School Board Business Meeting 10/02/2025

001One, two. Number two. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two. John, I'm sorry. I didn't even tell you. >> I apologize. >> I'll do it again. >> Yeah, >> not that we're in a hurry or anything. >> Let's get the show. I'll take I'll get >> Good evening and welcome to the Scarboro Board of Education workshop. The date is Thursday, October 2nd, 2025. Um Ray, can we >> I'm behind you. >> Ray, can we call the attendance, please? >> Hi. >> Miss Jacobs >> here. >> Mr. Kellaher, >> here. >> Miss Lindstöm, >> here. >> Mr. Rockinstein. >> Miss Tarpinian >> here. >> Mr. Penny Huff >> here. >> Miss RKina >> here. Miss Clarrett. >> Awesome. Thank you. And I apologize. I went out of order again. I will get it right by

002the meeting. So, we'll flip back. Can we please would everyone please join me for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you so much. Agenda item 4.0 is new business. 4.1 is truency, chronic absenteeism, and superintendent agreement. So, I'll turn this over to Diane and Ray. >> Yeah. Um, again, thank you uh so much for allowing us the opportunity tonight to talk with you um uh further about um all things related to student attendance. We have um some of our great administrators here this evening um to share with you uh the work in our district. Um and so Gabrielle and Jen are going to

003take the first segment um in talking about student attendance and then um I think Rey is going to take another segment um and then I will talk about superintendent agreements. >> Perfect. And I know this was not your slide that you put up, but in part of our um strategic planning session, um one of the things that came out was a desire to just have our mission statement and and vision statement in front of us um every month before every workshop. So really quickly, I'll just say the mission um is that of the um Scar Bro Public Schools is the fundamental purpose of the Scar Bro public schools is to provide a safe and inclusive learning environment where each and every student is empowered to be a resilient lifelong learner who is prepared to engage

004as a contributing member of society. And then the long range vision statement, if we could go to the next one. Thank you. Um, Scarboro Public Schools will be a highquality forward-looking public school district known for its whole child approach that together with dynamic academic programs, enriching co-curricular experiences and a vibrant learning community that challenges students, excites their imagination, and instills excellence in thought and action while preparing them for highly engaged and fulfilling lives. Thank you for that. And we will for allowing me to do that and we will go back. Excellent. And so with that, I'm gonna kick things off to my colleagues here. >> Great. Great. So, good evening everybody. Jen Humphrey from Pleasant Hill, the principal over there. It's nice to be with you tonight and talk about our crossphase work on really

005fostering positive, steady attendance for our students. Um and so we have a few slides to share with you tonight that will give you an overarching view of our work and um we're looking forward to sharing that with you. So um as I said our crossphase work really focuses um on consistency. So that is um something that's important to us across all of our buildings and the communication and partnership that we have with families is really paramount in that work. making sure that when we're noticing absences, we're communicating with families and also in a proactive way to really reach out to them and make sure through um touching base through phone calls or information that we share in our newsletters, families are aware of um important attendance information. So um really we want to make sure

006we have engaged learners as some of the statements that you just read Shannon were. um so um clear in pointing out and being present and ready to learn is really so important and um we'll talk about some of the ways we support that through curriculum and um other ways as well. Um, so really in our early fall messaging to families through our open houses, through our email newsletters, uh, we want to make sure that we're proactively talking about, uh, attendance as opposed to just a, um, reactive approach when we start to encounter troubles. Um, so we really use resources uh across our district, our human resources of our student advocates, our student support teachers, our guidance counselors and social workers, nurses, um, community agencies as well as administrators here in the district to really try

007and bolster the work. Um, we do some work with families around attendance at times during parent conferences and talk about u how we can support that attendance. teachers are having those connecting conversations, which is really important with families. And we do at each of our school buildings have attendance teams that review attendance each month and actually more often than that. Um but uh they gather to look at students who may be at risk whether they're chronically absent meaning they've been absent 10% or more of the school year. um or maybe they're engaging um in school many days but then are having some family issues that are preventing attendance. So we work with families to try and support in ways that we can. Uh at times when attendance becomes an issue for a student, we do

008help to develop plans to support and alleviate uh any barriers to attendance. So, this is a slide to be proud of to look at our attendance across the district. I noticed Pleasant Hills at the top, but I'm going to try not to make it. >> But we are yourself. >> Yeah, I pick them up myself. I drive the van. Yeah. Um, but I'm really really proud of our cross district work on attendance. Uh, this is uh really nice to see. I was looking this week at um the county bycounty rates and you know Cumberland County in general has higher attendance than many other counties across the state but this is something to really be proud of in Scarboro. So, this slide I I really appreciate because I feel like sometimes we don't realize that a

009day or two out of school, it doesn't sound like a lot in the course of a month. But when we really break it down, two days per month would mean that if that happened every month, a child would have missed 10% of the school year by the end of the school year. And that makes a child chronically absent. And we'll talk about the definition of that in a few minutes. But um if that pattern continues yearly, shockingly that would equate to an entire school year of missed instruction by the time a child ends 10th grade. So it's really important that we do our best to support attendance and keep our kids learning and present in school. So, our communication as I said at the beginning is really important to us and we have a couple

010of examples to show you on the next slide. Uh these are some proactive communications that we put out to families at the start of the school year. Um, for example, this uh was in our newsletter um for the whole month of September so that these um kind of attendance tips are out there and can be looked at repeated repeatedly by families as we set the tone for a really positive year of learning together. So things at the K2 level that were listed here are things like getting to bed on time and establishing a morning routine. More often than you would believe, we're setting up checklists with families. Like, here's ways that you can help your child get into a routine, habit, and structure of being to bed on time, clothes laid out, things packed for

011the next day. It's a lot to get your kids out the door. And we really recognize that. And we we've, you know, you're living it with a little one right now. And I have a 25year-old and a 23 year old, so I lived it, too. Um, I know what it's all about. So, we're definitely sensitive to that and supportive of families even to the level of, you know, developing a visual for children who might need it um to help them follow the family routines. But those are just a couple of examples. >> Can I um can you go backwards? Okay. >> Sure. >> Um I I just this is I know outside your purview, but just interesting because I we were just having I was just having this conversation with a girlfriend. um doctors and

012orthodontists and dentists a lot of times will try to push to fill those during the day appointments which are during the school day >> and it's very difficult for um parents of course who have their kids in school but also who work. I wonder if there's a way uh I don't think this isn't again I think this is a little outside but I wonder if there's a way for us to explain to them why attendance matters and that why rates of absenteeism absenteeism can add up because I think when they push appointments during the day they're not maybe they don't have a clear understanding of how important it is. >> Yeah, that's an interesting question. I I do think that >> um families in general do their best to schedule outside of the school day,

013whether before or after, but one of the most wonderful things families can do is if they do have to make a midday appointment, that would be an excused period of the day because it's for a medical purpose. But the other thing that is really wonderful is when families bring the children back to us, right, >> after the appointment. Because if they have a 12:00 appointment, they say, "Oh, we're just going to have lunch together and then we'll spend the rest of the day together." While that's nice family time, they're missing some core instruction. And we'd much prefer that families pick up, bring the child to the appointment, and then bring them right back to us. That makes a huge difference in the child's school day. Yeah. >> So, yeah, something to think about though. >>

014So, our nurses are really huge uh advocates for attendance and want to be really clear with families about the reasons for being out of school and the reasons why we have to be have to be at school. And as Cheryl clicks on this uh nice graphic, it really is set up in a nice way. We've shared this with families and um most families have the number 100.4. 4 tattooed to their brain when they think about a temperature that's too high to be at school. Um, also if we've gotten sick um in the last 24 hours, we want to make sure that children are staying home beyond that 24hour mark. Um, if they're having digestive issues and things like that. So, this graphic is really helpful. One of the things that I know the nurses would

015love for me to say out loud right now is that when you're sending your child to school and you're checking their temperature and making sure that it's beneath 100.4, that's without the help of fever reducing medication. >> So, we hear a lot of times, oh, my mom or dad might have given me some medicine this morning. And that's concerning because it's, you know, tends to spread germs that uh we don't want spreading at school. So we appreciate famil family's help in not giving that fever reducing medication. All right. So this slide I'm not going to read because it has a lot of unsavory vocabulary there and I know many of you were having a little bite to eat here. Um but there's certainly uh a lot of things to be thinking about. We want your

016children to be with us. We want them to be um healthy and well. And um we work really closely with our custodial staff to wipe down hight touch surfaces like our light switches and our tabletops and our toilet handles and our doorork knobs to make sure that you know cleanliness is paramount so we can reduce germs and that type of thing. But we we really um value our partnerships with families in uh supporting positive attendance for students. And with that, I will turn things over to Gabrielle Laierrier from Wentworth. She's the assistant principal over there, and she's going to share some more information. Thank you, Jen. Yeah. Um, and so I think Jed did a really nice job like laying out our initial like proactive communication efforts. And I think on that same vein, a

017lot of our proactive work and supporting student attendance really stems from the environment and culture that we are very thoughtfully curating at each school across phases. And I think um we're super well situated to have some really um intentional curriculums um within the social emotional learning scope um such as mind up K2 ruler uh third through 8th grade there's advisory at the middle and high school and then um we also really are tapping into student developmental needs and providing movement and motor opportunities for our sixth through eighth grade students. Um, and with all that in mind, I think it just really goes to show that when we prioritize the mental health and readiness of our students, they're more willing and apt to come to school and engage in the learning. Um, and I think that

018has proven to pay dividends, especially when you look at future slides, you'll see that our attendance rates have increased over the scope of the past few years. >> Oh, that's so Yeah, if you can go back, that'd be great. Thank you. Um, and I can really speak more closely to our work at Wentworth, but as Kelly and I discussed last year, we think that relationships and nurturing joy is really also a plays a huge role in getting students to be motivated to come to school. Um, and that work of course corresponds with our SCCL work, but also just on the more foundational level just being good humans and really building that capacity to show care and empathy and demonstrate those core values to our students. Um, and I know that Wentworth is not the exception

019to the rule that that's something that we really take pride in across all schools in our district. Um, and then to kind of piggyback off the work, I think our academic content also serves as a gateway for student attendance. Um, more often than not, we really strive to provide high quality differentiated instruction to our learners. That way, we provide opportunities for all students to experience success across their content. um that feeling of success is motivating and then kind of develop some momentum for students to want to continue with attending school. I also think we're really thoughtful in our MTSS structures. We are mindful of the whole child and take a holistic approach into understanding their needs and as a result of understanding their needs and then servicing them appropriately, students feel more confident to come

020to school. It's all interconnected um and serves a really valuable purpose. And and lastly under academic we mentioned like meaningful content integration. We know there's going to be students who might not have you know the traditional interest in schooling like they might not like their literacy block or their mathematics but if they have an opportunity to engage in something that um taps into multiple modalities of learning or to something of more niche interest then their interest might be more captivated and peaked and they might be more willing to attend school regularly. So it's something to be mindful of across phases. All right. So, we kind of spoke to the proactive work. Um, but certainly we recognize that the systems that we establish and we utilize on a day-to-day basis is equally as important. Um, so

