[0:09] Good evening everyone. The first thing we do is.

[0:17] Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[0:45] All right. Excellent. Public comments. I didn't see anybody there. No. Thank you. Thank you. Reports. First one is stipend committee. I'll cover that. We met with the. Dennis, Jenny, Tina, Mark, Scott, myself and John. And we just got the stuff that we had talked a couple of years back about updating positions, job titles and evaluation criteria. And we moved down that path quite a ways. Kind of got derailed with the just events coming on. So today we just got that back online and brought it back to the surface so that we can continue to move forward with, uh, getting it that first two pieces of it, which is job descriptions and who evaluates moving forward. So, um, that was about an hour and we're going to meet back up with Jenny and, uh.

[1:44] Kevin. Yeah. No thanks, Dennis. And, uh, in November, we're to go over some where we're at with those titles, descriptions and evaluations. So next budget committee. Scott Buffington so we met tonight. Budget Committee. I got elected as chair only because nobody else wanted it. Um, so we're just, you know, we're starting on a little bit early. We got, you know, we got some new administration to help us work through that process. So, um, we'll have more information coming.

[2:24] Finance. Nate.

[2:26] We met just before this. We went over these proposals for the vans and busses, and we selected Androscoggin Bank at 5.15%. And we went over the August financial report. And everything looks good and on track policy.

[2:45] Judy.

[2:46] We met tonight and discussed, um, MJLF child abuse or neglect reporting, prevention and education. So that was a heavy conversation, but we will bring that to you in the future.

[3:03] Uh, one item at the supplemental that we're going to talk about when we get to meeting with our annual meeting with NBER 11. So I'll cover that then. So student representatives, Elizabeth Wilkins.

[3:19] Uh.

[3:22] Last Thursday, the 10th grade students had a sit in assembly focusing on health and living drug free. And that was presented by the Taylor Foundation. Um, we're still working on the ongoing messaging on suicide prevention awareness. And we had the light of the night event last Friday at football game. There were a few speakers there like Jeff, Jeff, Melbourne, Mr. Bickford and some other.

[3:59] Sources.

[4:02] And there will be this Wednesday from 930 to 1230 for all students. There are 76 groups coming on that day, including colleges, military and jobs. And it is one of the largest post-secondary institution. State testing for sophomores will begin next week, and we've been sending out messaging to families and students to let them know about that. Um, kind of a little sports update. Our football team won their game on Friday. Our cross country home meet will take place at Robbins Farm this Friday, and enrichment is beginning this week during advisory, which is every Thursday, students get to pick from a list of activities dedicated to kind of expand their horizons. There's stuff like S.A.T. prep, dodgeball, um, and a bunch of art options. So we're super excited about that. And I think that's it.

[5:10] They're undefeated.

[5:13] What? Golf.

[5:13] The golf team?

[5:15] Yeah.

[5:18] Uh, you see the schedule meetings that are listed? Uh, item six, superintendent's report, sir.

[5:25] Um, you have the superintendent's report in front of you. You'll see a couple of appointments. No resignation to transfer additional stipends. Um, and also, I just wanted to give you a quick update on the financial operation assessment by Barry Dunn. We're now in a stage where stakeholders are meeting and Barry Dunn's very organized. They give Kerry and I an outline of when they're available and who needs to meet. We fill in that table and then they send out the online invites. So we're excited to get those stakeholder meetings scheduled for the first couple of weeks of October. And the other thing I'd just like to add is this morning I went to the Western Maine Regional Program for children with Exceptionalities board meeting and learned a lot there this morning. And it was it was great to meet everybody.

[6:12] Thanks. Any questions for the superintendent? Item seven adjustments to the agenda. Can I have a motion please? To add item. You have a supplemental agenda that was handed out to you because a motion to add items 11, E and F to under new business. Gary Kelly's a second. Any discussion on item items 11, E and F under new business.

[6:38] Kelly. Diana.

[6:40] Who was it?

[6:41] Diana. Kelly. It's fine. This corner of the room. I'll take it.

[6:48] Diana. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor of adding item 11, E, and F to the agenda under new business, please indicate by a show of hands. All right. It is you. Thank you. Item eight consent agenda. A motion, please to approve the consent agenda. Items A, B, and C as written. So moved.

