[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[13:13] That's a test.
[13:45] But if you, if you, yes, I don't think-
[26:26] Welcome everybody to the Richmond School Committee meeting. We are here at the Richmond Middle High School Common Room. It is August 13th, at 6pm a little bit after, and we are working with new microphones. So if there are any technical difficulties, just be patient. We have with us tonight our full school committee, myself Amanda McDaniel, Russ Hughes, Jen Small, Leonna Knight, and John Pratt. We also have with us our Superintendent Chad Kempton and our new
[26:56] Principal for Marsha Bucar Elementary School, Alison Woodard. Thank you so much for coming.
[27:02] Let us start with the Pledge of Allegiance.
[27:19] Looks
[27:26] like there's been a lot of work being done in probably some adjustments to the agenda.
[27:32] Can we have a motion to accept the adjustments to the agenda?
[27:42] Excellent, any discussion about that?
[27:46] All in favor, and as unanimous,
[27:52] we have approval of the July 16th, 20th, 26th, regular school committee meeting minutes.
[27:56] Do we have a motion to approve?
[28:00] I'll make a motion to approve.
[28:02] And a second.
[28:03] I'll second that.
[28:04] Any discussion?
[28:08] All in favor?
[28:10] Excellent.
[28:10] Moving right along, public comment, or one public commenting person?
[28:16] No, nothing.
[28:17] All right.
[28:18] Excellent.
[28:19] I mean, any kind of report on the weather, no, we're good, we're good.
[28:24] Thank you.
[28:26] It is.
[28:27] All right.
[28:28] Moving into committee reports, Finance Committee met on August 11th.
[28:32] Yes, John and I met August 11th with the superintendent.
[28:37] We reviewed the monthly budget report, which is now at 91.6%.
[28:47] It's looking good. We have one more payroll to meet, and then we'll be able to close out the previous year.
[28:54] So I think we're looking between five and 600,000 being carried over in the new year.
[29:01] So, pretty good job. Ashley has done awesome. Chad has done great job. The monthly report
[29:11] for this year is at 4%. So I'm not worried about going over yet.
[29:18] We also reviewed the summer
[29:20] projects and everybody should have that document. I won't go through it.
[29:28] Okay, and we did discuss the superintendents plan to raise the wage rates for substitutes mostly driven by increased minimum wage and keep them even with the increase in minimum wage.
[29:48] There was actually a couple categories that were going to be below minimum wage and we didn't do that.
[29:57] That's it.
[29:58] So, one.
[30:00] It's important to know that there are some positions for the education sector that you have to be 125%, or 25% above, it's a minimum wage rate of 15, 10 an hour, and there's others that you have to be 15% higher than the minimum wage. So that's what drives our wage rates.
[30:23] And lastly, we finished up. We reviewed the potential purchase of two new vans.
[30:31] one is kind of old but has low mileage on it and we got a good deal on that and in
[30:38] 2023 is seven passenger. It's fantastic and it's ADA compliant. Is that correct?
[30:45] 2012 is ADA compliant. I haven't mixed up. So that is pretty good news and we're purchasing
[30:54] You know, we're not taking that alone.
[30:57] So I know we've run into some criticism in the past that we're taking out loans when we have enough money to just pay cash form.
[31:06] So these are both being paid for out of local entitlement funds, special ed funds.
[31:13] And they're going to be used primarily or solely for the use of transporting students with disabilities.
[31:19] And that sums up our report from the Finance Committee.
[31:27] It's a small learning that I had at the beginning of the School Board member.
[31:35] If you're not in the education world, you're wonder, you know, your fiscal year starts July 1st and ends June 30th.
[31:44] And educators typically have their payroll spread out through the entire year.
[31:51] So that's why we still have a little bit left on the last year's budget, and then we've already started this year's budget for things that don't pretend to pay roll.
[31:59] And it's just, you know, you don't think about it. And if you're not in this world, we're like, oh, teachers are done for the year.
[32:05] Oh, they're still getting their paycheck and God.
[32:10] So we did not have a reason to have a personnel committee meeting, but we move on into policy committee.
[32:17] Policy Committee met on the 11th a couple days ago, and we reviewed a couple of policies,
[32:25] the grading policy, the child find policy, and a second grade for our public participation
[32:32] policy.
[32:34] We also had some handbooks on our agenda that are not things that we are voting on as a school
[32:39] committee, but some of them connect to the grading policy in particular.
[32:44] So that was it was wonderful
[32:49] moving into our discussion items.
[32:51] We have first readings of policies and procedures.
[32:54] We have current policy IKAB and we have a proposal and then the same thing for IHBAC.
[33:04] Do we have a motion to accept the first readings of these policies?
[33:07] Please.
[33:10] I make a motion that we approve the first reading of policy IKAB and IHBAC.
[33:21] And a second.
[33:24] Just this.
[33:25] What do you like us to hear about these?
[33:28] So the grading policy changes are coming out of what Carl was presenting was about last
[33:35] meeting.
