001e e e all right good evening and welcome to the th April 25th 2024 Scarboro Board of Education business meeting um can we call the attendance please Dan sure Mrs gamon here miss calones here Mr ker here miss Leong here Mrs Lindstrom here miss tarpinian here Mr P Huff here miss Leisure she's been excused and Mr shamway here wonderful thank you would everyone please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance United States America nation indivisible andice thank you agenda item 4.0 is an approval of minutes from the March 21st 2024 workshop and business meetings and April 4th 2024 business meeting do I have a motion to approve as presented it's all moved second second is there any discussion all right can we call the vote please Mrs gamon yes Miss calones yes Mr ker yes
002Miss Leong yes Miss Lindstrom yes Miss tarpinian yes Mr Trini Huff yes and Mr shamway yes wonderful think you it shows unanimous unanimous um agenda item 5.0 or adjustments to the agenda there any adjustments this evening uh no adjustments perfect thank you agenda item 6.0 is a recognition of Scarboro Middle School and High School unified teams and so for this I'll turn it over to Jeff well I I would um would just love to call all of you up and celebrate this amazing event and uh Albert we want to just come on up and get started it is so wonderful that we can have you here in person and thank thank you so much for being here this evening Stephanie you want to Le things off you want me to start with I can sure
003yeah we let's let's do the video celebration was held at Scarboro middle in high school tonight to mark their Special Olympics National Banner recognition for demonstrating a commitment to inclusion Fox 23 photojournalist Scott episcopo caught up with students and Educators who spoke about honor Garo high school and Scaro Middle School are being presented their National banners being recognized for meeting 10 standards of excellence they're unified Champion schools Scaro is a really good example of what happens when your school and your community and your parents and your students all get on board with this and that it really is making a huge difference to like everyone in the school and everyone in this community it's been wonderful to play on these teams and just have fun first score I ever did was UniFi basketball back in
004freshman year I was originally an athlete and then during sophomore year I became a helper this has gave me uh faith in myself belief in myself confidence in myself especially this team's amazing the joy in their faces when you see them make a basket or just play and shoot it's it's it's amazing please show up to your Unified sports please go support your kids cuz they don't know how much of saying hi to that kid means cuz I was that kid at one point I am in special ed now I'm almost out of it but kids just saying hi to me saying my name just recognizing me giving me high fives meant the most to me because I feel like I didn't have any friends so you going to go support the your unified game
005cuz those means so much to you kids because it meant a lot to me so having those people saying hey you did Wicked Good out there hey you did amazing hey you look great out there hey I'm proud of you this is inclusion this is for making the world a better place uh my name is Stephanie leanhardt I'm the co-advisor of the unified Club at the Middle School uh first and foremost I want to thank the board of education for inviting us here tonight um I'd also like to recognize Diane Netto and Jacob Brown and not sure if he's here um who shared a vision in 2018 and were instrumental in starting the unified Club at Scaro Middle School the SMS unified Club joined students with and without disabilities together through school and community activities
006we meet weekly to promote inclusion unity and whole school engagement among all students through both competitive sports and non-competitive social opportunities all middle school students are invited and encouraged to join the club each year we have between 40 and 50 members our club plans inclusive schools week sends a group of students to the inclusion Revolution Special Olympics youth Summit hosts a unified basketball team and meets with weekly for team building activities games Outdoor Adventures and volunteer opportunities after an amazingly successful first year at the middle school in 2018 we knew we had to expand the opportunity to our high school students unfortunately in 2019 the plan to add Unified sports at the high school was deemed an unmet need in the budget and our Outlook was dim thanks to a group of strong Advocates including
007parents staff administrators and even students who showed up to board meetings and spoke about the importance of unified activities our dream was realized and unified basketball was added as an MPA sport at the high school soon after the buddy system was born now we stand before you as national champions to go from an unmet need to go from an unmet need in 2019 to a unified National Champion school and five years is no small feat both Scaro middle school and Scaro High School are recognized on Friday March 8th and presented with banners designated each of them as National unified Champion schools a unified Champion School receiving National Banner recognition is one that has demonstrated commitment to inclusion by achieving 10 standards these standards are based upon three overarching components Special Olympics Unified sports inclusive youth
008leadership and whole school engagement scar Bros is among only 10 districts across the entire us who have earned this designation in two schools there were five main schools recognized this year and two of them were Scaro high school and Scaro Middle School a huge thank you to my co-adviser at the middle school Heather nay who couldn't be here tonight buddy adviser at the uh buddy syst adviser at the high school Michelle lejoy shs unified basketball coach Albert McCormick and his assistant Brooke wden unified volleyball coach Lisa fice also thank you to the dozens of other staff members who show up to help support support students volunteer at our events play in the unified vers staff basketball games and help to hand out 800 lays to our entire student body during lay on the kindness day
009every December we can't underestimate the amazing work being done by these people to promote inclusion in our schools that video you just watched is a testament to all the hard work and dedication of our staff administrators and students so thank you and I'm just going to take this opportunity to in introduce some of these wonderful hardworking students that we have in front of us because without them this work doesn't happen administrators and the board you built the structure for them to thrive and succeed and to take inclusion and make it a point of um action for them but they are doing the work and that's what we need to celebrate we have Scarlet Laden over here Scarlet is a unified um member and basketball player then we have roui Patel who is a buddy system
010member and also a inclusion Summit youth representative which we um Scaro attended two weeks ago three weeks ago now um and it is a Consortium of schools who come together who are um invested in inclusion and unified opportunities um to come together and brainstorm and meet and greet and talk about how do we grow stronger as a unified Community then we have Brianna Pento who is our senior uh and most experienced um member she is a three- sport athlete Bachi volleyball and uh basketball she is also um a member of our leadership board of the buddy system so then we have Miss Grace Leisure who is a middle schooler basketball player and um unified Club member yeah dilia fravert who is a basketball player also a buddy system member and also was a youth membership
011um youth Leadership Summit uh representative and then we have Sophia raldi also buddy ship member and Buddy system member and basketball player so these the work that these students do every day is what makes us unified Champions and our coaches before you run off before you run off is there any comments or any any feedback go we some of us had the very distinct pleasure of being there and um that was a very inspiring evening for all of us and you should be so very proud of all the work you've done over five years and how far you've come and what you've been able to accomplish it's really really incredible and to sit in the gym and to see it full to the rafters with your colleagues with your peers with your friends with your
012parents playing basketball with you it was an unbelievable evening it was unbelievable from start to finish and we those of us many of us up here got to go and it is a night that none of us willever forget so thank you for all of your hard work Albert and Stephanie and your your colleagues that help you this is truly something to be so proud of this is a magnificent program and something that is long lasting well beyond what you're doing right now this is something that will last forever so thank you thank you very much [Laughter] can stay and hear about the budget if they'd like celebration was held at Scarboro middle you got someone who can sit in the front row that's right um all right agenda item 7.0 is a spotlight award
013recognition and for this I'll turn it over to Jenna okay um so we are recognizing our April Spotlight Award winners today so go to the next slide first we're gonna find out oops it's okay first we're gonna find out who did the nominating because our nominator left a nice message for everyone um Mara Graham Marsha Grant nominated six people so we are recognizing six Spotlight winners today they are you can hit yeah we go um these are Leah Lee Jillian dagel Gabby Joy Lori bloom maralisa dowy and Abby Randall um and can you hit that play button at the top corner there hi my name is Mara Grant and I nominated the classroom and Community connections team at blueo school for the spotlight award the team members are Lori Bloom Jillian dagel marily Lisa Dowling
014Gabby Joy Lea Lee and Abby Randall this group began developing the community classroom connections program last spring and their Vision came to fruition this past fall their program Fosters social connections among students and teachers alike it encourages positive behavior in all areas of the school in it instills a schoolwide sense of community at the monthly Community meetings the entire School gathers in the gym theid kids have learned to come together with predictable routines and procedures during the meetings they have Incorporated Concepts from our new mindup Curriculum by having the whole school practice mindful listening and movement and by taking brain breaks together also in these meetings the team reinforces school expectations and celebrates our school Mantra of kids being safe kind and focused the team passed out coins to the entire staff to be spent
015catching kids being safe kind and focused throughout the school and the playgrounds when the coin jars are filled the team plans celebrations for the kids these celebrations have included an outdoor concert with our talented music teacher Andrew Martell an impromptu recess a dance party a pass ball challenge pie and teachers faces show popull party and a building party on the weeks when there is no community meeting the entire School participates in classroom connections classroom connections have been a way for each classroom to get together with every other classroom in the school the team put together a rotating schedule for the classrooms to follow as they pair up with another class the activities that the classrooms do is up to the teachers themselves some of the activities that have been tried this year include stem challenges