021we have our morning attendance procedure and that certainly serves a duality of purpose. The first being that we ensure that our students are accounted for and safe, but secondly, the students who are not accounted for, we also kind of want to understand the context as to why and like make sure that we're monitoring that for that attendance purpose. Um, so every morning around 9:15, teachers are submitting their attendance and Melissa Curifio at our office and I know the secretaries at the other schools are anxiously awaiting to review um all the unexcused absences and they are super fidelities and reviewing that list, making contact home. if they don't connect with the first parent or guardian, they call the secondary contact and um they really try to not only make that bridge but also seek to understand

022why the student might not be present. And although it certainly serves a like clerical purpose, I think it also serves a relational purpose and parents and caregivers really appreciate that we at the school care deeply about um why their child is not at school and that we miss them and we value their presence. Um but on the off chance a call isn't returned, we do mark the absence as unexcused. And then if we notice a culminating trend of absences, administration, student advocates, or other relevant team members will kind of follow up and start um engaging in problem solving if necessary. >> But this would not be like if parents wanted called in and provided a reason ahead of time, you would have to >> No, we would only do it if it's unexcused. So if

023we didn't get notice of a student being sick or having a planned vacation or there being like a religious holiday, things like that. Um so if we don't hear from families, we initiate the contact. >> Um and kind of on that vein, we have our list of excused absences. So in order to meet the criteria of an excused absence, you'll see there are a number of reasons. So personal health, and that includes physical, mental, and behavioral health. Um in recent years, the concept of sickness or illness has expanded to capture like the growing mental health that we're seeing in our youth. And I think that's super relevant and um was quite a necessary shift. Um appointments with a health professional are considered excused absences, observances of recognized religious holidays, um family emergencies, and planned absences

024for personal or educational purposes with prior notification to the office. Um so all those would meet criteria for an excused absence. >> Would a personal purpose include a vacation? >> It does. We need one of those videos on, you know, social media. The excuse versus >> I We do. And that's >> a really creative idea. I like it. >> Um, wait, you're gonna take lead on that? >> Oh, video. I don't want to. >> I like it. I'll shut up. >> Um, and so with not with like keeping in mind like excused and unexcused absences regardless of the nature of the absence, we still monitor because chronic absenteeism takes into account unexcused and excused absences. >> So when we notice a trend of absences, we're proactive in our communication and we work in partnership with

025the team to um identify known barriers and reduce the impact of those barriers to student attendance. I think it's really ambitious for us to say as educators that we're going to remove barriers for students. I mean, there are a number of barriers that our students encounter that we simply are not capable of removing. And so, we're really just mitigating the impact of them. And so, some of those barriers include like health related, physical or mental, transportation issues, family responsibilities, um school climate or engagement related matters, and economic or housing. And we have a whole swath of really um wellresourced informed um staff and um like partners who are willing to tackle this with us in collaboration which is really nice. All right. Right. So, chronic absenteeism, it's really a at least for me personally, I'm

026sure Jen, it's like a bulk of our like heavy lifting when it comes to attendance. And um it's certainly requires um a lot of communication with families, but also with our attendance team members. And um Rey is the central office staff member who is really facilitating these like more district-wide attendance meetings and conversations. And so, he certainly has a heavy hand in chronic absenteeism as well. Um but Maine considers a student chronically absent if they've missed 10% of the school days. And we are obligated um through state statute to respond in the following way. So we notify parents each month starting in October if they're chronically absent. So we send a letter. These letters gradually intensify in directness and um pointed language. We really try on the first couple letters to be a little bit

027more um coaching and supportive. I think that is really critical. We don't want to um alarm families by any stretch and we want to kind of bring them in the fold early on so that we can work in a really healthy partnership to correct attendance concerns. But as the year progresses and as parents receive more letters, we certainly um recognize that our messaging needs to shift because it's becoming more problematic and interfering with the students um educational programming. And that number, just for anybody watching, that number is more like I'm gonna, this is my language, like a floating number because every day it's going to change. >> So it's important for parents who are listening like again back to what you said about the two days how they can add up because this number is

028constantly moving. >> Exactly. So like in the month of October, we certainly have received some um negative feedback by families when we sent a chronic absenteeism letter saying your child has missed three days of school, right? Because from a parents perspective, it's like the school year just started and it's only three days. But you know what you're hearing here is we're trying to educate people in advance because two or three days a month does equate to a whole lot of days. >> Right. >> And I don't think I don't understand like there's also a state statute that mandates this kind of so while I think you're engaging in a positive way and trying to make it um as a bridge. I think you've described between the school and the parents sure problem solve to get

029kids to school. It's not like we can just not send a letter because it's addressing to people. It's required. >> Exactly. >> It's kind of a catch 22. It feels like in some ways like I think the communication is obviously imperative, but at the same time some people feel as it it might be like really punitive and inhibitive of like these really um productive conversations. So we certainly recognize the tension there, but it's it's just incredibly important. And I think we've done a really nice job in sensitive circumstances, being really proactive and making direct contact with the families being like, "Hey, we noticed that so and so was out sick and I'm so sorry they're not feeling well and I'm I'm so excited for when they start feeling better and are able to come to

030school. However, because they missed this many days, they're technically going to be considered chronically absent. And I just want you to be aware of this before you get a letter home. I know that can be really jarring to just kind of get this cold contact." Um and so we really try our very best to have like the relevant student advocate or lead team member make that contact um in situations such as that. >> Um and then when we have students who are chronically absent and we know there's also like more like a longitudinal history of this across phases, we um work collaboratively to create like attendance plans and that can just vary in scope. It could be as simple as like a positive reinforcement system um at school or it could be as what Jen

031was referring to kind of like an executive functioning checklist kind of like iron out their routine um communicate that the families have a social story that corresponds with that. It could be u making a bridge for um you know connecting some transportation matters um a whole host of strategies and solutions we all leverage across our buildings in the district. All right. So, as I mentioned, we've seen some improvements in our chronic absenteeism data. And I I think obviously postcoid, we see the effects of, you know, those mandates and regulations regarding health and illness kind of like waning. And I think that certainly probably has an impact on attendance data. But I also think the how we're utilizing ourCCL curriculums with such integrity. It's also creating a culture that's really inclusive and fostering that like warm

032and compassionate environment that our students need that really entice them to come to school. And so if you look at the data you'll see that um almost 15% of students were chronically absent in the 22 23 school year. Um and now as a 2425 last year about 11.95% of students were chronically absent. And all those p although those percentages might seem like trivial at first glance, I think it's really significant, especially if you're comparing to statewide data. Um it's really impressive when you make that comparison. >> One of the things to mention too, I'll piggyback on to this is you may be thinking back to the data that I showed you at the beginning. That's daily attendance data. So, our attendance being up in the upper 90% for daily attendance, but this is specific to

033chronic absenteeism, that um number of students who are at that 10% or higher mark. So, that's why those two numbers look so vastly different. >> Going back, go ahead. >> Going back to that first slide, I meant I was thinking I don't want to interrupt the flow. Um do do you have roughly what's the state average of that daily absence rate? >> It's great that you asked. the state average um information is really not readily available anymore. The state of Maine doesn't use ADA as a regular attendance metric. Okay. Um I think that shift Yeah, I think that shift happened um quite a few years back. Count me in, which is really like this broader entity that's supporting mate schools in um developing like attendance systems is really leveraging chronic absenteeism and truency data. >>

034Interesting. >> Yeah. >> So I certainly think from like a school perspective, the ADA really can be like an energizing number. I know that there's a lot of schools that not necessarily in Scar Bro, but other um school districts that might like post their average daily attendance rate like on a bulletin board, especially if they're struggling with attendance. So, it could be a really easy metric for staff to pull on a daily basis to motivate more regular attendance. Thankfully, we really don't have that issue endemically in Scarboro. So, we're not really needing to tap into that strategy. Um and so we are kind of like in alignment with like the state using chronic absent truency data for our decision making but like obviously those are very high percent. Yeah, absolutely. >> Which is also corresponding

035to lower chronic >> it's related. >> Yes. >> What year did the did the rules change around reporting chronic absentes when those letters you know I'm just curious how they >> um I think that shift happened in 2023 right around that. So this first year when we're I would say a higher number is when we first because I I recall miss principal coming and talking about how the change had impacted. >> Yeah. So some interesting things have happened right because um before the pandemic there was a huge push from the state to address chronic absenteeism. Um at that point in time, um states, uh districts were getting report cards and so you were like literally getting like you were an AB CD or failing school based on your chronic absenteeism. And so um some of

036you been in the district for a long time might recall that we had a big push around 2018 2019 um in trying to educate people around chronic absenteeism. Then we had the pandemic and told everybody stay home, right? Um that was what the CDC, you know, was directing us to. And so, so that really took a backseat and then once everything kind of settled again, um not only did the state go back to making chronic absenteeism a priority, but then they um married it in statute as well, right? So, um, and the way that schools are currently assessed by the state includes that percentage of chronic absenteeism. So, if you are above 10% and you have subgroups that are not meeting standards on state assessments, then that gives you a certain designation um, as a

037tier one school in the state. Um, I will say I think just about every school in the state um that assesses students is a tier one school. Um, because I think universally um we're all dealing with how to get more regular attendance from students and families. >> What's the goal? So like if those are if everybody's a tier one school um what what is the main DOE um expressing as an expectation a reasonable expectation or I mean zero is not going to happen right >> I mean nobody >> you're supposed to be under 10%. Yeah. >> Right. And so, for example, if we were at 9%, if we didn't have subgroups performing or meeting the standard, we would not be tier one status because you have to have both of those things together to be

038able to achieve that designation, which you don't want. >> You don't want to play. >> And we So, all of our schools are a tier one. Um well again our primary schools don't have state level assessments. >> So our primary level schools are not um tier one schools but our other schools yes >> they are >> right. And so that means that all of our principles have to you know attend some webinars and um document some steps that are being taken from this you know for the state's recording. Interesting. That's the end of the first part around attendance. One thing that Gabby did not say is I think the best phone call I've gotten since I've been here was the state calling me up to talk about Wentworth's how did what did they do to

039draft to reduce their chronic absent from 22 23 to 20 to 24 25 because they said like it was a noticeable difference and they wanted to know what exactly was going on at school uh to to account for that. Uh so you know the state recognized Wentworth for the changes that was going on in so like that's a shout out those two. >> Yeah. No these are these are excellent numbers >> across the district. It's great. >> All righty. All right. The next part is looking at truency. So everything that uh Jenn and Gabby talked about is all the stuff that comes before and during truency. It doesn't stop. But truency, this is where we're dictated by state law and our scarboro policy. Um once you know a you know middle school or high school

040student has the 10 full days of unexcused absences or seven consecutive and the younger kids it's seven full days and five consecutive days. Um there are things that we have to do by statute. Um and that's what I'm going to go through is all the steps that we take and we kind of just keep going through these going through these until we are successful and the child is regularly returning to school. And that's what I'm going to go through. >> And the big difference between truency and chronic absenteeism is chronic absenteeism includes excused absences. Right? So if you say you're going on a family vacation for 3 weeks, your student will be chronically absent. They will not be truent because truent is when we haven't heard from you, >> right? Or it's a reason that's