[33:36] With thinking about the weight that the lamb would carry and the child-fined policy the
[33:47] changes are driven by needing to add the three-year-olds, like the range of ages for which
[33:54] we would be responsible for conducting special education for children has changed, so we
[34:00] have to change our policy.
[34:02] Chad, are there other things you would want to add about the grading policy since you haven't
[34:06] open there in front of you.
[34:07] Yep, no, the biggest part of it is that what the middle
[34:11] high school wants to, or what Carl had proposed is having a
[34:15] semester midterm exam and then having a final exam and
[34:21] building those into the matrix of what the total grade is going
[34:25] to be. So your first semester is going to count at 90% for all
[34:29] of your daily grades. And then the midterm exam will be 10%
[34:34] and then your second semester grades will be 90% of the second semester with a 10% factor for the final exam.
[34:42] So all adds up to 100%, but it's just adding that first semester exam in there as a way to implement more long-term exam aspects of the grading policy.
[35:00] And probably a little more pressure to make sure that your midterm isn't just, oh it's
[35:06] a test.
[35:07] You know, this is a little more pressure on that.
[35:09] Part of this is the development of transition out of the standards-based practices that
[35:16] were in place with RSU-2, going to the more traditional practices.
[35:22] So they started out with those being a more lower-level exam but a comprehensive example
[35:29] for the semester. Now they're adding some weight to it. So just a progression as kids get used to
[35:35] the new system. They're gradually beefing up that aspect of a semester, for example.
[35:43] Do we have the proposed policy online anywhere? I see the current one, but it said it would be
[35:50] and then we'll have a link to the proposed.
[35:54] The proposed is in the agenda.
[35:59] So just click on the link.
[36:01] I see the current, but it says proposed will be handed.
[36:05] Oh, did you?
[36:07] It's a live.
[36:08] There's a newer agenda.
[36:10] Should be a live document there.
[36:12] Okay.
[36:13] I need to go with the box.
[36:14] Okay.
[36:14] Yeah.
[36:20] As a family, we received our letters for our kids about this and reviewed it with our kids
[36:26] and said, hey, this is going to be vastly much more important than it has been in the
[36:30] past.
[36:30] You guys may have to learn it to actually study at home and take some time to do that.
[36:36] So we're excited about the change.
[36:40] With the child-finding policy, if you could just 30 seconds, you know, how this actually
[36:48] works in real life because reading through it almost seems like you know the school has
[36:54] to go out and do some sort of survey or something of there's census of the town to you
[37:00] know identify all the kids you know if there's a child that's been home schooled since you
[37:05] know they were five I would we know and you know or is it just when they come to our attention
[37:12] The biggest change is the age range because as we went into cohort two for the students or the children with age three to five with disabilities, so CDS used to do the work as far as finding children or working with children ages three through five with disabilities to put
[37:35] IEPs in place and get services in place and they've transitioned over to or our transitioning
[37:42] over to public schools doing that work and so where we would normally have picked them
[37:47] up at age five we are now picking them up at age three.
[37:52] So CVS is gradually going out of the mix as the cohorts but so we're in cohort three
[38:00] now the last year of it is cohort 4 and that all schools in the state.
[38:05] So we jumped in early and are doing what CDS used to do as far as the late work on identifying
[38:14] students with disabilities and then doing the IEPs and also implementing the services.
[38:23] Right.
[38:24] I guess my question though is we're not actively going out into the community to identify
[38:29] My kids that we're not aware of, this is children that are referred to us or they're already in the school system or parents contact us.
[38:37] Yes.
[38:37] Yeah.
[38:38] It's a combination of that.
[38:40] CDS will still partner with us as far as doing some of this because people will report to CDS for a period of time until the transition really takes effect.
[38:53] But we'll be working with residents that are of age of age three through five that have
[39:03] disabilities and will start picking up developing IEPs and services, occupational therapy,
[39:12] physical therapy, speech are the big three.
[39:16] And so we needed to adjust the age bracket which you see up on the top.
[39:23] And then the bottom part was really if the screening was something of a function of
[39:30] CVS and now that's something that we're doing as part of the change over.
[39:40] The Bonnie brought this to my attention last week as we were talking about the pre-K program
[39:49] and we've pulled the policy up and we feel like we're going to fix this so we're bringing it through policy to
[39:54] We talked about it months ago, but I guess we never updated this. Yep. Yep.
[40:03] Any further questions? Yeah, I'm sorry
[40:05] I cannot find the new policy anywhere
[40:17] Kelly sent us an email on August 6th that had the agenda. Yeah
[40:22] I've linked to the agenda that doesn't have a link to the changes.
[40:26] Sorry.
[40:26] Yeah.
[40:27] Find them.
[40:27] It's weird.
[40:28] Yeah.
[40:28] Okay.
[40:29] Let's see.
[40:30] Oh,
[40:38] wait.
[40:38] No.
[40:39] Now it doesn't.