016drawing playing outside crafts board games play inside read books take a nature walk play would you rather Etc finally the team has added a daily positive affirmation to our morning announcements I am kind I am friendly I am caring I am curious this helps put us all in an optimistic mindset for the day congratulations on this well-deserved recognitions Community connections team you have built many bridges and made our school even better thank you that Mara granted us with um so here's a an example of all all of the things that Mara just mentioned we are kind friendly grateful helpful and caring and curious and loving um and there are more pictures with the kids coin jars yep and one more and I'm assuming that's the outdoor concert that we had and then there are some
017videos also what we like this about the commuting the rewards I like the pie in the face reward I like the pole reward I like the dance reward I like the EXO reward we Lov classroom connection I liked about classroom connections seeing friends and seeing B old teachers all I liked about classroom connections was making olds and crafts I like doing the director drawing with Mrs D's class I like to do puzzles and in different classes and I like giving thank cute cards to the ven Ren I like meeting the teach I liked meeting new friends and seeing old ones yeah so our speakers here don't seem to be picking up the sound as much but they said some beautiful beautiful things about you guys and um when you click back into the slide you'll
018be able to hear it a lot better then we have another video [Laughter] you're all champ congratulations and then our last last slide coming up congratulations to the six of you we like to invite you guys up to the front here so we can take a picture with all of you and award you with your presence e I'll hope to you [Music] need all right um are there any any yes go ahead before you sneak off I want thank you so much I think it means so it's today really has been about connection so far of like how to build Bridges between students at schools to make sure everyone feels included and welcomed um and as a parent of a blue child student who I who's very concerned about connection seeing um the emphasis this
019community has put on and the individuals in each of the schools have placed such a premium on building into children the importance of connection with others is touching it's the reason why I'm so proud to be here and we can't have any more emotions so we're going to move to the budget very shortly but I just want to say thank you this is beautiful and I always love the spotlight Awards but and this one was personally very meaningful for my family and my community and it's because of people like you that we have such an amazing schoolar Shi so thank you very very much all right you two are also welcome to stay for the budget if you so choose that's the f going to be a very interesting um discussion next if you want
020to at least hear that about an outdoor learning initiative before the budget yes there's still [Laughter] no all right agenda item 8.0 is the superintendence report and 8.1 is a 2024 main Outdoor Learning initiative Grant um so I'll turn this over to Jeff yeah I'm just going to go ahead and introduce um our curriculum director Katie vro thank you I am here tonight with our uh Humanities instructional coach from the Middle School Dylan nay uh some other members of the grant writing team couldn't make it tonight Amy Johnston Carrie bracie Liz gartley um and I want to say thank you to the administration Kathy and Chris for being supportive in our Endeavor we're here tonight to let you know about an amazing opportunity through some grant writing that is happening at the Middle School uh
021I believe there's some slides here so the Molly Grant or the main Outdoor Learning initiative was a competitive grant that the main Department of Education posted in November it was a new and exciting opportunity for schools because previous to this year um schools were not eligible to apply it was only open to nonprofit organization serving students uh in the capacity of outdoor education and so for the first first time schools got to compete for the main Outdoor Learning initiative we I saw the Grant in the mdoe announcement and asked permission to P pursue it knowing that it would be a really great thing to include somewhere in the Scarboro school district and received while I was asking for permission an email from the team at the middle school saying hey have you seen this could
022we have permission to pursue this and so out of that or kind of organically formed a team at the middle school that began to put our heads together to write this grant the competitive Grant was for to address students in grade 6 through 12 it is Esser funding that's left over at the state and they're allocating that money to address covid learning loss particularly through the lens of outdoor education and so we worked to put together a two-phase grant at Scarboro the first focused on a pilot um interdisciplinary outdoor education unit that Dylan's going to speak a little bit more about and then the phase two of the grant would be an opportunity for educators to engage this summer in curriculum writing to look at their current units and add outdoor education opportunities and interdisciplinary
023opportunities through the support of curriculum writing from the team so we put our application in December and found out we were one of 113 organizations in the state a handful of schools um were awarded one of the competitive grants um and our grant funding total just shy of $53,000 in order to make this project a reality so I'll give it to Dylan for a moment to talk about phase one yeah we can talk about some of the fun stuff going on at the middle school um so I've been lucky to be working on this for the last couple of months it's kind of my first opportunity working on uh so it was a great opportunity and I've had a lot of fun with it and now I'm having a lot of fun getting out in
024the woods with some kids team rain uh a seventh grade team with about 65 students wrote and are implementing an interdisciplinary unit focused on outdoor education while making sure to assess important literacy Math and Science standards all together uh while uh focusing on uh their campus and analyzing uh the things that we have on campus to use for potential Outdoor Learning spaces so this is all happening in the fourth quar uh the essential questions that we're uh focusing on are how do we collect data in the field to demonstrate the impact of human choices over time so we'll be analyzing what we have on campus what we could add to campus to make it more beautiful but also more uh cohesive to learning um so ways in which we could incorporate Outdoor Learning spaces how
025can we extend our learning to outdoor school grounds I was out with them today they were running around actually Li live brainstorming different things things that they could do on campus walking trails you know logs where they could sit but also like observational Gardens um you know things that you can do to incorporate uh plant life that will bring Wildlife to our campus um so all sorts of really cool things that not only will impact those seventh graders that are working on it today and uh for the next couple of weeks but future generations of Scaro students so students will uh uh be presenting and assessing their proposals and actually sharing their proposals with stakeholders I don't know what you guys are doing in June but you know the invitation is out there um in
026order to have an authentic audience to share their learning and also practice making authentic claims using evidence to support those claims to hopefully make real changes at SMS we've also partnered with un um our kids will be going to the UN campus two different times in the spring uh the first time will be to explore the tide pools um and use quadrats and learn the skills of field science in a marine environment to bring back to campus the second trip will be uh more of a forest c um uh experience where they'll again use field science techniques to bring back to our uh wooded campus and then the one thing I'm very excited about and the kids don't know about this yet is that we're going to uh expose them to an idea of like
027creative problem solving because at un um they have this experiment experiment in which they look at uh underwater currents uh and so they actually use a gigantic slingshot with oranges and shoot them off into the uh into the ocean or into the Saka River and then watch them as they travel down the current and the students will be there measuring with you know stopwatches to see how fast it's going so it'll be an example of what is the potential of being outdoors and how do we solve problems outdoors and how do we use the outdoors as a learning tool um so you will be our partner this time around but we also have Partnerships with Maine forestry service project Learning Tree uh the center for wildlife the Mesa program which is an outdoor program uh
028up in fryberg and Bonnie Eagle as well and all of this is free of charge these are volunteers that are just sharing their expertise and also coming and speaking to our students in a way that just you know puts them at awe so that's some of the things we're doing at middle school phase two of the project will take place this summer in which we will invite Middle School Educators from all disciplinary areas to engage with the team in curriculum writing and development the goal of it being to walk away with a unit they can use in the next school year that ties outdoor education and interdisciplinary Concepts into already existing or new units that address the standards they need in the curriculum uh to meet the curriculum you would have noticed on the last
029slide some of the the money in the grant does provide costs uh address costs related to outdoor and safety materials so there's a good portion of the grant that will provide materials that can be used in uity to um by all Educators in the building to use in lessons as well as um we're purchasing 130 books that are related to outdoor education themes through the help of our district um Library coordinator Liz gartley and those books will be used in literature circles to address outdoor education themes while also addressing our literacy standards so in phase two the team will work over five um paid at paid professional development days this summer to facilitate Partnerships with the many groups Dylan just mentioned to provide support to their colleagues in the writing of the units and to
030have an opportunity to address both the successes and limitations they faced so that as a teaching team they can work together to continue to build outdoor education and interdisciplinary that meet the standards bring in elements ofal in the community and work to continue to build the campus as an outdoor as a outdoor education space for learning so we wanted to share this with you because it is new um and exciting and we thought you would love to hear it thank you so much this is very exciting this is really exciting so thank you but is there any comments first questions um I just want to say that sounds so much fun um I'm from New York city so the aspect of exploring nature is is very different um so seeing well hearing about how you
031guys can explore all of this with the kids and coming up with a curriculum based around just science and nature is is wonderful um so I'm really looking forward to seeing this in action I also think it's really interesting and um quite frankly a really good opportunity for the students to get involved and to have this opportunity to help you write curriculum and help you write programming it's you know there's a lot to be said for bringing people in and help having them help you along through the process to get the best results and this is really a a phenomenal opportunity not just for the outdoor aspect but this opportunity to participate in developing your curriculum is really cool so I think that thank you for doing that as well for making that a part
