. So it was pretty cool. Okay. So, um, before you press play, I just had to add this because I don't think that

042anything I can show you up here or say at this podium can really embody how special this school is and how grateful I am to be able to be a part of it uh, as a classroom teacher for the past seven years and now as the interim principal. So, I just wanted to end with a little snippet of a song that we play at the end of every single community meeting that we have. Um, and it is a song that the students know by heart. So I just wanted to play it for you. >> Kindness. Kindness. Oh, whenever you find this, you will see the world's a better place. Kindness. Kindness. Oh, whenever you try this, you could bring a smile to someone's face. Well, it doesn't take much and it doesn't take long. No,

043it doesn't cost a thing. No. And there's no way to do it wrong. You can try it anytime. You can plant it where you want. And you can grow it in your heart. Then give it out to everyone. Kindness. Kindness. Oh, whenever you find this, you will see the world's a better place. We will see the world's a better place. >> So, I invite you if you have the opportunity to come visit us. Um, but I do have to warn you, we have a saying at Bluepoint School and that is once a Blue Pointer, always a bluepointer. whether you're there for a day or for seven years. Thank you so much for your time. Do we have any questions or comments for Miss DLE? >> Well, I didn't expect to cry seeing this presentation, so

044there's that. Um I just I know that um it's difficult to come in mid year as a new administrator, especially on your um first time. So um the fact that you're able to uh switch gears mid year and and join join a leadership position and lead the school so beautifully is really really a wonderful thing for us up here and for our families that really rely on on you and the school for a safe space. And so thank you for all you've done and um this is just incredible. This is really this is really lovely. So thank you for everything. You've been a wonderful addition and we really value and appreciate you. >> Thank you very much. should appreciate >> and I can attest to the fact I was at Blue Point this morning and

045I was meeting with Jillian and and one of the pictures in your slides up there um depicts Jillian like talking out the window to kids at recess and that happened while we were meeting this morning. Knock knock. Here are some kids at the window and she opens it up and they're like, "Hey, there's a tree that we planted that fell down." And she's like, "Don't worry. I'll take care of and like they totally knew that that you would do that, right? Um, but it was just a really great example of just how you're so naturally connecting with the kids there, which is just fabulous. >> Thank you. It's it's been an honor to be able to expand from 16 kiddos to 182. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. All right. Agenda item 4.2

046is our FY27 school budget presentation. And so, Miss Kate, would you like to join us? Hello all. Um, I'm going to start with a little bit of housekeeping. Um, I have some I have some paper, you know, I love paper. For those who already have binders because they were at a million meetings last week, many hours with us. I have replacement. >> Hey, did you explain how to use a binder? students >> to the students. Is Is the technology that old? Really? Come on. Now, these are really talented women here. The these guys know how to they they can Google it. What's a binder? Um the pages that I'm handing out here, we went through some really awesome uh workshops last week with the board. Uh we spent probably close to eight hours together and

047they already have their binders. Uh and we made some edits following on that workshop. Um there was a slide deck and there was the binders and we were kind of working together between the two and we got some really good feedback about clarifying a couple things that were in the book, couple things that were on the slides. So, um, that's what this new paper is about. And all of those resources are now online in corrected, revised form. Um, and the other thing I'm going to hand out for you folks is the budget motions. All right. Um, I think that Dr. Detto may be interested in jumping in and helping me out a little bit here. I know you guys love to hear me talk, but there's a lot of uh data points in this slide

048deck. Um, which I I like to speak to the numbers and the process and um I'm not quite as confident in speaking to some of the data points around the operations in our schools. So, I'm looking for my partnership here. >> Good tag team. Happy to happy to participate. >> Awesome. Um, so at first reading, which is where we are this evening, the leadership council's proposal is taken up by the school board. So this is this is the big handoff tonight. The board is going to vote to adopt the budget in first reading. Um, and then the combined town and school budget will be presented on April 1st. At that point, um, there will be a town council meeting in this chambers and Dr. Edto and the town manager Tom Hall will present together um

049the total municipal budget. Something that's very important to know is that first reading is the beginning of a long process. It's not the end of anything. Um items in motion and adjustments, a lot of data, a lot of pieces of information that we're going to be gathering and needing and and uh learning over the next couple of months. So, we will be making changes. Um the school board finance committee and communications committee will be on top of all of these things and sharing information with the community. And uh the school budget proposal before it goes to second reading will be refined and adapted and adjusted based on all of these um new pieces of data that we have and based on the deliberations of the town and the school department. So, this is my first

050plug for the school department budget web page. That's a live link in the slide deck. So, if you're watching this or reading it later, you can go for it. If not, you go right to our um schoolboard page on our on our uh website and you'll see the budget item. You click on that. All of the items that we have created so far are posted up there. And as we go through the various public meetings and discussions um you know all kinds of meeting documents will be posted the calendars posted there uh in a grid form so that you can see when each meeting is what that meeting is for and as we go through the process all the documents related to those meetings will be attached in there. So one-stop shopping for everything you

051need to know about the budget. The other thing that's posted up there, and this was something new that some clever person thought of last year, is uh the video clips of the presentations like the one that we just had from Jillian from all the different school departments and um and school buildings. And I just love those little insights into what's going on in school. So that's right up there on the budget page as well. So you can pay attention to not just the numbers but the reason why we all show up every day. Um so we are going to flip through some of the slides that the board has already seen but I think it's important to do that um in this context as a start of the first reading and because we have a

052little bit different audience um I was hoping I'd get one athlete but that's okay. That's okay. >> Yeah. So >> someday. So um you know again um the foundation of the budget is really um brings us back to what is our mission statement in the district right and so you've heard us talk about this multiple times um we really exist to provide a safe and inclusive learning environment for every student um to be a resilient lifelong learner and um a contributing member of society. And so that really is the focus and the foundation of all of the work that we do. um you have seen in the past two years that we've brought in a lot to these meetings to help clarify what that looks like um you know on a day-to-day basis in each