[40:40] That's weird.
[40:41] It did it.
[40:42] 20 minutes ago.
[40:43] Resend again.
[40:45] I'm going to, uh,
[40:50] share this one.
[40:51] That's weird.
[40:57] Does that group include?
[40:59] Yeah.
[40:59] There she is.
[41:01] Perfect.
[41:05] So I'm sharing the document that I'm using.
[41:08] for over a minute and I'll also share the original document yeah that's
[41:22] funny
[41:22] because mine did have the links it did yeah oh well technical difficulties
[41:27] the game right now and all those links should be I'm just kind of don't use this
[41:34] anyone with the link and be a viewer yeah so when that Google Doc so I have it all
[41:41] Thank you for the discussion
[41:50] on this this is the first reading we already have a motion and second to approve. Are we ready to vote?
[41:58] Okay. All right. No in favor?
[42:01] It's unanimous. Excellent. We have another action item here policy BEDH public participation at school committee meeting. Do we have a motion to approve this policy?
[42:13] Yes, a little bit approved policy.
[42:15] And a second.
[42:17] Second.
[42:18] And discussion.
[42:19] Some highlights.
[42:22] And we wrote this one last month as well.
[42:25] There are schools, school boards that have had significant disruption at school committee
[42:32] meeting, school board meetings, and MSMA put out a new draft policy.
[42:37] We did not simply adopt the new draft policy, we kind of looked at what was in that and
[42:41] what was in ours and came up with what we thought would work for us that gives the chair
[42:45] some authority to determine exactly how things will proceed but sets the parameters that
[42:52] gives that chair the authority and you know it says we could establish time limits.
[42:56] We could ask people to sign up but not that we have to given that oftentimes when we have
[43:02] public comment it's a person or two and there are many fewer meetings that have large numbers
[43:08] of people coming to comment.
[43:10] And we also feel we've discussed in the policy committee meetings that Russ and I both feel
[43:14] that it's important to let people share what they want to with the school committee.
[43:19] And we've done quite well, I think, as a school committee at letting people come and share
[43:24] what they want to and listening respectfully.
[43:27] And we've talked about the fact that in some places school board members are on their phones
[43:32] and not paying attention, having side conversations.
[43:34] So we haven't put etiquette for school board, school committee members into this policy,
[43:40] but we're actually looking at having Russ update our ethics policy to include something
[43:44] about that in that one.
[43:46] Because we feel like it is really important for people who are at the podium to have our
[43:50] attention and have the respect of the committee, whether or not we agree with what they're
[43:55] saying.
[43:55] Absolutely.
[43:57] Absolutely.
[43:59] All right.
[43:59] I love it.
[44:00] I need to further questions on this one favor that is unanimous thank you no field trips
[44:09] nah moving into nominations resignations so we have one resignation our middle school high
[44:17] school school counselor Barrett pinion took another position I think in the Portland area
[44:27] and was said to go, but it was a family decision that they had to make.
[44:32] So,
[44:37] and nomination, we have one nomination for this meeting.
[44:42] We've got a couple in the pipeline that will be coming in September.
[44:46] But Emily Snowden is going to be one of our pre-K to five special ed teachers.
[44:51] Marsha Buick, her element to school should be coming in at step two.
[44:55] She has been with us as an ed tech three in the special ed department.
[45:00] For the past, I think, three years, as she's worked on her degree. And she and Ella, the
[45:08] one of the new special ed teachers that we brought forward to you last month, will be sharing
[45:16] duties with the pre-K program and the K5 program. So one of them will be out with a pre-K program
[45:23] in the, during the morning session, and one will be out during the afternoon session. And while
[45:28] While they're out, would that group, the other one will be with the K-5 group?
[45:34] So we need to vote to approve.
[45:37] Yes.
[45:37] We have a motion to accept this nomination.
[45:40] A motion.
[45:42] Second.
[45:44] Any further discussion?
[45:46] I'm glad to see her stay here and work in this school system.
[45:50] She's well respected in this community.
[45:52] We're very lucky to have her.
[45:54] All in favor?
[45:56] Excellent.
[45:57] It's unanimous.
[45:57] We've got some informational items.
[46:01] Yes, I'm happy to see we have five ed techs on the docket for tonight and one bus driver.
[46:11] So we are actually going to be fully staffed with our ed techs at both Marsha Buker and
[46:18] the middle high school for the first time since I, the short time that I've been here.
[46:24] And we are also going to be fully staff with our special education teaching staff, which
[46:31] is we've hired four special ed teachers this summer, which is unheard of.
[46:38] So we the stars have aligned and we've got some great people coming in.
[46:44] So I think we're in really good shape.
[46:46] And we also obviously we have a bus driver finding any bus drivers in any neck of the woods
[46:54] and state of Maine as a major task and so we were very fortunate to have Tammy come on board
[47:01] a couple days ago and she will be joining our bus driving staff so I want to welcome all of these
[47:07] folks to the team here at Richmond. Absolutely wonderful news.