032of this all right if there's no other question do you have a question or comment julan I was just going to say what they each of them said it's so cool and uh I I I just I love every aspect of it and I'm I'm so grateful that you're doing this I think the kids are going to just be wowed and uh yeah they've already begun and I'm already hearing incredible things I oh yeah have already um reached out to the team to say I've got time in my schedule next week when can I get in and work with you so oh that's so fun I might be in the woods next week doing some tree identification with them boots yeah yeah that sounds amazing that sounds amazing that sounds awesome thank you so much
033both of you for coming tonight for presenting this to us thank you thank you have anything for your report that was it um you know I would just highlight you know the authentic learning experiences that we're providing kids right I mean I mean it's it's it's not just engaging them in ways that are that are I mean that the outdoor leadership piece is so engaging but it's it's connecting the literacy and Science and Math um you know particularly the Middle School level it's like kids are like what am I going to need this for right and it's not not so that you can do well on a test or to or to or to get the highest grade it's it's real authentic learning that's connected to what you're doing in the classroom and that's that's
034that's the focus and and super powerful so it's very exciting thank you all right agenda item 9.0 is the chair's report and 9.1 is the superintendent search update um I just have two things I know we have a long agenda tonight um two things though the superintendent search update we are um set to have our final interviews which will happen on Monday which is the 29th um and very shortly thereafter within short order that evening really we intend to hopefully have a decision for the community um to hear about at our next board meeting um so stay tuned for for updates on that um and then the other thing I wanted to talk about very quickly is um a a survey that has gone out after our um school building survey so as you know
035we we Carolyn and I have been working um pretty diligently with members of the Town Council and worked on creating a survey that um would ask the community and really get feedback for the building steering committee about um their desires for school building what they would support um in the way of a school building what they're looking for what's most important to them etc etc so that survey has gone live um as of last week the the goal you know was to get to 600 was to get to it that's our statistically valid number and we were really close last year last week and then we just found out today actually we got there so we are good with ours which is really good news because um earlier this week another survey went out um
036that appear that has really presented some concerns in the community I would say um un there was not a lot of communication around it so a lot of unsur as to what was going on and what was being asked and why and how and um I did speak with councelor McGee today um and he has he's written a statement that I'm going to share here um the the board has it the council has it and he did send it to the building uh leadership team as well and his statement says as many of you know there is a phone survey being conducted in Scarboro that is asking about land bonds based on some some of the rumors and misinformation I'm seeing I thought it would be helpful to provide some context and some factual information
037regarding the Sur Origins and the intent as we understand it a couple of months ago the parks and conservation landboard sent a request to leadership asking the council to place a land Bond on the November ballot as the current land Bond had been exhausted the request was for 5 to1 million leadership then requested the parks and conservation land board to be more specific in their dollar amount request as well as some context and background for its potential uses in town on April 18th the council was informed by the parks and conservation land board that Scarboro had received an in-kind Grant from the trust for public land a national nonprofit to quote provide technical advice and assistance in developing recommendations for the town on creating public funds for Parks Trails land conservation and climate resiliency part
038of that in-kind Grant includes a survey of Voters to determine public support for the potential future land Bond the survey includes questions on things like willingness to support various fond amounts and feelings on the importance of potential elements of the measure EG to conserve water quality the survey will begin this weekend and is expected to be completed in early may end quote at no point in time did the Town Council or town Administration receive review or provide any input into the questions being asked in the survey I can certainly sympathize with those that are confused by a few of the questions being asked on the survey is I would have to agree they do not seem to align with what we were told they would be asking and I do not fully understand how some
039of the questions asked would be helpful in understanding various conservation priorities in Scarrow voters um and so he he F he concludes with he hopes this provides better context and a clearer line of visibility for how the survey came about so um I think from our perspective on the board um it's really we I think we just really want to be clear that we are delineating between um this survey and its potential needs versus our survey about the school and those the input we're hoping to receive from that so these are not one and the same um I I think in the absence of information of people um are trying to draw conclusions because they're trying to understand what this is and so I think there's been a some thoughts that this was about the
040school and that is in fact not true this is not at all related to the school the project or anything we are currently working on are there any questions any questions for me or any comments all right so we will move on to agenda item 10.0 which are the committee reports and we will start with um huh oh um I'm sorry yes I do have one more before I move on to 10.0 but I'm GNA turn this one over to to Jenna and Jillian and Carolyn they've been working really hard on our senior citizen appreciation dinner yes so here's some information about the senior citizen appreciation dinner um the goal of this is so that our seniors can get a a sneak peek inside what our schools are doing so we want to showcase what
041our students are doing um we also have we're going to be serving food from the Nutrition department and our kids are going to be serving the foods and we're going to have we're hoping to get some performances we're still in talks with all of our clubs and everyone that's getting involved um but we really want a connection between our schools and our senior citizens also so you can sign up online through community services so you can click into that link or you can actually call Community Services and they can help uh with signing up and it's on May 30th from 4: to 6:30 and I think we said that dinner is going to be served around 4:30 30 that day and there'll be Raffles at the end of it too which would be fun a
042lot of fun hopefully it' be a great night yeah is for sure and did I I you might have said this it's free right free for everyone it's free yep um and I think we kept it at a hundred but we'll see what our sign Up's going to look like and then if we need to increase that a little bit more we can so thank you also to community services for working with us um they've been very ful and made it very easy to streamline this process for us all right any questions for Jenna the dinner all right agenda item 10.0 now is the committee reports we'll start with curriculum um our April meeting was cancelled so due to our snowstorms the week before with all the power out of is I failed to send
043out our agenda in time um so I would be breaking our board protocols by not updating the public uh within three days notice so that meeting was cancelled and then our next one is going to be May 14th 12 to1 and you have the next one as well yes I do so same goes for this one our April meeting was cancelled for the same reasons um our next meeting is is to be determined um but we do have some updates we have two student journalists starting articles for us which is wonderful uh this allows our students to get involved um also helps us on our end too to get content out to the public um but what I love about this is that it's the kids working on it and it's another way of showcasing
044our kids and working on their abilities um and then we have some ongoing communication projects so you can click into all of those we're constantly reporting out school budget info election info and we're taking Spotlight Award nominations and also now pushing out senior citizen dinner in information um so there uh you'll see the little picture with the spotlight Award nominations wanted this is actually going to be going out into break rooms in all of our buildings also if it's not already there and you can scan the QR code and nominate other people as you can see our Spotlight awards are really fun we really enjoy them um and then we also get the information out on the town newsletter too so everybody in the town also gets this information so nominate your colleagues awesome thank
045you Jenna so any questions for Jenna on either committee we just actually received our first article from a student today I I haven't even had a chance to read it yet but uh the board will be seeing that and we are actively working on getting that published so more to come it's so exciting it's really exciting all right uh Finance I'm here H my voice isn't very great so I'll um Jenna and fra may need to kick in for me uh but I will step back to the uh senior appreciation dinner for one second I think I don't I don't know Jenna if you mentioned it it's for 65 plus so she was trying to get me as a senior citizen going the 55 plus and like no not yet so uh we're going with
04665 plus and the dinner is going to be big or a choice of chicken and rice so uh but on to the budget we've um been very busy excuse me sorry about that uh we've had a lot of uh finance committee meetings lately and this past week and we've been meeting with the uh finance committee of the Town Council and going to uh community roundtables and as of this afternoon before we made our adjustments um the budget stood at a net increase of 3.65 and Jeff Diane you might be correct be able to correct me I think we were about a point above that when we started the process about 4.65 4.7 somewhere around there so uh we've done some nice nice reductions the Town Council asked us to do an overall reduction in our
047budgets between CIP and operating or what I call operating and I think you School term would be general fund um usage and of of almost 1.4 million so in a in our committee meeting this afternoon on a a vote of 2 to one we agreed um that it would we would meet to one about $1 million with a gap of about three $300,000 our savings are coming from um first bucket of 564 th000 is coming from items in motion most of that is um The Anthem we had estimated an eight I believe it was 8% increase and it came in quite a bit less um and then we have uh some some other estimates I think family medical leave is going to come in uh quite a bit under based on um the guidance from
048the msma uh uh we are proposing we have yet to hear from the town um we wanted to use the entirety of the school impact fees to put towards the um there's about half a million dollars that we have set aside for architectural work to be done for whatever the new school solution may be um and then there's another $85,000 that we have set aside for architectural work to be done to add in um vestibules that will promote safety at our three elementary schools so we've been putting that work off um but we're looking at moving forward and at least getting that designed and uh we'll see about getting that work done and we did end up adding in the speech therapist so net net it's almost $1.1 million in proposed adjustments um Shannon I