053of our schools. And so um we're really proud to be able to share that work with you. um aligned um everything that we do aligns from that vision from that mission statement um including um our vision um and then the work that we do that aligns to four really strategic areas including effective teaching and learning, safe and inclusive schools, global citizenship, and community engagement. So I'm not going to certainly read word for word off this slide, but I think it's just a reminder of that's our anchor. Um and so everything we do goes back to that. If we move to the next slide, um as we were preparing the budget, um our leadership team, I have a we have a great team that we work with. They're represented here tonight. They are our audience. Um

054uh but um you know uh we really do make sure that the things that we're attending to or spending most of our time um doing are strictly aligned to our mission statement and um to our goals. And so this uh this year in particular um as the board set their goals forward um one goal in particular really resonated in terms of uh our day-to-day work and that really um is listed here. It's board um goal three which is really around um ensuring that we have sustained in investments in instructional development across all areas. Um and so that includes academics, student support, social emotional learning and then attending to equity and inclusion for all students. And so that was a goal that the board set. And so um we as a leadership team set the goals

055for our work in the buildings based off of that, right? And so what does that mean for our day-to-day work? And so each of um our schools and departments really looked at, okay, so what does that mean for us? And what that really um resonated for us was really around this idea of expanding this culture of inclusion for all learners by making sure that the resources that we make available really um advance those practices and strengthen student supports um across all areas for our kids. So, as our team was putting together our priorities for this year's budget, um we had really four things that we had in mind. The first um was really on the refinement of um what our MTSS structures look like. You've heard us talk about that um you know um multiple

056times because that really defines what our work is. Um we also uh set a priority for really making sure that we are bolstering student data review protocols um to inform instructional um decision- making. Right? We always want to make sure that we have an opportunity to look at how each and every one of our students is progressing so that um we have guaranteed and viable support for all kids and we're not just paying attention to those kids um that individual staff members might bring up. Um we also um feel really um strongly about the work that we've done in the area of social emotional learning. And so we really feel like we want to solidifi continue to solidify that. Um and so that's reflected in our budget request. And then finally um really uh as

057we look at instructional programming, ensuring that we have um equitable um programming for all of our students, right? So that's general education students, special education students, students in between all of that. Um, and so that really was the foundation from which everything else that you heard us talk about in the budget workshops came from. These are numbers, Kate. >> These are in fact numbers. Um, so for anybody who's ever listened to a budget presentation from Kate Bolton, this this slide is not a surprise, right? So, every year we talk about the fact that personnel costs make up the bulk of our budget. Um, this year it's 81.1%. Um, it represents the cost of personnel, which is wages, salaries, and and benefits, represents most of the increase in our budget this year. Um, a little over

058$4 million. And it's a 7.1% overall increase over last year's budget. Um this year we have uh CBAs is collective bargaining agreements which is contracts uh with most of our staff that are current and will be operating into FY26. So all of those groups that you see there have a contract for next year that already defines what their salaries and benefits will be um as negotiated by the board in previous years. Um we are currently in negotiations with one of our collective bargaining groups, the education support professionals. Um so in that case what we have in the budget is u estimated projections as negotiations continue for Anthem Health Insurance. That is the second biggest cost driver for us um in our annual budget. Again, you know, very common words from my mouth. Um, this year

059it Diane and I were laughing. We budgeted for a 14% increase, which is seems outrageous, but the maximum increase last year for school districts was 14%. Um, Anthem has told us um very kindly that we won't be expecting a budget increase any more than 14%. Yay. So, that's what we chose to budget for. And uh that number represents $1.2 million increase in the budget proposal. Um each 1% difference from what we have today on our Anthem bill represents about $85,000. So you can see that that's a you know pretty substantial change. Um and then the the funny part was that Diane and I were kind of rooting for a 10% increase. Last year we got a 10% increase and almost fell over. >> What do you think? Can we get to 10? >> Deep misery.

060This year we're like, hey, maybe we'll get 10. Um so uh the the um maximum anthem rate, they've told us it won't be more than 14%. The actual maximum rate we should hear uh by the end of next week. Um the MEA benefits trust board meets with Anthem and sets the top rate. the individual school district rates vary. And so those actual rates that Scarboro will be paying are supposed to be released about the first week of April, like probably by the the 10th of April. So the good news there is that we'll know what our rate change is going to be instead of having an estimate in there um before we get to second reading. So that's one of those big items in motion. Um the third item on this page is special services

061needs. Once again, not super surprising. Um, we have had in the past two years u quite a huge number of students coming into kindergarten identified already with disabilities that require IEPs um through child developmental services and um that require us to provide those resources for the students as they enter kindergarten. Um this year we're proposing six new edtech positions. Um we have three positions that are currently unfilled in this year's budget that we propose to reallocate for next year. The actual need for kindergarten um at this point is nine. Um but we're asking for six new positions. Um, and then you see part-time positions for speech and occupational therapy because these are services that will need to be provided to incoming students. And the case loads that we have now um don't permit enough hours

062in the day for the specialists that we currently have to fill those needs. Um, this is uh another item in motion. It's a little bit of a moving target. We go into conversations. Luckily, I don't, but uh our special services team does go into conversations with CDS and sit down and go through individual case files of students um beginning in in early April. And so, again, between now and second reading, we begin to have a clearer picture of um what our students incoming students needs are going to be and you know, how we're going to meet that budgetarily. But this is this is what's in the first reading budget. So the next slide um shows what our current special services data looks like for this year. Again, you you know, as Kate said, you see

063that this is a major cost driver in our budget year-over-year. And so um you know, just as a data point to share with you, um right about 17% of our student population um are students identified um under special education. We have almost 12% of our students who have accommodation plans under section 504 and at this point in time about 3% of our students are MLL um and then a very small number of students who qualify um as McKenna Vento um students um because of lack of um a secure home. Uh so again that is just an important um piece of information to share with you in terms of okay so why are all of the needs we have a lot of student needs to attend to. Um the next slide again as another point of

064information for all of you speaks to um the number of students who have been served by intervention uh to date during um this school year. Again you've heard us talk about MTSS uh for the past couple of years. Um uh not only is it best practice to intervene with students at the earliest time, but we're also um it is also expected and required that we are looking to uh basically solve problems at the earliest time possible, right? Um, so at those earliest points where we see that kids aren't making the growth that we expect them to, um, we have really solidified structures in place at all of our schools where we meet as teams to take a look at that data, identify students um, who might need some extra supports and then put those supports