[47:17] False sports stipend and appointments.
[47:19] Yeah, so these are our all coaching staff and they are actually in the gym tonight with our athletic director is going over rules and regulations and expectations, communications, schedules,
[47:38] tools, tools and tools and so forth and so that is going to be a great thing to have
[47:47] as far as kids starting to populate the fields here in the next couple weeks and get
[47:53] fall sports up and running. So it's set to get some action going here on campus. So they're
[47:59] kicking off the fall sports season tonight and I believe they start on Monday.
[48:08] All the fields are good to go, and no issues, we get all the equipment, soccer and everything.
[48:15] The only thing that we're hoping for, and I'm working with the folks that do all the mowing,
[48:21] is to try to fetch both of the competition fields to get some of the grass that's kind of matted down underneath there.
[48:32] it. It chokes out the new grass coming in. So if we can get those, those two fields
[48:39] fetched, aerated, then that would be a really good
[48:45] practice for us to do, especially
[48:47] with, you know, help the new grass grow and be healthier. And the field will be a lot
[48:53] more playable for both soccer teams. We had some drainage work done last year
[48:58] Did we notice improvements to spring or yes, yeah, still wet out there, but it's better, it's better.
[49:08] Yeah, I don't know when the last time I have heard or had caused to use the word that.
[49:14] It's kind of fun.
[49:19] We
[49:27] went out on a high note.
[49:29] We went out on a high note.
[49:36] Co-curricular stipend appointments will be included in the September agenda.
[49:42] Next month, yes.
[49:43] Very good.
[49:43] And we've got some action items that we've heard a little bit about.
[49:46] It looks like we need to have a motion to approve the purchase of that 2023
[49:51] vehicle and the 2012 vehicle as well.
[49:54] Do we want to put a motion on the floor?
[49:57] In your packet, you'll see a quick
[49:59] So I just want to give you a visual.
[50:02] So the first one is the 2012 Dodge Caravan.
[50:06] This is the ADA equipped vehicle.
[50:10] And it's going to be a private sale.
[50:14] Even though it's a 2012, I believe it's got a little over 56,000 miles on it.
[50:23] Fred Riker and I are going to planning on going over next Tuesday.
[50:27] I will do a final drive test drive with it.
[50:32] But it was in, I went over and sorry at myself, it's in really good shape, a little bit
[50:36] of rust, but for a 2012, and the amount of use that we're going to have it for, a $15,000
[50:43] van versus the others that are out there, most handicap accessible vans are $60,000 to $70,000.
[50:51] And so to be able to find this one locally, and in as good as shape as it is in,
[50:59] and the
[51:00] really good find for us.
[51:03] And then the second one is a picture of the seven passenger van and this
[51:08] is a Chrysler product. It's a 2023. This two has I think 58,000 miles on it. And we're purchasing
[51:17] this from Tucker Chevrolet. And we'll be going down hopefully tomorrow and picking this up. But it is
[51:26] in a macular shape, it was a rental vehicle in upstate New York that the dealership brought in and they knocked $1,000 off the list price when we came in and I think it's going to be a good pick up.
[51:42] We've got two vans, the two white vans, one in two in three, one has transmission issues and over 200,000 miles, I've talked about this before and one has an oil leak.
[51:55] And we just had to have the oil pan replaced.
[51:58] And so really getting kind of nervous about the dependability of those two vehicles.
[52:03] So we're going to keep one as a spare back up and we'll have this new Chrysler as well as our silver being.
[52:13] So dependable vehicles and purchasing both through local entitlement funds or special ed.
[52:25] I make a motion to approve this. Do we have a second?
[52:28] I'll second it.
[52:30] Any further discussion? All in favor?
[52:34] Is unanimous? Do you get it, Chad?
[52:37] Yes.
[52:38] All right.
[52:38] And we move into our first administrative report from our new principal,
[52:42] a single word.
[53:01] We've had a lot going on.
[53:02] And we've had a lot going on at school this summer.
[53:07] It's been a very active place.
[53:09] our enrollment is total 220 right now.
[53:13] I actually think as of this afternoon it might be 221.
[53:16] We had a kindergarten student who had not yet enrolled.
[53:19] They had contact at the school but hadn't filled up their paperwork yet.
[53:23] Come in this afternoon, so our numbers are looking really good.
[53:27] And I believe from what Carrie told me this afternoon,
[53:29] that was 19 students for the summer that we've had enroll.
[53:33] And one currently that we have had move to another district.
[53:38] We've had, you know, our custodial staff has been in and doing a great job with summer
[53:42] cleaning.
[53:43] They had, you know, cleaned out all the classrooms and did the waxing on the floors and now
[53:48] they're going back through and cleaning desks and, you know, making sure those floors are
[53:51] staying nice and shiny.
[53:53] They came in the striping on the parking lots and then we also have had some drainage near
[53:58] the pre-K building, which I didn't get to see the pond or the skating rink, I guess, depending
[54:05] on what time of year that was going on.
