001e e e I am calling to order the Scarboro Board of Education meeting of Thursday July 18th welcome um Mr Groen would you please call a rooll yes yes Mr kaher here miss Leong here uh Miss Peterson here miss Trini here uh sorry M TR penan here with that would you all join me for the Sorry Sorry Miss Lindstrom Miss Lindstrom has been excused me now will you all join me for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 liy and justice for all all right item on the agenda 4.0 is approval of the June 27 2024 workshop and business meeting minutes uh do I have a motion so moved second um any discussion
002on the meetings of June 27th of the workshop or the meeting all right see none without objection um I'll approve the meetings minutes of June 27th uh moving to item 5.0 are adjustments to the agenda uh Dr Nido are there any adjustments to the agenda tonight there are none excellent moving to item 6.0 of the agenda it is a superintendent report great broken a minute to pull up the slide de um and we we have uh actually a lot of um great news to share with you this evening even though it's summer and people are wondering GE school is out and we must be all set um there are a lot of excellent things that are happening uh first off I want to start off with a huge congratulations to um coach Denise Curry uh
003you may remember seeing her at the last meeting um when she talked about the girls track program uh she has been named the 2024 girls high school track and field coach of the year for the state of Maine um by the US track and field and cross country coaches association so it's a national recognition um so we're really excited um I actually sent her an email to congratulate her and she didn't know that she had received the award um so it was a really exciting um interchange that we had but um again I think Denise is a great example of the really committed coaches that we have here in our district she coaches cross country indoor track and outdoor track um and I think in the in the few years that she has served um
004in this role the girls have um really excelled so uh that is great news for us um also we have a lot of things happening at the school uh the elementary summer reading Academy and the high school credit recovery program both began on July 8th uh those are running through the month of July uh we have about six about 50 students um attending summer reading this summer um and then for those staff who are teaching in the summer academy uh they also get um professional development the first hour of the day so they work collectively as adults um and so if it's great that our students and our staff are each benefiting from that program um Middle School their summer program The Connections Academy will be happening in mid August um and uh there are
005over 60 students already registered for that so um all exciting um our curriculum teams have been meeting this summer we have teams that have been working on social emotional learning initiatives uh as part of our implementation um we have had teams reviewing curriculum in a variety of areas including social studies work at UH different phase levels and um there's also been a lot of professional development on the interdisciplinary Outdoor Learning uh work that is happening at the middle school through the Molly Grant um so um I believe we actually had a face Facebook post about that um this week and so exciting to see um staff coming together uh towards that effort we also have over 90 students um participating in extended school year Services um through our special services program this year uh we're
006running two functional life skills programs two academic life skills programs a social life skills program resource room programs um supporting kids in Reading Writing and math um and then students are also getting related Services um as uh written in their IEPs uh and esy happens Monday through Thursday it started on July 1st and it will go through August 8th so um that's really exciting uh we also have several groups within um the special services department specifically engaged in curriculum development this summer um they're working on a common curriculum for the functional life skills program K to5 they are developing differentiated curriculum um uh in regards to inclusion and they're also developing um resources for staff on the use of assisted technology and the potential that um assisted technology has for greater inclusion for our students
007um and then um um we have been super engaged here at central office um as you may know um the state reopened their um Capital School construction program uh and so as I had talked with the building committee this spring um I had shared with them once that was open that we would be renewing our applications for each of the four schools uh the 3K 2 School and the middle school and so we have been working really diligently on that um it was kind of build by the state as a as a you know you just need to update and send it on over and um we're finding that there's a lot more work that's involved than that so um we are spending countless hours and and that really includes you know today I'll give
008you an example uh we sat in the conference and worked for like 5 and a half hours um and met with uh three out of the four building principles on their applications um and Todd and Kate um are involved in that work Ry is um on boarding and learning a lot about um the status of our schools uh as a result of that and so those applications are actually going to come to you next month because the board does have to vote for us to be able to submit the application um um there's a place on the application that I need to document the date that it was brought to the board and the results of the vote so um you will be seeing all four of those applications um at next month's meeting in