041not listed >> in the list of approved reasons. >> Uh this is just the data from the last three years. uh potentially 200 students that we did the truency paperwork on and contacted families and set up meetings uh with it just so you can and the first column is um the number of days you know per you know truency uh child who is in the truency protocol and the number of students there are I just wanted you to be able to visualize how many students we're dealing with and working with at each Um so the first step once a child reached the truency um requirements is the principal will mail out a letter or the assistant principal will mail out a letter um to the families. It might be email, it might be paper copy,

042it might be hand delivered uh with everything. And then they notify us in the central office that they have a student that has met this. And then they will um set up a meeting with that parent uh for that parent to come in. Uh they will also work with the student assistance team in their building to help create a plan uh that they can bring to the meeting. If the parent does not come to the meeting, the meeting still takes place because we still want to make a plan and move forward. So then if the parent comes to the meeting, we make a plan and we see how that goes. You know, best case scenario, it goes great. The child starts attending school, we move on. Uh if the uh child does not get regular

043attendance again, uh we'll go into the next step uh in just a second. um with that and the other is if the parent's not there, we will make the plan and we'll send the plan out to them and begin implementing the plan. Um and the second step is you know if the attendance has not improved in the first week or two right after uh we will return to step one uh with a second letter uh and a second meeting and a second plan that is created and once again the building principles or assistant principles are notifying Diane and myself. Um the if if there's been multiple attempts to communicate with no response or multiple meetings with no response, that's when our next steps are also to, you know, make sure that DHS and the local

044law enforcement are notified uh to make them aware of that. um not that we see a lot of action from that but we do document that that we have provided that information to um the appropriate resources with with that um and all of these steps are documented in power school uh by the uh building level administrators and when we do our quarterly reporting to the state we have to have all that documentation in there for anyone that's over that threshold uh we have to have documented what we have done um and then it's really just continuing that um step three which is the same thing over and over again but the difference is you're creating new plans and new ideas on what can help this child and with enough contacts to DHS then you know

045they will become involved uh with that does law enforcement in this county do any of the civil violation process prosecuting shorts laws. >> Um, I have been involved in two of my 30 years. The last one that I was involved in, the final one, the verdict was awarded two years later >> and then the fine was waved because of inability to pay. >> Yeah. Know it was tremendously inefficient. Um but different counties handle it differently because I've been involved in a number of >> I've only been involved in your own county. So >> um you know with that >> um >> DHS you know getting case management involved and other things has seemed to be a better avenue >> we're required to go both but like that's the avenue that we're really looking for and

046hoping for help from. Any questions about truency? And that really is, you know, 99% on the building principles, building assistant principles and working with their staff to create those plans and working with parents to keep revisiting revisit and it is um you know we do see positive results from those meetings and involving the parents and the school I mentioned working together as >> So the data that you said initially on your first slide that's is that just scarbor or is that all Got it. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's our that's what we submitted to the state. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> That was just pulled from the state. >> Okay. Any other thoughts or questions for you? >> All right. Um I'm going to talk with you about superintendence agreements. Um so I'm going to start

047with um what is the expectation for students to enroll in school in the state of Maine? Um the expectation is that a person is eligible to attend schools in the school district uh where their parents reside. um or if there is a student who is 18 and living independently um where that person resides um or where they reside if they become an emancipated minor. Um you know in short it's where do you lay your head down to sleep at night. >> Um and so um that is the expectation for school enrollment. There is an exception to that in statute and that is the superintendence agreement exception. Um under that exception um two superintendent um from two districts um may approve the transfer of a student for a specific school year. So it is for one

048year only and it is um an agreement between those two superintendents like I will accept someone you will let them go um etc. and when it is in a student's best educational interest to be at that location versus the district in which they reside. >> Can I ask you a question about that? >> Yeah. Without getting into politics because that can be tricky. Um, at the state house there was a tremendous interest and discussion about superintendence agreements this year. something that has not and not that I have been like super keyed into that committee, >> but it way more than usual. It was like suddenly became this hot issue. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um can you explain some of the context of that? I'm not interested in sort of like forward context. >> I think

049the next um slide might help with that, but if not, we can continue our discussion. So, um, so I think here's where like some of the rub comes on superintendence agreements. Um, when you make an agreement to take a student, it is accepting full financial responsibility for that student, right? Um uh I think there is uh a misnomer that if a student goes to school for example in Gorum that Scar Bro public schools is writing a check for that full per pupil or the state is giving a check for that full per pupil to um Gorum public schools. That is absolutely false. What happens is um that student gets rolled into the October one count and then that gets applied to our state subsidy which is known as our GPA. And so that as you've

050heard me talk about during budget time is a different percentage for every district, right? because the ED279 that we receive every year is based on um our community's tax base and that that whole formula is based on the premise that your tax base has a relationship to your town's ability to pay. >> So for example in Scar Bro um you know for the past year um our state subsidy is around 12% of our school budget. So that means every time that that we make an agreement again that is in the students best interest it is knowing full well that we are taking on a pretty hefty financial burden for our community. If that student receives special services um we're incurring that as well. And so um the factors that you see here that are um

051considered are you know is it in the students best educational interest. So is there a need for example you know um did a family move when their child was a senior in high school and that student has received their entire education in one district? um might a student have um dealt with a serious bullying issue in their school and they want that student to have the best chance at a fresh start. Right? So there are specific carveouts in terms of you know we as superintendent work collectively with each other to kind of sus that out and determine um what those are. And the other factors that really um also get considered is the available availability of space and programming. Right? I I certainly know um some other district partners who are like we are above

052our class size. Um we can't meet the needs of our own students and so we really can't take on that extra burden. Um um and so you know the point here is is superintendence agreements are completely unrelated to the concept of school choice. >> Yeah. >> Because the money does not follow the student, right? We don't have a this is not a school voucher system. And and I think that is a piece that um that may not be widely known um by folks. And I think a piece that um becomes difficult to have conversations with people because um I can certainly appreciate that it might be convenient um for a child to attend school in a district close by to their parents' work for example, right? Like I think about that when I think about

053daycare, right? Um parents self- select daycare generally that's on their commute, right? Or on the way, not necessarily where they live. Um but >> when you look at public school and how that all gets paid for, um it's a different situation. >> So set another way. So if education is 20,000 per pupil, that's a number we like to use. >> Yeah, that was our per pupil last year. Yep. Right around that. >> So if we um if we accept a student from another district because it's in their best educational interest, >> um the reality is the state will give us about 2400 for that student and our taxpayers pay the >> differential. >> Correct. Right. And again, like I want to make sure that you hear me clearly in saying like I'm not saying that

054I disagree with superintendent agreements like in totality because I absolutely know of circumstances in which the ability to offer superintendence agreement to a student >> made a world of difference in their education. >> Right. Um, I think what gets difficult is when it when it does tend to lean more towards um it being convenient. >> Well, I think it's important. I I think from my perspective, I don't think the number, you know, I'm not advocating that we don't accept any, right? I would never advocate for that because I do think there are times when this is their best their best shot is coming here to Scar Bro. But I also think this is why we follow the rules and the procedures and the policies as they're laid out, right? It can't be that I I

055really love Scarboro. I think it's a great school, so therefore I want to send my child there. It has to be a very compelling need, right, >> in my mind because what we're doing is we're asking other our residents to pick up the bill for them, right? >> And there should be a compelling need for us to make that ask. >> Yeah. >> Right. Is it are there circumstances where a student might want to like if they wanted to go from Scarbo to somewhere else that you >> um does this the outgoing superintendent ever say this is not so there has to be agreement between both parties right and that's really what's pretty key here and again because you know there is a limited there are limited number of superintendents in our region. We all

056know each other quite well, right? And so it's it's fairly easy for us to converse with each other and talk things over so that uh for the most part we're not in a situation where um I'm going to say no and the other person's going to say yes, right? Um we tend to talk it through together to make the best decision. I I think for the most part we're really collaborative with our partner districts >> and we don't have um just for anybody watching the here in Maine, we don't have a tuition program where a family could pay um the let's just use the $20,000 number to send their child to Scarboro, >> right? We do not have that set up here. So then if you look at the next slide, again I just wanted

057to kind of uh give some data to this um to to give you an idea of what this has looked like over time. Um so I've included several years of data there um to let you know in terms of what are the number of requests that have been received, how many of those requests have been approved um year over year. Um and so you know when you look at this year's data um you'll see that um I have been selective um and thoughtful about uh what are the uh requests uh that that have been considered uh versus approved. Um, I also wanted to point out how many are new this year, uh, versus what I would use the term of legacy, right? We have, um, some families in this district who, um, have previously been

058approved year overyear. And so it would be difficult for me um as new superintendent, you know, to say to a family, I know that for five years you've got a superintendence agreement, but um that now ends, right? And so there's a bit of needing to kind of let those things uh play themselves out naturally, if you will. Um, and then just make sure that moving forward we're being really consistent about the application of those approvals. >> Is this something we can see annually? Like I would like to keep seeing this. This is a um a good data point. I like it. >> And again, it is a one-year agreement, right? And so that means that if someone had a superintendence agreement, there's not an assumption that school's starting next year and my my kids attending

059Scar Bro because they got they got that waiver last year, >> right? Like of these 15 that were approved this year, I suspect a good number of them will ask again next year. So if next year the number is, let's just say 30, that might be we might it might be the same some of the same families applying year-over-year, right? depends on what you know what the circumstances, what grade the student was in, etc. Right. >> Right. >> Were you Did you have a question? >> Me? >> Yeah. >> Oh, no. I'm just looking at the numbers. There seems such a wide swing >> from year to year. Like so like like the the there's a higher variable >> where you're like 25 down to 17. >> That's a huge swing in terms of requests.

060Um the approvals follow the swings, which makes sense. Mhm. >> But uh but it just seems very variable because like fall 2023 is an anomaly >> on this um sort of like what happened. I I'm just digging into the numbers without any real there's no meeting or need to go under that. Yeah. >> But it just it just looking at it. It's weird to have that >> track that way. >> Yeah. >> I was looking at the numbers that are the same. The number of requests in and approved are the same. and 22. >> And 22 is a really odd year. Just the number is huge, right? >> It's huge. And they they're they're the exact same. So everything everything that was requested was approved both ways. >> Yeah. >> And almost the same for

06123, even though 23 is an anomaly. >> Yeah. >> That's when we were coming out of COVID, too. So there could have been some changes there, too. >> Yeah. I don't know. >> I don't know. It's hard to say. like you know three years ago what was happening but that is an you know it could be >> but I was thinking as our space concerns become >> more critical the number of >> absolutely no those are going to be hard conversations to have right >> um but it you know >> to our earlier policy discussion this afternoon when we're talking about you know class size and >> needing to have some constraints on that um this this could come to bear um with requests for agreements even if they are deemed as you know viable

062if we don't have the space we we don't have the space >> we don't have the space right and there we know even if the referendum is approved we do know we have a year where we have we have to have some sort of temporary solution in place. >> Yeah. So >> and so this might yeah we probably are going to be hardressed to grant many. So that might be a weird year where you see a down, you know, like a downward Well, this this year we I don't mean obviously I don't know the distribution of that, but you know, if those were all kindergarteners, we'd be Oh, okay. Well, that works. But because it's more out than than in >> Oh, if I searching >> um but is this fairly distributed across the Okay.