065in place. Um and this is well before um any conversation happens around whether or not this you know is a particular student who should be identified under special education. Um and so what we've found is we've had a lot of success um bolstering our students skills um and getting them up to grade level without the need uh for special education services. And so you can see the huge number of students um and um at each of our schools and phase levels who are uh really benefiting from intervention and supports. >> Yeah. And I would say that the this ties directly to the need for good data and for good data review um because that's how you know who these children are and what support they might need in what area. The next slide is about

066our federal grant funding. This was a question that started coming up last year, right? uh when we had change in governmental leadership, I think uh there were a lot of questions about um you know uh changes that were happening in Washington DC and decisions that we were hearing about changes in funding and um and so last year we had um included this information for you and we felt like there are probably still a lot of questions about that at this point in time um in the United States and so wanted to kind of give you an update about how much of our budget is um uh from federal funding. And so you can see that there are three major areas that we receive funding from. Um and um uh that funding is um not a

067huge component of our budget, but yet it is. Um and so we get title um 1A and title 2A and then IDEIDA, local entitlement, which is special education funding. Um and so what we've been trying to do is really strategically um place how those funds are allocated. Right? So um whereas historically we may have put uh people or positions into those funds, what we've done is we've tried to move away and u make sure that uh positions are in our local budget and that things like materials and supplies are the things that we are trying to um you know really look to have in those federal grants first. uh so that if there's a change in grant funding that it doesn't necessarily rock the boat in terms of personnel, >> right? And um I think

068that this is part of a a bigger picture shift um in uh guidance from the Department of Education in Maine. They're saying, you know, really this is the way to go. You really don't want to be funding lots of positions in your grant um for multiple reasons. One that worries us, of course, is the reliability of those funds. You know, I've been doing this for a really long time, and this is the first time that we've said, gosh, I wonder if we'll get title one. >> But that's what we're saying, right? So, um, in order to make sure that we're not losing critical services and critical staff, um, we're making our best move at shifting. Now, the the impact to the budget as it's presented tonight is an ad of $42,000 over all of this.

069Um because we're, as Diane said, shifting non-personnel expenses out of the local budget to offset. Um I think it'll be interesting to see. Um I don't know that we'll have allocations. We won't have, you know, definitive allocations before second reading, but we should at least have some heads up about what's coming and maybe what's not coming. Um, that will help us make sure that we're on the right track in terms of not losing anything that we think we're we're guaranteed to have. So, to peak behind the curtain a little bit um and to describe, you know, how does our budget process begin? What are the different components of that? Um even before we get to level services which is the next slide. One of the pieces that we've um instituted for the past two budget

070seasons is um an activity that our whole team takes part in which we call taking stock where we really start by looking at what are the current resources that we have in each of our schools. Um who are the staff that we have? um what are the uh responsibilities assigned to those staff in terms of students and you know are do we see um different needs popping up in different places? Are there opportunities to reallocate so that we're always looking from that lens of our student needs being met first? Right? Um and and again, this all goes along very well with um everything that we talk about in terms of equity um and inclusiveness and making sure that all of our students have the same opportunity regardless of what location or school that they might

071be receiving their education from. And so it's not always equal, right? um because not every school may need the same number of supports uh depending on what students have for needs. And so we've become really fluid about let's start by taking a look at what we have. Are there opportunities um to meet some unmet needs within existing resources before we move forward? And so from that um that's our starting point. and then uh and an activity um and a project that we work on as a full team. And then from that we break down um with individual principles and um directors and so on with our level services meetings. Um and so those are individual meetings with each of those leaders. And basically what we do is um exactly what it's called. we take a

072look at what would it cost to provide the same level of service uh for the following year that we were able to provide this year. Um and so we sit with each of those folks. We take a look at um here's what was budgeted for last year. This is what your your spending is trending so far. are there some big things coming up that we know um explain why maybe um there's a savings in a line or not and in there and whenever there's a place where it's like oh well we budgeted for this but here's what's actually been happening we're making those shifts and those savings in real time when we have the opportunity to do that and so this particular slide here shows you um you know what are those differences just in

073terms of level services. So before we think about adding a single new program or looking at a new staffing need, this is basically um you know speaks to what would it cost if we opened our doors on August 30th doing exactly the same thing that we did this year. And so again, you can see that um you know um doing the same does not necessarily cost the same um because uh you know the school portion of uh tax request to have level services is almost 7%. And so as a result of those level services meetings and uh our taking stock activity um the budget that we had presented that we're presenting to you reduces funding from this year um to the amount of $526,000 in personnel turnover and reallocation of positions. And then also just

074over 800,000 in multiple line items, right? Um too many for us to list because as I said, we meet with each department in every building individually and we're literally like lpping off um you know amounts of money anywhere from $500 to thousands of dollars. Um but you know because we are that diligent in really wanting to make sure that um we are not you know just keeping money in lines because they it has been there before, >> right? Recognizing that we are going to be increasing some lines that we don't aren't able not to. Right. So if there's a way to offset that um we grab it. >> Yep. So then this is our reduced services slide and this really does um play into when we talk about reallocating staff and how we can you

075know what is an opportunity to redeploy staff to better align with student needs. Um you know certainly uh for example if we think about um last year's budget um we had redeployed a primary teacher from Pleasant Hill to Eight Corners um to address some differences in class size um and some student needs um and so you can see this slide here uh we've you know again done that um and uh the reduced level services budget brings us down to just under 6%. And then we need to really make sure that we're also taking time to um address those unmet needs um and how do we prioritize what those are? And again, um, what you'll see here is really going back to those priorities that we talked about at the beginning of the presentation with the

076budget, right? And so, uh, one bucket here is around meeting the required needs of incoming special education students. And you can see the costs associated with the positions that Kate talked about a few minutes ago. So, six um edte, a half of a speech and language therapist, just a little bit over a half of an occupational therapist. Um we're also taking a look at what are the needs of students um and class size. Um and so at the middle school, you've heard um uh Kathy talk about uh the real robust excitement around uh the middle school chorus, which was basically non-existent about four years ago. Um and now I believe that there are upwards of almost 130 students um who are really excited about chorus at the middle school. Um our our coral instructor is

