001e e e good evening and welcome to the Thursday November 21st 2024 Scarboro Board of Education business meeting can we call the attendance please thank you Mr kaher here miss Leon here Miss Lindstrom here miss Peterson here Mr rockenstein here miss tarpinian here miss tarp TP Huff here miss Ledger here rasina here wonderful thank you would everyone please join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for perfect um agenda item 4.0 is approval of the November 7th 2024 business meeting minutes if there's no objection we'll approve those all right um agenda item 5.0 is adjustments to the agenda I do have one adjustment I want to re flip um the
002spotlight award recognition in the high school sport fall Sports recognition so the 6.0 would be the spotlight award the 7.0 would be the high school fall Sports recognition if there's no objection we'll go ahead and make that adjustment all right thank you um so that brings us to agenda item 6.0 which is the um Spotlight award recognition Julian would you mind um I I know this is putting you a little bit on the spot but since we have um an audience that likely hasn't experienced this before would you mind just telling the group what what this is sure so once a month we recognize one of the staff members in the district uh that has been nominated by another uh staff member and so we put together a little presentation and we present an award
003that they're really fun and we get to hear all about the cool things that our staff are doing in the district that is that I level overview all right oh oh no oh no game hold on we just a minute oh surprise all right go to oh good so so our new members all right so uh our November Spotlight winner is Nikki is wait wait baf okay so I was so worried about that Diane told me but um all right and so uh Nikki works for um Works in Wentworth school and she is part of the um I'm sorry I'm all all discombobulated she works in uh special services I believe right as the department she works in World Language World Language yeah sorry well anyway uh we will the person that nominated her is
004not able to come tonight but we're going to go ahead move on Kristen Goodall and so Kristen gave us a bunch of information about Nikki and uh one one of the really cool things on the next slide is what she said about her and what other staff said about Nikki is that she's wonderfully Innovative um she's a team player and she's on the Allied Arts team thank you um she is always looking for where she can jump in and make best learning environment for her students uh other things that people said she's always thinking and she is the absolute best to work with um she was nominated because of her her work work ethic is enormous she has gone above and beyond to provide a positive learning experience for Wentworth students by uh last year
005she actually set up this multilanguage learner breakfast so the students come together um I think every day and uh that has worked into can't even I can't see the rest of it sorry I can't can't get it to come up but anyway I'm so sorry uh so she was she worked with a number of people within the district to get this project moving and now it has continued on this year so um other things that she has done um is that she is she's always coming up with new ideas she sees a problem she looks for Solutions she works tirelessly to do all of that so the takeaway that I got from all the staff that we heard from is that she's an amazing asset to the district and she absolutely loves working with her
006students so congratulations if you want to come on up here we'll present you with an award please do again I'm not going to say a lot but I just want to say I'm very very appreciative been here in scarbo a long time and it's just one of the best districts and I love teaching French and Spanish and our faculty and just all the people it truly is a family and um I to I can just always attest to that to anyone I speak to that we just have a loving caring supportive um District here and it's been many years and I look forward to oh a few more thank you so much congratulations all right our agenda item 7.0 is the high school fall Sports recognition so we will invite um Mike the Gage our
007Athletics director up well thank you once again for having us it's great to see so many student athletes and and coaches here tonight we uh sometimes get a bigger turnout than others and tonight's a good turnout for us so appreciate everybody coming out tonight and and uh supporting this and so I'm going to get right to it so you can hear from the coaches uh coach Murphy with golf thank you uh representing the golf team tonight we've got Andrew Sawyer cam Seager and Ethan skillings uh just a few thank yous first uh to the school board to Michael leage and the high school uh Administration for allowing me to coach another year of golf uh we had fantastic year um this the we're led by seniors and the senior Bunch went 37 and three over
008their four years uh in a very tough tough League uh we've had a fifth place finish a third place finish a runner up and this year we got over the top and uh took home the big one uh for the State Championship uh besides the winning just great kids dealing with wonderful kids who uh really represent the town uh their families and the school in the the best possible way uh so easy to work with them because they really care for each other the sport and they have a lot of respect for for what they do and represent so uh I'm so pleased uh that they could come out on top uh this year and uh hope that uh we're looking at Future years doing the same thing so thank you guys very much coach
009M you with football I'd like to Echo what coach Murphy said Thank uh Mr leage and school board and the high school administration for uh allowing me the opportunity to coach here in Scaro uh representing us today are our captain Tyler Holland Kevin Collins and Cole tomat um these guys done a great job leading the team exemplifying the pillars of the program that that we try to instill in them um they represent the school very well and their teammates very well um we had another tough year this year uh we went two and S uh overall record um but we really tried to stress uh the perspective of things as you go through the season and stress that it's it's all about wins and lessons um so you try to you try to learn from
010the adversity um and it's not always about the record or the scoreboard it's about preparing young people through education-based Athletics uh and helping them cultivate a spirit that's going to carry them through life uh long after Sports um I just want to say it's it's been a privilege to coach uh here in Scarboro with so many wonderful people uh and Coach so many wonderful young people over the past 13 years thank you coach Diaz boy soccer thanks for having us guys uh these are two of my captains Sheamus Corey and this is Matt fona um we had some other guys that led but these two were uh were our senior leaders uh we had a great year this year uh obviously we got to a really big game and now we won the conference and
011we won the Regional Title um uh things didn't work out in the last game but uh we we just had a great time as I said at our banquet I really enjoyed uh working with these guys uh one of the things we did that was really nice uh we did Becky's walk along with the girls soccer team and uh we had a really big uh showing for that a lot of our our kids showed up for that on both teams and uh that's one of the things we did uh as as a soccer uh Community um thanks for allowing me to to do this job thanks to Mike and the administration uh congrats to all the athletes here uh some of the teams did really well and some of the teams you know didn't do
012as well as they wanted but I know most of the kids in this room and I know how hard they work uh how much time they put in uh so we're lucky to work here and uh really proud of my guys so thank you and coach Bennett with girl soccer say anything John all right hello I'm uh Doug Ben I'm the JB coach the uh barsy coach Mike Farley is out of town so you get me uh few quick thank yous uh first of all the athletic department for all the craziness that we uh we we we put them through and the training staff for keeping us all uh healthy and ready to play for our the parents for their endless support and I actually want to give a huge shout out to coach Diaz