009August uh because we will need your approval before sending those off to meet the August 30th deadline um you know again it's um we know how we ranked um in the last round and the assumption is that the same schools are going to be updating their applications minus those who got State funding last round or found local ways um but I think you know we need to do our due diligence and um you know look under every Rock possible so we're getting that done and then finally um just today we found out that our primary principles um have been selected to participate um in early um learning Fellowship cohort through the doe um that was an opportunity that uh they applied for collectively as three building principles and um they're going to be learning alongside
010peers from across the state um throughout this upcoming school year to further their understanding of what do high quality prek to third grade um programs look like and what are approaches that promote um diverse Equitable and inclusive practices so we're really excited about that I think that also uh provides an opportunity um you know as we launch off into our prek pilot this year so uh things are looking up lots going on all right moving to agenda item 7.0 is the Cher report um I should have put uh an airplane emoji on the screen um because our chair is obviously not here but she left me uh with lots of notes to share with you all so I will do that Faithfully the first um piece of information are the committee assignments that uh she
011just created and sent out to the board um so I'm going to read them um so the public can be aware of the changes um I'm going to note uh uh Shannon has put herself on some of the boards temporarily until we have our new member seated in November so I'll note that when that comes up but the finance committee will be chaired by Jenna leang um other members would be me and Alisa uh the policy committee will be chaired by me FR tarpinian and the other members will be Shannon and Jillian the long range planning committee will be chaired by Alyssa Peterson and other members John Shannon is going to be a placeholder until the new board member is seated negotiations committee um I'm going to chair that committee and other members are John
012and Shannon until the the new board member seated don't let that suade you from running please um our Outreach and Communications task team um is shared by Jillian Trini Huff other members will include Jenna leang and Shannon as a place holder for the new board member the curriculum committee will be chaired by Jenna Leong other members be John and Shannon again is going to be a placeholder for the new board member the building committee uh members are going to be Alisa Peterson Jillian and Shannon uh the Dei committee will be myself and Jillian again and then liazon roles uh will be the I'll be the legislative Le on uh Jenna will be the vocational uh Jenna will be the teacher evaluation uh Shannon is going to be on the district emergency management team and John
013you're gonna be on the prek task force team I'm almost done I promise I know you've been waiting for that one Jenna is going to be on the Dropout prevention team uh the comprehensive needs assess planning team that will be you John and you'll also be on transportation and bus safety you did a great job last year I did yes you did um Jillian's going to be or leaz on for the Town Council and uh Shannon will be on the ad hoc Community Center um all of these committee assignments will be on the website um in case you didn't catch that and you want to review got any questions or concerns um the other pieces of the chair's report that Shannon wanted me to share with you today is that our next two workshops um
014on August 15th there's our upcoming workshop at 5:30 that's going to be an inperson meeting only and it's going to be a new board member orientation in September our Workshop is tentatively scheduled for September 19th I know Alyssa cannot wait she lots of information um it'll be good for all of us uh but September the workshop's stively scheduled for September 19th at 4:30 um depending on schedules but that's the plan right now and this is going to be a goal setting workshop and will be in person only at this point the board takes out the goals that are on the website and and reviews them and updates them um as necessary uh again sh wanted to remind you all that the main School management association fall conference is scheduled for October 24th and 25th um
015typically that's up in Augusta if you're interested in attending please let Shannon and Cheryl know and they'll help you get registered for that and other than that um that's all she had for me hopefully she approves of of the her report all right that's right it is too late all right moving to the committee reports that's agenda item 8.0 we're going to kick it off with the communications committee yep so that would be me um our last meeting was on June 13th uh we met with espec Communications the espc communications team I think we had a really good discussion with lots of ideas of how to get information out to everyone um and I think espc is doing a lot of great work over the summer to get everybody aware of what's coming and we're
016also just now preparing for the next school year so we have not determined the next meeting yet um but you will know when we when we figure that out I'm moving curriculum I think that's still you that is still me yep um our last meeting in June was cancelled it was canceled because we did not have a quorum since Carolyn was no longer with us it was just me on the committee so we had to to cancel um the next meeting is to be determined do you want to head right into Finance as well what do I have to say about Finance um our budget passed what else you want to add any else fora I was G to say his budget season's over so we can we're budget season is right around the corner
017again for us so we're gon to enjoy this break for a little bit while we can awesome all right so headed into div diversity equity and inclusion committee um our last meeting on June 11th um which was not particularly well attended because it overlapped with a lot of other things um but at that meeting um the agenda is available and I was able to to review the notes pretty thoroughly and they reviewed the community Forum that was had to sort of did a postmortem on that to see what improvements could be made they had some great ideas about another Community Gathering that they want to host so they got very excited about hosting community events and um they prepared the report that was delivered at our last meeting on June 27th which will come up