077a 1/4th position and so for 1/4 of a person to try to um come up with a schedule that um uh can serve the needs of 130 students is just not a math problem that's doable, right? Um uh and so uh we have requested to increase um that person to become a half-time oral teacher. >> I was I was a little worried about how you put that. He's actually a whole person. He's only here a quarter of the time. >> Yes. But instead of being a one/4th position, we're asking again for a conservative ask um to make that a half-time position so that again um you know we can um meet the needs of our students. We're really excited that we have a really strong arts fine arts program um here at Scarbor. Uh our

078high school um has done a good job. Jeff Moer um you know had certainly come down and uh supported the middle school when they were undergoing some change um and he taught a class for us for a year and um we're really psyched to see what's happening um for our students and the opportunities that they have and so uh this is a way that we can build that interest out in that area more. Um we're also um looking at reallocating a a teacher um so at no new cost at Wentworth um to meet uh the needs of Gates students. Um Gates is gifted and talented and uh we have um really high requirements um here in Scar Bro about students um meeting Gates. Um and even with those requirements, um we have a much higher

079number of identified students than we typically have had. Um and so we need more support in the coming year to make sure that those students um uh can receive the instruction at the level that they're prepared to. Um, we also are adding um some funding again um if we want to if you think back to the slide a few minutes ago when I was talking about federal funding um and changing of funds um we currently have a position at eight corners um which is an interventionist position. It's funded by title one and our recommendation is to bring that into the local budget so that it is not at risk of um going away if for some reason our title one funding changes. We know that our students needs continue to be great and we don't

080want to have to miss those needs because of uh where we parked that in our budget. And then finally, you've really heard me talk a lot about our prek program expansion. super excited about that. Um we're estimating um the total cost of that to be uh about $427,000. Um but then of course you heard me talk about the reallocation of positions. And as we have taken a look at our current enrollment at all of our three primary schools um and our class size um policy um we have the opportunity in the coming year to uh reallocate uh two teaching positions to support uh the growth of prek. And so that offset really means that um the overall net cost to add prek program expansion which means um an additional 64 seats um 64 more students

081so that next year we could be providing opportunity to 80 students in the district. um that um is only going to be just under $200,000 for that 64 student expansion. And yet we will receive almost $700,000 in GPA from the state. And so this is not just a costneutral ask, but actually an ad in terms of um state funding well above and beyond the cost of the program. And I'm really excited to let you know that um we pushed that survey out just last Friday. So it hasn't even been open for a week and we have 61 students whose families have indicated interest. And so we're really excited about that um because I think that just reinforces the idea that uh there are a lot of unmet needs in our community and um that this

082is something that we can do to help us grow. Absolutely. I think I would just add that that new cost of the $200,000 that would represent two edtech positions because you have to have two staff members in every classroom for prek. Um and so we have two teachers, but we need two edte. That's the model that we're using at um at Shooting Stars. And uh then the the rest of the money is for materials, supplies, um and all of the things that we're currently providing with our very small one classroom program kind of blown up into into two. So they're cost estimates, but I think they're pretty good. >> Great. And so the final reveal, Kate, tada. Uh so uh the outcome that we see here is the budget proposal that the leadership council is

083bringing to the board tonight. Um and um you know as Diane pointed out earlier this there's a there's a bunch of pie charts and things in in the budget book documents, but this kind of breaks it out to show you where those expenditure increases are coming from. Obviously the largest being in salaries, wages, and benefits, but it's kind of interesting for folks to know. And there's a slide a little further on that talks about the way that we spend our funds. Um this slide talks about the new investment. So above level services um new money that we're asking for this year um for all of the reasons that you just heard represents 1.5% of the total general fund operating budget. general fund is the K12 operating budget that the voters vote on in the referendum.

084Um then reallocations drop us down to a net new investment of 617,000 which represents less than 1% of the general fund operating budget. So I think you know that's that's an interesting statistic, right? Because we're not just adding things willy-nilly. This is some really targeted, really strategic ads. um that are either, you know, critical to because of law or they're critical because of our local policies and needs and the needs of our students. This is another summary chart. This one shows the general fund budget. It also shows adult education and school nutrition. And all of these charts you've seen a total and then at the bottom non- tax revenues subtracted out and then the tax request. So the tax request for all of three of our operating funds is an increase of 7.93%. And this

085is where I say that is not the increase on your local taxes, ladies and gentlemen who live in Scar Bro. Um that is the tax request increase to the town for the school department portion of the budget. And that goes into the municipal budget and is combined with town um education, county, all of the different um uh revenue and expenditure areas that are made up in the in the municipal budget. And then the valuation increase is projected for the next year and then the tax rate is set. So it's a it's a very long spreadsheet. It's very pretty. Um has lots of lines on it. They don't use as many colors as I do though. >> So again, um you know, one of the things that we just really want to um impress upon you

086is where's Scar Bro in relationship to others in our region? How do we allocate where our money goes? And where are we spending most of our funding? Um, and so you can take a look and notice that, you know, we are squarely in the middle of the pack in terms of spending. Um, Felmouth, um, is the highest spender in our region at just over $25,000 per pupil. Um, our per pupil expenditure for FY25 was right in the $22,000 range. And, you know, you can see that. Um, so we're kind of nested in the middle of the pack. One of the things that we really are proud of though is um I think it's important to take a look at where you spend your money and what you're spending your money on. And so um we

087are in the middle of the pack in terms of direct student instruction. And so fifth of 11 districts, we are third of 11 districts in special education spending um because of the needs of our students. Um and then in terms of students and staff support, we are second out of 11 districts. These three areas um I start with because in my mind that is the work that we are um here to do, right? Um our charge, our responsibility is to really ensure um the instruction of all of our students both general education and regular education. And so um you know I if we're going to have to spend some money, it's great to see that it is um direct student facing. Um also super proud to say that we are uh dead last in terms

