MSAD 58 board of directors agreed to spend remaining nutrition funds in order of priority at the Nov. 21 meeting at Mt. Abram in Salem.

SALEM – MSAD 58 board of directors agreed to make a priority list to spend the remaining $160,000 of nutrition funds at their Thursday night meeting on Nov. 21 at Mt. Abram High School in Salem.

The funds need to be spent by the end of the fiscal year, Superintendent Laura Columbia said.

Some ideas shared were some new tables, expanding menu options, increasing staff, training, and uniform allowance.

Joy York, head cook at Mt. Abram in charge of staffing and compliance, said that the kitchen in Phillips Elementary School failed inspection. Business Manager Jennifer Pooler said that there are three refrigeration systems, including freezers, that continue to break down. York also said that there are some great tables that are useful, but cannot be sanitized due to the porous wooden tops.

Board members all agreed to make a list in order of importance to spend the money.

The board also discussed grants for approval, one being for a set of small drones to be used indoors. There was some concern about safety, and inappropriate use. Columbia assured that the drones were very small, required coding to be used, and don’t have cameras attached. She said that the drones are meant to be used in teams to go along with science curriculum. The board agreed to accept the grant, with one director abstaining.

Columbia shared testing score statistics with the board. The grades-levels that were below, at, or above the state level varied, but there seemed to be a trend showing that the more instructions there were on math test questions, the lower the score. Columbia shared that math instructions are able to be listened to until a certain grade level. This raised into question whether the low scores related to weaknesses in math or in reading.