Register in advance online, or by contacting um-admit@maine.edu or 207-581-1561. Same-day registration begins at 6 p.m.

Fall 2012 marked the first class of Brunswick Engineering, a 2+2 program that allows students to study engineering close to home in Brunswick and finish up the last two years in civil, mechanical, electrical and computer engineering at UMaine. Students in the SMCC Pre-Engineering program can transfer to the university of their choice, but the program is designed to provide a variety of transfer opportunities between the University of Maine and SMCC, including a 2+2.

Resources and more information

• UMaine Brunswick Engineering
• SMCC Pre-Engineering
• Anita Bernhardt
  Science and Technology Specialist
  Science and Technology website
  207-624-6835
  anita.bernhardt@maine.gov

The mPower Loan Fund, which provides loans for adaptive equipment with the support of the Maine Department of Education’s Maine CITE program, announced Monday that two of their representatives participated in the RESNA Catalyst Project meeting in Washington, D.C., last week. Maine CITE was the driving force behind the mPower board obtaining $750,000 in additional federal funds five years ago.

Kathy Adams and James Marc-Aurele co-presented “Moving from Good to Great: Financial Loan Program Evolutions” as part of a panel presentation on Alternative Financing Programs. The focal point of the presentation was that loan programs need unique and varied strategies to continue growing and evolving in an ever-changing economic and political landscape. Each member of the panel presented on his or her state loan activities and gave a perspective on how each was able to move forward and succeed.

The Maine CITE program is designed to help make assistive and universally designed technology more available to Maine children, adults and seniors who need them. Maine CITE is committed to helping Maine citizens with disabilities increase access to and acquisition of assistive technology when needed to participate in education, community living, employment and information technology/telecommunications.

“We have had a very successful collaboration between Maine CITE and mPower,” said Adams. “We have been able to expand the reach of the program in what we refer to as the AFP (Alternate Financing Program) portion of the mPower program.”

The mPower Loan Fund provides Maine citizens and businesses with affordable loans to create access or buy equipment to achieve independence, life enrichment and community participation. After the initial launch, Maine voters passed two bond issues to fund the program. This makes mPower the only citizen-funded loan program in the country. In the past 25 years, more than $23 million has been loaned to individuals and businesses across Maine. As loans are repaid, money is made available for additional mPower loans, creating an ongoing resource for Mainers with disability-related needs.

“We had the opportunity to share the history and successes of mPower, as well as some of our recent marketing efforts,” said Marc-Aurele. “mPower was the first program of its kind in the country when it was launched in 1989. It serves as a national model for alternative financing programs. We were excited to have the opportunity to present our strategies so that others could consider procedures and tactics that they might be able to incorporate into their own programs.”

For additional information about the mPower Loan Fund or Maine CITE, go to www.mpowerloans.org and www.mainecite.org.

Resources and more information

• Maine CITE Program
• mPower Loan Fund
• Kathleen Powers
  Maine CITE
  207-621-3195
  kpowers@mainecite.org

RSU #64 in Corinth is in the process of planning for a regional elementary school. The school has selected an architect and a site and is currently working on programming the proposed school.

Sanford has two proposed projects: a high school/CTE facility and an elementary school. An architectural firm has been hired for the high school/CTE project, and the firm is in the process of studying the existing site and possible new sites. There has been no formal action on the proposed elementary school project.

RSU #19 in Newport has two proposed projects: a high school and an elementary school. Administrators are talking with neighboring school systems about the possibility of joining together for a high school/CTE project. There has been no formal action on the proposed elementary school project.

RSU #71 in Fryeburg has a proposed elementary school project. They have hired an architect and are in the process of planning an addition to their middle school for a PreK-8 school.

Resources and more information

• School Facilities Services
• Scott Brown, Director
  Maine DOE School Facilities Services
  207-624-6883
  scott.brown@maine.gov

History Day: Integrated Performance Assessment features Bruce M. Whittier Middle School in Poland and its annual History Day celebration. This event allows students to demonstrate proficiency in English language arts and social studies standards, as well as the guiding principals. Inviting the public and having 30 members of the public serve as presentation judges brought a level of authenticity to the assessment, which motivated many students.

Owning Their Own Reading: Learner-Centered Literacy features Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls, which began seriously investigating learner-centered education and professional learning groups when the school was designated a Continuous Improvement Priority School school two years ago. The video shows how Elm Street’s use of Cafe and Daily Five as instructional models for reading have transformed their program. The adoption of the program has fostered a new level of collaboration that is strengthening the school.

Resources and more information

• Center for Best Practice
• Gary Chapin
  Maine DOE Research Associate
  gary.chapin@maine.gov

Maine FFA State President Isaac Wortman (left) presents honorary state FFA degrees to Commissioners Bowen and Whitcomb.

The Maine FFA Association (formerly known as “Future Farmers of America”) held its 83^rd annual state convention May 9-10 at the University of Maine.

Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen and Agriculture Commissioner Walter Whitcomb spoke at the FFA award banquet, as did visiting National FFA President Clay Sapp. Gabrielle Cyr of Ashland High School was named Outstanding Student Chapter Officer, and Kevin Marquis of Easton was named FFA Chapter Advisor of the Year. Maine FFA specially recognized Thomas Hale, Caribou Regional Technology Center agriculture teacher, who is retiring after 38 years of teaching and numerous accomplishments.

The Maine FFA Association, run by students, is a leadership organization for high school and middle school students enrolled in agriculture and natural resources courses.

More than 200 students, advisors, judges and guests participated in the event, which featured competitions, workshops and tours. Competitions included public speaking, agricultural sales, floriculture, and livestock judging, among others.

Award winners received plaques and medals, as well as nearly $10,000 in cash and prizes. Honorary FFA degrees were given to members of the agricultural education community who had provided significant support to Maine FFA. Degree recipients included Commissioner Bowen; Commissioner Walter E. Whitcomb of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; Tish Carr, Superintendent for the Environment and Natural Resources event; Christopher Maseychik, welding instructor at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor; and Shari Ward, past FFA advisor and teacher of science at Ashland High School.

Resources and more information

• Maine FFA Association
• Doug Robertson
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6744
  doug.robertson@maine.gov

The Department provisionally adopted Chapter 180, the rules for implementing required teacher and principal evaluation systems, seven weeks ago today. A number of you have been asking me and other Department staff when you can expect the new rules on teacher effectiveness evaluations to go into effect. This is to update you on where that stands and why we have not been able to help you move forward with that work.

The next step in the process is for the Legislature to take up the provisionally adopted rules, modify them as they see fit, and approve them to move forward. I have asked legislative leadership repeatedly to move forward on this because of the requests from you, superintendents, to finalize action on these rules so you can begin your work. To date, they have refused to act on these critical rules.

If I sound a bit frustrated, I am. It is widely accepted that improving educator effectiveness is perhaps the single most important action we can do for students. The educator effectiveness bill was unanimously approved by the Legislature a year ago—not one member of the Legislature voted against it. We worked with all the stakeholders, including the MEA, MSMA, and others, to craft a bill that moved the state forward on this critical issue. School districts are ready to get to work, but for us to provide you with needed guidance, we need the Legislature to act. I would ask that you join me in calling on legislative leadership to move forward with final adoption of the educator effectiveness rules so that you can continue your work with some predictability and so we can provide the guidance you have asked for.

Just by way of background, this legislation, LD 1858, was proposed by Gov. Paul R. LePage and enacted in April 2012 with unanimous Education Committee support and no dissent in the House or Senate. It requires school districts to develop and implement systems for evaluating teachers and principals based on professional practice, student achievement growth and other measures. Systems are created locally and collaboratively among teachers, principals, administrators and others, but they must meet standards that are to be developed by the state. The evaluation systems must make clear what’s expected of educators, offer them constructive advice on improving their practice, and support them in their continued professional growth. The rule incorporates recommendations of the Maine Educator Effectiveness Council, a stakeholder group established in the educator effectiveness legislation, regarding professional practice standards and criteria for the use of student learning and growth measures.

Maine DOE worked with stakeholder groups throughout 2012 and invited public participation in the rulemaking process in November 2012, including through a public hearing, originally scheduled for Dec. 27, but rescheduled due to a major snowstorm. In March 2013, the Department provisionally adopted the rules that would allow districts to begin this work. Because the adoption came after a statutory deadline (due to the snowstorm, which delayed the public hearing), the Department cannot put the new rules into effect until the full Legislature approves them. To date, legislative leadership has not sent the rules to committee for a public hearing, which would set the rules on course toward final adoption and implementation.

We want you to have as much time as possible to conduct this work – the first deadline is to have developed a system during the upcoming school year (2013-14), followed by piloting the system in 2014-15, and fully implementing in 2015-16.

I encourage you to contact and speak with your local legislators to explain the need for quick action so that you can work with your administrators and teachers to develop teacher evaluation systems that support professional development and improvement, and higher student achievement. For more information, please contact the Department or follow the links below.