063>> Yeah. They're interesting. >> It's not like I could point to and say all of these are primary school students or all of these are high school students, right? There there are 15 unique situations. [Music] >> Well, there are 26 unique situations and 60 in the or yes, >> it's true. >> So, that is all I have for that. >> All right. Thank you. you know, but again, I hope that in its totality, this really gives you as a board a better idea of all things related to, you know, student enrollment and um decisions that we make about how to ensure that we're best supporting our students. >> Yeah. So, are there any other questions for Diane? So that's that just is like if they want to go if they want to either come here

064from another district or if they want to go from Scarbor to South Portland or Gorum or whatever. It doesn't include like the kids that choose to go to a private >> it doesn't include charter schools or private schools. No. >> Right. Because when a when a student say uh when a family selects to send their child to Chevress for example that's a private school. Scar bro public schools is not >> okay >> in that decision at all. Right. >> All right. >> What about the charter schools that are available? >> So charter schools um received their funding directly from the state. When charter schools first started in the state of Maine like gosh what 15 20 years ago, >> school districts would have to send a check yes to those charter schools. Right. And as

065you can imagine, that was probably really wonky because um you know, there are probably some districts that have great business offices like we do um and would send a check right away and perhaps others not so much, right? And so um the state reframed that and addressed that by those kids just aren't even in our student count at all. You know, >> right? We don't see them and so we don't have to transfer funds anywhere. >> That's good. That's much cleaner. That's much cleaner. Yeah. Yeah. >> What about students going from private schools back into like public schools, let's say? >> Yeah. I mean, that's just like your like uh you know, a family is just reenrolling their student, right? >> So, it's straightforward. >> Are there any other questions? Do you two have any

066questions? go to school. It'll be letters. >> Yeah. >> Take away. >> Great table. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for joining us today. >> Pleasure. >> Um, agenda item 5.0 is adjournment. So, with no objections, we will adjourn at 6:57 uh p.m. and we'll come back at 7 for our regular schedule board. Good evening and welcome to the uh Scarbor Board of Education regularly scheduled business meeting. The date is Thursday, October 2nd, 2025. Um can we please um would everyone please join me for the attendance? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Would everyone please join me for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

067for all. >> All right. Agenda item 3.0 is the attendance. Ray, can we call the attendance, please? >> Here. >> Mr. Keller, >> here. Miss Lindstöm >> here. >> Mr. Rockinstar >> here. >> Miss Tarpinian >> here. >> Mr. Pin Trapini Huff >> here. >> Mr. Skina, Miss Clarrett >> here. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um before we get into our um regularly scheduled agenda, I did just want to take a brief moment. Um this has been a very difficult few weeks for us in this district and so I just had a statement on behalf of the board that I was going to read before we move in. Um, Jacob Brown was many things. He was a husband, an uncle, a son, a grandson, a friend. Here in Scarboro, he was also a

068coach, a leader, a listener, a compassionate shoulder, a laugh that lifted spirits, a giver of tough love, a believer in his students, a colleague. He was quick with a joke and quicker with a helping hand. Jake showed up every day with heart, humor, and unwavering care. Like many in our community, we are trying to make sense of an unimaginable tragedy. Jake leaves a huge hole in Scarboro High School's hallways, in his office, in the lunchroom, and in all of our hearts. Jake AB Jake's absence will be felt in every corner of our school, but so will his legacy. Jake was so deeply woven into the fabric of Scarboro, and even today, you can still feel his presence. Jake was the first to show up for others and it is only fitting that others have shown

069up for us over the past two weeks. You can see it in the wider main community which has stepped in without hesitation offering us counselors, chairs, and anything else that we've needed. You can also feel it in the way our employees have supported each other and shown up for each other and the way they've shown up and supported our students in both cases with a hug, a pat, a shoulder to cry on, a kind word, and even a shared moment of silence. These quiet gestures speak volumes. They remind us that healing doesn't always come with answers, but it comes in being present and in showing up, in standing up besides one another when words fall short. We cannot thank Diane, Rey, Nate, Sarah, Mike, and all of our Scarbo employees for showing up and standing

070beside each other when it mattered the absolute most. This is Scar Bro at its very best, showing up, supporting each other, and caring as we move forward together. So now, I just like to ask for a moment of silence to honor Jake and his legacy. Thank you. All right. Um, now we'll just we'll move on with our regularly scheduled agenda. Um, agenda item 4.0 No is approval of the August 21st, 2025 and September 4th, 2025 business meeting minutes. There is no objection. We will approve them as presented. Agenda item 5.0 is the consent agenda. These are um a non this is a non-action item. These are the September resignations, retirements, and new hires. And for this, I would um refer you to your board packet adjustment um agenda item 6.0 or adjustments to the agenda.

071Are there any adjustments this evening? >> No, there are none. >> Right. Thank you. Um, agenda item 7.0 is the superintendence report. >> Yes. Good evening. Um, thank you for that really well said. Um, opening Shannon. Uh it uh was certainly very well stated and um I I would just simply add my great thanks um to the overall community for the outpouring of support um that that we've experienced in the past few weeks um here in Scarboro. Um, you know, I've always felt like Scar Bro is a really special place and I think when these kinds of horrible things happen, um, we're reminded of the really great community that we're in. Um I know that um I've spent a significant amount of time at the high school over the last few weeks and I have

072to say the level of commitment um by staff um the outpouring of empathy not just by adults but by students um to pass a student in the hallway and I might say you doing okay and a student would say yeah I am. How about you? Um, it just really um says a lot um about um you know the the people that we have here and the hard work and efforts of I think our educators in in trying to um help shape our students um into the wonderful people that they are. So, um, you know, I think that, uh, we took a lot of pride in, uh, having a celebration that was befitting of Jake on Saturday at Wentworth School. Um, and we're going to do our best to move forward. Um uh the other piece

073of my superintendence report I would just add this evening is the October enrollment. Um and so you can see that our enrollment is um holding steady um as compared to last month. As I as I said to you last month, the numbers were a little bit fluid because we were still having some moveins and some requests for records. And so there were some students on our roles that uh perhaps had not attended school yet and were not chronically absent, by the way. Um uh but this is a more stable number that we'll be able to use as we move forward. Perfect. Thank you. Are there any questions for Diane? All right. Agenda item 8.0 is the chair's report. I have just a couple of items um tonight. Uh uh can we go one more? Sorry.

074Thank you. Um first um early voting early early voting excuse me begins this Monday this upcoming Monday October 6th. So if um you are interested anybody watching is interested in in voting early it is a very easy very seamless process. Um you can really be in and out um at your convenience within 5 to 10 minutes max and that's if you maybe stand to talk with people for a little bit. So, it is a very fast um very fast option that's available all through the month of October. Um it if you you do need to come in during business hours. So, I just remind everybody that business hours for town hall is Monday through Thursday 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. All right. Um also as related to early or to the the ballot um there

075is one open school board seat which is to fill um a vacancy and there are two town council seats that are open. All of those uh positions also are sanitary district but the council and the school board those positions are running unopposed. So um they in other words they don't have anybody each race is uncontested. they don't have anybody running against them. So, um but there will still be a candidates night and that's your opportunity to get to introduce yourself to the candidates to hear their positions on things and what their views and thoughts are. Um it is held it is um held here. It's going to be Tuesday, October 7th at 6:15. Um it is hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and so they generally Kevin gets up and he is the one who

076the moderator who asks the questions. um he takes questions from the audience and also has some self self-generated and again a great opportunity to get to meet our um elected officials. The next slide please. Thank you. Um here are our next two um our next two workshops. Uh October, we have two in the month of October because we we did um cancel our second September meeting. Um, so it'll be October 16th at 5:30 p.m. and that is a legislative update with our elected officials. Um, I did start I did fail to do this last month and I apologize. So, I started it this month. Um, when I was looking back at my notes, I was reminded that one of the things that we um had decided to do during our strategic planning session is to

077align our workshops with our goals that we had set. And so now you'll see that going forward. Um so both of our both our October 16th and our November 20th um workshop which is our board protocol annual review will um help us meet our goal um number two which you can see it up there. All right and then um I don't have another slide but I have one more thing. Um Sarah is um our our student our junior student rep is participating has decided to participate in the extended learning opportunity at the high school. So, if you remember, Abby did it last year. It's the um local government um extended learning opportunity. And so, as part of that, she um will work on some projects. She um has a little bit of more work to

078do as it relates to the school board. And then she has to be mentored. Um and so I'm going to to mentor um Sarah uh this year. And so we've already had our first meeting and we um where we really we sat down with Miss Vasnik and we talked about the expectations for the program. Um we we also talked um about this upcoming legislative workshop and I explained to her a couple of the bills that um were considered last year that might be of importance to her that she might be interested in. The cell phone bill was one of them that the um if you recall the legislature was considering um requiring banning cell phones across the state and all schools. And then the second one that I thought might be of interest is the

079school start time bill that um also changed in the end. Its end form looks a little bit different but um which was a bill to um start all all high schools by 8:30 or not not before 8:30 in the morning. So, she was going to take a look at those and she was going to prep for um this October workshop. I explained to her that everybody u this is our opportunity to really have a meaningful dialogue with our elected officials about things concerning Scarboro. And so, she's going to look at it from a student perspective which will be really cool, a cool project for her. All right. And that's all I have. Is there any questions for me? All right. Um agenda item 9.0 O committee reports. Um let's see. First we have the um

080ad hoc school building communications uh report. So Jillian, do you want to take that one? >> Sure. All right. We I mean we have been um getting out into the community uh as many opportunities as we can get. Uh Shannon in particular has done uh so many community meetings. Uh we are at the um farmers markets. The scar bro sustainability day is coming up. >> Uh what? >> Sunday. Oh my gosh. >> Yeah. >> Um the month is just flown by. >> Uh and there are three community forums coming up. Um the 9th, the 14th, and the 21st all in the evening. um that the 9th is going to be at the public library. The uh 14th will be at 8 Corners and the 21st will be right here a little bit earlier. Um so

081if anybody can sign up and get involved in those that would be uh really helpful. Uh there's also all kinds of other community meetings happening. Um I know like the Enclave is coming up as well. Um Shannon has been invited to go speak at Piper Shores and in the very near future, but we are really down to the last month. Um, in addition to that, uh, Shannon Elizabeth, uh, who's on the communications committee, um, and I met with Allison, uh, Carrier from the town today, and we got a really nice, um, social media campaign, not just posting, but like a ad campaign worked out. Um, so I'm really excited about that. >> Excellent. >> That's about it. Yeah, that's everything. It's hard to believe, but we are about five weeks out from >> I know.

