| 0:03:43 | 11 resignations, 3.7% | O’Hearn: “We've had 11 staff members who have officially resigned.” … “the lion's share of them are paraprofessionals.” Against “roughly 300 full time equivalent positions, this number represents a turnover rate of approximately 3.7% since the start of the school year.” Then (0:04:24): “this number is not overwhelming in and of itself, but there is a significant ripple effect of departures we have to consider.” | |
| 0:08:13 | The hiring freeze | Madden: “It was my understanding that we had a hiring freeze in place.” O’Hearn: “we know there was a hiring freeze on August 12th.” After a two-day window (0:08:53) “our former director of special education advocated for the need for paraprofessional positions and case management positions.” Madden (0:09:42): “Patrick, did you consult with anyone on the board about that?” O’Hearn: “I do believe it's consistent with board directives.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:12:57 | What the board actually voted in August | O’Hearn: “the board action was to not elect the nominations of 19 teaching positions. And then actual reductions in force were the 20 secretarial, maintenance and other staff.” The freeze itself “was an administrative practice”. | |
| 0:14:15 | “a little evasive” | Madden: “Okay, Patrick, I feel like you're being a little evasive in your answer.” He said the two hires “came from list that wasn't ratified by the board.” O’Hearn (0:15:42): “If if there is a an urgent safety risk or legal compliance risk that can be quickly resolved through hiring. Then that is something I would have operated in the assumption I had the board's blessing to execute.” Madden: “I don't think that's a good assumption.” | MEDIUM |
| 0:16:47 | Two interns paid above market | Madden had heard of “two interns making $40,000.” O’Hearn (0:17:34): “Salaries are probably out of line with market.” … “we actually have a contractual obligation to pay those salaries.” Offer (0:19:46): “a point to school board members that the interim superintendent can bounce any hiring ideas off of”. Madden: “That would make me a lot more comfortable.” The minutes give this offer to Mr. Angell. | |
| 0:21:09 | Angell’s preface: scores and consolidation | “in school districts, the first thing that goes when you have a constraint of the budget is, intervention, teacher mentoring and some professional development.” District scores (0:21:40) “36% for reading and I think 20% for math.” At his last district, consolidation savings funded intervention; (0:22:43) “It really is going to take 2 to 3 years”. | |
| 0:23:39 | How the district got here | O’Hearn: “I saw a $1.2 million bill from school care [SchoolCare] saying if we did not remit those funds, within a few weeks, they would shut off our health insurance”. And (0:24:12) “we were uncertain that we could make payroll through the month of September.” Then (0:25:17): “We did not hire 19 teachers. And there's 20 other staff members that were laid off.” (0:25:42): “It is we cannot fulfill our educational obligations.” | HIGH |
| 0:26:25 | The plan: close Bluff; Disnard K–2, Maple 3–5 | “Maple would become a grades three, four and five school. So K one and two would attend business [Disnard].” Reason (0:27:01): “left [Bluff] has 24 students in their second grade classroom business [Disnard] has 24 students in their two separate classrooms. Maple only has 12 students in their second grade classrooms.” And (0:28:16): “we cannot meet the educational, compliance requirements of any of those students”, citing “306 and federal special education requirements.” | HIGH |
| 0:29:10 | Savings: $60,000–$65,000 | Angell: “Impact will yield just modest short term savings between 60 and 65,000. After we winterize the building.” An audience member: “Oh, wow.” O’Hearn (0:30:33): “the plan is really driven by educational needs. Not so much by financial”. The packet’s project charter lists as objectives “Achieve further budget reduction through consolidation and staffing efficiencies” and “Reduce reliance on potential bond financing”. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:31:05 | A five-week timeline | “A closure should happen over summertime, but we are not in a position to have that much, that luxury of time”. Staff assignments the next day; moving days over Columbus Day weekend (0:31:53); students back October 15 (0:32:22). (0:34:57): “We've been in touch with the Doe [DOE].” | |
| 0:36:36 | The chair: not yet | “I'm not in opposition of school consolidation.” (0:39:42): “I don't see that there is a huge savings here. And so this is not a deficit reduction, position.” … “without things being more fleshed out, I can't, you know, agree to this.” | |
| 0:40:30 | Caseloads “in the 40s almost 50” | A member (Howard in the dialogue file; Crawford in the minutes) asked what the obligations are. O’Hearn (Koski in the minutes): “we have some special education teachers with a, a student load of in the 40s almost 50.” … “it becomes impossible to deliver those services that are in the IEPs with those numbers.” Consequences (0:42:36): “there's the possibilities of lawsuits. There's a due process violation” … “The status quo is morally unacceptable.” | HIGH |