049know you'll ask me about the we we did agree to take out the CIP these items were bonded so it'd be a reduction in revenue and a reduction expense so a net a net zero um impact but um we took out the work for Quinton drive and then also the uh portable announcers Booth we're looking at finding different funding for that and potential potential funding for maybe the boosters um and then we're going to add in in the CIP budget a placeholder for the new school solution I forgot to mention this to Kate so I'll mention it to her in a look um in an email tomorrow um we'll add in $100 million just to have a number in there we have no idea what the number will be uh but just because it was
050conspicuous and missing in our CIP budget um we will um put in that number and it's probably it could go up it could go down we just have no idea what the solution is but at least something will be in there and I just wanted to speak briefly as I mentioned earlier we were it was a a 2 to one vote on moving forward with this proposition and so I was the one who abstained or didn't abstain but voted had a different idea and so just so everybody can understand where I was coming from I don't disagree with this at all but what I what I feel we I feel like we can easily meet that extra 300,000 because the the budgets each year are built off of last year's budget and if you look
051at the savings we've had over the past just since 2020 our average savings has been about $2 million and if you go back a little further the average savings uh since 2017 I'll I took out the Big Year where we had the um leftover money from Wentworth but if you just do that it's about $1.3 million in average savings over you each year with the budget so um knowing that our budgets are built off of budget versus off of projection that actually cap captures those savings um I I feel we could easily meet that three extra $300,000 if we desired but I I do understand the will of by other finance committee members and that we want to present a budget that will cover all of our needs assuming full um full excuse me full
052employment so no turnover and all that but um again just my finance brain being dosed in projections versus budget um and R I I I won't say that way because that will sound not nice but um based in a just a different a different mindset um again I do feel like we can we can find those savings and probably quite a bit more based on our experience me granted the goal is that we would be at 100% employment and a lot of the turnover given the contract negotiations we're doing hopefully that turnover will lesson so I totally appreciate what everybody um feels but I just wanted to throw throw my thoughts out there too before we put it out so that uh is that we have a meeting I believe next week to go to
053Second reading um Shannon you might be remind me I forgot to look this up when is our joint meeting with the Town Council is that next week as well it is it's on Wednesday okay so Wednesday we'll have that may first yes that sounds right so that is that is the update and Jenna and Fry feel free to chime in as well um yeah I think go ahead this is we had a lot of U meetings and finance working really hard on the budget and the roundtables have been really um good to go out and meet community members where they are and listen to to their concerns um I think ultimately the budget recommendation that was is being moved forward um is a is what it actually will cost the town of Scarboro to operate
054the schools at the level that we would like to operate them um and is a fiscally uh conservative budget over all if you look at um our ask historically um but it also will meet all of our needs um and any um because of the way Municipal budgets work particularly with the school it's it's very prudent to make sure that you have the money that you need budgeted because if we don't ask for it and we don't ever get it we won't be able to accomplish um what the school would like to accomplish and so that that was sort of the tension that was within those meetings um I know we're going to see a bu budget presentation later a small one um like an hour and a half so um if anybody if anybody
055has questions to for finance right now um I'm just going to suggest perhaps if we have conversation about budget maybe we wait to hear Kate's presentation and then ask questions about the budget but is there any any other questions for finance right now okay all right and I did look up Carolyn thank you I I know you're not feeling well so thank you for doing that the joint Workshop is at 5:30 on the 1 all right um the diversity equity and inclusion committee um so we had a great meeting on April 9th um it was there was a lot of great discussion um the new uh charge has really kind of uh structured meetings in a way that they're working towards a concrete goal which will be presented to this board very soon which I'm
056very excited about I think it's time that e committee um showed up at a meeting and to told told us what they were doing um we are planning a community meeting on May 21st um that that was one of the charges it's going to be in Wentworth from 6:30 to 8:30 um it's going to focus on some of the work that we've done this year um I say we collectively and I'm looking at the person who did most of the work um but U so but we're gonna have a presentation on MLL um multilanguage Learners um which is a big um issue in scarbo actually it's come out through the budget it's been something that we've talked a lot about and I think um it's a very very good presentation um and we hope to
057really have some conversations with the community about about Dei what they're seeing and what they're want wanting to see um and we'll see how that goes um the next plan after that is to work on the presentation report that's due in June make sure everyone remembers to put on the calendar um and uh that's going to be kind of a summary um it's going to hit what it's there be a summary of the work that was done the last year and sort of give the board an update about what they're working on um again I think that will be really good and highlight some more transparency so that people really get a sense of what's going on there next meeting is on May 14th everybody's welcome it's in the high school in the EV room
058from 6:00 to 7:30 um and then if anybody is available on the 21st we would love to see you at Wentworth for the presentation thank you are there any questions do you know when there planning on presenting to the board do they want Workshop time are they looking for like what is what is their thoughts on their thoughts are we told them that they have to give our story report in June so they're going to try to do that so I think I think it's something that they would love some direction on would be helpful for us to tell them when to show up okay the later meeting may be better okay give as much time as possible sorry Kelly I I was talking about Kelly like I think that um let me just look
059at my calendar really quick because the June meeting is the one that we pushed to the 27th um we voted to move to the 27th so that would be that second June meeting well canate that offor the board would like to bump into July because of the constraints of time we can certainly do that that I don't think that's an issue but we just need to I we're trying to comply with with the charge yeah and then in July we would only have one meeting which um I'll check the date of that but um yeah the June the 2 June meeting will be the 27th there would not be a workshop that day just so you know so that if their presentation would be a part of our regular meeting because we are doing The
060Joint Workshop the night before that would be fine I think if you give them five minutes they would be thrilled okay and that would be after their community meeting so they can include the information they receive from that as well perfect well negotiations I keep with you oh ah negotiations are going slowly but they're going going um we've sent all three proposals uh to representation we're look forward to seeing their written responses we got one um this morning which is great and uh we are attempting to get these contracts completed as quickly as possible I think we all understand that um uh people who don't have contracts are anxious about their future as they should be and so we owe them a contract as soon as possible and the board is working as a goal
061to get that done as quickly as we can our next meeting is next Thursday on the 2nd um and there'll be more specific specific updates um at our next executive session I when I wrote the slide I didn't know that it was tonight because I wasn't sure it was slide in it is tonight and so I'll give a more full update um this afternoon or evening I guess we afternoon way afternoon okay all right any questions is are they um when I say they is the sea aware of our goal the board's goal to have the three contracts completed by the end of the school year I'm not going to make representations about there wherever or not um we've stated that to them them okay thank you okay well you can continue on with policy
062My First Love um policy so we are chewing through the B policies as you will see uh today we're going to hit some of them coming up later I won't spend a lot of time on that but that's the left-and column um so that you'll see later um our next meeting is May 6th at 4 o'clock um the right-hand column of all the little writing those are the policies in order that we plan to go through them they get bumped if something comes up with higher priori right now we're chewing through the B policies which I think will take us into the fall probably realistically and then we'll hit C's um although there's probably be a change in policy committee coming up uh in the summer so we'll see what happens at that point any
063questions I feel like I'm the only I have all the questions this evening um do we have any word from councelor Hamill about the naming of facilities no um in fact I was supposed to talk to counselor Anderson about that on Tuesday and I forgot so so I apologize about that Council Anderson was going to ask Council Hammer to put on their agenda um because it hasn't made on the agenda yet okay but I will Circle back around and have an update for the next next that would be great thank you thank you all right new building committee so lean and chillian all right uh okay so we continue to meet every single week from to at least [Laughter] eight um uh but a lot of the work is being done in sub subcommittees and
064when I wrote this slide um actually we hadn't had presentations but this past Monday there were several presentations um the first presentation was actually two weeks ago by the enrollment group and they were discussing some of their concerns which led them to believe that we should use um previously we used uh the sort of middle of the road number if everybody remembers that um presentation but they actually wanted to go with a higher number uh they were worried about our enrollment actually exceeding those initial um those initial benchmarks I guess but um we also heard last week from uh and by the way the committee did agree to adopt those numbers and uh move forward with that um it'll be more involved in uh phase two but we had benchmarking and programming uh and the
065building infrastructure committee um and the finance committee uh all presented this past week this past Monday um their recommendations are kind of hard to list right now but they had some specific questions help to help us move into phase two um they broke down what the benchmarking and programing um listed off things that they felt that were absolutely necessary building infrastructure as well um discussed in detail what the buildings need right now what they lack and what it would mean to get all of those things in there um also making recommendations for more thorough investigation in um phase two in a nutshell but that those are all available online and the actual presentations will be uh posted to Facebook and elsewhere shortly any questions what okay report group the reason they came out recation for