088of spending on transportation and facilities and we are also last in our region in spending for school and system administration. Um and certainly I know that um you know districts often get looked at in um a couple of those last areas that I've defined and um people will say how why are you spending so much on these non- studentent things. And so I think this is just um a good testament of we really do our um due diligence to put together a budget that is absolutely studentf facing and student centered. I'll just add to this um slide that this is data that's published every year by the main department of education. It's one of the reasons why we have the voter categories under statute that are are the same in every school district. Um so

089that you can say well we voted for regular instruction, we voted for guidance over here which is under student staff support for example. um when the districts actually go out and spend their but their money, they report their expenditures and those expenditures are posted up for all to see. There's a a 10-year chart in the appendix of the budget book that com that shows all of these um districts that we're comparing ourselves with and what they spend in each of those categories. So, if you're a real data geek, you can go play in there. Um this just kind of pulls out that information. Uh the next slide again is just um a historical slide to help you understand um what our be budget revenues have looked like over time. Um if you take a look

090at the first slide which shows you the percentage of our uh local budget that is funded by general purpose aid from the state. Um this year we are coming out flat um at 12.6% 6% um as you heard me talk when we were um considering what to do about prek, had we not elected to increase the number of prek seats, um instead of getting an additional $698,000 in GPA, we would have received $11,000 in GPA. And so um I think that is important to underscore um because I think without that you would see the second chart uh where the um bar graphs are um there would be no bar for FY27 because we would be basically uh flat at last year's rate. >> This is another um one of the things I like to harp

091on and I know this is one of Shannon's f favorite topics. Um the the state department of education is very proud to be able to fund K12 education in the state of Maine at 55%. Which is wonderful. It's a statute and and under the recent administration in Augusta they were able to finally achieve that. So um a lot of folks say well everybody's getting 55% of their budget from the state of Maine. So isn't that lovely? But that's not actually true. So it's 55% of the total operating budget of all school districts in the state of Maine is put into the funding pot at the state level and then is distributed based on a chart of an calculation of the local community's ability to pay their share of their budget. Um Scar Bro is a

092prosperous community with high valuation and as a result we're receiving 12.6% 6% of our budget estimated um not 55%. >> Correct. >> Um the last um section of our budget is what we call the CIP budget. That is for capital projects and equipment. Um that really is intended for largecale investments and major infrastructure changes. Um and those things are bonded. um or we use reserve funds or the appropriate uh appropriate tax for that. And so three major areas that we look at in terms of CIP and that is technology. Um and so you know that tech refresh um you know we have all of our devices on a cycle uh for replacement uh so that in no one year um you know we have to turn everything over. Um it this also speaks to all

093of the wires and um servers and all the changes uh that need to be repaired and upgraded over time and pieces that we do for safety and security like the installation or uh replacement of security cameras, making sure that we have enough everywhere, etc. Um we also um replace three buses every year. I know that makes a couple of people on this board really happy. Um, and so that is um part of I'm not singling anyone out here. Um, right. And so that's a regular um replacement. Um, three is the perfect number for us because we have a fleet of 30 buses. And so um we do not keep our buses more than 10 years. Um we also uh this is also where other district vehicles that um might be needed whether those are vans

094or um trucks for our you know maintenance and facilities folks etc. um that's all included and then facilities um you know which includes a whole host of things in order to make sure that we have upgraded facilities um you know and and to that extent Todd uh Jeepson our facilities director and Kate and I spent um some extra time together uh before this budget really scouring um what our building projects look like and then what were things that were already in CIP so that we could cull out some of those long-term projects um that had been on our five-year cycle uh so that we don't have duplication of efforts, >> right? And looking forward as well to next year saying, well, do we need to ask ask for money for this or is it included

095in the scope of the building project? And you know, there are obviously many things included in the scope of the building project, but there are also many things that are not. Um there are uh I would say that our facilities budget request for capital this year is lower than it's been in many years and you can see the year year's history in the account detail in the budget book but um there are still things that need to happen right so we we don't want to let other areas deteriorate because we have this project on our horizon so I'll do the numbers Um we break up capital budget into capital equipment and capital projects. Equipment is things like trucks and buses and um machines and uh projects is more like the roofing and the flooring, things

096like that. Um our total capital improvements budget request this year is $2.3 million, just shy of $2.4 million. um funding sources for capital budget. We collaborate really closely with the town finance office to decide what's the most logical way to fund um capital projects. Um in most cases we use bonded funds um which is a way for uh governments to borrow money at a really low interest rate over time. And um reserve funds which again close to Fra's heart are funds that we have put away. this board has put away over the past three years um in reserve for capital projects so that we have alternative funding sources and we don't have to ask for taxes. We can ask for taxes uh we can raise taxes for capital projects if they're small amounts and it

097makes more sense to do that than to borrow money but in this particular proposal there's nothing um in that area. So we don't expect this to have any impact. So we had to build another chart that has the same stuff in it. But this is really kind of what you're going to hear um in the budget mo motions. The what we're asking the board to approve. They approve the total expenditures. They state the offsetting non-t tax revenues and then state the tax request. So that's the way this is laid out. items in motion. So, here here's a a promise of the things that we're going to be looking at between now and second reading, which will come in May. Um, we are going to be looking at Anthem. We'll also look at Delta Dental. Um,

098we're waiting on the actual rates, as I said earlier, for those so that we can refine our estimates. We have other insurance premiums that we pay um listed here, which I'll get more information on as we go through the spring. um special education costs. Again, uh Chris and his team will be learning lots more about the students that are coming into the district next year. Um as we go through April, um we're also in the middle of kindergarten registration and as Diane mentioned earlier, the you know survey around prek um that's going to inform some of our thinking. So we'll be a little more clear on where we stand with those things. Um, we won't likely have our actual allocations for federal grant funding, but I'm hoping for some forecasting and some, you know, vague

099promises from the feds. Um, and then we also continue to look at um getting quotes and and information from our vendors. One of the areas that's been a little um uh difficult to navigate, I'm trying to say this politely um because I'm really angry about it, is the uh recent uh upheaval in our global economy again um due to some overseas events in the Middle East. Um, I think, uh, one really cool thing I can say is that we locked in some oil prices that were really excellent. Um, but cost of equipment and services, particularly items that are shipped from overseas, tech devices, um, anything that's coming from outside of this country, is going to be a little cuckoo. So, we're keeping an eye on that. Here's a calendar >> which tells us all about