| 0:45:57 | How many positions would avoid a closure? | Howard: “I would like to hear from staff as well.” (0:46:17): “We cut 500,000 from athletics.” O’Hearn (0:47:33): the special-education consultant’s gap “is so severe, she cannot even quantify it.” (0:47:58): “Had bluff to use one example. We would need 25 paraprofessionals to meet, one on one IEP services that are currently in IEP.” | HIGH |
| 0:48:20 | Were the right positions cut? | Howard: “Of the 39 who are either not hired or laid off. I think we were under the assumption that those would not cause legal impacts”. O’Hearn (0:49:21): “the 19 teachers that we did not continue with contracts, only one was a special educator.” (0:49:57): “if we did not do that, we very well could have, bounce payroll”. (0:50:19): “Things got broken. I'm going to be honest, things got broken.” | |
| 0:51:46 | Koski: a surprise | “Lauren [Loren]. You're correct. It was a surprise. We are as as we dig through things. We are finding bigger problems under each rock. And this wasn't known last year.” (0:52:04): “we need to reform our special ed process. And the way IPS [IEPs] are written and services provided.” | HIGH |
| 0:52:37 | 25 becomes 24, district-wide | Whitney: how would closing Bluff fix a shortage of 25? O’Hearn (0:52:53): “It's 24. That's 24.” (0:53:02): “It's 24 total. There is that would need to be hired throughout the district.” Howard later (1:18:09): “of the 24 needed, we do have 12.” | OBSERVATION |
| 0:55:14 | Bluff’s principal | Chenette: “at the beginning of the year, we were already down one special education.” … “This is why I contacted the town and said, you know, we're in trouble of not being able to meet our special.” (0:55:40): “you walked through my building right now, you wouldn't know anything's going on.” (0:57:02): “I was down a special position all summer and did not get a single out of anything.” (0:58:25): “if I have multiple teachers out on one day that, it would be tough to operate.” | HIGH |
| 1:00:18 | Disnard: class sizes | Lewis: “without that second grade teacher, we now have two classrooms and they have 24 each.” Whitney (1:01:26): “I think I think Ed 306 is 25 or 26.” Ed 306.14 (eff. December 13, 2024) sets 25 or fewer per educator for K–2 and 30 or fewer for grades 3–5. Lewis (1:02:56): “What it does is it equalizes class size.” | |
| 1:04:37 | Maple Avenue: “not now” | Blount: “the timing of this proposal is not now”. (1:05:02): “this change affects an entire system K through five.” (1:06:51): “I believe a softer approach would be to look at moving our bluff friends, family, our kids.” … “They can bring their community with them, with their teachers”. | |
| 1:08:36 | Why was the principals’ plan not presented? | “Please tell. Me the decision making process.” O’Hearn (1:09:00): “the plan the principals had put together” … “was a softer approach”; (1:09:33) “I advised a stronger push of the 235 consolidation.” … “there's an existential risk at play.” Chenette (1:11:55): “we had worked on a plan for, for three days.” … “it was pushed back on it and we continued to defend it.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:14:15 | Petrin: options, transportation | “It's painful to close the school. It has, but I would like to see the different options.” (1:14:33): “Better transportation plan, I think, before we make a decision.” O’Hearn (1:15:45): “We have certain contractual obligations, a 30 day notification period with the SRE [SREA].” | |
| 1:18:58 | How many resignations the plan absorbs | O’Hearn: “You could go up to, over 5 or 6 resignations and still maintain adequate staff sizes”. | |
| 1:19:54 | The 30 minutes | The chair: “Just this evening, we have to limit our total time to 30 minutes.” (1:20:21): “The 30 minutes is what's provided by our essays.” Mark (1:53:26): “the 30 minutes statutory this minimum”. Comment ran about 64 minutes. | POSITIVE |
| 1:24:30 | “The benefits are so soft” | Lownie: “The goal is a minimum disruption, not maximum disruption.” (1:25:40): “Is there data? Are there not studies that say those schools work better?” (1:26:00): “I believe the board has to demand a proposal for a less invasive, less traumatic plan”. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:27:54 | A Bluff teacher | Simino: “Our principles have worked for three days.” (1:28:15): “no one was even asked if they'd be willing to come over to bluff.” (1:29:02): “Please don't close love [Bluff] school this year. Give us one more year.” | |
| 1:30:05 | Parents learned last | Clark: “now we find out on Facebook that love [Bluff] is back on the chopping block.” … “the school told our children it's closing before the parents were informed.” (1:31:50): “You've already made your decision behind closed doors, without a public hearing, without a vote.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:33:25 | “on social media” | A 22-year educator: “when I learn about this reconsolidation.” / “Idea on social media, media, prior to those.” (1:34:52): “Mass exodus.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:35:37 | Not what teachers were told | Gaydos: “This was not what teachers were told at our Monday morning meeting. We were told our principles, plans.” … “First, there are no substitutes. There is no money.” (1:38:07): “we know that it's happening at the middle school and the high school as well.” | |