[7:15] Second.

[7:16] Veronica a second. Any discussion on the consent agenda as written items A, B, and C, which is a a proven. Sean Scribner as a math teacher. Uh, Barbara Dennis as a special education resource teacher and Hebron Station school grades five and six, going to Schoodic Institute, October 7th.

[7:42] All right. No discussion. All those in favor of approving consent agenda items A, B, and C as written, please indicate by show of hands.

[7:51] Thank you. And nine motion, please. I'd like to see if the board will vote to approve the minutes of September 8th, 2026. Regular school board meeting. So moved. Second. Second. Second.

[8:14] Any discussion on the minutes of the September 8th, 2026 school board meeting? S1:

[8:24] All right. Thank you. Anybody opposed? Abstain.

[8:31] Diana. All right. Very good.

[8:38] I have ten unfinished business. There's none. Item 11 under new business. Item A, one second.

[8:52] See if the board will vote to approve the resolution entitled authorize lease and Purchase of Transportation Vehicles in the principal amount of $725,479.

[9:05] 88 S1:

[9:24] Any discussion on resolution to authorize lease purchase of the transportation vehicles and the principal amount of $725,479.88.

[9:35] One question. Yes, Bob. How many miles before the discontinued of how many years?

[9:44] Um. No. guess. I know we do it every three ish years. We buy another one and turn one in or something like that. Can we get back to you on that exact number? Chuck's not here tonight. We go at least ten years, right? And we're always buying three, right? Yeah. We try to get them at least on about 100, $150,000.

[10:11] All right, well, I'll get we'll get us the exact answer for the next meeting on mileage in years.

[10:24] Any other questions? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the resolution to authorize lease purchase of transportation vehicles in the principal amount of $725,479.88.

[10:39] Please indicate by a show of hands.

[10:43] Thank you. That's unanimous. item 11 b.

[10:50] To see if the board will vote to approve the following votes to be adopted by the School Board of Maine School Administration. District number 17 at the meeting on September 21st, 2026. This is.

[11:11] The steps we need to do to. So that the town of Harrison and the town of Waterford can decide. Do they want to keep the Waterford Elementary School open? Much like we had to go with Agnes Gray. They. Those municipalities have to vote to say yes or no. And in this case, it's both municipalities have to vote because we have kids of students from both towns going. So what we need to do is put this warrant out before them.

[11:43] Kerry, do you have anything to add about this warrant? S5:

[12:34] Any questions about that? I have a question. Sure. If um, if the town's voted to keep it open, let's just say. And there's, a significant cost to running the school. As such, I forget just just Waterford then pay.

[12:53] Or do they both pay? S5:

[12:54] Just Waterford pays.

[12:55] They. What happens is whatever our school budget is, we subtract that $441,000. That is the on the vote from that and that gets allocated to Waterford. And then we cost share the rest of the budget like we normally do in Waterford, still pays their share of the rest of the budget. So it would be like an additional $400,000, assessed Waterford.

[13:21] But Harrison gets to decide whether Waterford should.

[13:23] Pay because they have students there. Yes.

[13:28] That is the question. You know that you made clear in the question that voters will have to vote on it.

[13:37] How much the money is, but it doesn't go into detail about how that's done, but that will be brought up at each select board's meeting. I'm going to Waterford's on Wednesday, and I'm sending something, um, with each of their packets for the voting about how the steps work. And then, um, I've asked Harrison to, I asked Kristen, I said, if you don't understand it and want me to come on Thursday, I'll come to your select board meeting as well.

[14:04] So I have one question and I'll get back to the re summarize what we're doing here in a second notice of the public hearing.

[14:13] Who is holding the public hearing? S5:

[14:33] And where is that taking place?

[14:35] It will be just before our school board meeting here, like we did with West Paris.

[14:40] So we're going to ask them to come over here to listen to a public hearing about their school being closed.

[14:45] Yeah, it's just if they have questions about it. We've already been to their each town and had question and answer time. So.

[14:54] Okay.

[14:55] But yeah, that's what the public hearings are held.

[14:56] Just so this doesn't say it says as provided therein. This doesn't say where that location is. It doesn't need to.