013and the boy soccer team I mean they he downplayed it but they had a crushing defeat in the state finals and they stayed for our game afterwards in State final and that just shows so much class and uh just really appreciate them staying here and know as a soccer program with the boys and girls we do do a bunch of things together and um we do a walk together which is actually called the making uh taking making strides Against Breast Cancer Walk we're part of Becky's team um everybody calls the wrong thing but uh initially we raised $1,199 980 uh for breast cancer so I mean $112,000 raised by the soccer team is just to such a worthy cause is just absolutely amazing so think I introduce my uh captains we have Meg rart B
014raldi and D your frvorite um absolutely amazing year this is one of my favorite years of all time I've been doing this for a couple days and uh this is a h season I'm never going to forget this because it's was just such an amazing season with so many amazing people uh the last two years we did win the State title and know winning a State title is really really difficult it's it's I can't tell you how hard it is win one State title and then to win two is more than twice as hard because you need the same really good human beings and the same really good players but now there's a giant Target on your back so everyone's coming after you so the win two in a row is amazing and then try
015to go for three like you need everything else from beforehand to go just right and now the target's bigger and you brought in probably almost the whole team has changed cuz all the kids do graduate so um it's really difficult and for us to get to the State final for the 30 in a row it's just absolutely incredible and just some quick stats from these from the three years that these young ladies uh played in The Varsity program in our 54 games we were 493 and2 outscored our opponents 210 to 25 our playoff record was 11-1 and with there a 91% winning percentage in the playoffs off I think most teams are happy with a 50% or maybe slightly over 50% winning percentage and we're at 91 and this is the best three threeyear run
016in the history of our program um and this includes Abby by the way I forget to leave Abby earlier sorry Abby I just sitting here sorry about that another key awesome part of our team um but I I can't emphasize enough how soccer is just one thing these guys do right they're involved in a ton of clubs and Leadership positions I bet 80% of them make the honor rooll last night at our banquet so many of them made the all academic smaa all academic team like I said we raised $122,000 for breast cancer um and this is what should tell you everything about our soccer program there's four classes in the high school four class officers per class 16 total and eight of the 16 Playgirl soccer so I I can't be more than I
017mean Beyond blessed to coach these kind of human beings who just happen to be you know some of the best soccer players in the state so thank you captains and thank you to you guys and thank you everybody else and I'll see you guys next year so how you doing coach freeze with unified volleyball I wrote down a few notes because I get a little nervous so luckily I got these guys with me coaching a high school sports team brings with it lows and highs following a tough loss we are always challenged with finding the right words to help our athletes Focus forward but then there are moments of joy and pride as our team accomplishes a long-term goal during these past few months I have found that my unified volleyball team offers me a
018new perspective on competition having a team of 19 including both athletes and partners I found that our Focus was always on the team whether it was cheering each other on during an inter Squad scrimmage or cheering our opponents on when we competed against Thorton Academy Gardner and Morse my team always had a smile on their face standing with me I have miles Fiona and Nick who truly exemplify what it means to be a teammate they show up for each other they show up for me when I'm nervous they show up for Scarboro in a way that I couldn't be more proud I think many of us assume that the adults in the room are the teachers and the coaches but I can attest that I have learned more being their coach than I think any
019of them have learned from me and that is to focus on your team so I would like to end by simply saying thank you to the players to my helpers and to the families all across garor um I constantly had a headache from smiling too much because all they do is make each other laugh and and they love trying to make me laugh in the same process um and our ultimate goal was simply to be a team and I think we accomplished that from start to finish so thank you for having us coach peerbridge with volleyball hi everyone my name is Nicole pbridge and this is my second season here in Scarboro as the varsity volleyball coach um that means I've been lucky enough to work with liv ali and Natalie here for two seasons
020and I couldn't be more grateful that um they've been here as I started out here in Scarboro um this season they led a team that did not return a single player to the starting lineup due to Big graduating class and all sort of other circumstances um but they LED them all the way to the second round of the very competitive class a state tournament before losing to the eventual state championship state champions these three and our team as a whole embodied open-mindedness as we navigated lineup changes togetherness in building a new team chemistry and a commitment to giving their all day in and day out they participated in in a dig pink charity game for breast cancer awareness uh raising over $1,700 to Aid families fighting this disease we saw our program grow physically with
021the addition of um our inaugural first team coached by Lisa that was just up here um and metaphorically as they empowered one another through the sport of volleyball on the court and beyond their keys to success were simple we are stronger together than as individuals our team this season didn't look for excuses instead they named areas for improvement and took it upon themselves to address them in practice even when playing some of the strongest teams in the state our team took pride in making sure that no one looked past scar bro results aside every spectator could see our team's love for the game and mutual respect for one another on full display whether it was navigating a tough loss or celebrating a victory this team makes me proud to be a coach and part of
022Scaro Athletics due to their Superior class sportsmanship and just their support from this town their families the administration and Beyond um so I'd like to recognize our captains one more time and all they've contributed to our program and thank all of you so much go L with chair leading hi I'm Caitlyn larier the head coach for scarbro cheer and with me tonight I have Katie Reid who's our assistant coach and our two seniors Anita and Alexis uh we appreciate the chance to speak with you all tonight about the wonderful season our high school sports teams have experienced this year has been characterized by our hard work dedication and a strong sense of teamwork our primary focus has been on the importance of not only being exceptional athletes but also being outstanding teammates balancing the roles
023of being students and athletes can be a challenge but this balance grows our team members into our well-rounded individuals who radiate positivity leadership at school on the team and in our community it is an essential part of our team that we create a culture that values kindness respect and integr integrity alongside athletic skills these are qualities that make our student athletes exemplary representatives of Scaro high school we are excited to share that our team not only excelled in cheering on the sidelines this season but also demonstrated their commitment to the community a significant highlight of every fall season for us is our participation in the main brain aneurysm walk this event allows us to raise awareness but also support a critical cause while strengthening our Bond as a team additionally our athletes engage in making