[54:06] but other people who were in the building today to see this happening were very
[54:10] excited to see this drainage project happening so along with that in the
[54:16] beginning of July we had a scheduling team come together we had several goals
[54:21] that we were hoping to accomplish with this team we were trying to look at
[54:25] getting our kindergarten out of that end-of-day unified art schedule for
[54:29] several reasons you know they were having to take all of their belongings down
[54:33] with them and then tried to transition from there to the buses and it was just
[54:35] to a lot of transitioning for our kindergarten students.
[54:38] We were looking at staggering our literacy and math blocks to help with numbers in intervention
[54:43] and special education settings to be able to make sure that we're providing them the
[54:48] best education we can for them as well.
[54:50] And then we were looking to add a win block.
[54:52] Win stands for what I need.
[54:54] And so we were able to add a win block for every grade level.
[54:59] And we're really excited about that and getting our intervention team to be working with
[55:03] our classroom teachers at each grade level to provide students what they need.
[55:07] And so to accomplish these, we were able to accomplish them.
[55:11] We had to look at our lunch time and we had to change that by five minutes.
[55:15] We also got together and we changed our bus schedule a little bit.
[55:19] And that also in turn will then change the parent pickup time at the end of the day as well.
[55:24] It kind of switches pickup and bus.
[55:26] So we had several people outside of the team that got together sort of helping us make these changes.
[55:33] for our students. So we're very excited to see it play out. You can see our team there.
[55:38] We had Nikki Decker, Jen Merrill, Taylor Maloney, Troy Kendrick, Cindy Amanda, and then Chris
[55:44] Milliken. And they met for a couple hours in the beginning of July. And then it's been like constant
[55:50] emails back and forth. What do you think about this? What do you know? What about these changes?
[55:53] How would this affect this? Because when you change one thing, it's a domino effect.
[55:57] And so we think we're in a good spot to be able to start the school year and excited about the
[56:02] changes that we've been able to make.
[56:05] And then we also have a, we're calling it the MTSS leadership team, MTSS stands for
[56:11] multi-tiered systems of support.
[56:14] So our goal this year with that team is to really look at the systems that we have in place
[56:18] in our school and try to make those systems work together as much as we can to provide what
[56:25] every student needs all day.
[56:27] And so we're taking a very, very close look at tier one instruction.
[56:32] That's the instruction that happens in the classroom every single day,
[56:35] that literacy, math, science, and social studies.
[56:37] And then we are also looking at, and we've been working on creating a school-wide code of conduct
[56:43] sort of to address some of those behavior needs that we're seeing in the classroom.
[56:47] And so that we have something sort of overarching for the school that everybody can refer to.
[56:52] We've looked at Title I intervention, we've looked at special education, we're bringing in school counseling, and then we have a goal of bringing in our unified arts teams on there as well.
[57:01] So this is our leadership, our MTSS leadership team here, and we have met several times this summer, and this work will continue a lot through the school year, but we will be meeting monthly through this year as well.
[57:14] just to make sure that we're on track with the goals that we are creating for
[57:20] staff and for our students, really.
[57:23] And then the PTG has set up a popsicles on the playground event for
[57:30] next Thursday, the 20th at 5.30.
[57:33] And I'm going to get to be there and help hand out popsicles,
[57:36] and help meet our students and our families.
[57:38] And so I'm really excited about that.
[57:42] Any questions?
[57:43] Yeah, so I noticed 41 you're projecting for kindergarten so I noticed that you're projecting 41 for kindergarten is that that's with two teachers that's with three teachers three teachers. Okay. Yeah, we have 41 and then three not yet in that we've heard contact from and they are not fully.
[58:03] So you're looking at class sizes of 12 13 to 14. Yeah.
[58:08] Okay. Yep. Great. Which is a great size for kindergarten. What is unified arts? Specials.
[58:16] PE, art, music. Yeah. No. So, okay. So, arts, meaning you're encompassing PE, music, and art.
[58:27] Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All of it. You know, so part of our schedule change was looking at
[58:34] where they fit best in the day, but then also to try to work that into MTSS, that's sort
[58:39] of our next step, and so each will try to connect students with some of those.
[58:44] You know, students who may struggle a little bit in the classroom, but they really excel
[58:47] in art, to be able to connect them with those teachers.
[58:51] Yeah, I've heard the term UA, but I never really thought about what it stood for.
[58:56] UA time?
[58:57] Yeah, I do go back and forth between specials and UA, but we really are trying hard to call
[59:03] I'll ask a dumb question. What is Title I? Because I'm new here.
[59:07] So Title I is the students who have moved from Tier I in the classroom to needing a little
[59:16] bit more support. So they will, that'll be part of that wind block. They'll be able to
[59:20] get some extra intervention time based on data, literacy and math data, mostly, and be able
[59:28] to get some smaller group instruction with that team of teachers.