[15:02] Oh, it should have said the central office.

[15:08] Did they not include that? S5:

[15:18] It doesn't say where.

[15:19] It's not on the warrant call the notice of election, but it's on the notice of public hearing.

[15:28] So your your vote is just to vote to send out these, the documents.

[15:34] So let me simplify what I'm looking at this unless I'm missing something. The warrant notice should be presented to the meeting. Be approved that the referendum be called for November 3rd. And it's in the towns of Harrison and Waterford for the purpose of approving the closing of the Waterford Elementary School.

[15:52] Mhm.

[15:55] Then it says also part two, that a notice of public hearing presented to the meeting be approved, and that that a public meeting hearing on the closing of Waterford Elementary School be held on October 21st, 26 at 6 p.m., as provided therein.

[16:15] Yes. So it's provided therein.

[16:18] Okay.

[16:18] All right. So there's more parts. Okay. Very good. So that that piece of paper that we're all going to have to sign tonight if we approve this, has the information that the citizens from Waterford Harrison need to have to know where to be and what time to be there.

[16:30] That's what gets posted in.

[16:32] Any other duty.

[16:35] Um, can anybody give me a 3 or 4 sentence statement to make to our citizens as to why Waterford has to pay extra to have a school when other towns, and then helped to pay for other towns to schools. But Waterford has to pay extra.

[16:58] I mean, I've been following this, but what do I say to people? S5:

[17:05] Okay. Select and understand the process. I'm talking about folks, the citizens.

[17:10] Well, it's because it's part of the school closing process. We've. The district has deemed that for lack of need. We don't need that school. If they want to. If the citizens want to say, hey, we're going to keep it open anyway, then that's you have to pay the extra that we're saving by closing it.

[17:27] Okay, so lack of need based on not enough kids, correct.

[17:33] Otherwise, excuse Otherwise they continue in Harrison. Correct? Just like Agnes Gregg, we had to vote, right? We had to. We were given a price for Agnes Gray. If the citizens in West Paris wanted to keep the school open.

[17:48] Right. It's the same process. You can do it, but you're going to fund it and still pay your other share. The other piece of.

[17:55] This part of the district.

[17:57] Right. Any more questions? All right. So we need to vote to approve the votes to be adopted by the School Board of Maine School Administrative District, number 17, at the meeting on September 21st, 2026, that the warrant will include the notice and election presented to the meeting approved at that referendum be called for November 3rd, 2026 in the town of Harrison and Waterford for the purpose of approving the closing of the Waterford Elementary School and then further voted the notice of public hearing be approved on the closing of Waterford Elementary School be held on October 21st, 2026 at 6 p.m.. It's going to be here and that's the papers we have to sign. If we approve this. Any questions? All those in favor of that doing that, please indicate by a show of hands.

[18:51] Thank you. Opposed? Abstain.

[18:58] Excuse me.

[18:59] Did we have a first and a second?

[19:02] Yeah. Second. Way back when somebody said.

[19:05] Make a motion.

[19:05] Who made the motion? Said approved.

[19:07] I don't think anybody did.

[19:09] Actually. I don't think we did. No.

[19:13] Discussion. All right. So first I'll have a motion to approve item 11 B. So moved. Second. Second. Any more discussion. All right. Once again all those in favor of item 11 B please indicate by a show of hands. Thank you. Any opposed? Still And he abstained. Steph and Judy abstained. Thank you very much. Uh, you see on your notes. I want to go back and just add it to the minutes of the notes we voted to for the busses. And one thing that we didn't cover, but Nate has the information of how we're going to pay for that. So we talked about 5.15. Yeah. So just enlighten everybody how we're going to pay for the previous, uh.

[19:59] The, uh, you're talking about.

[20:01] Yeah. No, I said that in my report.

[20:03] Oh. Did you. Yeah I did. He did. Never mind. I usually in the in the piece.

[20:09] That's why not to pick on Judy. But usually you ask people why they are abstaining.

[20:16] I do.

[20:18] Judy would you tell Gay to stay upstairs?

[20:26] It's a philosophical situation and I know that. I mean, here we are. You know, obviously my vote is not going to make any difference. Um, and so in a way, I am making a oh my statement rather than a, than a budget or business statement since my vote makes no difference. I can go ahead and vote the way I want to.