024birthday cards for the confetti Foundation which which brings joy to children in hospitals when they need it the most we are grateful for the opportunities to incorporate these meaningful experiences into our program reinforcing the essence of being student athletes at Scaro high school thank you for your continued support of Athletics and we can't wait to be back on the field next year coach W with field hockey all right um so first I want to start off by saying a huge thank you to our athletic department um especially Mr leage he made my first season here amazing um and I truly couldn't have done it without him and just a huge thank you to you all as well on the school board um tonight I have my two senior captains Haley French and Ruby Widner here
025with me um similarly I couldn't have done this season without them um it truly made everything so much easier knowing that I had these two leaders um alongside me and I think that their team realized that as well this year we went six and8 um and then eventually lost in our first round of the playoffs we had a very tough and tight schedule um playing the ultimate state champion um Team twice in the season which is a big deal um but they were always persevering and they never gave up which I think just shows how strong they are as a team um and hopefully that trickles down from our senior class and on um so along um with the Athletics comes the academic piece as well and so on our team we promote teamwork inclusivity
026and we allow our players to practice being reliable um we have them do tasks make sure that they're staying um on top of what they need to do whether that's weekly um equipment runs or they have to tell their teammates that they're forgetting something um or just being really good humans so we take huge pride in that um setting a routine prioritizing and setting goals and so I'm really excited for this team coach Harmon boys cross country some support here from our senior captains Ethan Keller backx Mariam Landon Springer and Nicholas coil uh well hello and uh thank you for having us here tonight I'd also like to thank the Administration who is actually here tonight one of them uh athletic department our trainers our coaches other coaches uh parents the boosters and especially our
027hardworking student athletes um our team couldn't be successful without the support of all of you uh first I want to talk a little bit about those athletes uh some of the most talented distance owners I've ever had the pleasure of coaching uh some of the most dedicated responsible and resilient student athletes I've ever coached uh they had to come over uh overcome many obstacles to be successful this year uh but they also learned how to transfer that dedication and hard work into their studies uh as many of them are on the honor rooll and um the majority of our seniors earned smaa all academic status uh We've also got an incredible group of effective young leaders on the team um and they've realized that uh giving up is not an option but uh uh not
028a mistake a loss is not a is or a setback is just another path for opportunity to success which they ended up uh using that and did that this season over the season our leaders and athletes led us to a very successful season but it was also a very challenging one um we our athletes endured many obstacles on and off the course uh they work very very hard um to become better and eventually be the best team in the state but there were numerous injuries some small some even season ending a few illnesses right as the championship season began and some other issues uh but the resilient athletes overcame everything to achieve the goal of bringing our state championship trophy back to scabo after a five-year Hiatus so um and they did that by beating
029the state championship uh returning state championship team Portland by just one point um and three of our runners in that uh um meet earned All Conference smaa All Conference status and took three of the four 14 spots available for all 17 teams that were there that day um throughout the season we managed to score uh managed to to get a record of 108 wins and only three losses um but those three losses were all to Portland the defending champs again uh they beat us by 17 points once 14 points uh excuse me 12 points and then 27 points in the regional meet uh but our athletes regrouped and they came completely determined and prepared for the state championship meet uh dug deeper and gave a greater effort than anyone thought they possibly could and they
030improved as a team by 2 minutes and 41 seconds from the regional meet to the state meet in just one week uh Portland didn't make it easy like I said they uh we only beat them by one point but they actually improved from The Regionals to the states also uh by 49 seconds but our athletes battled right to the very end and uh brought that title back to us uh so thank again to all of you uh but especially to our dedicated athletes and I think we have a nice future with these kind of uh young men and women coming up here so uh but um they have something for Mr leage there thank you all again coach curry with girls cross country hi thank you for having us tonight um this is Laurel Driscoll
031she was a junior captain and Bridget flry was my um senior Captain I have another senior Captain but she's in the play at school today she also had made the all academic team Rowan Driscoll so we had 13 girls on the team you know there's a lot of other sports like soccer and field hockey that girls do so at 13 te but they worked really hard um their goal was to qualify for states which hasn't happened since 2019 so we have not qualified for States since then so they worked really hard as a team really encouraging each other at practice in school um which they ended up placing six that Regional so that's got us the state they placed eighth at state so that was the goal so it was really a good season um
032Laurel was um undefeated in the regular season she won all our um regular season meets as a team we won our um three meets and came in second so they did really well for such a small team um they also worked hard you know outside of practice and they volunteered together working a water stop for the main Marathon this year after a big meet they all got up early and worked that so it was a really good year so thank you I just ask coach Curry to stay here for a minute because I'd like to present her um with an award the US track and field Association has named coach Curry the girls track and field coach of the year for 2024 so congratulate her on that okay well thank you this was a big
033surprise but of course I couldn't do it with all the coaching staff and the athletic department and the great athletes that I get to coach so it is an honor to coach him at scab BR high thank you well I think that's it for um the presentations from our coaches and athletes and um I think you heard tonight a lot about um the success of our program certainly but I think you also heard about the importance of education-based Athletics and the great work that our students and our coaches uh do out on and off the field um you heard a lot about uh different things that they're involved in with fundraising and and those sorts of things which take an enormous amount of time and energy um to not only balance a rigorous Academic Program
034um but also participate in athletics after school so a really special group of people that that do that and so congratulations to all of them and uh thank you for having us again tonight is there any questions or any comments all right I will just say I just I always have something to say because this is my favorite night um there's a lot to be proud of here right there's a lot of um wins there's state championships there's a lot of volunteerism there's a lot of fundraising there's a lot of leadership skills and it is for us for me um I think I I feel safe speaking on all on behalf of all of us it's really awesome to get to see you shine and see you thrive every year and um this is is
035a super meaningful night to us and um the one thing I do want to say is um even when you know it's I think it's easy to be um happy and and feel and learn from success right it's a little bit harder to be excited and to learn when there's failures or when things don't go well right maybe it's a season that didn't go the way we wanted it or maybe it's we made it all the way to States and we had a really tough loss but the fact that you show up for each other every day is really really important and I hope you take that away the fact that the boys soccer team stayed um that's a really meaningful thing the fact that the football team your season was not I know not