066um using that increased number what they they you know when Rebecca did the enrollment study the Census Bureau information hadn't come out and um she was able to gather um the new or they I should say were able to gather the new birth rates for for the last year so um if you recall when Rebecca came to us and we had the workshop she said if birth stayed at 200 or above we were that that middle the road number would not be efficient it would not cover our needs and what the enrollments committee um and looking has discovered is that we did stay above 200 births for two years in a row so that was really the the push for their for the use of the greater number um with that and and so I
067do think what I heard too on Monday just to add on to what you were saying what I heard Monday was that um this next Monday they're going to start working on as a committee start working on chewing through recommendations yeah so everybody's going to have a chance to uh pitch a three minute idea I mean who you know anything that they think would be a solution to our issues and then um I think eventually the group will boil them down to some real top choices they're going to use stickers and you know put charts up and they're going to arrive at uh um some some top three to really kind of dig into um we we won't actually be present for that so uh we'll all have to be watching it online but they're
068GNA they're going to plow ahead with it and uh we I will be very interested to see and hear about it I I think that uh you know they're all going to be um interesting and probably welld detailed thought out plan so um we've seen a few a few come through and people have sort of inadvertently uh not inadvertently um intermittently sent along their ideas uh through this process so certainly going to be interesting and um kind of exciting that we're at that point already so uh the group is doing a lot of work that's for sure yeah and so their idea is to take the information that they've heard from the different subcommittees and come up with a recommendation or pitch for recommendation is that where they're well in theory I mean I that's
069what that's what is proposed um I I think anybody though is going to be able to anybody it all is is going to be able to uh come up with whatever recommendation they have had in their mind and it doesn't necessarily have to meet any particular goal right I mean that's what I understood however I think that overall the group is very invested in and solving as many problems as possible and meeting all of our decided upon goals so um I think that they will arrive at recommendations that mostly meet those um marks so I imagine that will be a big topic of discussion actually and some of that had was discussed last week you know we really want to meet as many of these as possible some people were suggesting to prioritize those a
070little bit that work hasn't been done yet there are a number of things that are still to come thank you all right any questions for Jillian and Leon all right any leison reports um the D I had just for the DT um group the last meeting was um cancelled so we'll have a our next one soon in May yes thank you and and the prek task force is uh I mean at this point has been um the uh people have been able to sign up for prek uh it for the lottery and they are going to work through that whole process and um uh I the term is escaping I I wanted to say uh uh the next step is screening thank you I I couldn't I couldn't come up with that word the thing
071they were gonna do the thing um but yeah the next step is screening they've uh they will screen a set number of kids and then um eventually they will arrive at the 16 do we have any idea of how many applications we've done oh there were lot I think we received somewhere around 50 yeah yeah see the number yep and they were pretty you know they were from all over uh they weren't from any one specific area they were all over Scaro so that's great it's a great group to choose from and we definitely have a need then right we can start to demonstrate that as well yeah very young um not to put you on the spot John but is there anything from the ad hoc committee community [Music] Center we had they had
072um a me not a meeting but like u a gathering at uh it was last night and then I couldn't make it so I haven't and I haven't got any information about the you know because it was several hours it's like from 3: to 7 and I haven't found out so I'll have it the next time we have it I'll get the information yeah there's a um I I believe anyway I should say that there's a push to um move forward with a referendum on the community center so I'm interested to see how that will play out given what our needs are here so any information you can bring it well I will I'll have it for the next one I just wanted to give a quick legislative update um there were two bills that
073we were all very interested in um that were in the supplemental budget in past um um which was the um amount for special EDS and other some other support staff as schools um they they have tied their um their pay to the minimum wage by percentage is 125% for some and it's 111% for others um I think in terms of our negotiations and in terms of our budgeting we are prepared to deal with that we knew it we knew it was coming and I don't think there'll be a significant impact but that bill did pass we talked about it um and that has happened um the other bill um that you may have heard about has to do with CDs Child Services transferring Service uh the provision of services from three to 5 year olds
074who have been early identified as needing um intervention services to in the school districts in which that children reside and that did pass as well that was funded in the supplemental budget which means it's been enacted and that means that and I don't know all the specifics I don't think anyone knows all the specifics about how that the regulations are going to come out related to that bill um but in the next couple two three years um that's going to transition services for that age group to this body to the school district and it will be our responsibility it has a pretty large funding source right now with it but um funding sources that are tied to budgets change every couple years so it's something that we we will need to start getting ready for
075any questions um I I just I I think I've been pretty transparent about my worry as to how these um state funded programs as they roll down to the local level how they're funded and how we can how we you know it's not lost on me that we're here trying to find nickels and pennies where we can to make a budget work and yet we're now going to say we're going to fund these two major programs and we're struggling with what we currently have we're talking about do we put a roof on the high school or not and yet these two massive programs are coming down um and will impact us locally um I have put in an Ask P from personally and if you get an opportunity I would love for you to ask
076as well what I would like to see in the way of funding this since it is you know a done deal I would actually like them to consider funding this over multiple years instead of just one because let's at least provide a runway for our residents to be able to get used to the idea of funding something locally and it's not not just one year funding and the next year you're on your own my understanding is what they're saying and I'm not representing this because our representation in Augustin changes every two years and there's tourament after certain number terms so what the the legislative body that enacted this is not the same legislative body that's going to be doing the regular General budget next year um and the way the budget Cycle Works I'm not
077going to do we have a lot to go in on today nobody wants to talk on that um it's extremely complicated and very uh it's very fickle it it changes very quickly um with and there's a lot of new education that needs to be done regularly um as of right now they're representing that the money that they've had in DHS allocated for these programs will continue the problems with the program were less tied to financing actually and more tied to finding service providers to provide the services that were necess because of our location in southern main we have a significant advantage over rural districts because we have the population here but we struggle to meet the needs of our students right now that's why the speech pathologist was added back into the budget um this
078is going to require us to build an infrastructure that's that is already inadequate feel like I'm doing my day job all over again a different system there's an inadequate system right now there's infrastructure that needs to be built um I hope the funding continues at the late that they say that it's going to um it's a complicated funding scheme because it's also related to to a lot of health insurance and Main care benefits I mean it's a very complicated funding stream it's not I don't believe that they're going to cut off funding and and in 2027 they're going to say good luck funding all the Speech Pathology well yeah but what about the other the um the Ed tax and the support staff that is um that's squarely on our shoulders right that's going that's
079the one um I figured the funding well I shouldn't say I figured I'm hopeful that the funding will continue as promise for the I would be less concerned about the other Bill and let's be honest um we struggle with funding edtec edtech Ed techs are the biggest group which is why we focus on them but it's all supports services are are impacted by this Scarboro wages are not so low that we're going to be very impacted by this we are not paying our pay rate is not so low that the legislature has to order us to pay people at 125% of minimum wage like again this isn't like a secret like if you look at our pay scales which are public we're not going to be severely impacted by this we're not paying people so
080low that a whole group of people are suddenly getting massive raises right and we let's be honest we don't want to be treating people so unfairly that the legislature has to tell us to fund their positions adequately so that the reason I'm not concerned about that bill is because our pay rate is is is already going to be okay there this is not 12% 125% of what we're paying people right now it's 125% of minimum wage now minimum wage is now indexed which means it goes up every year if that continues it can change next legislative session but if as that continues that 125% is indexed to that so it will go up with minimum wage but we don't pay people minimum wage no but we do have some we do have some that I
081don't know what that exact number I'm looking to Kate because I don't know the exact number looking at the numbers we're not going to have a severe impact there's not going to be a bunch of people that there's not a class of people that are suddenly going to get a raise because of this bill because our pay rates are high enough that it's not going to be severely impacted at us there's going to be some impact but it's going to be nothing so I don't think this bill right now is a significant issue if minimum wages decline significantly higher and this index stays with it that will be something in the future we'll have to deal with but I'm that's a distant future issue I think because minimum wage is not climbing so quickly that
082we can't keep up with it um the keep your eye on the other bill that is a much more significant problem and the problem is twofold it's financing but it's also finding Personnel that we already are struggling to find and that like those are those are two different intractable problems they're somewhat related if you pay people well you can attract people but we're not in a place and quite frankly our population given the age it is at is not in a place where we're building large quantities of the professionals that we're going to need to provide the services and we're probably going to need to be creative and start thinking about how we share with other districts this is going to require large scale infrastructure that DHS was unable to do competently it's a lot