018later the next meeting um the Dei committee broke for the summer so they are not meeting over the summer um given their experience with a low ATT in the last few years so the next meeting is set for Tuesday September 10th uh from 6:00 to 7:30 um members and the agenda and the location will be updated if it changes there's membership subcommittee work that's going to continue over the summer having to do with um leadership in that committee and uh trying to seat more members so if anyone's interested in joining that committee please reach out we would love to have you I'm going to keep going into negotiations I'm going to keep it brief uh negotiations Communications are ongoing uh we are we have one contract that uh was uh was ratified at the last
019board meeting we have one contract that's in process and one contract that's about to get underway but I think good progress is being made all around uh moving to the policy committee meeting we were unable to meet in June so this looks a lot like our last update our next meeting is July 25th at 4M we're going to talk about continuing to work on facilities naming which we've had some traction and communication with Town Council about um then there's the student transportation services and then the use of cellular technology which I know all the board members have received a lot of communication about um and then we'll continue moving through the B policies that need to be updated with that uh how about the building committee all right so there was a presentation of the
020report on June 27th and of course as you know was approved by the board the Town Council actually voted on it last night and to they approved the recommendation um the communication subcommittee is continuing to work through the summer at multiple events they're actually down at this concert that we can hear behind us right now um just trying to engage with uh people we have a real awesome dedicated group of people who are just amazing and Staffing all of these events they got a banner made they you know they really they really are are putting their hearts into it so it's really awesome um they'll be meeting with the communications subcommittee again U we will continue to support them until um the next phase and then of course uh this is really more board level
021uh but we will we're going to be developing phase to so we they are on hold until we make those decisions I think that's that's it M great um agenda item 9.0 are leaz on reports is there anyone with a leaz on report this evening I I have one I I talked to um Don Cushing who is the Leon for the council to us um so basically he had a bunch of stuff that uh that isn't necessarily um not of interest to the board but doesn't directly affect our work but they are having a land Bond um second reading and that will be possibly on the ballot in November I think it's an interesting thing for us to think about as we position ourselves in regards to a school um there will also be a
022firetruck Bond um and a I I believe a bond for body cameras on police officers which um seems like a relatively small Bond but anyway those are up in November um interesting to to hear about for sure but most important they are looking to streamline their their Finance uh process so their their um budget review process um I know there was a lot of talk about it in this last year um this last cycle there were a lot of hiccups in our process or with them um and so not our process but the whatever the melding with them um and so they're looking to really streamline that and work with us on that as well so I'm sure you are aware of that but that's their goal for this year and they are starting to
023work on that now um that's fantastic goal I think that's it is there any other leason reports all right I'm moving to item number 10. no general public comment I see nobody here because they're all enjoying the motor booty concert that's going on next to us um is there anyone online yeah I think so all right so so seeing none I'm going to close general public comment and we're going to move to item 11.0 which is continuing business um item 11.1 is a motion to approve the Dei committee's recommendations as presented on June 27th of 2024 um and do I have a motion so moved second all right as part of discussion um part of the packet I'm going to read the recommendations and then I have a note from Shannon to open discussion um
024so the recommendations that were made at the last meeting included one budget for a district level Dei coordinator to accelerate and Lead ongoing work and then there was a a subc carot under that that said what would sharing disos look like inra District another carrot that said continue to provide professional development opportunities for all staff a third carrot that said improve access to SPS information and a variety of languages fourth carot that said review available SPS data with an equity lens fifth carot was creation of a system of sharing Dei concerns celebrations and systems and the last one was continued support and development of equity teams um shennon has some concerns about a couple of these items um that wanted to be part of our discussion and here we go um she had an a
025concern about the recommendation to create a system to share Dei concerns she does not currently support that recommendation and would like to see it removed from this um if we were going to vote on it tonight uh the reason is that she's concerned that the district would be involved with this would involve student and or staff information that it might violate or would violate our board policy IES and District procedures and would be uh wholly inappropriate any concern she believes should be shared with the appropriate building leadership team who then initiates a proper protocol those are per our policies sharing these concerns with the committee made up of Community member volunteers violates not only our policies and procedures but may allow sensitive confidential information to be shared in a way that is not intended the