036what you were hoping for but you're here and you showed up for each other and that's really really important and so um even when we have those tough times and even when the lessons um are tougher to take I hope you take away some of those things with you as well all right congratulations to all of you and thank you so much for coming tonight it means a lot to us thank you Doug you can to stay okay great thanks e all right thank you to those that have are staying with us this [Laughter] evening all right agenda item 8.0 is general public comment is there anyone wishing to make public comment this evening is there anyone online all right seeing none I will go ahead and close general public comment agenda item 9.0 is
037continuing business um 9.1 is the second reading of policy AA A2 student sex discrimination and harassment complaint procedurea I am shocked that people didn't want to stay for this this is riveting riveting stuff um uh we we didn't get any comments back about our um our proposal after first reading of the student sex discrimination harassment complaint procedure um I will not go through it with you again in detail but I'm happy to answer any indiv uh questions if there are any at this point in time again this is in response to Federal Law changes to title 19 that were made um this is federal law changes over the summer um and hopefully we won't have to revisit this soon although Rumblings are we may so any questions about the policy yes sir all right um
038seeing none do I have a motion to approve the second reading of policy ACA aar2 student sex discrimination and harassment complaint procedure so moved second is there any discussion all in favor it's unanimous thank you um I'm going to bundle 9.2 and 9.3 these are the second readings of policy acab harassment of employees and the second reading of policy acab1 employee discrimination and harassment complaint procedure I'm going to spend a couple extra seconds on this one because it's going to lead into our new business um this looks a lot like the student sex discrimination harassment policy um and then there R1 and R2 again based on the changes in Title 9 uh they've divided out sexual harassment versus regular harassment which is now a thing apparently um and they have different requirements under the law
039to deal with the complaints when they're made um this was the General uh policy and then the policy for again I don't know what how to say it other than like regular harassment non-sexual based harassment for other protected classes um we're going to get to First reading on the sex discrimination complaint procedure later on perfect thank you so much FR um do I have a motion to approve the second reading of policy acab harassment of employees and second reading of policy acab1 employee discrimination and harassment complaint procedure so moved second is there any discussion all in favor that shows as unanimous thank you agenda item 10.0 is new business 10.1 is a Scarboro High School presentation so for this we'll invite Nate up um good evening everybody um I'm just going to say ditto to
040the fall Sports presentation and grab a seat if that's all right now um In fairness um no I think um I don't think we plann this but uh it works out rather well it's sort of a full comprehensive view of the high school tonight in terms of what we do on our day-to-day um you know having having been on the SP fall Sports night my plan here over the next couple of minutes is just to kind of cover some of the academic day today and some of the new stuff that's been going on at the high school this year um I have kind of a mix of prepared comments and and off the cuff stuff so if you just bear with me here um so uh every year if you're if you're new to the
041board every year we come to the board um usually in February to um put forward um our program of studies and talk about some of the new course proposals that we've got for the coming year um and a lot of times those proposals are coming from a couple of different places um sometimes they're coming because we're not seeing um you know we're not seeing student interests in the course um and so we might look to pull that out and maybe substitute it with something that might have a little bit more popularity or get some more interest from students um other times it might be we're noticing there's sort of a gap in a pathway somewhere or maybe there's an opportunity to maybe connect two Pathways um so every couple of you know every time we
042come in February there's always a few tweaks in terms of that so um last year when I was here to talk about the program of studies I I um had pitched a couple new courses um that were approved as part of the program of studies and I just wanted to provide an update here now um in terms of how some of that's going so if you might recall um we introduced treble choir last year um if you've been paying close attention over the last few years one of the things you've noticed is that our um music program in general has seen a lot of strong growth um and that really it really took a hit um during Co um you kids couldn't sing they had to sing with masks you know they could only sing
043so much that kind of stuff um and so over the course of two years the program really took a hit um and Jeff moer um who who uh runs our music program um has really spent a lot of time the last couple of years trying to build that back um so if you paid close attention you notice he's added back in like fall concerts and winter concerts and things like that to really showcase our students um treble treble choir is kind of part of that plan um one of the things that we're seeing in the music program is that students are coming to us with all sorts of different levels of abilities um and you reach a point in a course where you kind of have to especially in a music course there's only so
044much you can do when there's when there's a huge range in skill um so last year we added in treble choir um into our music program um and I'm super excited to report um again this is straight from Jeff um the advanced Ensemble welcomed um 20 students in its inaugural near inaugural year um and has already drawn considerable interest for 2526 um on top of normal concerts and events the group was invited to serve as a foundational choir for the main State B's production of The Nutcracker at Merill Auditorium um in additionally many singers from this Ensemble were successful in their district and state Honor Choir auditions this fall uh the course has certainly raised the bar for our program and we look forward to strengthening the offering offerings that meet the needs and interests
045of all of our Coral students um and on behalf of Jeff as always we thank the Board of Education with their consistent support of Scar brro music um another course we added last year um foundations of Algebra 2 um another area of growth at the high school in terms of enrollment um has been students um who are learning English as a second language um so we've had to add some coursework in some of those students are coming in um the acronym you sometimes might hear is s these are students who are coming maybe with interrupted educational backgrounds um and so what we're having to do is sort of add some capacity and some of of our um some of our subject areas like math and science in particular um so we added in foundations um
046of Algebra 2 to better meet the needs of some of those students um Mr Crowley Dan Crowley is teaching that course um and a little blur from his designed for students who while successful in foundations of algebra are not quite ready for the rigor of algebra a um and so students in foundations Algebra 2 will continue to develop fundamental skills and algebra um including things like operations rational numbers orders of operations solving linear equations graphing linear equations all those things that we all do on a day-to-day basis with math um but it's been a big help um again it gives us a little bit more um of an ability to sort of meet kids where they're at um as opposed to dropping them in a course they're not quite ready for um so the foundations
047out of algebra courses have been I think a really strong addition to our program over the last couple of years um another course that we're excited for we haven't taught it yet but um another new course that's going to be on the books in the spring will be introduction to photojournalism um which is really exciting um it's replacing an older course um and it's really kind of bridging a gap um we've got some interests in yearbook and journalism and things of that sort um and we've also got some interest in photography and so this is sort of a course that's going to exist at the intersection of those things um it'll be taught by Lorena Armando who is super excited to teach that course um so again we haven't launched it yet but it'll be