100all the cool things that we're going to be doing over the next couple of months all the way up to the referendum vote in May, sorry, in June. Um, and this is my second pitch for go to the budget portal. It's so great. I'm putting cool stuff on there all the time. Um, there's also a town budget portal which includes all of our stuff because our budget is like a subset of the town's budget. So, um, if you're interested in the overall municipal budget, that's a great place to go for resources as well. And I think that's the story. >> Thank you so much, Kate. Um, so right now, just on the presentation, are there any questions for Kate or Diane? Um, out of two questions. Out of curiosity, um, with insurance, are you able

101to go to the market away outside of the MEA? Um, yes and no. We can go to the marketplace and um, ask for individual health insurance for the Scar Bro School Department. The no of it is that it's really not economically viable for us to do so. Um MEA benefits trust does two things. They take care of all of our retirees um for whom we do not pay insurance but we are linked to them. Um and they also um what they call buy down the cost of the premiums. They have a trust. It's a trust fund. MA benefits trust. Um they buy down the cost of the premiums so that what Anthem needs to get might not necessarily be what we need to pay. So economically it's a really um difficult system to do better

102than uh particularly the retiree piece because if we take ourselves out to market and we say hey Harvard Pilgrim do you want to cover us? They'll say, "Well, what's your census?" And our census is all the people that are covered under our current Anthem plan. And we skew really old because we have all those retirees on there where if you went out for your company as a CEO of a um you know, a local business, you wouldn't have all your retirees kind of hanging out there with the ability to put in claims on your same insurance that you're on today. Does that make any sense? >> Yeah. Do those >> complicated >> retirees impact our rates every year? Because I, you know, it's insurance. They do. >> Yeah. I mean, not it's a formula, right?

103So, they're not like um, you know, it's not a direct one to one, but they're part of our loss ratio. They're part of our claims history. So, yeah, we're not super attractive as someone who want, you know, an insurance company is going to like come and say, "Oh, I really want your business. Yeah, >> we're all old and sick and turn and present company included. >> Yeah. >> Um, and it was a big deal, Shannon. The the state actually passed a statute that said, first there was a statute that said we couldn't even go to the market. And then oh 10 years ago or so, the state passed another statute that said that school districts were allowed to step outside this whole relationship between the state and Anthem and the MEA. And so everybody said,

104"Oh, cool. Great. We're going to go out and find out." And we all actually, you know, I I had lots of meetings with insurance brokers. And at the end of the day, the town did as well. At the end of the day, we were like, "Oo, I don't know if they're I think we're stuck. You know, >> I'm not sure we're going to get a better deal anywhere else and it probably be worse. >> Yeah. And I think across the board, I think all industries are seeing an increase in >> Absolutely. Yeah. It's it's not a a scar bro problem or a or or an education problem for sure. >> Right. It's an across the board issue. Um and then about um the computers and technology and the increasing and influx of increased pricing. Um

105do we have a backup plan if perhaps we can't buy computers, new equipment that we would replace on a cycle anyway? Do we have enough to carry us through? >> Well, I think what happens is it slows your replacement cycle, right? It's not like we don't have equipment. It's just that you want to be in front of the deterioration of the machine that you have today, you know, so you want it to be traded out before it becomes problematic. Um, I I don't know an answer to that question. I mean, I I think, you know, the some of the upheavalss we went through with CO, it was delays in in shipping, delays in um restocking. we did delay end up um delaying for a year during co um because of that, right? And so I

106know you know Jen has recently talked about that, right? And that you can see the the wear on those devices is is different. >> Um so, you know, it's not that it hasn't happened before. >> No. >> Um but I think we just have to go with what we can get accomplished. >> Yeah. I mean it certainly it's a worry if it were to continue. Um, the roller coasters a little nauseating. >> I don't like roller coasters. I like the kitty rides. >> Are there any other any other questions? Yeah, go ahead. >> Just a general question. I know that you know the majority of our budget is personnel and ed special education demands are rising and that is a personnel you know intense um part of the budget. So I'm just curious what you've

107seen in trends, you know, from 10 years ago to now and you know projecting for the future you know is just has it been climbing like this or or I don't know what just some thoughts from you reflection on on that because I think that's a a driver of one of you or you know sort of >> an expense we have a limited control over in term because we have to have these people uh and and to meet the needs of our students who are with who and and we have more of our special uh service uh students you know the number climbing >> um you're speaking in terms of the personnel needed to deliver those services right so yeah I think the past two years and looking forward again to this coming year we

108have seen a big jump um and I I'll probably get the numbers wrong but I'm kind of looking at Chris so he can uh tell me but at Wentworth school our fls LS program, functional life schools program has a handful of kids, right? F two. Okay. At K2, our FLS program has 20ish >> three schools. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, I that struck me when when Chris was was speaking about those numbers because um you know, you're sort of going along and going along and your kids are moving through the phases and then they graduate and then more kids come in and it's it's generally in in in my experience been a cycle, right? You have high year, low year, but but kind of you're you're kind of playing fairly evenly, right? and and in these

109past couple of years, it's just been, you know, every time we have a new incoming class, they've just got way more needs than what we've seen before. So, I'm not sure I can answer your question about what that means. Um, you know, is it a blip? Is it a new the new way we're going to be doing business? Is it um is it COVID? Is it opioids? What, you know, it's Chris, some of his colleagues are describing it as a public health crisis right now. um and not having a crystal ball. I don't know if that's something that will continue or if it's um yeah, >> whether it will plateau or not. >> Yeah, I I couldn't say, but it's definitely been different. >> I think theation from when we talked to Chris at our

110workshop that for me was a takeaway. You can't um you know those 19 kids that we have now will continue in Scarboro, right? And so they their needs will continue through Scarboro, one would assume, right? That's the general expectation you have. And so if the trend of an increased need in a kindergarten class comes in along with the 19 kids that are working through, right, you have to imagine those costs are going to continue to climb year-over-year looking forward. And then we're going to have to take in uh we're, you know, we're being mandated by the state to then assume also the special needs of prek students. So that'll be an additional, you know, >> correct, >> set of personnel. >> Yeah. I mean, that's certainly an incentive for us to work on the general