[59:32] So these are kids that don't maybe have the individualized education plan but they need
[59:37] a little more help.
[59:38] Okay.
[59:38] All right.
[59:39] Thank you.
[59:39] And so that's sort of what that MTSS plan is.
[59:41] You kind of start out at tier one with what's happened in the classroom every day and then
[59:45] the teachers provide some differentiation there.
[59:47] And then if they're needing more support, they can move into tier two which is that intervention
[59:51] and then if they're still needing more support, they'll move into tier three which is special
[59:55] education.
[59:55] Can you give me a couple examples of
[1:00:00] Different students using the wind, what would it, what would that be? So our wind block is actually going to be all students. So if we're looking at kindergarten, we would have our three kindergarten teachers and then our three interventionists. And we will look at the data to be able to, we're going to alternate literacy and math so we're making sure to get that intervention in. And the real idea behind it, the wind block separate from other academic times during the
[1:00:29] the day is intervention is supposed to be a supplement.
[1:00:33] So we're trying hard to not have them if they're needing
[1:00:36] intervention and literacy to be pulled out of a literacy
[1:00:39] or a math block when they're not.
[1:00:41] They should be getting that instruction
[1:00:42] and then getting a supplement to it.
[1:00:45] And so we'll have all of our teachers at each grade level,
[1:00:48] along with our intervention team,
[1:00:50] based on data, will break up our students into groups.
[1:00:53] And so if you're looking really closely at phonics,
[1:00:56] it might be students who are needing more help with decoding or more help with you know
[1:01:01] encoding and writing those words and they'll be able to really focus in on what the students need.
[1:01:06] It also can be enrichment you know so not every student needs intervention and that's why that
[1:01:09] wind block is is so crucial because it's what I need. So I may need an enrichment while somebody
[1:01:15] else may need intervention and so that can be part of that. Sort of envisioning this as a elementary
[1:01:20] school study hall, you know, in a way, you know, like here you're getting what
[1:01:26] you need in that time block, whatever that might be. How long does that last?
[1:01:30] Right now it's 30 minutes. That's what we were able to put in for the school
[1:01:33] year, and you know, and ideally a wind block, and I think that this is a sort of a
[1:01:37] long-term goal for us, might include a student who maybe partners up with the
[1:01:42] custodian and is able to go there or somebody who, you know, maybe needs even a
[1:01:47] bit more space in the school's secretary, the administrative assistant is reading with
[1:01:51] that student and so really it's sort of all hands on deck but that's I think a longer
[1:01:57] term goal for us.
[1:01:58] Great.
[1:01:59] Have that when I had little so it's a new concept for me.
[1:02:04] You mentioned adjusting the lunch time and the bus schedule so did we change the duration
[1:02:10] of the lunch period or the length of the school day?
[1:02:14] We just, we, we pushed everything back by five minutes.
[1:02:18] So it wasn't a big change as far as the lunch,
[1:02:21] so instead of starting at a kindergarten starting in and going out at 11,
[1:02:24] they'll go in at 11.05, that made it so we could utilize that specials,
[1:02:29] that unified arts block that was right there before lunch to sort of get kindergarten
[1:02:33] out of that end of day.
[1:02:35] And so, and the bus schedule also didn't really change much,
[1:02:39] it's just that we kind of alternated a couple of times with the middle school high school.
[1:02:43] And so our student, our students used to get picked up on the bus at 2.40, now they'll do 2.30 and the car pickups will be 2.40.
[1:02:51] So it's sort of the same thing, it's just arranging things a little bit differently.
[1:02:56] Last year we had a situation where a group of kids were getting picked up over at most of you early.
[1:03:03] And so they were missing out on I think 10 minutes.
[1:03:07] 10 to 15 minutes of their academic block at the end of the day.
[1:03:10] because of transportation. So, Harold and Allison and I already sat down was like how do we how do we fix this and so we had just adjusted the times and when students were getting picked up at Marsha
[1:03:23] Buker and when they're getting dropped off here to eliminate that so that those kids are there for the entire day.
[1:03:34] Part of that was switching students busing is going out first and walkers are gonna go
[1:03:43] second last year, it was Walker's first and Boston second, which was a 10-minute swing.
[1:03:49] So that was just doing little tweaks to make the system work.
[1:03:54] Starting over at Masha Buker, because we have a large group of kids, they get dropped off at the
[1:04:00] big care out front here. That will empty out one of the buses, so that the kids when they come in
[1:04:05] to the middle high school, they'll be seats on the bus because those kids have been dropped off
[1:04:11] So just a little semantics of how we played it out.
[1:04:16] Yeah.
[1:04:19] Excellent.
[1:04:20] Thank you so much.
[1:04:21] You survived your first one.
[1:04:22] Yes.
[1:04:24] All right.
[1:04:25] It's up to you now, Chad.
[1:04:26] It's up to me.
[1:04:27] So in your packet, you have the listing of summer projects.