| 1:39:09 | “without numbers” | Denholm (labeled John): “You need to trust your school principals”. … “It is unacceptable to me to hear saw [SAU] staff come in without numbers.” (1:40:11): “the number one thing that we can do to impact student learning is collective teacher efficacy.” | OBSERVATION |
| 1:42:39 | Compliance outside the elementary schools | A Bluff PTO parent: “there is a case manager at Stephens [Stevens] with over 80 students on their caseload. Wow. Okay. There's no nurse at CMS. Is that compliance?” Beaton (2:24:42): “If you want to talk about compliance, why don't you look at the two and a half and five year old who for years we have been out of compliance serving in this district.” No official answered either point. | HIGH |
| 1:51:11 | “Where are the numbers?” | Abby (1:49:54) asked the special-education consultant’s qualifications: “What are her qualifications? What does she know?” She closed: “Where are the numbers that we were promised?” Mark (1:52:01): “With the pros and cons of the competing plans.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:00:43 | “a soft change” | LeBlanc: “Our teachers could handle a soft change.” (2:02:21): “We have no guidance counselors, we don't have a lot of support staff”. | |
| 2:09:18 | Consultants and the moving number | Hill (2:08:44): “throwing out numbers and then having the number actually be lower, you know, 12 to 24”. Then: “people leave a job. Not when it's hard, but when it feels like you are alone against the challenge.” | |
| 2:11:53 | What the $60,000 leaves out | Ashley: “You say that closing class will give us about $60,000. What is going to be the cost when we have to grab more transportation to get these kids to the new schools?” Duran (2:20:26): “What are the overall savings versus overall cost for this movement?” … “What a long term plans for the property”. | OBSERVATION |
| 2:25:29 | Motion 1: table the plan | “I'd like to make a motion to table this discussion and have the administration come up with a more solid plan.” The chair argued against tabling (2:27:25): “My gut instinct is that the principals know what they're talking about”. Vote (2:31:30): “All in favor of of tabling the plan as presented by the administrative team.” … “That's unanimous.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:32:43 | Not a money question | The chair: “given that we have all the staff that's at bluff, contractually obligated, and 80 to 90% of all of our budget goes to contractual staff. This is not a money saving thing at this snapshot in time for me, it is a student service issue”. | |
| 2:34:25 | Motion 2: bring a plan next week (4–1) | “So my motion is to defer this discussion until next week, when the administration will come back with a, a plan.” (2:35:12): “the administration is the acting superintendent who works with the building principals.” (2:35:43): “Lauren Howard, second table next week.” (2:36:01): “4 to 1. This is table until next week.” The minutes name Crawford as mover; the dialogue file labels the voice Madden. The dissenter is named in neither source; the chair then said (2:36:30) “I agree, I did not want to table.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:36:35 | No more cuts | Angell: “I want to assure you that there we cannot afford any more cuts.” … “Please don't have fear that you would lose your job.” | |
| 2:38:37 | Filling the vacant seat | “you can submit a letter of, of intent to the essay six [SAU 6] office no later than 330 on September 15th.” … “Oh, we just got two.” (2:39:02): candidates announced on the 17th, questions supplied “by no later than that Friday”, answered “at a special meeting on the 24th.” | POSITIVE |
| 2:40:22 | Investigation request | “I resubmitted that request on behalf of the board. I also submitted a request to our county attorney.” (2:40:47): the county would rely on Angell, “a certified auditor”, before deciding whether “deliberate misuse or abuse of funds had occurred.” | |
| 2:41:33 | Whistleblowers | Madden: “Through an intermediary. I've been approached by.” / “A few whistleblowers” … “To retain an attorney, but I couldn't because he was conflicted out.” Whitney (2:42:05): “There's there's protection for whistleblowers in every organization.” Madden (2:42:24): “So, Patrick, can you give me an email on the tell me where I send these folks?” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:44:15 | Still no deficit figure | Angell, asked from the floor: Unity first, “I'm hopefully going to finish that this Friday and then going to pivot to Claremont. And I am endeavoring to close to get an idea of what the deficit is for next Friday.” (2:44:53): “I can't guarantee an end to that deficit by the end of the year.” | OBSERVATION |
| 2:46:12 | The chair on meeting in public | “we cannot meet as a group without doing it in public. So we are prohibited from gathering together and having discussions without being in public.” (2:46:37): “No we can't. It's illegal.” Asked (2:47:11) how the plan reached social media: “That is a super duper question that I can't answer for you.” | POSITIVE |