[20:54] Does that make sense? S10:

[21:04] Yes. And I think if you have a a in this case, because one of the outs for not voting abstention is if you have a internal conflict that would make you think that it's not the right thing for you to do, you can use that very sparingly. And in this case, uh, I didn't feel it necessary to push the envelope, but.

[21:30] He changed it to yes and then.

[21:33] No, no no no no no no, just leave it, leave it. I mean I get it. I mean this is a big thing for the, for, for the citizens of Waterford and, and Harrison and quite frankly everybody. So uh I was going to let I did let it go, but thank you for calling out because on others I don't let it go.

[21:53] So I don't think that that we should have it. Yeah. Thank you.

[21:58] Mr. Chairman. Yes. Um we're going to executive session on the C. Is there any reason why you can't set it around where, uh, the supplemental comes before C are they here.

[22:15] Could they sign the paperwork now.

[22:18] There's a.

[22:18] I think so they're not supposed to be here.

[22:23] All right.

[22:23] All right. So so I got it. So so we need a motion to to move items.

[22:31] Move 11. E and F to F7E.

[22:35] So the motion is to move item 11. E and f to before 11. C second, second. Gary seconded. Any discussion on moving items 11 E and 11 F to before 11 C. All those in favor, please indicate by show of hands. It's unanimous. Thank you. So we're.

[23:00] All right. So the first item is I wrote all over 11 E to see if the. So we have our up. Come. I'll give you a little introduction or history. First. We have our regularly scheduled meetings moving to Wednesday next month. That's when we're going to start. However, on Thursday of next. Uh, the night is our annual meeting with MVR 11. So this is a question. And for insight do we want to try to do what MVR 11 does which is they feed you first. Then we have our annual meeting. We leave. They stay for their regularly scheduled meeting. Do we want to attempt that? That was that's my question. So or do we just want to make our first regularly scheduled Wednesday meeting in October? Uh, stick where it is.

[23:56] Do you want to meet after the joint meeting?

[23:58] Yes. That's what my thoughts were. Do we want to have one meeting that week or do we want to have two? We got 22 people coming in from all over.

[24:08] Do we just want to try to make it a single meeting for that week? S7:

[24:13] Yeah.

[24:14] That's fine.

[24:16] What's the date of that meeting would be the seventh eighth date.

[24:21] Moving towards the date would we would be moving to. If we did this. Eight which is Thursday.

[24:29] Correct. From the seventh. Correct. Correct.

[24:32] Yes.

[24:33] Correct.

[24:34] Yes.

[24:34] We are meeting at six.

[24:36] So listen, if we do this, I'll buy everybody dinner. Right.

[24:41] We pay to go to this.

[24:45] Right. Because they feed you first give you puppy belly. Then you sit there in the thing. And then we have usually, what is it, 30 minutes that meeting is. It's kind of a formality versus an in-depth meeting. Then we get done. They stay for their meeting, we go home or whatever we get to do.

[25:13] So my question was, do we want to move our Wednesday meeting to follow suit with that, or do we still want to have our Wednesday meeting? And then we have to come back on Thursday? S7:

[25:19] Yeah, we could do that. Oh seven they're meeting us. It starts at Six.

[25:25] 30. 30. Right. Right.

[25:28] That lasts until seven. And then we would come back over here at 7:00, 715 and have our meeting.

[25:33] Where is their meeting?

[25:35] We start out in the chow hall or the dining facility.

[25:38] We will begin dinner.

[25:39] Oh.

[25:41] Okay.

[25:41] And then we move.

[25:42] Way down into the building, down.

[25:45] That walk through your feet. I think that's what we eat.

[25:48] Yes. It's 530. Dinner. 615.

[25:50] And how many people have an interest in just show of hands, of moving to one meeting.

[25:59] There you go. All right. So? So we got enough to where somebody would make a motion to move our meeting to following the joint meeting on the eighth. That would work. So moved.

[26:14] Second.

[26:15] So Bob made the motion to move our Wednesday meeting, our first meeting in October to immediately following the end of MVR region 11 meeting on the eighth. So a second. I'll second. Kelly seconded.