[1:04:32] And I just, I went through this a little bit with the finance team,
[1:04:37] finance committee and the policy committee.
[1:04:39] but it's just that spreadsheet that I put in there.
[1:04:44] So basically we have eight projects that are ongoing
[1:04:47] or completed right now with our HVAC contract
[1:04:51] or specialty services.
[1:04:53] They, you can see on the, on the bottom side,
[1:04:55] most of them have been completed.
[1:04:57] We've got a couple where items have been ordered
[1:05:00] and we're just waiting for those.
[1:05:02] And the biggest part of the project is the phase one
[1:05:07] Then the HVAC upgrade over here at the middle high school, which is really going to focus
[1:05:13] on the wing by the gymnasium going down through the main office.
[1:05:18] So that section of the building, the control, the electronic controls will be upgraded this
[1:05:24] fall after all of these projects are taken care of.
[1:05:30] And this is something that was similar that we did at Marsha Buker.
[1:05:34] they did it all at once and we've been paying on that over a five-year period.
[1:05:40] We did a little bit different year, we're going to pay for it as we go, we'll do
[1:05:45] one step or one phase this year and then the rest of it next year. So that's the
[1:05:50] plan there. We did have, if you want to see the gym floor shiny again, the
[1:05:56] the company that did the install came back and did a second refinished, came out
[1:06:02] fantastic. We shifted gears from the company that we were using to this company just based on the fact that they
[1:06:11] refinished the floor last year and we wanted them to come back because they know what they need to do.
[1:06:16] And that actually paid off very well. We've got some, one of the big things that we needed to do is
[1:06:23] replace locker room stalls or the bathroom stalls in the locker rooms. Both the girls in the
[1:06:29] The boys' locker rooms they were in atrocious shape.
[1:06:33] Some panels were yellow, some were orange, some were green, some were fallen apart, and
[1:06:39] so we're in the process of getting those replaced.
[1:06:43] In doing that, we're also installing ADA stalls, one in the boys' rock locker room and one
[1:06:51] in the girls' locker rooms, so we're reconfiguring that space.
[1:06:55] and so that is scheduled for next week, I believe, two weeks from now when the panels come in.
[1:07:05] Some of the other things that are old news and they've been taken care of. We also have a
[1:07:11] vanity installation over at Marsha Buker for our school nurse. Our school nurse over there did
[1:07:18] not have a sink and a sink base in our clinic. She had to use the sink in the
[1:07:24] bathroom, which obviously is not acceptable in anyone's mind. And so we've got
[1:07:31] one on order from Hammond Lumber, and especially services going to run the
[1:07:36] piping for us for the water in the drain line. So those are the big ticket items
[1:07:41] there. Chromebooks, I think I reported last month, the Chromebooks are in.
[1:07:45] First and the Royce have prepped those for student use and so that is really it's going
[1:07:53] to get us up to snuff with our technology devices at both the elementary school and middle
[1:07:59] school and I think one last thing I would say is that the as far as a safety factor electronic
[1:08:09] electronic door access, we were able to update the door number four, which is over at
[1:08:18] Marsha Viewker by the library. And now that's going to be a key fob entrance, and then also
[1:08:24] we upgraded the key fob entrance to the pre-K building the modular. And so if in an emergency
[1:08:31] situation, if people need it again, they're not fumbling through a set of keys, they're describing
[1:08:36] having the fog, hitting the button and the door open so we can get kids off the playground
[1:08:42] faster and more efficiently and if we need to get them from the playground over by the
[1:08:49] modular into the modular, again they're not fumbling with keys, they're getting into
[1:08:55] the building and the door will lock so. A little bit of a safety factor there as well as
[1:09:00] a convenience factor.
[1:09:03] Those are really the projects, unless you have another one in there that I didn't touch
[1:09:08] upon that you have interest in, and the catch basin over in the playground by the portable.
[1:09:17] That was a nagging piece for the past couple of years.
[1:09:22] It pawns up, makes it difficult for the kids to get into the pre-K classroom.
[1:09:28] they had to use the ramp to go around the pond and so graciously enough the folks at public works
[1:09:35] are putting in a catch basin where the pond was and so as water builds up it'll get
[1:09:43] re-routed off into the woods area and speaking of the public works I would like to give a shout out
[1:09:51] to Jay and his crew for re-lining the parking lot here as well as over at Marsha Buker. They did that
[1:09:58] over the past couple days and dressed up the new lining that we had from the
[1:10:03] repays last year did a fantastic job and I just want to say how much we
[1:10:09] appreciate their their partnership with with the school department so thank
[1:10:13] you to to Jay and his crew you're mentioned of the Chromebooks is this okay are
[1:10:22] we sure ready to talk about a thing or not I just I wanted to mention in our letter
[1:10:26] from Carl Matullus update that Chromebooks will not be going home with middle school students
[1:10:31] this year, which is exciting, and you can stay at school and we don't have to worry about
[1:10:35] them getting Braktor still on or whatever is happening. That's just something new that
[1:10:40] I wanted to make sure, as mentioned.