082>> Well, I mean, hard to believe when when I think about the time that this committee, the SBAC, and this communications committee has put into this project. I think we're five weeks out from election day is pretty amazing. So, it's it's the push time. So, lots of lots of events coming up. them and it's good opportunity for community members to um ask questions and get more information so that they feel really confident that they're informed when they go to to the ballot go to vote >> right and I you know this um the community forums will will be I mean there will be information presented but there will be dialogue so I would really encourage people to come out and um interact with us and ask their questions and and uh help them to hopefully

083feel uh good about coming out and voting. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> All right, any questions for Jillian? All right, community outreach. >> Okay. Um, so kind of piggybacking on the community forums that are happening happening for the school building project, we didn't want to to get kind of intertwined or confused. So, we're going to push our fall community board of education forum probably to after election day later in November, and that date will be coming soon. Um, we do have our next community outreach committee meeting on October 16th at 5:00 pm. and we will uh commence our spotlight awards of uh Scar Bro District employees at our 1016 meeting and we'll continue on with the second board of education meeting each month for those awards. We are starting to get uh going with uh planning

084for the town senior citizen dinners. Um so we'll be looking for volunteers and reaching out to folks soon. Um I failed to mention um there with the the last two weeks some of our committee meetings um were cancelled or pushed back and so um there has been um some of just for anybody who's watching some of these reports might be a little light because it >> in the absence of um or in the wake of what happened we we did we did cancel um quite a few of our meetings. So thank you. Thank you Charlotte. Um, with that finance is there Mitchell? >> Not too much going on there other than a few things we'll hear later tonight, but we didn't really go over that too much in meetings and yeah, it's next meeting the

085I believe the 28th at 5:30 p.m. if anyone wants to join us for numbers. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Uh, negotiations. >> Um, so negotiations, we have one contract that we need to kick off this year. Um we've been in communication with that committee and hopefully we will hit some dates on the book um to start negotiating that contract very soon. I know everyone is eager to discuss that the subject matter. >> Very good. >> Do you want to keep going policy? >> Sure. >> True. >> It is true. >> Um it is absolutely true. They actually our community partners are very interested in talking about the specifics of the contract. Um policy report. Uh we had a policy meeting today before this meeting. In fact, we rolled into it. Um, we are deep in

086the weeds of um our trying to figure out our um looking at my report. This slide looks different than when I thought I put it up. So, it looks a little different. Um, we were working on the class size numbers >> and um we spent the entire meeting of that on that. Um we are looking at some of these uh policies we've already reviewed, but we will have one policy that's coming up um later on having to do with um is it public gifts and donations or >> Yes, I think it's public gifts and donations. Our uh public comment uh will come soon after that and we're going to continue going in chronological order and we're throwing in some things. So, uh, for example, with the new laws that went into effect, uh, in the

087last couple weeks, um, schools now have to have a temperature policy. And so, we we will get right on that and have a school temperature policy for Scarboro school buildings along with anything else that comes up. So, yeah, we'll keep cranking. Um, we will probably try to add a second meeting date in November um, to get some of the work that we have done. We're getting not bogged down in a good way in some of the policies, but there's sort of a need to get some of these things really pushed forward. Um, so we may um end up adding the date which we will uh publicize on our website when we do that. >> So I just want to say because I saw you mate fixing the slide after our meeting. I wonder now if

088you were in last the the actual wrong I >> Yep. So we can we can update it for you before we go live with it. >> Yeah. Um, are there any questions for Freigha? All right. Agenda item 10.0 or less on reports. I'm not sure that any lay on or any of the groups met, but does anybody have any >> I feel like our workshop covered all the dropout prevention team needs for the year. >> Yeah. >> Check. >> We got that was a good one. >> Goodness. All right. Agenda item 11.0 know our student report. So, we'll turn this over over to Abby and Sarah. >> So, lots of things have been going on at the middle school. There was like open houses, but earlier this week on Tuesday in these pictures, the sixth

089grade class went to Higgins Beach and they participated in an important data collection in association with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. So they um collected data on like invasive crab species and they collected data including size, species, sex of crab, the presence of eggs, the number of claws and they will submit it to the institute and it will become a part of like a larger study on these crabs. So in addition, this trip also was a good team building for the sixth grade class and there were also many family volunteers and it turned out to be a great day. The weather really cooperated with them for sure. >> Looks like it was a beautiful day. >> Yeah, >> as Abby said, there's been a flurry of events with the beginning of school like preacher

090days, open houses, and club signups. Club signups for Wentworth are open until October 10th. And there is a new club this year, theater art club, advised by Mr. Reagan. And then, as was mentioned before, Sustainable Scar Bro Day is this Sunday, October 5th at Wentworth School. And another upcoming event is on October 23rd, tooth protectors will be visiting Wentworth again to provide free dental services to all students in need and any students from the primaries will be bus to and from Wentworth. >> Yeah, that's a really great program that we've had for a number of years and it is for all students in the district even though it takes place at Wentworth. >> That's really great. Thank you guys very much. Any questions? Any questions for either Sarah or Abby? All right. Agenda item 12.0

091is the school solution um referendum. As we mentioned um this is uh the communications committee is really working hard to um get the word out uh really educate the larger community. So that's been the the main focus as we transition into these last few weeks. Um the other thing that will pick up with this is a um push towards uh canvasing. So um I did send out a a spreadsheet with various neighborhoods identified. If you wouldn't mind taking a look and potentially signing up to um volunteer, that would be really helpful. Um, canvasing is our doortodoor um, campaign where we go and we visit residents in their homes and provide information and talk to them about um, what the referendum is and what I mean. So, instead of a group meeting, we do it more

092on a one-on-one basis. So, that will start picking up um, next weekend. Um the uh the real goal too is to really make sure that um residents feel that they're informed enough to make a to make a decision and to go vote. Um the concern is with both local um both the school board and the council seats. um the um candidates running unopposed, there is a a concern that perhaps numbers will be lower in in voting because they they might not feel a compelling need to go um to the ballot. So, it's really to the to the polls. So, it's really important that everybody does vote. Um so, we're hopeful that everyone shows up and so that is where um we have over 19,000 voters in in Scarboro. So, we're hopeful that people will um

093still come and um this is a really important referendum, a really important place for us in this district. So, we are um very very focused on that right now. All right. 13. Agenda item 13.0 or presentations. 13.1 is the FY25 year-end financial report. So, with this, we'll invite Kea. >> Good evening, friends. Thank you for having me, even though I said you had to. I know this is really your favorite event of the year, the year- end financial report. Um, so we do this every year and we have some action items that the board has to take to make sure that we've closed out the year appropriately. Um, and so I appreciate uh all of your help with that. Ray, can you go to the next slide? Thanks. Um, so tonight's presentation is an overview

094of the financial reports for the 202425 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2025. U, we call it FY25 for short. There's some documents that are going to be posted online with the school board um agenda and paperwork for this evening. Supporting documents linked into the slide deck here. Uh we have the year-end financial statement and you guys have some paper copies of that. That's this one that starts with a little story in the front. Um as well as the year-end budget transfers, which is the document with the fancy pink and green colors. Um Sarah, I just want to take a minute to tell you that committee work on finance committee is really important for learning about government. So I'm inviting you now. It's also maybe a little boring, but um I've had some great

095students join the finance committee in the past. Um so the documents are posted here for folks who are looking at this afterwards or want to click into it when the slide deck goes up. Um, we also post all of our quarterly financial reports. Um, on our website, if you go to the board section of the website and you look at the finance committee section of that on standing committees, you'll see all of our fiscal reports posted out there. Um, for those who are going to read the financial statements without watching this presentation, there's a narrative section on the front of the report, the written report that provides much of what we have um to be presented here in the slide deck. One other note on the financial statements is that you'll see it says marked

096pending audit on most of the pages. Um the town auditors are hired by the town of Scarough. Under statute, towns and school departments need to have a financial audit every year. Um it's an independent audit and it just basically takes the temperature of and checks the accuracy of all of our financial reporting and um whether we're following best practices in accounting. So the town auditors, they were here last week for some fieldwork. We're actually in really good shape in terms of the timing. Um hoping to get a report out again by Thanksgiving like we did last year, which is kind of an aggressive timeline, but I think we're doing pretty well. Um I don't anticipate any substantive changes in these reports, but we do always say, you know, that we could have a change that

097happens because the auditors have found something they want us to fix. Um once we do have an audit in hand, that's a whole another report. There's a report for the town and the school and there's a presentation that goes with that as well. Next slide. All right. So, we're going to dive into the financial report. If you're following along on the statement, you're going to be at the top of page four um of the detailed financial report where the spreadsheet bits start. Um the 2425 fiscal year ended with an overall surplus in the general fund of about 2.4 4 million expenditures. Expenses came in under budget by $2.2 million, which represents about 3.4% of the overall fiscal 25 budget. We were pleased to have new collective bargaining agreements ratified for several of our support staff

098groups at the beginning of 2425. And so our ability to offer more competitive wages um was really helpful to us in hiring as the year progressed. But we did still um find some challenges. the labor market is still tight and we still did have turnover and unfilled positions throughout this fiscal year. Um particularly in special services um where we had so many open edtech positions that we left were left with a a surplus of about $400,000 um in salary and benefit lines, wage and benefit lines. Um, I do want to note that um, as you heard during the budget process, we have added 15 new edtech positions in FY24 and FY25 and another 11 in FY26, which doesn't even show up here in these numbers, primarily to meet the requirements of incoming CDS students. Um,

099and this expansion has really um, challenged us in terms of hiring, right? So, it's not just the positions that we've always had turning over. It's trying to fill those new positions. Other budget categories that you see here that showed a significant surplus in wage and benefit lines also have to do with hiring and turnover. In library services, we added a position in FY25. We were hoping to have a K2 and a Wentworth librarian. As it turned out, um the labor market was not our friend. We were not able to find a good candidate for that position. And so we basically had a whole position that went unfilled for the for the whole year. The great news is that in the springtime we advertised again. We went out and found a terrific new candidate who is

100now our K2 librarian. And um you know, we're really excited about that vision coming to fruition. It just took a little more time than what we expected. And so that generates a savings in uh unspent funds in improvement of instruction which is also what we call curriculum and assessment. These are these labels are the voter categories. So sometimes we use different language depending on the context. um we had an unexpected resignation quite close to the start of the year and we kind of um I don't want to say we struggled but we we certainly um considered and deliberated around how to fill that position and what we might do differently. Um that person at the time they were working with us was uh brought on board to specifically work on some of our SEAL initiatives.