048launching in the second semester um this coming year um career Pathways is another area that continues to grow um I've got a couple things here and in a minute I'm going to put Abby on the spot to speak to um some of her experience and one of her extending learning opportunities but um we've got 22 students enrolled in Extended Learning opportunities this fall um which is really really awesome if you're not familiar um with with Extended Learning opportunities there's sort of this nebulous area um but it's this growing area in education that's an attempt to sort of um make learning experiential um in ways that the traditional the traditional classroom can struggle to do um so we've got students participating in like the healthcare fi field Early Childhood Elementary education law and legal practice law
049enforcement leadership in local government architecture construct and Engineering um and nutrition um and physical therapy these are all Partnerships that um our career Pathways coordinator Christy savnik cultivates maintains um and these are things that sort of stay on our books and as students maybe come to her or come to us um with different sort of interests that we don't really have a course for um we plug them into Miss vasnik who's often able to sort of pull together a set of experiences from the the catalog and of relationships and Partnerships that she maintains um and we put something together that sort of gives these kids a foothold a real world learning experience and perhaps a leg up in a field of interest that they're um that they're interested in pursuing down the road um a
050couple of the new ones so we've got a healthcare ELO um just to kind of Spotlight a couple of these we've got a healthcare ELO that includes session at Main Health Allied Health um Training Center here in scarbro um we've teamed up with South Portland High School to partner with main Health to develop a pilot program um offering students the opportunity to participate in Hands-On sessions with medical professionals um we've also got a law um exploration ELO this is in its second year we've got three students enrolled in that program um it's open to 11th and 12th graders um and those students are attending sessions from 3 to 5:00 um in Portland at Main law they're also doing some work at the courthouse um local law firms things of that sort um so really cool
051opportunity there because we don't have like a legal course with Scaro um so that's sort of an opportunity where ELO that's kind of an example of how an El meets a need that's difficult to meet otherwise um we'll also be launching um second semester we'll be launching an ELO in journalism which is really awesome um I know there's some board support for something like that too we're working together with some of the board members on that um so that's really cool and then Abby do you want to come to the mic real quick and speak to your experience about the ELO and local leadership and local government so aby's doing an ELO through um as part of her um work as a student rep on the board um so I'm going to call her forward
052and ask her to speak about how it's going so I'm doing the uh Elon local leadership in government and so it takes like the role uh Grace has as student representative and it takes it further one of the things I do is I meet with Miss Lindstrom monthly and then have a mentoring meeting mentoring meeting where I set goals for myself on like what I can do and one of the things I do is like I meet with student council and I uh take that and I get their voice and I can bring it to the board I'm also like uh joining the uh Communications committee here where I get to like look at policies and then I'm also like uh trying to make a student Spotlight award like the teacher one we had today
053and then uh part of the ELO is I make like I have a time sheet where I um log my goals and what I do to like achieve them and at the end of the year I'll do like a reflection and a presentation about like what I've learned through this uh ELO and like um what opportunities it has given me thank you for that Abby um couple other things going on at the high school this year um we do as you may recall from last year um we did some work work um as a building in response to state law um to figure out how to offer integrated credit um so again if you're if you needs a little bit of background um scarbo High School partners with um Westbook Regional Vocational Center um and
054Portland Arts and Technology High School those are Career and Technical exploration high schools um and so we partner with those schools and we send students over to them um to expl to explore fields of Interest career you know career programs and things of that sort um there was a law passed uh I think of a year or two ago now um requiring both CTE sites um and sending schools to figure out how to offer integrated credit um the simple explanation for what integrated credit is is it's taking courses at these CTE sites for Core Credit like if a kid goes over and does um you know takes Building Trades where does that fit in the math curriculum you know can we award math credit for that traditionally those programs have always been um those programs
055have been reflected on our transcript as elective credit um so to offer it as integrated credit just to provide some context is a really big deal um because typically because um because it takes so these are these are um these take half of a student's instructional day so if a student signs up for a for a CTE program they're gone from either 740 to about 104 40 um and they're either at Westbrook or pass um or they might be gone from about um 10:00 to 1:00 so it's a huge commitment on the part of the student um and so typically when we have students who are interested in that and and we start to see that interest usually late freshman year early sophomore year when we have a student that's interested in that pathway um
056and in that programming it's really critical historically for students to be in good standing um they have to be track for graduation they have to have core credits taken care of um because that's going to be such a big part of their day um that we really have to make sure that they're in good shape um what this actually allows us to do is it actually reduces some some barriers there um because we do see students sometimes who struggle academically who are interested in this type of programming and occasionally we have to say no to a student because their Core Credit um is in such bad shape that it's not going to work in allowing us to count um in in allowing us to count some of that work for Core Credit at the high
057school um we've really kind of created some some lifelines for kids who really need that programming who really benefit from that programming um so that work was really a product of um you know conversations with CTE directors conversations with Cumberland County principles um conversations within our high school with both the building leadership team the instructional leadership team school counselors it was a pretty big lift last year um and I'm super pleased to report that um we've got 48 students um at voke this year earning 41 integrated credits um which is really awesome um and that's brand new this year so that's super exciting um the other thing couple other couple things I wanted to mention um our dual enrollment program um is also really really healthy this is sort of another um expanding pathway um
058dual enrollment credits are um credit bearing opportunities for high school students um to earn they can earn colle col credit these are courses that they take at universities or at community colleges and they earn college credit they generate a college transcript and they also count towards High School Credit um this is an area that the state has supported really the last couple of years I would say the last probably seven or eight years has been a big push at the state to try to explore these types of Partnerships and see what they can look like um and it's been sort of a healthy um it's been a healthy pathway for a lot of kids at Scarboro High School um typically we're averaging about 38 students um taking Early College enrollment over the last five or