[26:33] Any discussion? Further discussion? S1:

[27:02] Yeah, that's what I was.

[27:03] Yeah. We we normally are all invited to go to dinner and then we're normally all invited to go to that meeting. So what we do after the meeting doesn't really involve, but it's an RSVP. Yes. But I guess my concern is that if 22 additional people show up over there As everybody they've got, they've got I mean, that's quite a few to feed. I'm not sure they're eating area is big enough. Don't we normally have never been.

[27:35] But.

[27:38] It's just our.

[27:39] Group. We just it doesn't matter whether.

[27:43] Or not.

[27:44] They can move the venue.

[27:45] So so our thing is we're going to move. I get what you're saying. We're going to move our meeting to immediately following the meeting whether we go to dinner or not. To Gary's point, I'll make sure the doctors will talk with the I'll talk with John and then say, hey, if 22 people show up, is that going to be okay? But we're moving it to one meeting and.

[28:09] Our meeting will be held.

[28:11] Right? So we're going to go to Thursday, 7:00 right here. And I'm going to do the same as Gary, but we'll find out. We'll find out.

[28:20] I thought as long as everybody RSVP so they know how many is coming.

[28:24] All right. So any more discussions? We're going to move our meeting to Thursday to hear. That's what we're deciding, not the food budget. Should we start RSVP anytime or should we wait for RSVP? I'll talk to John tomorrow. Any more discussion? So, all those in favor of moving our meeting to the eighth at 7:00 immediately following the region 11 joint meeting, please indicate by a show of hands.

[28:52] Who seconded that?

[28:54] Unanimous. Thank you.

[28:59] All right. Item 11 F.

[29:03] Uh, we're just going to discuss where we're at with what we're going to need to vote on this. The board discussed the progress of the new superintendent hiring process. As you know, part of what we have to do is set up a metrics to and a process to For John's replacement. Coming up. What? Initially, Sean and I just bounce some ideas off each other's head, and it's really more that that Sean is kind of leading the charge on this. But we need to keep the board informed so we don't end up with any surprises. So. One thing that we did do was I reached out to somebody that's done these kind of things a hundred times, build metrics, uh, hire fire people, scholarships and that. It's a name. You all know, it was Jared Cash. And I said, hey, Jared, if you were, uh, undertaking this event, how would you head down this road? So and in that he said he would be willing to assist, help, whatever he can. But he's a very busy person. He works with the, the Mitchell Scholarship, and it's a full time job. And he's also, my understanding, meeting you on the 28th to talk about the new scholarship stuff we have. So with that being said, let Shauna talk for a couple seconds here on what we just kind of bounced off each other, and then we wanted to bring that to the board and make sure that's the direction the board still wants to head into. Uh, versus well, let's just go ahead.

[30:31] Um, so essentially we kind of talked about three, um, like next steps that we would look into. Um, one is doing an organizational review of central office. So figuring out, you know, what everyone does, um, job descriptions, critical functions, um, that whole sort of process so we can understand, um, you know, where accountability is. Um, and um, just the, how things function in the central office. The second part would be that we, the board would need to, um, articulate the duties and the qualities that we're seeking. Um, in a superintendent. Um, as you guys know, part of this process is also connecting with the community members and, you know, parents. Um. uh, and, and staff and figuring out what they are also looking for in a superintendent. So it's going to be a much bigger process than what we did before. Um, and we really, uh, also want to keep in mind our four strategic pillars. Um, and what, um, you know, for recruiting, retaining and growing talent maximizing, um, facilities to support, um, learning healthy and resilient students and rigorous and relevant and responsive learning. Um, and then our last part is looking at a way to launch the search and determine which way that we want to go with that. As far as, um, what company, what avenue are we looking for? Um, as far as how to facilitate that search.

[32:01] Yeah. And so.

[32:04] When we.

[32:05] Use, so you gathered that information from the board, uh, prior to us being John on, is it fair to say we could use that information? Same information again. It's pretty fresh. We do have a couple of new board members, but is that worth doing? You know.

[32:26] I think we can use some data from that. But I also think there may be other things that will be presented or thought of that the board may want to consider.