083to take in yeah I'm I'm the minimum wage bill is is interesting it's it's not what our problem is providing services for three to 5 year olds with needs that haven't been identified yet that's going to be a very hard Challenge and expensive yeah all right all right um let's see um agenda item 12.0 our student reports I'll turn this over to Colby I got a pretty long one tonight it's a about all like the activities going on at the middle school and the high school there's a slide From Grace with some pictures but I don't see any uh subtitles so I don't really I don't really know what to say about that but looks uh looks like some good things are going on at the primary schools but uh on to the next slides
084uh next one uh you guys already saw uh the unified clubs that was pretty amazing and uh you know we already know they were unified national champions which is uh pretty impressive and there's a next slide has some more pictures of that it's uh it's great to see and then uh at the high school there's been a lot of uh art projects at the Art Club including pin making pumpkin painting and uh sculpting I don't know if that's sculpting or sculpty but uh yeah here are these and then also so at the high school there's been print making so people making packing tape sculptures and here are some pictures of that and then uh several artists at the high school won a lot of uh some good Awards a host of names here won Scholastic
085art Awards which is pretty impressive and then the youth art month at the Portland Museum of Art also had some recipients and after five difficult meets the high school math team won the state meet which is a pretty impressive also Matthew fagerland finished as the third place Junior and Logan cl cl cluder finished as the 11th Place senior and both finished in the top 20 for individual scores of the year and scabra high school is also one of only two schools to surpass 300 points and bested the main School of Science and Mathematics 318 to 307 which is that's pretty insane and Vex robotics uh also competed at the state meet uh March 9th all five teams made it to the state meet and four out of the five made it to the second round
086of qualifiers and some season awards uh 344 R won the create award 344e won the create award and build award and 344 R won the tournament champion and here's some more uh pictures of that some alumni came back to support the teams as well that's cool yeah all right um the High School M un visited Philip Seer Academy for a conference on November 5th and UNH on March 9th uh Jack merain won the distinguished delegate award at Philip stter he also won it last year at USM and Katarina asbach won The Honorable Award winner and also on April 6th the uh Club had a antique show and they have that like every year they a lot of big sellers there it's impressive and at Mal un students transform into a un Ambassador role while debating
087topics such as gender equality climate action Global health and more it's like a un uh simulation I did that club for two years and I thought it was pretty cool to go to the conference and stuff yeah and then uh the Key Club and the functional life skills group uh went to the Morrison Center or they brought Morrison Center students to Scaro high school once a week to have lunch with Scaro students currently in the auditorium Key Club has also worked with the Morrison Center to allow shs students to think the ability to volunteer during early release days at the Morrison Center to work with them on projects like gardening and cooking and this has been a great exposure for everyone involved and uh the EOS Club has starting in the fall of 2022 worked
088with the learning Commons to reduce plastic waste and make use of coffee grounds the compostable coffee pods were purchased through EOS funds and inspired the learning common staff to start their own program with reusable cury coffee pots and locally roasted Fair Trade coffee yeah and then the scub middle school student council and Builders club uh paired up with the scabo food pantry or sfd scabo fire department to help stock the scabo food pantry on March 14th over 3,500 items were collected Squad 7 car 7 and half the buses were filled and one half of a bus were filled and congrats to Caleb Britain for seventh grader for the most items being brought in and for sixth grade and to the sixth graders to for bringing the most items and uh lastly the middle school on
089April 11th 12th and 13th uh had a production of Newsies I heard it went pretty well and uh pretty impressive I did the theater in middle school and it's always a good program and that's all I have but thank you there any questions or comments for kby GRE that was really awesome thank you for that that was a really good presentation you all right agenda item um 13.0 is general public comment is there anyone wishing to make General Public comment this evening no one online all right seeing none we will close general public comment agenda item 14.0 is a public hearing and the the fy2 school budget so we'll turn it over to Kate it won't be an hour and a half I promise um I think I have like five slides and two of
090them are a calendar so um tonight is a piece of the school budget process that's very important um looking into our audience here I'm seeing my beloved colleagues and and probably not a huge crowd of the public waiting to speak at our public hearing um typically the Town Council public hearing on the budget is a lot more um involved in terms of the community but we do this uh provide this opportunity for the public to come and speak and give us their opinions and in doing so we usually take a moment to just sort of give an update to the board on where we're at um since we last talked about all of this at the first reading so that's my bit and then um Shannon can open a public hearing and we'll see if
091anyone comes rushing in is there anybody here wishing to make comment make public comment about the fy2 school budget is there anybody online it's okay I'm I'm not I'm not hurt um honestly I think you know it's it's not a a well known or attended um event in our process but it is is a legally required event and so we provide the opportunity and we'll take the opportunity just to talk for like two minutes not an hour and a half about where we're at um so the first reading of our budget the board passed on March 21st that's the last time that I was up here talking to you about numbers um the full Municipal budget went to the Town Council in the public on March 27th that's when Jeff and and Tom Hall did
092a presentation and then the Town Council a week later passed that budget in their first reading and that's including the municipal side and the school um budget so right now since then as Carolyn pointed out um very eloquently a few minutes ago uh we've been having a lot of meetings and we've been having meetings with the Town Council the Town Council finance committee budget meetings with the public um budget meetings with our own finance committee and the goal of all of that is to take that first reading and to refine it update it um improve it as we move toward the board second reading which is going to happen next week on May 2nd this is my plug for the materials that we have available for the public um I use this all the time
093which is really silly but I mean I know this is where things are so if you click on that link which is live in our slide presentation if you're watching this meeting um you will find all of these cool things uh about the fy2 school budget you'll also find a link to the town's um budget portal which includes the full Municipal budget um I have another plug for that later on I I like to repeat myself as much as possible uh but these are some of the items that you can find and and one of the things that we're using this budget portal for is to add um there's a calendar in there that talks about all of the meeting dates that we have in this process and each time we have a meeting we're
094posting um the agendas or meeting notes or documents that were used in that meeting right in that same little calendar so it's easy uh One-Stop shopping for folks so this slide shows you what the budget looked like the operating budget uh which is general fund is our K12 budget that goes to the voters then we add adult education and school nutrition which are separate funds and uh this is a snapshot of the totals that went to the board on first reading so this is what you folks have passed so far um total education budget the third lineup is the what we call the gross budget which is the total expenditures and we subtract the non-t tax revenues which is mostly State subsidy in our case um and um combined with a little bit of uh
095a little bit but a million5 dollar of fund balance uh and that brings us to the net budget which you'll also hear called the tax request um what that represents is the bottom line of what the school department asks the town for in taxes um and it's not the increase in the tax rate it's the increase in the amount that the school budget needs from taxes based on what the school budget had last year as a standalone so at that point we were at 4.68% carollyn referred to that earlier oh we've got a transition cool I don't know how I do that click click click I just like to give dianae a thrill once in a while um so this slide is is adjustment since the first reading and as I said um the work
096between first reading and second reading is all about um making the better making the budget proposal um closer to what we really need um responsive to what the community is asking for and um reflective of of what the school department is finally going to need with the best information that we can have by the time of second reading um as Carolyn mentioned we had uh great news on our Anthem rates we had budgeted originally at an increase of 8% and they came in at just a little over 3% which is remarkable we had a meeting with Anthem today a zoom meeting um all across the state and some of the rates that folks are getting were very high um up to 11% increases so um we can count ourselves really lucky for that um so
097uh we have made an adjustment to the budget proposal that we put out there for first reading and it saves um from our original proposal about $348,000 we also had a change in the Paid Family Leave Act that's been passed by the state of Maine it's a new benefit for anyone who's working in the state and you may have heard a few things about it in the past it it's um it impacts every employer so it's on the town side as well but we got some new guidance about how that plays with or how that relates to collective bargaining agreements and if you are um in a collective bargaining agreement which many of our employees are are depending on the timing of that contract um you may or may not be subject to this tax
098right to this new payroll tax and so what we learned was that a significant portion of our school Community isn't going to need to pay that in fy2 they will pay it in FY 26 so we made a reduction to the budget we made a few other Personnel refinements I'm actually still working on some things um connected with the new proposals and the reduction in the anthem rates and trying to refine those estimates that we used in the first um first reading so we'll have a bottom line on that for next week um capital projects we deferred a couple of those Carolyn already spoke to that and um to the use of capital reserve funds some combination of school impact fees and and uh School Capital reserves as non-t tax revenue so those are the
099big things that we've been looking at and you've heard about them twice now so yay us accounting team at the ready um so this is what the bottom line looks like it's it's basically the same thing that Carolyn showed you um this one doesn't include the capital budget but I did want to point out um this was I I put this together um before we had our meeting today with the finance committee so this is as of our our Monday meeting but uh the Schoolboard finance committee notes are online and uh there's an agenda with a bunch of stuff linked into it and as we update as we change um we're putting new documents out there so if you want to see the details um I'm going to bore you with them again next week