059so years um and this year I'm pleased to report we're pretty much in that area again we've got 29 students um taking anywhere um from 3 to 12 college credits um which is awesome and that generates a college transcript and they can some of those kids are going to roll right into smcc or USM with um you know a semester done or or maybe even a year done depending on how much they've done so that's super awesome as well um the last thing I wanted to emphasize too is that in addition to sort of diversifying Pathways um we also continue to strengthen traditional Pathways um I do think this is going to be news even for um superintendent assistant superintendent but um we recently um so our um we recently received some really good news
060regarding our AP programming um so the last two years um or two years ago I guess I should say the College Board instituted a recognition program um to sort of uh I think to really sort of shine a light on the health of of different types of AP programming at different types of high school um and we were really excited this year um we received a silver distinction um on the AP honor roll recognition which is great um they use College Board uses three metrics to kind of look at that information um one is College culture which really boils down to um how many students have taken at least one AP course um and they look at it by class so this was B based on the class of 2025 which is our current senior
061class um they also look at um how many students um have earned um a score an AP exam score of three or higher um which makes you eligible for college credit um and then they also look at a metric they call College optimization um which is how many students have taken five or more and have they taken those courses over U multiple years um and I'm really pleased to report um we've got 63% of of the class of 2025 um has experienced at least one AP course prior to graduation which is awesome um that earned us the silver distinction in that category um in terms of college credit 46% of the class of 2025 has earned college credit um by earning an AP exam score of three or better also really great um in college
062optimization um we actually received a platinum distinction in that category 25% of the class of 2025 has taken a total of five or more AP courses across Ross their high school years with at least one course taken in grade n or 10 um and I would just to give some context um according to the College Board there were 15,8 187 schools were eligible across the United States and Canada for these Awards um and 32% received either platinum gold silver or bronze distinction we were one of approximately 500 schools in that pool receiving the silver distinction um and only one of nine schools in Maine that earned any distinction at all so super exciting stuff there I will say one note which was kind of a bummer um we were actually just two points off receiving
063the overall gold metric um so we were we were um you sort of get the lowest whatever you achieved in the lowest is what you get so we had the silver for the College culture the gold for the college credit and the Platinum for the college optimization but that dropped us down to Silver we hit 63% for that number we needed 65 to be gold so we're we're working on things um but super exciting overall and if you needed more context to the health of the AP program I would say because this blew me away when I saw it earlier this year we had we administered 678 AP exams last year um and the average score was 3.14 which is just outstanding um I don't know if any of you folks took AP classes in
064high school but it's really hard to get a three um because some of these these classes are designed to be 100 level the equivalent of 100 level college courses and we've got like you know High School freshmen and high school sophomores taking these courses um so 3.14 is really really outstanding um and the last thing I would mention um I'd be remiss if I didn't say this um I know Mr leage and I were there earlier tonight if you haven't had the chance to go see the oill players production of White Christmas go see it it's well worth your time very very good stuff um they've got a couple more shows they're showing tonight um and they got a couple more shows one tomorrow and I think just one Saturday right yeah so two more
065shows two on Saturday two on Saturday so three more shows for you to see well worth a couple hours of your time very very good stuff thank you we just add that um oill players is be presenting to the school board at one of our December meetings so they're going to give us a snippet of um part of the show which was amazing very good production thanks all thank you Nate are there any questions or comments that was really yeah that was really really impressive thank you thank you for always um I always say when people ask me that you're the um you're probably one of the most outside the box thinkers I've ever met and you have students always at the front of your mind so thank you thank you for that all right
066um agenda item 10.2 is approval of the sbaac to new building architect firm um so we just had this Workshop um right before here uh right before we had our meeting um we do have Mark here from Herman and the CEO of Herman if there's any questions that um we wanted to consider but essentially what you heard in the workshop is that the building Committee created a um selection firm and our committee excuse me and that selection committee interviewed the firms that submitted applications um their recommendation is that we approve their unanimous recommendation to hire her um if you haven't watched the um or if you have time and haven't watched the building committee meeting um I found it really insightful to hear from the committee members I know they started to talk about it
067tonight um some of the things that I heard that really stuck out to me um well the biggest thing that I heard that stuck out to me was that um I know of I think it was two or possibly three people that served on that steering committee walked into to the meeting saying anyone but Herman that was their thoughts walking into the room and then they walked in the room and sat down and were totally blown away and so um totally changed their mind I had somebody that just came up to me tonight and said the exact same thing to me so I feel really confident in what um I've heard from the steering committee the other things um I heard was that they had really Herman had really done their homework and um Herman
068had really seemingly learned from um some failed referendums ours being one of them Cape Elizabeth being another one one of our neighboring districts um and so there's been some adjustments that um moving forward are really I think are beneficial to to to us and um uh to to the community as a whole as we look to November of 2025 um so their recommendation is unanimous and that we approve Harman to be the consulting firm for the S SPAC too on one second let me do that do I have a motion to approve the um sbaac to new building architect firm so moved second is there any discussion yes um so I had the I'm very very loud okay um I had the pleasure of being on SPC one so I am um very passionately involved
069in kind of this process going through um and I think um I was really taken away um by um Herman's presentation I was not a part of the selection committee so but had um they had made their presentation at our last meeting and um I really appreciated how not cookie cutter their presentation was they had so clearly taken the time to think of Scarboro and where we're at what our needs are what our deadlines that we've put forward as a school board you know integrating Our Town Council our our constituents or Community um kind of all of these different things that really um they found a really nice way of marrying their wealth of knowledge through the history that they have with throughout the state of supporting including scar Bros um previous um School building
070projects along with not for getting that each project is different and when they brought it to the table it was really evident that they had taken the time to think of us in this project not what had worked here or what had worked there or all of these things and I really appreciated that time that they had put forward um and I kind of excuse me mirror Shannon sentiments that I too had kind of heard a lot of concerns um echoed in the steering committee where people had gone in with you know anyone but heram mind um and when they took the time to sit they were taken as well and it speaks to kind of the level of quality of time and um effort that they put in and kind of thought so um
