February 28, 2024
To: RSU #74 Board of Directors
From: Mark Campbell, Superintendent of Schools
Re: March 2024 Board Report
The month has been abnormally busy while trying to balance the responsibilities of the Director of Operations as well as my own role. I am hoping that we have a name ready for you to consider for the DOO. Interviews will take place Thursday, February 29. We placed the position on Serving Schools as soon as we knew of the resignation. Based on a recommendation from the Buildings, Grounds, and Transportation sub-committee, we also placed the opening on Indeed. I would ask that we keep an open mind about the roles and responsibilities of this person. Having done it, I first am very grateful for Nikki Shamaly for all the extra she has picked up but have serious concerns about one person being able to juggle both roles because of the many responsibilities that come with each. It may be a more doable job if it was managerial only but if we expect that, we would need to look at staffing.
The Finance sub-committee met last week. The end result of that meeting will be a review by the administrative team on priorities to best address the needs of our students, buildings, grounds and buses. The impact of placing all positions currently funded through ESSER III funds into our 2024-2025 budget was a double digit increase from our current budget. The administrative team will be meeting over the next two weeks to make recommendations to the Finance committee on the proposed budget. We have another Finance sub-committee meeting scheduled for March 13. We then have a full Board Budget Workshop on March 20 at 6 p.m. at CCS.
I have enclosed a behavior/consequence document that was created after concerns were noted last fall of inconsistencies and ineffective consequences being utilized. I had a discussion with administration 6-12 about the concerns and requested this document be created to help ensure:
Progressive consequences as we moved up through the grades for similar behaviors
Progressive consequences for students with repeated behaviors
Consistency between administrators in the same building
I will give Mr. Dostie credit for the final product as he took the time necessary to gather information from his building principals and cross reference some of the consequences with Board Policies. Please understand that this document provides guidance on the appropriate consequences. The time to investigate many behavior infractions is huge, especially when harassment/bullying or situations where a protected class is part of the equation then hours and often days are consumed.
We have been informed by the State that our current fund balance in Food Service is too high. Like the carry forward in the general budget, the State regulates the amount of money districts carry on the books for Food Service. Fortunately/unfortunately, we have had to replace the freezer in Solon and the refrigerator in Anson this year and have used some of this money to do these two purchases. This week we lost the condenser for the HS walk-in freezer. We will be replacing the entire cooling set-up versus just the condenser as we had electrical issues on this same freezer last fall. Money for this will come out of the Food Service money. We have also been able to install a small sanitizer unit in the HS kitchen so staff does not have to take all cooking dishes and utensils to the larger unit which is in the hallway leading down to the academic wing. The general budget carry forward as explained by the auditors is a percentage (roughly one month of operating cost) while Food Service is specifically 3 months of operating costs. They are requesting we bring our balance in line with expectations by the end of the current fiscal year or down roughly $80,000. We have been discussing options for major purchases including new lunch tables for Solon, a structure over/around the external freezer at CCS, and to help offset the costs associated with a backup generator for CCS. The tables in Solon are stored in the walls and the metal encasements are in pretty bad shape creating a safety issue for those who put them down and up each day. The cooling units are exposed to the weather and must be cleaned off after snow storms. I will further discuss the purchase of a backup generator in Action Item # 12.
Resignations/Appointments/Nominations
Under appointments, we have two I will speak to in my letter as the rest are athletic coaches being nominated by our Athletic Director. I am awarding a stipend to Candy LeBeau who has been helping with the afternoon coverage for bus support in the afternoons. This was a task she had done for the prior two years, but our former DOO had picked up this school year. The last non-athletic stipend is to support the extra work Kelly Vicniere will be taking on by overseeing the daily planning, delivery, and assessment of student progress in the Alternative Education Program. She and I discussed the extra time necessary to do the work and estimated the $4,000 based on her hourly salary.
I received a notification from Tiffany Medwick that she is stepping down as a bus driver in order to homeschool her children. We wish to thank Tiffany for her time with us and wish her the best in her future endeavors.
I also would ask for a motion of support for Kayli Flint to fill an open Special Ed-Tech III position at CCS. In prior years, Kayli has worked for the district as a Speech Therapist as well as an ed-tech. This fall she has been substituting for us. Although she is only in Maine until the end of the current school year, we welcome Kayli in this full-time role as she has done exemplary work for us in the past.
Action Items:
Item #6: The new high school softball coach is looking to take the team to Massachusetts for some early preseason games. As well, they are looking to visit an area college campus to experience a little college campus life and hopefully interact with a college softball team. Coach Dunphy will be at the meeting to answer questions.
Item #7: This is the second reading of 5 policies you approved at the February meeting. The only change from what you were presented for the February meeting was in the document that contained Policy ADF. At the February meeting, the discussion included the elimination to the reference to proficiency based standards in paragraph 1. The first reading was approved with that elimination. Policy ADF sent for a second reading at this meeting reflects that elimination. All others remained as mailed to you for last month.
Item #8: The changes in Policy BBA are grammatical matters . The word superintendent (3 locations) has been changed to lowercase to reflect the policy is not referring to a specific person.
Item #9: The changes in Policy DJH include grammatical modifications including not capitalizing superintendent and some verb tenses. On the second page, the paragraph at the top under Staff Gifts and Solicitations was split for readability into what is and what isn’t acceptable under this heading.
Item #10: Beside grammar changes, this policy was rewritten to reflect we are an RSU made up from multiple municipalities. The sub-committee felt we should notify the municipalities then leave the notification of individual departments within each town the responsibility of the Town government. The new wording requires us to notify the respective municipalities only and not each department within the municipalities.
Item #11: Per the expectations outlined in our agreement with the use of federal funds (ESSER III), we must have an approved Safe Return to In-Person Instruction Plan. The vote to approve an updated plan is to be done twice a school calendar year. This is our second vote this year and is without changes from the version approved in August 2023. Given our funds do not run out until September 30, 2024, we will need to vote on this document in the fall as well. There is a link to this document on the district homepage as required by the agreement for the ESSER funds. As well, it is included in this mailing.
Item #12: The purpose of this purchase is to ensure if we have a repeat of power outage of any extent that we will not have to move all the food in our schools to a freezer out of district as we did just before Christmas. Our goal with placing the generator at the CCS campus where our main freezer sits is so we can bring as much food to the outdoor freezer and CCS indoor walk-in freezer to save the food from spoiling. The generator will keep the kitchen warm and prevent another failure in the fire protection system by keeping the electronics functioning which control the charging of the sprinkler system. Because our main purposes are related to our food service area at CCS , we are able to use money from food service to offset the cost to the local budget. As I shared in my opening, we were directed to spend down our carry forward money by the State.
Our bidders indicated it would take 20-24 weeks to get a 100KW backup generator here, so we are recommending the quote for a 150KW generator from Ben King and Son out of Augusta. They have access to the new 150KW generator and can get it here and set up so this transaction can be completed before the end of the current fiscal year. The price includes the generator, block heater, a new transfer switch and labor to connect the generator and new transfer switch with our current electrical system at CCS. Looking for a motion of support to award the bid for a new backup generator to Ben King & Son LLC on a 150KW Generac generator with half the funds coming from Food Service and the balance from the local budget under the capitol improvement line.
Item #13: I am asking for your support in allowing Golden’s Driving School to continue to use Carrabec High School for the classroom portion of Drivers’ Education without paying the use fee as outlined in Policy KF. The business does provide a service for our kids but outlined in the policy, you must approve the use without paying the $57 a day fee.