026other concern that she raised or was a question is that for the Dei coordinator position she would like to know more about it um we have not currently budgeted for this this for this year so it's not something that could be approved in the current time which gives time for a a more robust recommendation which could could potentially be a recommendation for an expanded role or something similar and her reasoning behind that was that Scarboro has a unique uh unique circumstances at play in this situation she's not sure the committee has fully addressed that and she wonders if the position could be a person to focus on that and for example she said we have a high number of students and families with special needs we have economic divisions we have a lot of new
027English speakers in Scarboro and she is really in invested in making sure the environment is welcoming and safe for all students and she does wants to make sure that that everybody um who is kind of a stakeholder in that conversation weighs in um to that position to make sure that it does what it's intended to do so those were Shannon thoughts and with that is there any any other discussion yeah I the this line about improving access to uh SPS information in a variety of languages I first of all I want to say that I fully support that I feel like that folds in but my Wonder is does that involveed like the purchase of a programs or is that something that is um under the purview of this board I I feels to me
028like the district has made huge strides in those areas in this last year and and I think that's wonderful and I'm uh I I think that we should continue that um but I don't know I I don't you know I don't know if this what this this bullet item in particular means like what exactly do they want um and you know I've been in those meetings we've talked about it a little I think that just a little fine-tuning that we we could support in these meetings for that would be really useful like what exactly are they looking for and if they're looking for something beyond what we are already working on what exactly does that look like and could they provide some of the research that would support that um and then I also believe
029we are reviewing SPS data with an equity lens as well and so I'm curious what additionally what additional things that that would be beneficial um and and I think that these are like drawn up with with a really great intention and really thoughtful process but I don't think that it it's really clear for for anybody reading it what exactly they're looking for in that regard but I also think that we do that a lot we do we look at our policies at you know we do it when we look at our curriculum um these things are happening and and that's wonderful and I'm wondering if they are looking for that to continue or something different to happen um and and I did also share a concern with the creation of a system so um which
030Shannon mentioned I feel like that was well stated so that's it I you know not to not to I you don't want to come across this like denigra this at all I'm I'm not trying to do that I'm just trying to understand or ask for a little more clarity um one one thing I had spent a little bit more time thinking about and wanting more information about was specifically the Dei coordinator um just kind of what that looks like um I actually really liked the idea of potentially doing an interdistrict kind of understanding what um you know I think many different schools systems do things really strongly and we can really learn from each other um and kind of in incorporating kind of those around us and and what people are doing well um but
031what that would look like or um you know is it a full-time position part-time position is it a teacher liaison there's kind of a few different Avenues it could be um so I love the idea of it um but just a little bit more vetting out of of what that looks like um would be helpful yeah I um I agree with a lot of what's been said here which is I I think haven't even participated as being a part of the committee and in the creation of the recommendations although not there the meeting that they were made um I understand I think a lot of where they're coming from but I think as a board member I'm I have a lot of questions so I think I'd like to make a motion to table the
032vote to accept these recommendations my concern being the last time we accept we we just approved recommendations from the DI committee pretty like with with very little discussion very kind of like and then and then there was I think the committee was frustrated because a lot of the recommendations didn't actually come to fruition I don't want that to happen again if we can possibly avoid it um or if I so I think we need to have all these questions answered I know they don't meet again till September um so I would say can we table this motion till after at least after the next Dei committee meeting so we can so Jillian and I can go back with the questions and maybe get some more specific information what they mean um for example I think
033like the I think I know where the development of the uh the creation of a system to share concerns I think I know where that came from but I think they need to be really clear about not participating in that system and just I want I want some more clarity because I think I think they're trying to make recommendations but I would like some more so anyway I make a motion to table this until uh this after September second got second uh we have to call the vote because oh is there any discussion on the motion to table I agree with it are we ready Mr kaher yes Miss Leong yes uh Miss Peterson yes Miss trinian yes Miss Trini H yes that motion has beened until after the next meting moving to agenda item