100um but if you want to see them on your own they're going to be posted online as well oh transition time uh here's here's the calendar cend there's a joint Town Council School Board budget Workshop next Wednesday um which Shannon and and Carolyn have already spoken to that should be quite interesting seeing where the town is at as well as the school department because our budgets together are what are going to combine to um impact the tax rate for our citizens here at Scarboro um that same night at the Town council meeting there'll be the Town Council public hearing our Schoolboard second reading is the next day on Thursday May next Thursday um the town council's second reading and budget vote isn't until um the 15th so they have the final say on the budget
101um there's a school board meeting on the 16th and I haven't put it on the calendar but if there is a need for adjustments based on what the Town Council says on the 15th if there's a need for the school board to go back and make a change to the school budget to accommodate whatever they've said then we would do that on the 16th and the most important piece for the public is the referendum vote on June 11th uh the town of Scarboro gets to come out and tell us what they think um we hope they think it's a great budget and we hope they all come out and vote for it but you can also do early voting and absentee uh ballets for the school referendum just like any other election and I've put
102a link in here to the voting information on the town's website I promise I'm going to fix this oh do I have two of them oh you just wanted to do it again it was so fun it was so much fun um and here's my my pitch for the public come and see us come and watch us please vote um and here's another link again to our school department budget page and and you can also look at the full Town Municipal budget and all of the details they have there they have a similar um calendar with documents in it as well and uh that's my story all right thank you um does anybody have any questions for Kate um I know Carolyn's here too any questions about the budget any just I if I can
103chime in a second I just want to thank Kate and Jeff and Diane and the leadership team they've really done an incredible job putting the budget book together and answering I don't know how many between my emails and some other emails from the Town Council and from citizens um Kate's had a lot thrown at her and uh anyway I just can't can't say enough how much I appreciate um everyone and their hard work that they put into this yeah I would um Echo that as well Carolyn I just um somebody sent me an article earlier today that I was reading and it was um a Bangor um Daily News article about the budget process and the superintendent said um was quoted as saying this is the worst budget year they've ever seen and um I
104I con I say I feel like I constantly say this behind closed doors and I don't know that I've ever said it to you in public and now is really I feel is the time you've done an amazing job over these past few years you've really I remember the very first time I sat down with you and we talked covid funds and um the way you described it I was like okay it feels like overtime pay we don't call we don't count on it we don't plan for it we don't assume we're going to have it forever and you have saved this District a lot of heartache and a lot of heartburn and the residents should be so thankful for all the work you have done so thank you thank you thank you I cannot
105say it enough thank you for saying thank you I'm I'm accused of not not taking compliments well but I I have to give credit to the team because our leadership team has from the get-go been focused on that stability um that sustain ability of our budget year-over-year it's you know it's it's a big part of our work so I I give them credit yeah um I I don't know if I said this properly but when we come for second reading we'll have a whole new set of documents that are basically sort of not necessarily rewriting every last thing that we that we put out there in the first reading but um all the line items all the summaries all the things that we had for first reading will'll have a revised version so that when
106folks go to dive in they can see where we were and where we landed um I'm gonna do something I hate doing and Carolyn please forgive me because I've already called her today with my mathing and my mathing is not always correct so but I'm going to attempt this if I add up everything that from first reading to now that that has come back um in the way of adjustments so um I don't know if I want to call it found money but that's what I keep landing on the money that you estimated at one amount but it's coming different like for example The Anthem if I add in all of those changes I get to approximately 576,000 in some change roughly hope hopefully that math is correct that sounds about right because the other
107piece of the puzzle um where we were were aiming for about a million doll reduction right um to what our original budget was and um the other side of that coin is the non-t tax revenues that we're using right which is almost $600,000 so that's about the right order of magnitude I don't have the exact number in my head so between the the what I'm calling found money and the uh I like items in motion items in motion yes let's call that's my phrase items in motion that have been flushed out a little bit more reading that that have worked well in our favor and have worked very well sometimes they go the other way yes this has been a good year last year was not so great with this this year is great um
108but if you take that 576,000 and you add the 585,000 that we're hoping to use from school impact fees correct me if I'm wrong but we're at our goal um I don't think we're quite at our goal because we've added in a position did you put that in your mathy no no um and uh we we're we were within about 200,000 um and I think um I I think I said to you earlier it took me about five tries at the worksheet to make it come out right between the the changes in the revenue and the changes in the expenditures um but um by my Tally were um we were just over 300,000 this noon time short and short well this is this is short of um what was asked of us to model by
109the Town Council finance committee which was let's take the almost $400,000 that you've already found and let's add another million to that right right um oh that's right because we're not we can't count all of that we well and and that could be part of your math as well we we're the anthem the first set of changes that we brought to the table we already had on April 11th when we met with the Town Council finance committee yeah so their um their request for us to find more was above that so that's probably like the 300,000 that that I'm talking about yeah that would be that would be it yeah and I I shann and just you know after work I was putting together the slides there the slide for today and I was struggling
110with the math too and I'm like oh I think Kate may have made a mistake and then she didn't well I prob I probably I talk myself into it and talked myself out of it and what where I landed and Kate you can correct me if I'm wrong where I landed is the $211,000 of savings in the CIP that we deferred it's kind of an in and or it's an out and an out it's an out on the re for bound uh for bonding and it's an out in request exactly so you reduced the expense but you were they were going to be bonded so you have non- tax revenue that you reduce so there's no bottom line impact to the tax request yeah I think that that was O sorry go ahead no it's
111gonna I was G to say probably just exactly what you were gonna say Shannon is is it is indeed a cut um or deferral um so we can certainly point that out next week yeah and I think there's been a lot of discussion um with the town about whether regardless of the funding source that the capital budget was something that they wanted us to scrutinize and to make sure that we really had only the things on there that we um felt we needed and um there may not be an immediate tax impact but if you Bond something then later on you're going to have a Debt Service impact yeah I think that the conversation at Finance I I went to the finance committee as a meeting as a community member just because with numbers I
112I seem to work better when I can hear them in person versus over zoom and um really interesting for me to hear is um and to and to really think about and consider that might be good for everybody else to hear and think about is when you're deferring the capital projects you're really not impacting the tax ask for this specific year for the current which to what Carolyn the point Carolyn's making is that it if you um Bond it there's Revenue coming in in the form of a bond and then when you're spending it right then you've got the expense side but if you're doing neither right it's like a it's it's a NE so um while those are those are drops it's not um it's not going to impact the this year um tax
113bill yeah but then on the other side that $585,000 the reason why that makes a difference is that um those dollars were slated to be um what you call appropriated taxes would be raised for those and the reason for that $500,000 as Carolyn pointed pointed out was um sort of a generic um placeholder for the building committee and the building project and whatever um work they might need to have done to advance the project as it comes out of this committee um and the other 85,000 is to um have some engineering and designing done for the um secure vestibules at eight corners and at Pleasant Hill when you have a project like that that's that we call we put it under long range planning unless there's already An approved Capital project like a building project
114um that's been approved by your your Council and your voters you can't bond that because it's an idea you can only Bond physical things you can Bond a school bus because it's a thing um and and uh you can't bond an idea um but the interesting piece about that is that if you do have a school project let's say you spend that $500,000 next year and you've used your um your school Reserve funds and then you have a building project and it's approved and it goes to the voters you can actually borrow the money later and say oh we're paying ourselves back because now we do have a project we have a building and a building is eligible for bonding does that make sense yeah yeah and I think too I there's been a lot
115of discussion from the budget workshops that I've attended they've been really um I would say roundt the round table discussions have been interesting with the community members because a lot of the talk has been around other things other than the budget which is an interesting conundrum when you're at a at a budget Round Table they get a chance to talk to you yeah yeah it's it's been pretty pretty eye opening but one of the things that um has been uh mentioned a few times and by uh councelor Hamill is that if we are using fund balance to fund operating expenses we're just kind of kicking that can down the road because we're giving them relief this year but then next year that becomes part of the operating budget and we have to ask for it
116but I'm supportive of this 585 because the um of using the 585 in school impact fees for these specific purposes because we are not hopefully going to ask the community for $500,000 more dollars to design a new school again for a third time hopefully second time is a charm right so this would be a one-time expense the security vestibules at the two schools um why I think we've all discussed up here many times that we don't want to necessarily put money into the schools and we don't know what we're doing um we're going to have those schools for at least five more years so we have to do something and so again we're um to secure our students right and their safety when they're at school but again these are onetime expenses this wouldn't be