[1:10:44] And one announcement, Bonnie, our special ed director asked me to do a quick little public announcement.
[1:10:50] We are extending, we receive funds through the Elementary and Secondary Act, ESEA or
[1:10:59] 1965 and as part of that school departments are required to provide an opportunity for
[1:11:04] public comment on the consolidated application and we would consider any such comment as part
[1:11:11] of the application.
[1:11:12] So we are extending that public comment time through the end of the month and on the website
[1:11:20] you'll see this notice that is there and so Bonnie wanted me to update folks that if
[1:11:27] there is anyone that has a comment on our ESEA application to please email her and she
[1:11:34] and I will certainly take into consideration any requests or comments that people have.
[1:11:40] And part of that is that this money pays the way we use this money is we pay two of the
[1:11:46] ed texts for our Title I program.
[1:11:49] So it's federal money that we use to fund those two positions as a resource for kids,
[1:11:56] a safety net for kids in the Title I program.
[1:11:59] But again, she wanted to let everyone know that we're extending that window of opportunity
[1:12:04] for public comment and if anyone has a question or a comment or a suggestion to please email her
[1:12:11] and we'd be glad to talk with them about the new deadline.
[1:12:15] I'll be the end of the month August 3th 31st August 31st.
[1:12:21] Okay. All right.
[1:12:22] What percentage of students achieve very level for math?
[1:12:28] That is every year that changes every year as far as it. So we'll be getting into that.
[1:12:34] That will give you a report out as to how we did with the state assessments.
[1:12:40] And so our goal obviously, part of our goal is to increase that percentage each year.
[1:12:45] And so with a new population of kids every year, it changes a little bit, but one of the
[1:12:51] things that we have on our admin meeting agenda is to talk about state assessments and how
[1:12:56] we did.
[1:12:57] And then we'll bring reports to you folks as we gather the information and put it in an organized
[1:13:04] manage so that you guys can see how the kids are doing so we're going to are we
[1:13:09] talking about the September meeting I'm going my goal is September but it might
[1:13:14] be October and so on so we're going to get a debrief on and spring we is yes
[1:13:20] okay September or October yeah okay anything
[1:13:29] else
[1:13:37] I'm all set you're all set excellent
[1:13:40] so the next meeting we'll have opening day report outs by the building
[1:13:43] principles and tentative dates for future RSC meeting it cannot be tentative we're going to do September 10 we're gonna do something that's gonna happen yeah I'll change that to date yes date date at this moment, but we should
[1:13:56] probably coordinate the rest of 2026 pretty soon. We have that right in that link. Okay, there we go. Yeah, awesome.
[1:14:05] We're going to map out for the year.
[1:14:07] I thought we had it wrapped out.
[1:14:08] It's been mapped out for the year.
[1:14:11] Take that tentative off of it.
[1:14:13] Are we aligning the dates of the school committee meetings
[1:14:16] with weeks when we need to sign papers?
[1:14:21] Yes.
[1:14:22] Don't leave before signing.
[1:14:24] Want tonight.
[1:14:25] And the next meeting, do you think we could do a tour of the new
[1:14:31] locker rooms and a gym for the war?
[1:14:33] I want to see it. Yeah, that's amazing. They're not in yet. They're not in yet. So it's okay, yeah, it's not we did some painting. We did some reorganization last year.
[1:14:51] The bathroom stalls are or a big eye sore and so getting those taken care of. It's about a $7,000 bill.
[1:15:00] They don't come cheap. The next piece would be to tackle the shower areas. We've done a little bit of work in the boys' locker room, because when we were with RSU2, all the showers were taken out. So there was no showers in the boys' locker room. Zero. So we put two shower stalls in last year. The girls have, I believe, six shower stalls, but they're not in great shape.
[1:15:27] So, we need to do something down the road to dress those up, but.
[1:15:33] The boys locked room, they just have a little storage in.
[1:15:37] Sorry.
[1:15:38] The boys locker room used to have an open shower.
[1:15:41] So they took out of the wall, so.
[1:15:44] They took all the shower heads.
[1:15:47] I'm not going to ask why.
[1:15:49] So what we did is we put two shower stalls in that open space, partly for privacy.
[1:15:58] the gang showers of the 1980s really isn't popular item anymore and so we added two showers
[1:16:08] last year and then if we need to add more we've got room for I believe two more showers
[1:16:14] stalls in that space, but the girls' showers need to work.
[1:16:24] Definitely a place of neglect, if we need to tackle.
[1:16:32] All right, excellent.
[1:16:33] Do we have a motion to adjourn?
[1:16:37] I make the motion to adjourn.
[1:16:39] And a second?
[1:16:40] Oh, second thought.
[1:16:41] Any further discussion about this?
[1:16:44] Let's get back to the little bit of summer we have.
[1:16:46] of fallen favor and as you know I must thank you.