071and then uh kind of echoing what was said at the um Workshop tonight um the thing that kind of stuck out most was they're really just um echoing this aide of a partnership so we've kind of got from ASAC one this kind of grass Grassroots start to um like a really wonderful thing that's been driven by our community um and the things that we heard consistently in esac one was wow it would be really nice to have some professional experience here to to guide us in this moment or we need a little bit more data here and and um Herman felt like the correct choice to be brought in to support them that um so I guess I I would just strongly urge the approval of their recommendation thanks Alissa is there any other yeah
072go ahead I think um as I will say every time I talk about the esac is that I don't not involved on a day-to-day level on any on in any way and I haven't been from the beginning um it's not the place I serve on this board um but one of the commitments that I made um to this this process on this round um not that I didn't have it on the first round but specifically on this round where we kind of re started on the focus was to come in with an open mind to not have preconceived ideas because I heard a lot of concerns from community members that we have predetermined the outcome um and that's something that I committed and this board committed but I I also committed to doing and so
073I think we owe um I think we owe a a Deb of gratitude to the esac committee and the hard work they do but also we have to trust the people that we have given um the we have like designated as the decision makers in this group um and for them to come forward with a unanimous decision it would seem um counter to everything that I committed to doing this round to not support going forward thank you PR and to kind of speak to that um that idea of bringing everyone along with us and making sure that um um we haven't predetermined a lot of these um outcomes and everything Herman really spoke um frequently to forums and surveys and getting that feedback and having multiple times where we can reach out to the community
074and say are you with us do you need more what where are we at what are prioritizing our priorities and what does that look like for Scarboro and I really appreciated the level of detail that they put into bringing that along because I really if we leave the public behind we are not passing referendum and I really greatly appreciated their level of interest in doing exactly that um and I I think it will help to settle well hopefully help to settle some of the ease of people feeling as though we're working towards a predetermined destination absolutely and do think um to that point as well um it seemed to me from what I heard um I I did not send on the selection committee but from what I heard um there was a a definite
075understanding that this um Community member Le committee has um come up with four Solutions and there's a desire to vet the four um not just from the committee but also from Herman right so this partnership is as you said is really is really that so you have your 20 member committee plus you have um this this architect firm working together to drive it a solution so um in all aspects communication um really drilling down so there's no predetermined I you know solution out there there's four there's four Solutions four potentials that are are being looked at there any other thoughts or questions is there oh I'm sorry sorry go ahead no no go [Laughter] ahead um is there anyone wishing to make public comment okay seeing none I will um we have a motion second
076okay um all in favor of approving the esac uh two new building architect firm and it shows you item this thank you all right agenda item 10.3 is a motion to abolish the diversity equity and inclusion committee um I'm going to turn this over to fra and Jillian but before I do so I want to just say one quick thing about the verbiage that you see here um I I don't want this to appear that we um the wording the reason the wording is at such is is it's direct it's lifted directly from our policy um so this is not um an embol of the work that's being done in the district it is a it is a districtwide goal um it is something that this board is committed to the the work however is
077we've been discussing in our workshops and at committee meetings um the work is as it was as that committee was set up was very difficult and so um what this is is actually a pivot and a change and our new version of diversity Equity inclusion and those are the teams um that are in place at the building levels so I don't want anybody to when they see the word abolish to think that we're we're done with this work at I don't think um I don't think that's ever truly the case right it's just that it's it's it's shifting in changing direction and so with that PR I'll turn it over to you and to Jillian so I I don't think this is a moment that any of us um are looking forward to um and
078I thank you for your clarification Shan I think that the term abolish is feels very um pejorative and I don't think this is a pejorative measure um I really want highlight the work that we've done on our goals that we voted on I believe it was the last meeting it might have been the meeting before that um but we um I having sat on the committee since the first meeting of that committee um the work that we have done I think is complete in so much that the what we were tasked with has been completed I don't believe that all the goals of eliminating any issues or tensions having to do with inclusivity in Scarboro or indeed any group or environment in this world is possible I think it's a it's not a destination I
079think we all strive to meet the highest goals of making sure that every individual student is feels welcomed and is able to access um the best education that they're able to in an environment that they are as comfortable as possible understanding that it is profoundly uncomfortable to Pro from a child into an adult um through that period of time it's a tumultuous period of time in anyone's life and so balancing that the district's uh obligations and really best practices is to support each student um on their individual journey and at who they are and what they need so that they can accomplish their highest um purpose I think that what the committee accomplished was a set of recommendations um early on and I apologize that I'm like Whispering my voice is pretty much gone um
080they re-reviewed they actually started the work completely all over again and came up with a set of recommendations that were closely aligned with the first recommendations and this this board approved a different Constitution this board approved both of those recommendations um those recommendations have been folded into the board goals with a goal to annually review the progress made on the EI committee's recommendations um and that's part of our goal to promote a districtwide uh culture of trust inclusion and collaboration and also in our third goal and again we have three goals in our third goal we also highlight the need to make sure that we are supporting students or strengthening Student Success um through ongoing development in all subject areas including District Prov Dei work and so I really see this as an evolution of
081the work from the committee's work which was a community it was a community-led board or committee I guess of the board um into the school district where the actual work can happen because the limitations on that committee being a board committee with community members and the requirements of under federal law of student privacy really means that the work needs to be done in the district so I feel very comfortable um that the work is not getting lost or there's no sense that we have done this that we're checking a box and that it's completed um if you could complete this work please I would like to know how to accomplish that I I think we could learn from that but I think that that this district has made a full-bodied uh commitment to making sure