117a continual right right an item that would come up again and again yeah and I think um you know speaking to the vestibules it's part of a bigger conversation about what money do we put into those 3 K2 buildings because you know and and this is conversation we've been having for eight years now like well we don't want to put money into them because we're not going to keep them because we're going to have this new solution well there are kids there today there will be kids there for the next five years there would be there were kids there for the past eight years they deserve the same Safety and Security that every other kid in our district has um so I think that's a priority for us um and it also adds value to
118those buildings the buildings aren't going to necessarily disappear if if we build a new building we've talked about this around and about a few different ways but um we have three very nice properties that belong to the town of Scarboro and maintaining them is actually a benefit to the town as well and maybe enhancing them is a benefit to the town because that's something that a a new user would have access to whether that be a prek whether that be a community center whether be you know sold to an outside person that building Improvement is going to be there and going to be of value any other questions for Kate want to push for an hour and a half all right thank you very much thank you all right agenda item 15.0 is new business
119I'm going to do this a little bit differently I'm going to bundle together 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 and 15.5 these are our first readings um I'm doing this for a variety of reasons but one is because um a couple of them kind of go together with the name change and the letter um changing so um I will turn this over to frea to go ahead and discuss excellent yeah I'm gonna try to go quickly um and encourage people to look at the materials and this the sample versus what we ended up recommending um for further clarification the first motion is really um it's a renaming function so our names all our naming convention uses letters um there's a model sample model policies that we use as a starting point with our policies that have specific
120names it's kind of like a card catalog if you will of of of uh of policies we created a policy that's not on the sample policy that's named bbab right now the student School Board representation policy um that we'll get to later uh that being said there is a sample policy that's bbab that is um regarding School Board self-evaluation which is featured in our next uh policy so I am proposing or we're proposing to rename our student Schoolboard representation policies to BB AAA it seems really silly but it it will make things much more clear so that if people are looking at our policies um and if we in fact are trying to look at our own policies to compare to the sample policies or other policies from other districts there'll be consistency and people
121will be able to find the policy that they're looking for so it's important but it's a pretty minor change I'm not going to if you have questions I can come back to it what it would do is just simply rename it so that it's not we don't have a duplicative naming convention because if we passed 15.2 we would be creating a new bab regarding Schoolboard self- evaluation um which we don't currently have in policy but as we spent a lot of time on self- evaluation recently we do have it as part of our um our practice it's in our calendar it's also um you look at the very um uh on our on our board operating protocols and our board goals every year we include self-evaluation as part of it so it's part of our
122practice the sample policies do re do have a policy saying that we will do this and so we would propose to pass the policy um the difference between the sample policy and the policy that we put forward is that our policy for board evaluation is brief and non-specific the sample policy was very specific on sort of how things would go in the procedure and we think the policy should be more guidance that this should happen um that the board will do it annually there's a reason for it um but that the how a board deter is going to self-evaluate should be up to that board because that may look different for different boards um and so and it should be based really on the goals that and the strategic planning that's been done that this
123District does so they've said a lot in the past about how our policies should mirror our strategic plans and and the the the guidance that we put forward for everything it all should lead back to each other um I it please look at the self the the self evaluation policy that's a sample we didn't think as a as a committee that we needed to to enumerate every single piece of evaluation that we should do simply that we should do it so that's 15.2 um moving to 15.3 that would be the policy of bbba that's organization of the board that is a really short um wait hold on organization of the board yeah that's a really short policy sorry I didn't bring it up for some reason um just give me a quick second I apologize
124bbba is is misnamed in our agenda it shouldn't be organization of the board it's actually board member qualifications so I'm sorry that's why I'm getting confused because it it is um on the agenda it stated bbba is organization of the board and it should be board member qualifications um so that just is named erroneously but the correct policy was posted with the correct name on it um this is a really short policy it looks at statute this permain statute um and it enumerates the qualifications that one has to have to become a board of education member these are found in our town Charter they're also found in main state law it has to do with us being over 18 you're a voter you have to live in the you have be a resident um and
125um they're nonpartisan elections again this is all governed by State Statute um and town and it also points to the town Charter um the final policies Bia and B have to do with new board member orientation um we we also freehanded this one quite a bit so we model we we we departed from the sample policy um um to an extent this one's actually closest of of the three um and it really just talks about sort of our process on how we did do this or how we want to see this done um we didn't make a tremendous number of changes um we do have some enumerated specifics in this having to do with the discussions of what uh a board should be oriented on and we felt that in case we have a really
126young board and perhaps a board that's all new members um we should at least give them a list of what they should be training on um if anyone has questions about that list please ask but it's a pretty basic list that all of us went through um we did add one and B we added one attachment which is a little unusual um we're actually required to complete freedom of access training um under statute and so this is a certification that um you have completed that training um it's available um online and um you just certify that you you've done it um we are all required to do this by Statute um so we're going to we propose to put it in the policy so that we all know that we have to do it and
127as we on board members every year will be reminded because we're going to pull up Bia on board people will see that Bia are and then we'll make sure that we're all in compliance with that statute because um things got a little crazy after covid and I'm not sure everybody has done this on time so that is all the policies happy to um take questions is there anybody wishing to make public comment or any on any of the um any of the new policies that we've discussed resume no but all right seeing none um is there a motion to approve um 15.1 the motion to reclassify current bbab student School Board representation and bbab student Schoolboard representation guidelines to BB AAA student Schoolboard representation and BBA a a r student School Board representation guidelines 15.2
128the first reading of policy bbab School Board self- evaluation 15.3 the first reading of policy BBB a which is the um I just want to make sure I use the right word um board member qualifications first reading of 15.4 first reading of policy Bia new board member orientation and 15.5 the first reading of policy Bia R certification of completion as presented so moved second is there any discussion yeah of course I just to clarify that the the error in the agenda was my error just to be cl to take responsibility for my mistakes all right seeing no discussion can we call the RO the vote please yes Mrs gamon yes Miss calones yes Mr ker yes Miss Leong yes Miss Lindstrom yes Miss tarpinian yes Miss trapini Huff yes and Mr shamway Wonderful it's unanimous
129thank you agenda item 15.6 is the Middle School spring coaches appointment yep so I have um I've got the list of coaches here in your packet uh for athletic spring coaches roster 2024 right do I have a motion to approve the Middle School spring coaches as presented so moved second is there any discussion all right seeing none can we call the vote please Mrs camon yes Miss konus yes Mr ker yes Miss leang yes Miss lindstrm yes Miss tarpinian yes Miss trapini Huff yes and Mr shamway yes perfect it's unanimous thank you so much agenda item 15.7 is a southern main orthodontic $700 donation to the class of 2028 so I'd like to just um briefly share a memo uh from Kate uh about this donation so in April 9th 2024 the Middle School received
130a donation check in the amount of $700 from Southern main Orthodontics this donation of 700 is given to the class of 2028 we are most grateful for their support and respectfully request the scoreboard approve acceptance of this donation on behalf of the class of 2028 with many thanks wonderful thank you um do I have a motion to approve this other main orthodontic $700 donation to the class of 20128 so moved second any discussion right can call the please miss camon yes Miss konus yes Mr kellerer yes sir Miss leang yes Miss Lindstrom yes Mr tarpinian yes mrini Huff yes and Mr shim wonderful it's unanimous thank you agenda item 16.10 is executive session 16.1 is a motion to enter into an executive session for discussion or consideration of the employment appointment assignment duties promotion demotion
131compensation evaluation disciplining resignation or dismissal of an individual or group of public officials appointees or employees of the body or agency to return to public public session do I have a motion second any discussion yes yes um given the time I'd like to make maybe a slight amendment that we extend beyond the 9:30 time frame so that we have enough time to C to discuss everything within the executive session I second that motion okay so let's um let's vote on that first and then we'll vote on the executive session so the motion of the floor is to um uh switch the order and vote to um extend our meeting Beyond 9:30 should we need it so we have a first and a second is there any discussion all right can we call the vote for
132that please miss scammon she said yes I said yes sorry Miss konus yes Mr kellerer yes Miss leang yes Miss lrom yes M tarpinian yes Mr Trini Huff yes Mr shamway yes okay that's been that's unanimous thank you so we go back to the motion to enter into executive session we had a motion and do we do I have a motion yes yes okay in a second yep yes okay any discussion okay Mrs you do I have a second to for the okay so we had a John John motion enter into executive session do I have a second yes so now second thank you okay yeah go ahead yes please miss gamon yes Miss yes Mr kellerer yes Miss Leong yes Miss lenstrom yes Miss tarpinian yes Miss Trini Huff yes and Mr sham yes
133perfect thank you it's unanimous e e e thank you so much all right um agenda item 17.0 is adjournment so without objection I will adjourn the meeting at 9:44 p.m. thank you so much have a good evening