101um the new uh curriculum that you've heard so much about like Ruler and Mind Up where um this person was really um heavily involved in the facilitation and the implementation of those new curricula. And when she left um we were in a position where the schools had really kind of picked up that that work and we're carrying it forward. And so we took a moment to to consider well okay if we're taking bringing in someone new what is that person's role really going to be um as a result that position is still unfilled. We have some new plans and uh we were just talking about that this evening and we have money left over um in system administration we had turnover savings. You guys might have noticed that some of the folks here on the

102podium have switched seats and um others are not with us from between 25 budget building and um the actual expenditures during the course of the year. Um moral of the story is that Diane and Ray are a bargain. Don't count on it for next year though. Um, so, so this is in in personnel costs and of course personnel costs is is really our largest spending category. So, it's not surprising that a big chunk of savings might happen in this area. Um, let's go to the next slide. Um, so here's a little sidebar about contracted services. um some of our wage and benefit funds, we actually had more surplus than um than what I was showing there in in terms of the overall picture in special education, transportation, and facilities. Um we needed to use contracted

103services to make sure that critical work was getting done. Um so uh in special education we contracted with a company called Emergis also called Maxim um who were able to provide BCBAS or um education technician type support staff for us on a contract basis to help do the work that we couldn't do because we had so many unfilled positions. So when you see this number, the total surplus in special services wages and benefits was about $585,000, but we um transferred 185,000 of that to a contracted services line to pay for those ED tax in a different way. similar in transportation. Uh we use Deriggo bus services which is a um we have one Dargo bus on the road today. Uh which is a great little company that um provides school buses and trained drivers and

104helps us fill in when we have too many open positions and we can't keep our buses on the road. Um so again the number that you see there um transportation had a surplus of about $275,000 in wages and benefits but we took $239,000 of that to pay for contracted services. So the real surplus there is about $36,000 plus another $61,000 that we used to buy two minivans because minivans don't need CDL drivers. So, we're sort of working all the angles here, trying to make sure that that kids are getting where they need to be and getting the services when they get there. The last category here is facilities. Um, they had a surplus of about $185,000 in wage and benefits, but we used basically used all of that for contracted services. Um, so that was

105a wash and that's great because we didn't overspend because we had to contract out. The even greater news is that we now have a full complement of actual employee custodians, which we're super excited about. That hasn't been the case for like years now. Um, so we're fully staffed now and we haven't actually used Catarrett since March of this year. All right. Other savings outside of salaries and benefits we find in programs and services of various kinds and in operations. Um I've just pulled out a couple of the bigger numbers so that you can see sort of big impact items. Um athletics and activities for the second year in a row. Now we've not been able to field every middle school uh team that we expected to and that we budgeted for. We've got great enrollment.

106We've got great participation. Um, but it's really hard to find coaches, especially at the middle school level. And it's also now becoming really hard to find officials, referees, you know, game officials. Um, so there were situations where we didn't run all of the expected programs in athletics and activities. And so you see a little bit of a surplus there. Um, again, in special services, this line talks about tuition costs. And so we pay tuition uh to specialurpose private schools for some of our students and you saw that number on on the enrollment list who are in out of district placement. We call that um these are programs that provide services for special education for students who just their need needs are not able to be met in district for whatever reason, whatever their personal need

107is. and we have a small number of those kiddos, but the expense is high. Um, when we send a kid into into a placement for a year, it can cost from 70 to $80,000 per student. Um, so with a number like that, the num the the variance can change really rapidly depending on who's going out, who's coming in, who's moving, who's changing because these are individual students and the population can be really volatile. So, it's it's kind of hard to budget for. And the the budget number in that account will vary really widely from year to year because we're taking a snapshot when we build the budget of who's in those placements and who we think is going to be and then a year later it could be a whole another story, right? So, um

108we did have a little surplus there. Um and this year's story is actually really nice because we had two kiddos come back in district uh and they're doing great and you know, good for them. they're they're um they've received enough uh specialized and individualized help outside of the school district to be able to come back to our community and thrive with their with their peers. So, that's really super nice. The third item under programs and services is prek partnership program. And uh this is this is um something that's going to keep coming up as we go through this because it's one of our action items tonight. So the story here is in FY25 in the original budget, we planned and allocated funds to have this partnership with Shooting Stars, which is our classroom over at

109Shooting Stars. It's 16 preK students. And um the original budget when it was approved included um about $170,000 for that program. Once the budget was approved, we found that we could get state grant funds instead. And so that money is just sitting there. We used it for a few things that weren't covered in the grant, which is why it's a little bit lower number. Um, but that money stayed in the bank because we didn't require it because we were using grant funds instead. So, when we got to the FY26 budget conversations, we had just rolled out our um our budget proposal in March of 25. And pretty much the same day, I think we learned from the state that instead of having a two-year grant that was going to take us all the way through

110to June of 2026, the grant funds were going to get cut off in December. And so, we're all going, "Oh, great. Well, we didn't put any money in the budget this year, so now what are we going to do? And so, after a little brainstorming and some crying, we came up with this brilliant idea that we could create a prek program reserve fund with this money, the $157,000 that was already allocated for prek. It's already approved by the voters. It was absolutely for that purpose. but instead of spending it in FY25, we'd put it in a reserve fund at year end and then we could save it and spend it in 26 and even into 27. Um, so that's going to be an action item and we'll talk about that a little more. Um, and

111then finally on the operation side, we saw some increased savings in our electricity costs. Um we talked some in a bunch of different moments uh budget time and and revenues and um facilities talk about this consortium that we belong to. We've we joined um several years ago an alternative energy consortium with a bunch of other um school districts and and organizations in um in Maine. And the bottom line is that we are buying our energy from solar farms and um hydropower companies. And whenever we do that, we get a credit from CMP, from Central Main Power. So, this $140,000 is money that we did not have to spend on electricity costs because we got this reduced cost alternative energy um from other providers, which is very cool. Um and the last item is debt service.

112Um the town shifted the timing of when they issue the bonds from the springtime to they kind of skipped over almost 18 months and then they went to the winter. So, as a result, we ended up having less interest cost and so that is a nice big chunk of savings in FY25. All right. The school board has a policy called DBJ and it says that the board needs to approve any budget. They have to approve budget transfers for any individual account in our system that's over spent by $10,000 or more. Um that is the handout that you have with the fancy colors. What it shows is the 12 expense accounts with deficits. That's the sort of pinky color that require a budget transfer under DBJ. Um, I like to say that, you know, we're we

113have over 700 individual expense accounts. So, the fact that I can fit them all on one page, even though the type is really small, I think that's pretty good. These are the only ones that really need our attention. Um, for general fund expenditures, every budget category ran at least a small surplus this year. And you can see that both in the financial statement and on this sheet. And um all of the overspent accounts can be covered with transfers within the same category. And that's important because we have to follow state statute regarding transfers between the voter p budget categories. Um when we send the budget out to the voters, it's divided into these 12 categories. And the voters are essentially saying you you need to spend the money in these ways and we're not really

114giving you the authority to just decide that your whole transportation budget is now going to go to facilities. You really got to stay within uh what's been approved for you. So we're not allowed to transfer more than 5% of any of these cost centers funds from one cost center to another. And so that's why there's a little uh summary on page two that shows the categories and the amounts of transfers that we did and the changes. And then on the last page, we've got um a little bit of detail on some crosscategory changes that we made midyear. And those are all related to transportation. It's what I was just talking about using contracted transportation um instead of wages and benefits. And so we needed to move some monies around to make sure that we had

115them in the right place for um our ability to spend. So we'll come back to that as an an item at the end. And now we'll talk about revenue. um the bottom of page four on the financial statement if you're following along. Because almost all of our school revenues come from tax dollars and state general purpose aid, our year-end variances are variances are usually pretty small. Um actual revenues in FY25 were generally really close to the budget projections and we ended with an overall year-end surplus of 153652. Um, I've noted a couple of areas that were significantly higher than what we expected. This MLL hardship funds is a targeted subsidy. It comes from the Department of Ed along with our state GPA, but it's kept separate and it's calculated after um the original ED279 comes

116out. So, you don't really know what your allotment's going to be until after your budget is passed. So therefore whatever you get becomes surplus. Um this was created in in FY24 as an acknowledgement from the state that districts were really struggling to onboard, take in and serve the needs of new mayors that were coming to us in great numbers. Um and so this is targeted money because of the way that it's um the way that it's allocated. They figure out how many MLL students you have. Um, multilingual learners is what MLL is. They figure out how many students you have from your student count and then they send you money accordingly. That doesn't necessarily mean that they know exactly what needs those children are going to have and it doesn't mean that they're um prescribing

117how we spend the money. It's just an acknowledgement that we might need extra services for some of our kiddos. Um second one is state agency client reimbursements. Um state agency clients um sometimes you hear the term ward of the state. It's a child who is actually in the care of the state and um this is a notoriously difficult revenue to budget accurately because the eligible student population tends to be very transient. And so, um, the population is constantly shifting and so we do our best guess. FY25's revenue was actually over budget by $71,000. And it's a big number because we had one um specific placement of a student who was um in an outofstate placement and we were receiving reimbursement for that because we were paying the bills. So, that's a little bit of an

118outlier. And then renewable energy credits. This is the flip side of the savings that we're receiving from CMP on using alternative energy because when you do that, you earn what are called Rex, renewable energy credits. And that's actually a tangible asset that you can sell on a market. And so you might have read stories um of like a big corporation, a big factory that buys renewable energy credits to offset their carbon in carbon footprint. So if I'm, you know, generating pollution, I can buy renewable energy credits and sort of, um, be more ecologically responsible. Um, so we're selling them because we're earning them from using alternative energy. And that's another revenue source. We actually came uh they came in above budgeted estimates by almost $32,000 this year. And last year we had that lumped into

119other miscellaneous revenues because it was just starting to come in. Um this year we've split it out and put it into its own line on the uh financial statement. So you can actually see that um as a real tangible benefit of this program. All right. So this picture is what you see on the page of top five of the financial statement. It's the uh transition from the beginning to the end of the fiscal year in the general fund. So at the top of the chart, you see the start of the fiscal year. That's the fund balance that was available at the end of FY24. The amount that we committed toward non- tax revenue for FY25. And then the center of the chart is what happened in the general fund operating budget during FY25. So appropriations

120balance that means your expenditure savings. Revenue balance is what's over and above what you budgeted. The year-end adjustments in here. Um in this case, this is the two recommended transfers that we want to make tonight. Um, we're going to put $700,000 in the capital reserve fund. And then we're going to put that 156526 balance of prek money into our new prek reserve fund. That gets you to the year-end balance. You add that to the prior year's undesated fund balance. you subtract what we used in FY26 because again we're taking surplus money and we're using it as revenue um in in the next budget year and then the bottom line is undesated which is basically what you have in your savings account. Um so people ask all the time why do we have surplus funds? Why

121would we have so much money left over at the end of the fiscal year? And does it mean that we raised too much money? Did we ask for too much in taxes? Uh, first I should point out that while while $2 million is a lot of money to me and maybe to you, it's really only 3.25% 25% of our overall budget for the year, which is actually a pretty conservative margin when you're trying to keep under budget. In uh the state of Maine with the budget referendums, you're not allowed to go over budget. It's illegal. Um the voters approve your money and that's what you get. You don't get more than that. So, it's really important for us to try to save, be careful, be cautious, you know, not overspend these accounts. and saving 3.25%

122um is actually you know a pretty fiscally responsible place to be. Um so the town has some policies around retention and use of budget surplus. The school department actually falls under a state statute that says public school districts have to use year-end surplus in excess of 5% to support the following year's operating budgets. So right now we're talking about a surplus of 3.2 25%. So basically what the state is saying is that it's okay to save and hold in the bank 5%. You can't go over that because at that point you really are holding on to tax dollars that you really didn't need and you shouldn't be raising. So it's our practice to take a portion of each year's fund balance at the end of the year and use it for revenue for the following