034I don't mean to interrupt can you turn your mic back oh sorry Jenna thank you um I was mumbling to myself so that was actually very helpful um 12.0 is the agenda is new business I'm 12.1 are appointments and I'll turn this over to Dr nid great thank you um I've had a great opportunity to be uh meeting with finalists um for positions in my first two weeks here uh in this role so that's exciting and again uh just continue to be uh uh so appreciative of the uh level of skill and talent that we are able to attract here in Scarboro um so 12.1.1 is a speech pathologist uh Vivian Curran has been selected to fill this newly created position Miss Curran received her Bachelor of art degree in speech and Communications from Mech
035Alister college and her master's of Science degree in communication disorders from Nova Southeastern University univers she has worked as a speech language pathologist since 2019 at um Woodside Elementary School in topsum and most recently at sacara elementary school in Westbrook so the recommendation is uh to appoint Vivien Curran as a speech pathologist I would uh I should have said this before you started but I would like to bundle the appointments if possible okay sure absolutely absolutely I will move on the second one is a high school special education academic life skills teacher Mark Simard has been selected to fill this position created by resignation Mr Simard received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and his master of science degree in special education from the University of Southern Maine he is currently working towards his
036master of science degree in Ed educational leadership from USM he has been a special education teacher with Bonnie Eagle High School since 2020 he was the lead teacher there in their functional life skills self-contained program and he was also a staff member on their unified basketball team and so the recommendation is to appoint Mark Simard as high school special education teacher next is a third grade classroom teacher at Wentworth School Marissa Hutchins has been selected to fill this position created by a realign Miss Hutchin received her Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from the University of MN at Farmington she has been an elementary school teacher since 2017 working at Martell Elementary School in Leon Walton Elementary School in Auburn and most recently at Falmouth Elementary School in Auburn she was on the math
037leadership committee and also the PBIS committee and so the recommendation is to appoint her as third grade classroom teacher there is also a nomination for a fifth grade classroom teacher at Wentworth Katherine Noak has been selected to fill this newly created position uh Miss Noak received her Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology and minored in African studies uh while at kby college she received her master of science in childhood general education from Bank Street College of Education in New York City she has worked as a classroom teacher in New York and also in Cumberland Foreside she was uh has also been a self-employed math tutor and owner um of breakaway bred in Portland she has coached middle school and high school sports locally and she has worked um uh and been involved with the neas
038accreditation committee and so the recommendation is to point point Katherine neek as the Wentworth grade five classroom teacher couple more here um moving on to Pleasant Hill School uh this is an early intervention teacher Sarah chadborn has been selected to fill this newly created position Miss chadborne received her Bachelor's of Science degree in elementary education with a math Focus from the University of Maine and her master of science degree in curriculum and instruction with a literacy Focus from Leslie University she has been a classroom teacher in Southern Maine since 2015 teaching at the Hansen and Lebanon elementary schools and also at Mildred L day school and uh while at Mildred L Day School she was a literacy learning lab teacher uh so the recommendation is to appoint Sarah chadborne as the Pleasant Hill early intervention
039teacher moving on to Blue Points School uh this is a recommendation for a special education social life skills teacher Desiree bramante has been selected to fill this position due to a resignation Miss bramante received her Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal studies with a minor in education and her master of science degree in special education both from the University of Southern Maine uh she has worked as a nanny and at swier and most recently uh this past year she was a PA professional in special education at Wentworth School uh and so the recommendation is to appoint Desiree bramante as the blueo school SLS teacher and finally the last appointment um uh this is a stien position for the Scarboro Middle School athletic coordinator uh Michael ooin is being recommended uh for that role um uh
040and he is also a full-time employee at scar bro mdle school so thank you are there any any discussion points or comments on the appointments just want to say as usual we're getting extremely well-qualified experienced teachers in our district which is great um I particularly like how we're stacking our UniFi team I approve that and um and uh whenever we can promote from within and bring someone um in as an and then make them a teacher that is a huge success story for our district so absolutely great work all around with that uh do I have a motion to approve the appointments so moved second would you call rooll I will I appreciate you both call together Mr ker yes Miss Leong yes Miss Peterson yes Mr T penan yes Mr Trini hu yes all
041right that's unanimous thank you um item number 13.0 is German do I have a second please call the rooll okay Mr kaher maybe I mean yes Miss Leon yes Miss Peterson yes Miss trinian yes Mr Trini Huff yes all right it is 7:37 this uh meeting of the Board of Ed is adjourned thank you all for attending or reviewing it later have a great summer thanks