111ed prek that we've been um >> trying to work on this year. >> The only caveat that I would add about that is remember when we take on um our three and four year olds, that is funding that is supposed to be at 100%. supposed to be >> supposed to be >> well because didn't >> Well, this is this is a different kind of 1% 100%. >> The increase in mand mandating prek uh prek for generalized population >> that are not >> there are funds in here that are not covered for sure and you and things if we needed to go out and pay rent and leases and things like that we wouldn't be covered either. >> No, we would not. >> Yeah. >> Uh yeah. Yeah, the only thing I would add is when

112we do take on the three and four year olds, that does give us the opportunity to do more early intervention. And one of the big increases that we've seen with the incoming K class um are the number of kids who need speech, for example. And so if we are picking those kids up at age three or age four, uh you know, we have an opportunity to provide services to all those kids and and a lot of those kids now can't find services, right, because of the staffing shortages in CVS. Um and it also gives us the opportunity um to implement our programming right for all of those kids right from age three. So I think you know there is some hard to predict right what the population will look like moving forward but I think

113um as Diane said with the combination of state funding for those uh IEPS for three and four year olds um I think there's reason to be optimistic that we may be able to um help bring some of those costs down as we as we move forward. So, yeah. >> No, that's it. Hover around just in case. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? >> All right. Thank you so much, Kate. >> Thank you. All right. Agenda item 5.0 is public comment. Um, general public comment 5.1 is public comment. Is there anyone wishing to make public comment this evening? Can you is there someone online? >> Just kidding. Oh. >> All right. Hearing hearing none. We will close public comment. Agenda item 6.0 is continuing business. 6.1 is the second reading of the 26

11420 Oh, I just noticed. We just can we just correct. Thank you. 2627 um school calendar. Sorry, I didn't see that. And we'll turn this over to Braya. Uh so you may remember earlier um not at our last meeting but the meeting before that at the very end of February we did our first reading of our calendar um we have not heard any feedback that has caused the committee to recommend any changes. Um we hed out have the opportunity to do a meet and consult with um our sea representatives. um they brought some um they had some a robust discussion about some aspects of the calendar um but there was nothing in there that would uh suggest we should make changes to the days just as a reminder there's two kind of pieces I think

115of as in terms of the calendar the first is sort of when when the days are which uh we are required by state a lot to align with our regional partners to ensure that students who are taking advantage of alternative programming um don't miss days of school and So we only are allowed to have five misaligned days. And so it really is less of a choice about what Scar Bro would like to see the calendar look like and more sort of like what is a negotiation between our partners. Um that makes sense for the districts that meet their needs. The challenge this year of course is Labor Day being the 7th which is extremely late, the latest day it could be um in the month and so uh that is uh why we were going

116to be tiptoeing back to school before Labor Day which is not something that happens often in Scarboro. Um the other part of the decision really has to do with snow days um and that policy. Uh we have done a hybrid policy for the last I think two or three calendars. Uh we had not really used the policy until this year u with remote days. Um what that means is we have a set number of traditional snow days and then after that we have uh go to hybrid uh asynchronous learning days on those snow days and that means that there is a for certain date by which the school year will end. we will not just keep adding days on to the end. Um, I did not get any questions uh or the committee didn't bring

117any questions. So, if there's any questions, I can happy to answer them from the board. Um, but other than that, this is the same calendar you saw at first reading. >> All right. Are there any questions for All right. Do I have a motion to approve the second reading of the 2627 school calendar as presented? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any public comment? All right. Uh, would you mind calling the vote, please? >> Miss Jacobs? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kellaher? >> Yes. >> Miss Lindstöm? >> Yes. >> Miss Mau? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rockstar? >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Mr. Pinion. Yes, >> Mr. Penny Huff. >> Yes, >> Mr. Skina. >> Yes, >> Miss Clarrett. >> Perfect. That shows unanimous. Thank you. All right. Agenda item 7.0 is new business. 7.1

118is the first reading of the FY27 um school budget. Mitchell, do you want me to read this or do you want to take it? Are you good? >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, I I can read this. Um, as we all heard, we heard a lot of budget numbers, and I'm just going to throw some of the same numbers right back at you. Um, we're looking to have a move of approval to adopt a leadership council's budget proposal as presented for first reading. The total general fund operating budget is proposed at $76,443,417 with offsetting non- tax revenues of $11 million614,94 and a tax request to the town of $64,828,513. Total adult education budget is proposed at $250,11 with offsetting non- tax revenues of $114,222 and a tax request to the town of

119Scarbor of $135,879. The total nutrition budget is proposed at $2 million63,14 with offsetting non- tax revenues of $2,63,000 and $14 with no tax request to the town. And then the capital equipment proposed budget is $1,15,000 with capital projects proposed budget being 1,269,000 and no more for a total capital improvements budget of $2,374,000. Um, no tax request is expected for the capital budget. >> Okay. >> Good. Thank you. Thank you. Um, any discussion? Um, any public comment? Okay. Uh, can we call the vote? >> All right. >> Miss Miss Jacobs, >> yes. >> Mr. Keller, >> yes. >> Miss Lindstöm, >> yes. >> Uh, Miss Mau, >> yes. >> Mr. Rockenstein, >> yes. >> Mr. Opinion, >> yes. >> Mr. Penny Huff, >> yes. >> Miss RKina, >> Miss Clarrett, >> yes. >> Perfect. That shows

120you unanimous. Thank you. Agenda item 7.2 to is the first reading of policy KB uh complaints against school personnel. Did you just Thank you. Go ahead. Um so uh the policy committee was back at it uh this month uh having a couple of meetings between last month and this month. Um we finished uh a review of of KB that is general complaints against school personnel. From time to time, we fear about uh people who are unhappy. Um and we want to make sure that it's very clear to them the steps that we expect that they take um for them to resolve issues. Um it really does direct people uh to attempt to address issues at their lowest level. Um because we would like to see people um address the issues as they arise directly. Um