123budget year. So since FY22, we've also put a little bit of money into that capital reserve fund that we built, which is one of our favorite things. Another really good way to save money and to designate it for use so that people aren't just saying, "Oh, well, you're, you know, you're sitting on a big pile of my tax dollars, right?" So in the school world, you're always rotating that money through and using it for the next year or the year after. So along with the general fund, starting in the middle of page five of the financial statement, um we're going to look at some other small funds, smaller school funds. Um next slide, this is just a list. Next slide is adult education and uh I think you guys are going to hear from adulthood

124next time maybe >> November. >> Yeah, they'll do a presentation about how great they are. I will say how great they are. Um, I think it's it's remarkable that Adulthood has such a small budget. It's they're very frugal. Their margins are really tight, but they managed to produce some really amazing results for our community. Um, they're continuing a gradual increase in their enrichment courses, which folks in the community really enjoy. Um, they're really focusing hard maintaining a strong schedule of programs for multilingual learners, and these are the adults. um many of whom have children in our school community. Um they are teaching both proficiency in English and preparation for workforce opportunities. Um in FY25, we invested in a new part-time coordinator position for those programs and had been grant funded the year before. we added

125a little money into uh the local budget and still using grants um to add that position. It's proved to be a really huge benefit for the program and I'm sure you'll probably hear more about that. Uh the year-end fund balance in this program is 18,966. Um, we are doing a very similar thing with adult and just using rotating any leftover fund balance into the next fiscal year as revenue and we've got $31,000 in the FY26 budget that's coming from their fund balance. Um, I will say one more thing about Adult Ed and you don't have to go back. Um, they have been really reliant on grant funds for literacy programs. There's a grant called EFLA that is um been super helpful and there's another grant as well, but the federal grants for adults ed have

126kind of had that same sort of roller coaster ride that we've heard um with federal grants for K12 education. And there is a concern that some of those things are going to dry up. So, I just want to clue you in that when we start talking about the FY27 budget that we'll probably be thinking in terms of trying to bolster the adult ed um fund just a little bit with local dollars so that in case they lose those federal dollars, they're not having to cut programs and lose um some of these really important programs. All right, next one is uh school nutrition. top of page six. School nutrition is continuing to thrive financially as well. Um, you probably remember because I keep telling you that uh we started serving universal free meals that started in

127FY22 uh because the federal government decided they were going to pay for it and um you know another COVID impact and some of the the COVID funding that was flying around in big buckets. Um in FY23 the federal government said you're all fine now. We're good. and went back to their original level of funding. And um the state of Maine said, "We're going to pass legislation to continue to fund the difference and allow free meals for all students, free breakfast and lunch for all students, regardless of their economic status. Um when you look at the financial statement, you'll see that the bulk of our program revenues now comes from state funding. That's continued to grow as the federal funding diminishes. Um we are still getting revenue from food sales. Um we have alle cart offerings

128at the high school and middle school that are very popular. So people are still paying um above and beyond the free lunch and free breakfast. Um we also continue to see revenues from catering sales. Um the department is really active in in providing meals for not just for us and they do have some wonderful um some wonderful cookies. Yeah, we have to shout out to the cookies. Um but but also for other organizations uh that are coming in renting space or you know some of the town events that are going on. Um another highlight in uh school nutrition is again the collective bargaining agreement that started in the fall of 24. Um that's really helped us build our staff. We have fewer openings. We still have some turnover because the labor market is just cuckoo.

129Um but doing a little bit better with being able to um offer some more competitive wages. So the the fund balance story in school nutrition um you may remember last year the the um state DOE told us that we had too much money and Peter Esposito and I laughed because we had been running the program in a deficit for like 15 years and we finally made some money. We finally got you know the fund balance back up there and they said oh you have too much money. Um, so that the under USDA rules and we're under a USDA program here to get the federal federal funds for food. Um, you can't hold more than three months average operating cost as your fund balance. And so the department has a calculation based on what we actually

130spend and they say, "Okay, well here's what three months costs." And if you're over that, then they say, "Well, you got to do something about that. You can't hold on to And this is that same concept of raising money that you don't need or taking money that you haven't spent, right? Finding that balance. So, it's okay to have three months in the bank but not more. Um, so our beginning balance in FY25 is about $22,000 over that mark as calculated by the DOE. And so what we did was we looked at the FY25 capital budget and we had been approved for um a stack convention convection oven for the high school and a batter piping machine for Wentworth which is the coolest thing. It's like a >> Right. Okay. Love this. Love this concept. It's

131we're gonna put that in the video. Right. um we had them approved in the capital budget, but what we did was we spent the money out of operating instead. And so in essence, they're asking us spend more money than you budgeted, right? They they're saying spend it so that your your fund balance goes down and you're tapping into that e those extra monies that you have on hand that you're not really supposed to. Um, so those expenses we put into the operating budget and you can see when you look at the equipment line there in in uh the financial statement that we went over budget, right? Because we we actually paid for things we hadn't budgeted for. Um, we were able to reduce our year-end fund balance. Um, it is now 538,000 and we also

132designated 50,000 of that for non- tax revenue in FY26. So, um, with that with those little adjustments to the fund balance, we should be well within the requirements for this coming year. And if we're not, I'm going to yell at them because we're working really hard on it. All right. The bottom of page six of the financial statement, the federal grant funds, local and state grants, trusts, and special revenues. FY25 saw the tail end of a number of grants that were issued by the state DOE in the spring of 24 that were funded with COVID relief monies. These ARP grants ARP were available for a very short time period and we put in for some grants and we had them all um all of the spending that we did was paid out. you'll see that

133there's a um sort of calculation to take down the balance of the grants and whatever we didn't use went away. Uh but we used what we needed and we got it in a quick period of time and we did some fun things with it and Katie actually spoke to some of that last year um in one of her presentations. The other federal grants are basically the same ones that we're used to seeing. the title grants and local entitlement for special education, also called IDA. And uh despite concerns about loss of funding that we went through during the budget process of building FY26, we didn't really see anything happening to our grants that had already been approved for FY25. I think probably because they had already been approved um and already allocated and it would be

134really difficult for a new administration to claw those back. Um not to say that we're we're done thinking about whether federal funding is going to be a thing, but we were in good shape in FY25 and most of our spending and our reimbursements were um pretty typical in terms of what we're used to seeing. The one exception is in title 2A where we ended up with a larger than usual remaining balance. And that goes back to the same position that we were just talking about in improvement of instruction or in curriculum because that position was scheduled to be funded half through the local budget and half through uh title two. So there's a title two balance as well um in the state and local grant section. There really isn't a lot of exciting stuff to

135talk about. There is the new preschool de development grant that appears for the first time in FY25 and it will be in there for the first half of FY26 and then it will go away and we won't cry because we have a plan. Um there's a small year-end deficit in school nutrition programs fund which is really the backpack program for the most part. That's been uh kind of the pattern in recent years where we end the year with a deficit. And then we get a big nice fat check from full plates full potential in July um which is targeted for that program. So we got a $5,000 don donation that you guys approved in the summer that kind of erased that deficit. Um that's been kind of a pattern recently. And then the Skyro Education

136Foundation, you'll notice that it has a fairly high fund balance for um a program of that sort where you're giving out a grant. You assume that you're going to be you assume that you're going to be doing the work and spending the money and and you know the grant money is going to be used. Um, I would say partly due to COVID and some grants being abandoned because they couldn't be done that had already been approved and funded and partly due to just folks putting in for let's say I I ask for a $5,000 grant and it turns out that I can do everything that I wanted to do for $4,500. And so now there's a $500 balance in the account because um SCF is giving us the money upfront. they're they're saying, "Here's your

137money before the grant expenses are actually taking place." Um, so I've been working with them over the past two years just to say, "Okay, here's where we are. Here's what we have. Here's what's outstanding. Let's try to spend that fund balance down so that you're not raising money to pay for things and we're we're in over here holding on to your money that we haven't used." Um, so that's a little process that's going on right now and we're going to try to shrink that so we're not holding money that they've worked really hard to earn and that we don't actually need. Right on to capital improvements. The last page of the financial statement is a report on capital projects and equipment budgeted in FY25. Um, most of our CIP accounts are multi-year ongoing areas of

138investment. There's a few highlights on this slide for expenditures in FY25. Um, and you've heard about these through the course of the budget process, but I'll just point out a couple of things. We got our usual three new replacement buses for transportation. in technology. We updated all the student Chromebooks at the high school and we bought some network switches um which were sorely needed um as replacements and new switches all through the district. We had a big uh project in facilities, number of big projects and facilities. The the one that um was most exciting this summer was the generator at the middle school where we had to >> unplug everything and close the whole school for a couple of weeks and put in this great big new generator. It's really exciting because the old generator,

139first of all, was dead. Um so that's not a great thing when you're trying to maintain safety and security and stuff like that. But the old generator did not run the school. It was too small. It really it would, you know, keep the emergency lights on and and run a couple of systems. The new generator um is going to be able to maintain a lot more of the systems. Um a lot of our tech equipment will croak if it's if it has a power shortage or if it has um power surge or if it if it goes without power. So, this will support the tech equipment, the tech infrastructure in the building. Will also support things like the uh walk-ins in the freezers in the kitchen. And so we had the unpleasant experience of losing

140a whole bunch of food when the old generator went down and um now that doesn't isn't going to happen. So that was a big deal. Very exciting. Um we did HVAC repairs and system controls were replaced all across the district. Um we installed two modern boilers at a corner school. Um, and uh, even though we talk a lot about not doing work at K2 because we don't think that it's going to be a good long-term investment, first of all, we need it in the short term and secondly, those are the kinds of things that actually can be reused and um, you know, can be moved easily or or repositioned for a new building. Um and the last thing on the list is the second phase of the complex res uh restoration at the high school,

141the athletics complex. Um we had the turf field installed in the summer of 23 and then this summer we did the complete reconstruction of the track. We've finished all the way up to the top course of asphalt and we're just waiting for that um final rubberized surface to go on in the spring. So, that's super exciting. In long range planning, um, in the CIP account, the expenditures that you see there represent continued design and planning costs. And if, if y'all don't know what's been going on, I think, um, I'm going to have your memories checked because you've heard heard and spoken so much about this over the course of the past few months. Um, but I did put a link up into the building project web page for folks who are looking at the slides

142later and want to go see what all's going on. Um, but the the funding the the spending that you see on the capital schedule, expense schedule is about the work that's been done um since the failed referendum in November of 23 and then moving forward to create that new proposal and all the work that Haramman did um to get us to the new referendum proposal. All right. Now we come to the Now we come to the the picture of the school bus which is very important. Um the the school reserve funds. I had to change this to a plural on the slide this year um because we're going to now have two. We established the school capital reserve fund. Um, and this was a situation where we got excess subsidy from the state of Maine

143after we'd already passed our budget and it was a sizable amount. And so, um, there's a statute that that describes what you can do with extra GPA if you get it after your budget's passed. And so, we worked with the town council and, um, at the end of the day, we came up with this great idea of creating a capital reserve fund. And at the end of FY22, we put in the extra GPA. We put in a little bit of extra surplus that we had from our general fund to make a $600,000 fund. And then we started using it. And the goal of this fund is that through the annual budget process, the board would be able to tap into the reserve fund for revenues for anything that's in our capital budget that seems appropriate.