[32:37] I would think a piece to get you today is that here's a perfect example of somebody who could say, what do you wish you had known? Or what, what skill set do you wish we had asked? Did you have before rolling in here? Uh, that, um, we can fine tune what we have with, uh, the previous information, but also, uh, we all got to buy into it and we all got to be on the same page within, you know, certain guardrails to where, when we go to the, the next steps that we're not cutting each other's ideas out or backing up while we're trying to move forward. So I think we can use the information, bring in the new people. What do you think? What do you want? What are you looking for? We can use John's expertise. A man. I wish you had known this or this is what I think is a skill set. That would be very important. Now that you've been sipping from the fire hydrant of knowledge for a couple of weeks. So, uh, and go from there. But the bigger piece is we're all full time jobs or most of us, and we have Shauna who, uh, and, and, and Jared are willing to at least keep us out in front of this and, and bring us along and, and help us, uh, so that we're not committee after committee after committee meeting. And we can, they can bring a bunch of information into these five questions. What means most to you? Um, and keep us focused on getting the right metrics or rubrics or whatever the fancy word is for this next person, because this is going to, if we're looking really in March, this is this is coming on us quick. So we got, we got to make sure we stay on task with that. So.

[34:28] Okay, I was just going to say that the data that we gathered was really focused on what do we want an interim to do, which could be very different than what we want somebody to do long term? Yeah. That's good.

[34:38] Yeah. Uh.

[34:42] What's the goal for launching the search?

[34:44] What is the target time?

[34:48] She has a timing for launching the search.

[34:51] Well, if we two things. If we search from that normal other superintendents at other districts, they all decide March, April ish. Do they want to stay where they're at or do they want to move right. And then because they want to be in place by the the start of the next school year. So, you know, the goal would be that we're whoever's going to do our search for us or whoever we're going to proceed, move forward. I would think the goal would be that come March 1st, that we roll that out. Uh, may I. Yeah.

[35:26] It's okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was a great question. Um, there's a, there's several recruiting firms. And when you have a superintendents certificate, you get these emails. I get about seven a month and it's New England based. My timeline in my head as I look at this for hiring a superintendent. Great idea to get the committee together to understand what are you looking for? That's going to take a little bit of time, right? Pull together. What is it that these communities want in your next superintendent and have that ready to roll by? I would say February have it by by February break. Have that advertisement ready to go. That gives you, I'd say, even before February break. That gives you you want a month because then you're into March, right? You get some good candidates, then you have to go through the hiring process and some of you know how long that can take. And then you're into April. And April is this end of April is as late as I think you're going to find who you're looking for available, right? The early bird gets the worm kind of thing. But you don't want to be so early, you're not attracting attention. So that's the timeline I would recommend for you mid-February.

[36:26] mid-February is when it should be ready. So we should be ready the.

[36:30] 1st.

[36:30] Of February.

[36:31] Give it a couple of weeks for applications so that, you know, yeah, by the time you get around to end of February, you have a short list of people you want to interview in March.

[36:39] Okay. It's almost October. So that.

[36:41] That's right. Exactly. That's why it's such a good question. Yeah.

[36:45] Okay.

[36:46] And part of it is how do we want to proceed with the search? Do we want to use msma. Do we want to use a headhunter organization, Facebook Marketplace? I don't know, we got to figure all that out to get us. We got to decide how we want to do that. We've had we've pretty much tried everything and we've got the different results. So that would be one thing. We've got to settle in on this board.

[37:09] It's a very big process to talking with selectmen. It's, um, you know, all of your stakeholders essentially talking with staff and all of those pieces that are all having to be involved in this.

[37:25] When does the community, when do we have to identify community members? Is that not until the interview process or do they get part of the informational job description? Well.

[37:35] As they develop this, how we're going to do this? One of those would be I remember the last big superintendent search we had. Uh, we sent out, uh, surveys and, and what it was.

[37:50] So we got to do all that before February 2nd.

[37:52] Yeah. Correct. But, but it's also how far do we want do we want to send them out? I mean, Diana was the chair then. Was, was that beneficial? Didn't we blanket the world? And then the first it the way we did the first one that I remember is we started with this. Many people said, this is what we want. Then we narrowed it down and then this many people said, this is what we kept getting smaller and smaller until we got down to the actual last hiring.