121and then if they don't get a satisfactory resolution, there's a process by which they can follow steps um to escalate that issue. Um but really it just lays that out. I want to be really clear that there are other policies that have to do with specific types of harassment or discrimination. This would not cover those. Those are covered by state statute. Um but this would be more about general complaints. uh it has a process that goes again from the individual um up to a supervisor eventually to the superintendent and finally to the board if necessary for resolution. Um there's also a complaint um if the the superintendent is the individual that's identified as uh the issue not being addressed with that would come to the board chair. Um also that just to be clear um

122a lot of uh performance management issues that are HR type issues would not be addressed through this process that would be uh addressed by a collective bargaining agreement and those are confidential um and if they happen they're subject they're one of the few reasons that the board goes into executive session and they're not public matters um because they're confidential by statute. >> Happy to take questions. All right. Okay. Are there any questions for Frea? All right. Um, do I have a motion to approve the first reading of policy KB complaints against school personnel as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Any public comment? I think we're ready. >> Miss Jacobs? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Miss Lindstöm? >> Yes. >> Miss Mau? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rockenstein?

123>> Yes. >> Mr. Arinion? Yes, >> Mr. Penny Huff. >> Yes, >> Miss Ruskina. >> Yes, >> Miss Clarett. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. That shows unanimous. Agenda item 7.3 is appointment of the adult education director or part-time physician. >> Yes. So, I believe Ivonne is with us this evening. She's been diligently sitting back there. Um so I am really excited this evening um to bring forward the appointment of Ivonne Wentz um as our next adult adult education director. Um Ivonne has been selected to fill this position due to uh resignation um retirement actually of uh of Maryanne Doyle. Um, Ivonne earned her bachelor of science degree in music and music therapy from Excelsior University and her mers in education um with a concentration in middle level math from Walden University. She holds

124C certifications in middle level math and administration supervisory along with certificates from equity and education and the national institute for school and system leadership. Her additional education and training is vast. Um she has filled roles um during her career in education to date as a classroom teacher, as a math instructional coach, as a math curriculum and instruction supervisor, as an adjunct professor at Wilson College, and also as a curriculum instruction and assessment supervisor. And additionally, uh, for the past three years, Ivonne has been working, uh, with us in adult education here in Scar Bro as the MLL coordinator and instructor. And so, we are just thrilled to nominate Ivonne and have her uh, take the lead uh, with Maryanne's departure. >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve the appointment of the adult

125education director as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. All right, call the vote. >> Miss Jacobs, >> yes. >> Mr. Kellaher, >> yes. >> Miss Lindstöm, >> yes. >> Miss Mau, >> yes. >> Mr. Rockensty, >> yes. >> Mr. Pennian, >> yes. >> Mr. Penny Huff, >> yes. >> Miss Rskina, >> yes. >> Miss Clarrett, >> yes. >> That is unanimous. Thank you and congratulations. All right. Agenda item 7.4 is the school back uh I'm sorry, Wentworth school donation acceptance. >> Yes. So, in your packet, you'll see a memo from um Kate about a donation to Wentworth School. And and I need to kind of go backwards with this a little bit. Um last Wednesday during um the Wentworth school community meeting um uh Hillary Durgen who is a library edtech at Wentworth and also

126a former Skyro school board member um was named the main association of school library support staff educator of the year. And so this was something that she was totally not expecting. Um it was great to be able to witness um she and um the lead librarian were doing a presentation to students and it got interrupted by this award. So it was pretty pretty exciting. Um and the award really is around uh recognizing educational technicians who have made a significant contribution to their local school library media program. And Mrs. Duran was recognized for the creative ways in which she encourages students to read, how she builds community, and the ways in which she supports students. And her award came with a $500 check to be used for the library. And so we respectfully request that this

127check be approved by the school board for the purpose of uh purchasing new materials to enhance the school libraries collection. So really exciting. That's very exciting. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the Wentworth school donation as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any public comment? >> All right. Ready? >> Miss Jacobs? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Miss Lindstöm? >> Yes. >> Miss Mau? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rockens? >> Yes. >> Mr. Tarpinian? >> Yes. >> Mr. Penny Huff? >> Yes. >> Miss RKina? >> Yes. >> Miss Clarett? Yes. >> All right, that shows unanimous. Thank you so much. Agenda item 7.5 is a backpack donation acceptance. >> Yes. So, also in your packet, you'll see a memo from Kate about um uh acceptance of additional donations

128to the backpack program. So, at the last uh communication that I had with the board on January 5th, our fundraising efforts for the school nutrition backpack program had reached a total of $20,311 for the year in cash donations. Um, and then also we've received just multiple gifts of food and supplies um in every school from students and families. Since that time, an additional $7,325 has been received, including one extremely generous $5,000 gift from John Hughes, uh, a longtime benefactor of the program um, who lives in the community. And so, it is really truly gratifying to see the continued commitment of our school community as they reach out to offer a hand in to those in need. and we respectfully request that the school board approve acceptance on behalf of the school nutrition backpack program with

129many thanks. And so, you know, the um back of the napkin math on this is about $27,600 and a little bit of change. So, that is just amazing. Um, and that is a program that 40 families, as you heard Peter Espazito in, um, his budget presentation last week, um, 40 families benefit seven days a week from this program. And so, it's really phenomenal. >> I couldn't resist coming up again because there were there were numbers and I had it and I I have your >> ears perked up. I have a number that I want to share on this topic as well and and that's that there's almost 200 individual human beings giving these gifts right so some people have given big amounts of money some people have given as much as they could afford you

130know anything from $5 to 5,000 and um you know it's the numbers of people who have stepped up that that's really impressive to me as much as the numbers of dollars that we're receiving. >> Thank you community. Yes. Thank you very very much. >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve the backpack donation as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any public comment? >> All right. Ray. >> Miss Jacobs? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kellaher? >> Yes. >> Miss Lindstöm? >> Yes. >> Miss Mau? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rockenstein? >> Yes. >> He said yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Trapinion. >> Yes. >> Mr. Piny Huff. >> Yes. Miss Ruskina, >> yes. >> Miss Clarett, >> yes. >> And that is unanimous. Thank you so much to our donors. Um, agenda

131item 8.0 is adjournment. With no objections, we will adjourn at 8:59 p.m. Have a good evening. Thank you.