144So, this kind of gives you a little history of what we've done with it, both adding and subtracting. And um what we're looking to do tonight is to continue to build the fund uh with another $700,000 of our FY25 surplus. Um in there's no budgeted use of the capital reserves in FY26 where we're where we're living today. And that was deliberate. That was a choice that said, "Okay, we've got this referendum coming up. we've got some kind of building project happening and then we've also got this interim period before we have the new building um buildings and before we have a solution for our enrollment increase. So, we better have some money on hand to do whatever it takes to get there. Um and that's what we've been talking about and as we go into

145the FY26 budget cycle, sorry, FY27, um we'll we'll be able to know what we have in the bank here. um we can move the $700,000 and the prek um funding into reserve accounts and still leave undesated undesated surplus that savings account at basically exactly the same level that it was the year before. So seems like seems like a good move. >> Okay, so this is the school capital reserve fund. Next slide is our new school reserve fund, the prek program reserve fund. And we have a new little um clip art of a cute little school. Um it's a little big for prek, but we have we have we have ambitions. We have serious ambitions. Um so tonight we're going to establish a new prek program reserve fund. And this is going to address the loss

146of state grant funds and allow us to keep our current partnership with um Shooting Stars right through the end of this school year, June of 2026. We've already said that we were going to allocate 7 $770,000 from this fund to make sure that we could get through um FY26, but that obviously leaves a little bit more as well in the bank so that um we'll have some seed money uh as we talk about what prek is going to look like for us in future budget years. Um so we all felt like this was a really cool idea and that's going to be one of your agenda items for tonight. Uh, and that's the end of my story. I've got the action items up here. I know you have a couple other things you have to

147go through, but um this is basically what we're looking to accomplish and um my next steps will be to actually do those budget transfers in our system and to hand them over to the auditors and then we can be closing out FY25 and talking about other things. Happy to take any questions if there are. >> Are there any questions for >> I may have stunned you into silence. >> Well, you're always so great with your explanations that it makes it easier to follow along. >> You can tell I love my subject. >> He does. >> You do love your subject. >> It does. >> Big nerd energy. >> We are very glad that you love your subject. >> Yes. All right. Thank you so very much. >> Thank you. Thanks for your time. >> It

148feels funny we've gotten to this part of the evening and haven't done this yet, but is there anyone wishing to make general public comment this evening? >> Is there anybody online? >> Just us. >> Yes. The crowd Keith's crowd. That's what we'll start calling it. Everyone else is watching the Red Sox. At least there's someone >> at least you have someone in the room with you and then they leave before you get started. That's right. >> It's okay. >> All right. Agenda item 15.0 is continuing business. 15.1 is the second reading of policy KCD, which is public gifts and donations to the schools. >> So, you may recall that we were in the middle of discussing this policy and there were some concerns that were brought up. Um and so we tabled the policy to

149the next meeting and we're at that meeting for second reading. Um if you compare the policy that we started with um at first reading the change that we made is we had taken out the value of $500 or more. Um so if if an individual or an organization makes a gift or donation to the school um it required that the board acknowledge and thank for that gift. We then ran headlong into back to school where every parent almost in our district sends their children in with gifts for the schools like boxes and tissues and pencils. And we are very grateful for the amazing support of our community and we appreciate every single one of those gifts. However, as the board, it's not an appropriate use of time to individually catalog those gifts um and donations

150and thank everybody for it. So, we from the bottom of our hearts, we do thank you. We definitely and our teachers absolutely um need the support, want the support and our community uh benefits as a whole from all the support that our community gives us. That being said, the board is did put that uh threshold back in for official board action on gifts. And that's not because again, we don't it's not if you donate $499, we do appreciate that gift as a sizable amount. Um but we had to draw a line somewhere to divide gifts that were more nominal in nature and the gifts that were more um more significant. Um and so um after careful consideration, we went back to our the the amount that had been in policy. Um we recommend that we

151um add we have a very similar policy to what we presented, but we add in a threshold of $500 or more for the superintendent to submit for a board approval, which means it'll come before the board for a vote to approve it. Um if it's a donation of less than that, we've delegated the authority to the superintendent um in their discretion to accept the gifts if appropriate. Um that is the change. Um and we tabled it on the concern that um if we were reading the policy strictly, which we do want our policies construed strictly and um we want fidelity to the words that that are written in those policies that we needed to put a threshold amount in so we didn't have to thank for every donation that came through. um no matter how

152nominal the value. Happy to take questions about that. Thank you. Are there any questions for Frea? Anyone wishing to make public comment? >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve the second reading of policy KCD is presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? That shows unanimous. Thank you so much. Uh 16.0 is new business. 16.1 is a motion to approve the budget transfers for FY25 accounts which were overspent by more than $10,000 per policy DBJ. So we just um heard from Kate. Do I have a motion to approve the budget transfers as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Um any public comment? Any discussion? All in favor? Um, and it shows unanimous. Thank you so much. Agenda item 16.2 is a motion to approve the fund transfers

153from general fund to capital reserve fund and prek reserve prek program reserve fund. Do I have a motion to approve um those transfers as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh is there any uh second any public comment? Oh yes, welcome. Can I add one thing? I we do have a document that says what the motions are and it also talks about the um the two different reserve funds and I'm going to make sure that that's posted up so that people understand the the um function of those two reserves. We'll add that to the to the documents that are online. >> Perfect. That would be great. Thank you. >> Um uh public disc Thank you. Is there any discussion? We had public comment. Yes. I just want to say again, um I think that

154I'm so excited about these funds. I love these funds. Um now that there's two of them, I love them even more. >> But um I think when you look at good financial stewardship, um when you are planning ahead and you're we we ask uh we have a tremendously large budget compared to many communities in the state of Maine. Um and we ask for what we need. Um, and we're good stewards of that budget, which is demonstrated by having a very modest surplus of less than I think around 3% from what Kate just said during her presentation. But using these funds to plan for the future so that we can buffer um and support our community without having to go to the taxpayers and and ask for more money every single time. And using those funds

155appropriately is really important. It allowed us to save the prek program this year. I don't think we want to underestimate like how significant um Kate's creative thinking and knowledge of that those numbers were um instrumental in that program existing and so we would have lost a tremendous amount of momentum and work that we put into that program but for um the this idea which is coming to fruition tonight and that's extremely I feel very proud of that work um same with the capital reserve fund um That fund is relatively new. It was created in 2022. >> Um we've been fairly diligent in saving money because these have been good years for the school district and we've been able to do that. But setting aside that money for when we have challenging years which will come

156um is just I think a really good hallmark of good financial stewardship. So I'm really extremely proud of these funds. Um I thank you Kate for figuring this out, bringing it forward um and making it real. Um, and I'm really excited to be able to support this. >> Thank you, Frea. Um, I couldn't agree more. So, I'm just going to say I feel like this is a good time to use Ditto. Um, capital the capital uh reserve fund is my also my favorite fund and I was really excited when we got to um bring it on board and um I was probably the biggest one. Tell me one more time why we can't just save money, why we can't raise funds to save funds. And um I tend to be a little bit more conservative.

157And so I I I appreciate a good savings account. And um yes, when we have hard times, we'll be able to lean on this, but also when we have funds that we know we will need to expend. Um the buses is your favorite. I always think of the turf and the track and replacing that is my um hallmark for this account. So they are um fantastic accounts. We are really fortunate to have Kate and you are a fantastic steward of our money and um I think our community as a whole um should be really proud that you you represent us and you serve us so well. So thank you very much for all you do. All right, if there's no more discussion, all in favor and that is unanimous. Thank you so much. Um okay,

158uh bless you. 16.3 is the first reading of policy BEDH public comment at school board meetings. >> Despite the lack of public comment at this evening, >> we have one we have. >> We we um it's very important to have a good policy on public comments board meetings. Um I I keep going back to my like orientation uh uh with our attorney who gave us some just sort of pointers, but public comment is one of those highwire electrical I think of danger zones. >> Yeah. >> Um because there's a lot of laws having to do with open meetings. Um and there's a lot of school boards that and there's been a lot of contention at schoolboard meetings across our state and abroad. Um where public comment really has become kind of a a a really

159sticky problem. sort of how do you support open meetings? How do you support public engagement? Um while at the same time ensuring that you can conduct your business appropriately, that you know you don't break any laws and the content of what's said. We have to be careful about talking about personnel issues for example. Um and other matters that sometimes people want to express opinions on but really a public forum is not the appropriate place for that. Um and so uh we relooked at this policy. Um there was I think some updated policy in the sample policy that was given to us um by the school association. Um but we looked through it. We went line by line. We're pretty close to the sample policy with a couple of a couple of changes at the um

160during the enumerated portions. Um I'm not going to read it to you. Um is in your back board packet. Um it doesn't fundamentally change our policy. Um which is um when has been stated at meetings which essentially is um everybody who wants to speak can speak. you have a three minute um limit and you can't um you have to keep your comments appropriate and that the appropriate is defined in this policy. Um obviously you can't have to use you can't use obscene language. You can't threaten people. You can't talk about again personnel issues. So if you don't if you like somebody or hate somebody, you can't this is not the form to express that. Um happy to uh to answer any questions about how we came to this. But I think if you read the

161sample policy, you look at this policy and look at our current policy, it's pretty obvious um that this is really the attempt to do a status quo, keep our our our regulations in place for um so that we can conduct our business, but also provide the open forum that the law requires us to and that we want to because we like to engage with our community when they when they feel like engaging with us. >> All right. Do we have any questions for Frea? >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve the first reading of policy BEDH public comment at schoolboard meetings as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Is there any public comment? >> The irony. >> What irony? >> Oh, I thought you said yes. I was like, oh, are

162you gonna >> Oh my gosh. All right. Any discussion? All in favor? And that shows unanimous. Thank you so much. Agenda item 16.4 are appointments. Um I will turn this over to Diane. I'm wondering um because they are all um list. Do you um is there anyone that you would like to speak to specifically or would you prefer me to bundle? >> I'm comfortable with you bundling them. I think the only notation that I would let you know about is uh when you take a look at uh the high school uh club advisors list uh I understand that you're aware that uh we had some change in staffing for Oakill players um and we will have uh an updated list of appointments uh for that for you for the next meeting. >> Oh wonderful. That's

163wonderful. Thank you. Okay. So I am going to bundle 16.4.1 high school club advisors 16.4.2 middle school club advisors 16.4.3 Wentworth school club advisors 16.4.4 Jim Dandy coaches 16.4.5 districtwide lead teachers. Do I have a motion to approve those positions as present presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? No. Uh all in favor uh and that shows unanimous. Thank you so much. Agenda item 17.0 is adjournment. So with no objections, we will adjourn at 8:26 p.m. Thank you so much and have a great evening.