082people feel that they are welcome and included in this community and when issues arise as they will um we will challenge them head on and so for that reason I support this even though it's certainly not something that I again I think is done or um you know we're putting it behind us I really think that we just need to move the work where it's more appropriately assigned I I would just Echo what FAA said about this I that was very comprehensive thank you very much perfect all right is there anyone wishing to make public comment on this all right seeing none I will go ahead and um do I have a motion to abolish the diversity equity and inclusion committee so moved second is there any discussion all in favor and that is shows
083unanimous thank you um agenda item 10.4 is a first reading of policy ACA br2 employee sex discrimination harassment complaint procedure I don't know why everyone isn't here just for this um so this is the final piece in the six pieces of the title 9 changes having to do with um sex discrimination harassment complaint procedures as opposed to regular complaint procedures um for discrimination based on other protected classes um and this is this is a first reading so I um encourage you to go through the draft it looks a lot like the student one and in fact our committee amended language even though we were told not to um because there were certain Provisions that clearly indicated it was meant for students and I think perhaps the drafters in their um desire to get this out
084quickly may have overlooked some of the editing and so we edited it to make sure that in each period um it was clearly indicating a staff having to do with a work environment as opposed to students in an educational environment and even though we were told not to change the policy I'm very comfortable that the changes clarified it and made it workable as opposed to extremely confusing if you were a staff member reading about why as a student you should be uncomfortable in your educational environment when you're looking at a staff policy I'm happy to take questions about that um but if you were reading I know that a lot of you are going to do the 15 page side by side of the sample policy with this policy um you will see those places
085um other than that it's a very specific procedure that'll let lays out the due process requirements so it gives the person um who feels that they've been subject to this type of harassment a mechanism to make that complaint it gives um the school district the ability to investigate a complaint um with with the person who feels they've been harassed cooperation or in certain circumstances without their cooperation um if there if this the district has to take steps to ensure a safe work environment for all staff members um it gives um notice and the ability to have information about the investigation and to participate in the investigation for both the people who feel they've been subject to harassment and people who are accused of perpetrating harassment um and then if uh a decision will be rendered
086if a complaint if the investigation is undertaken and if that decision um the party who's unhappy with that or and both parties are unhappy with the decision that's been made there's an appell process that's laid out in this statute um again it's it's follows the requirements of title n specifically with the timing of some of the when the reports are due and then the timing with which you have to bring the Appel um essentially what I'm going to call an appeal to superintendent um but it's a pretty standard uh mechanism to investigate claims um harassment if it comes the attention of um the authorities which in this case is the title 9 officer um at our district which is our ass superintendent right and um and hopefully if somebody feels that they are um in
087an work environment that is that sex discrimination harassment is happening that they can go to this policy and find the mechanisms that they have um to make sure that that can we come come to an end because nobody should be subjected to any type of harassment um at the school district or anywhere all right um is there anyone wishing to make public comment all right see none um do I have a motion to approve the first reading of policy acab2 employee sex discrimination harassment complaint procedure so move second is there any discussion sure I just have a question so Scaro unique in having this since it was advised uh to not separate the two um so what I would say is if the district uses the sample policy that was given to us by Dr
088woodsom um or msma actually um and assuming the school distri is a member of msma because virtually all school districts in main AR they would be working off the same sample um I don't know the practices in other school districts but I would imagine that their committee should review this policy and if they were to review the policy it should become apparent to those reading it that there would need to be tweaks done to some of the definitions it's not definitions really but um some of the descriptions I'm trying to go to one that we changed but um hold on give me that second and while she's looking for that yeah just as a clarification like one of the changes within the statute of Title 9 did require us to divide the student and the
089employee policies I'm just trying to get at the root of your question got it okay so yeah we didn't do this for fun we did this because we had to got it we didn't want six policies when we could had to but um but it in for example when we talked about workplace or we talk about in this policy in the sample it would refer to a students's educational environment when the policy for the student educational environment we've already reviewed actually had second reading today um this really refers to the subject of the complaints um happening in a work environment and then we had to divide out the educational environment and the work environment so I hope this isn't unique to Scarboro I did notify Schoolboard members I'm friends with in other districts that they
090perhaps should look at that yeah and we did we also actually asked Diane to um send a message through for us because it um it very clearly when you have teachers and you have staff those are not they're not in a student en environment educational environment they're in a workplace environment and so that verbage should reflect right the what they're doing understood now thank you are there any other questions all right all in favor of approving the first reading of policy acab R2 employee sex discrimination harassment complaint procedure and that is show unanimous thank you agenda item 10.5 is our appointments 10.5.1 is k25 ESO um English is a second language teacher yes so I'm really pleased to bring forward this appointment to you tonight and actually as I've been peing at Ray's computer um
091uh this this candidate Tara Carter is online with us this evening watching our meeting um so Tara Carter has been selected to fill this new position uh Miss Carter earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Minnesota and her master of science and education degree in teaching English as a second language from hofra University she has held positions as an ESL esol teacher since 2007 in Minnesota Virginia and most currently in the Portland Public Schools and so our recommendation is to appoint ter Carter as a K5 esol teacher thank you Diane um do I have a motion to approve the K5 ESO teacher as presented so moved second is there any discussion all in favor and that shows unanimous thank you thank you and congratulations Tara
092all right agenda item 10.5.2 are the high school winter coaches yes just uh you have the uh list in your packet and the recommendation would be to approve it as written please all right thank you um do I have a motion to approve the high school WI our coaches as presented so moved second is there any discussion all in favor H that shows unanimous thank you all right agenda item 11.0 is executive session 11.1 is a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to 1M RSA 4056 D for the purpose of discussing the custodial food service contract to return to public session do I have a motion second second any discussion all in favor it's unanimous we will be back thank you e e e all right good evening and welcome back agenda item 12.0
093is the ratification of the 2024 2020 through 2026 seven custodial food service contract do I have a motion to approve so moved second is there any discussion all in favor it shows this unanimous thank you agenda item 13.0 is adjournment without any objection we will adjourn at 909 all right thank you so much have a good evening e e