[38:26] I think it was five of you on it was how many was on it before the board vote? S8:

[38:29] Yeah. So it didn't it didn't stay a big committee. It kept getting the as I remember, it kept getting narrowed down. Number of people like layers of of recruiting.

[38:40] It was basically there was a representation of board members. That was the core committee. Right. Okay. And that and it represented one from each town. Right. Board members. They stayed on the committee right. All the way through the process. Okay. We started out with There was a I'm trying to say, um, we had representation from.

[39:14] Administration teachers, uh, town officials, parents. Right. Um, and we had a selection committee that reviewed our, uh, reviewed the applications. I think that was the first step. Right. You're digging up cobwebs. So I'm trying to think. Um, so that was the first, first, first group, right? Okay. First committee, um, that was involved. Okay. And that committee did not continue after their job was done in, in narrowing the applications. Okay. From there, those applications went to the interview committee and that was another group. There might have been representation, an individual or two that served on both the selection committee and the interview committee might have been a teacher, might have been a community member, but not necessarily. It could have been an entirely different group. So that we got a fair representation from all of those populations. And then finally it went and and in the meantime, we had that core that was the board members and they were involved in this whole thing. So there was constant discussion meetings with that group, filtering a lot of information that was coming through. It came back to the board. Um, and then so as, as the decisions were made and narrowing of the candidates. Okay. And then the recommendations came down to with that group, that small group of board members taking the recommendations there back to the board saying, this is what it appears to be.

[41:29] And then we had another interview that was made up of the board members interviewing the candidates S8:

[41:34] Right.

[41:36] That's a.

[41:36] Lot. Yeah, that's.

[41:38] That's a lot.

[41:39] Would you recommend that process over again?

[41:42] I would, I would only because it gave the communities an opportunity to be involved. Um, and, and they were, and all of the communities, everybody had an opportunity to go through and, and, and, and go through the survey. I mean, they participated that way. They had a choice. Okay. Um, as well as volunteering or being having the opportunity to say yes or no, if they, if, if we reached out and asked them, would you be interested in serving on the committees? And those recommendations of who I contacted, um, to be on the committees, some of it came from um administration, um, some came from town officials.

[42:35] Teachers, board members. So volunteers.

[42:39] We get the dianic because she was the chair then and just what worked and what didn't. And then so, so conceptually, does anybody have any issues or questions or concerns or anything about us working with with Jared Cash. I mean, for those who don't know, he was a he was on the school board for the six personnel.

[42:59] Chair for quite a bit of time, actually.

[43:00] He was very instrumental in development of the strategic plan and that kind of stuff. It's in his wheelhouse, but when you talk to him, he's always making charts and rubrics, as he calls them. And, and, and he's somebody that does it for a living. So it's a versus, you know, us trying to reinvent the wheel. So I just want to know, you know, because we haven't done anything. But but Shawna needs to be able to reach out to people to, to help her build this so that we get it back in front of the board. Then the board starts voting in on it. And, and he's, he's free, free labor. So, uh, we don't have to pay.

[43:41] So, I mean, I would love that, but I would also love if Diana was part of this process before I was not here that it sounds to me like that's now the only thing that I'm giving some thought to is when we did the committees for the elementary and middle school built. We put out like an ask for people to apply so that I.

[44:05] Think that was put out to. Yeah.

[44:07] Okay.

[44:08] First we got to build the structure of what we want to do. That's what Jared and Sean's piece is. Then we can move into who do we send this out to? How far out do we reach? I mean, we absolutely want everybody to buy into whoever this new person is.

[44:23] So I think Jared would be a great help along with whoever was part of the process before. I think that the more the merrier.

[44:33] So I'll just say it is a time consuming endeavor because there's lots of meeting time, you know, whoever is doing it as well as that core of, of your board members that are on that, you know, that that core team, that's what I called it.

[44:55] Santa.

[44:56] You are on it. I hear you. I'm trying to.

[45:04] Okay, Judy, you were on that team, right? S1:

[45:33] Second.

[45:33] Any discussion on moving into executive session to discuss readmission. Hearing all those in favor of going into executive session to conduct the hearing, please indicate by show of hands. Thank you.

MSAD 17 School Board 09/21/26

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