Sincerely,

Stephen L. Bowen, Commissioner of Education

Resources and Information

• Chapter 180 rules. Provisionally adopted by the Department
• Maine DOE Newsroom: Notice of Proposed New Rule: Chapter 180 (11/27/12) | Teacher eval systems move forward (12/13/12) | Grant to help Maine schools develop teacher, leader evaluation systems (9/29/12) | New teacher eval system means better educator training (6/12/12)
• Title 20-A, Chapter 508: Educator Effectiveness (Sections 13701-13706)
• LD 1858 (125^th Legislature): An Act to Ensure Effective Teaching and School Leadership
• Maine Schools for Excellence
• Guide to the rulemaking process

Selected educators will collaborate with our State Leadership Team to:

• Participate in five trainings between September 2013 and September 2014
• Submit and review resources for the Smarter Balanced Digital Library
• Provide valuable feedback on the usability of the Digital Library application

For their service, selected educators will get early access to the Digital Library resources and innovative collaboration tools and a stipend of up to $1,500. Minimum criteria for payment are as follows:

• Attend/complete each of the five trainings
• Submit resources into the Digital Library after each of the five trainings:
  • Submit at least one resource that is approved for the Digital Library after each of Trainings 2, 3, 4 and 5.
  • Review at least three resources in the Digital Library after each of the five trainings.
  • Submit at least one resource after Training 1.

All qualified educators are invited to apply. The open application period runs from Wednesday, May 1, 2013 through Monday, June 3, 2013. If you would like to be considered, please submit your application no later than June 3, 2013. Please note, however, that we will evaluate applications on a rolling basis. Please visit Maine State Network of Educators to apply.

More detailed information is available at: www.maine.gov/doe/smarter/index.html#digital. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Susan Fossett, State Assessment coordinator, at 207-624-6775 or susan.fossett@maine.gov.

Resources

• Application materials

Through the ImpACT Awards, MYAN recognizes and celebrates youth leadership and the support systems that empower youth. These awards are all about finding and showcasing youth and adults who are making a positive impact—on each other, their communities, and their worlds. We hope this program will encourage and inspire others to partner for positive change, too.
MYAN welcomes nominations in the following five categories:

• Youth Leadership, for a young person in Maine age 12 to 18 who has demonstrated strong leadership and/or used their voice to make an impact on an issue that affects youth across Maine.
• Empowering Adult, for an adult in Maine who has gone above and beyond to engage and empower youth age 12 to 18 in their community and who has supported youth to find their voice and/or make an impact in their community.
• Group Achievement, for a school- or community-based group in Maine that exemplifies youth-adult partnership and has creatively made a measurable difference on an issue of importance in their community or the state as a whole. Groups must include youth in the 12 to 18 age range.
• Empowering Organization, for an organization, school or business that exemplifies systematic engagement of youth ages 12 to 18 in decision-making and planning.
• Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine’s Anti-Tobacco Youth Leader of the Year and the Anti-Tobacco Adult Advisor of the Year Award, for a young person and advisor who have been outstanding leaders in an Anti-Tobacco Project.

Nominations can be submitted by youth or adults, and people can nominate themselves.You can nominate more than one person. Please submit your nomination by Oct. 25, 2013. Members of the current year of MYAN’s Youth Leaders Alliance Program MYLA are not eligible to win. However, graduated members are eligible.

Winners will be announced mid-November at MYAN’s Maine Youth Leadership Summit.

Resources and more information

• Nomination forms
• Susan Berry
  Health Education and Health Promotion Coordinator
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6695
  susan.berry@maine.gov

With the amount of time, energy, education and pride that teachers and administrators place in our schools, it stands to reason that we welcome opportunities to share our work with others. A recent visit from Commissioner Stephen Bowen allowed for Eastern Aroostook RSU 39 to share and highlight our innovation, enthusiasm and dedication.

As Maine moves toward proficiency-based education for all students, the work being done “behind the scenes” in terms of ideas and research becomes very meaningful. At Caribou High School and throughout Eastern Aroostook RSU 39, teachers are engaging in ongoing professional development around standards and shifts for instructional purposes and mass customized learning. Attending workshops by Bea McGarvey has proven an excellent catalyst for our work; as we have moved forward, most changes have come from “grassroots” movements within and across schools. Commissioner Bowen shared that Maine schools have largely embraced proficiency-based learning in this same manner. It was interesting and reassuring to gauge our own work while our methods were vetted with those of schools across the state.

Before the school day began, Commissioner Bowen met with our team for breakfast to discuss standards-based education as well as some our district’s celebrations, such as our leadership and success with the Maine Content Literacy Project. We also shared challenges and concerns, such as the new school reporting system. Open dialogue is critical, and we appreciated the opportunity to share our experiences and ask questions of Commissioner Bowen.

Being able to showcase the innovative work being done at Caribou High School was a rewarding experience. Commissioner Bowen observed and took part in a lesson I co-taught with my English department colleague, Jennifer Quinlan. Our lesson focused on having students pre-assess their levels of proficiency with a set of key performance indicators as we move into work with The Great Gatsby and “The American Dream.”

In addition, Commissioner Bowen met with the math department of Caribou High School as they worked on Common Core State Standards-based units of instruction during a professional day. They have worked for two years on creating meaningful and innovative Common Core standards based units. Recently, our English department met with the math chair, Kim Perreault, to learn more about their approach and view samples of their work. We were inspired! Such work is representative of teachers across Maine, who take pride in remaining dynamic and committed to student growth and achievement. It was wonderful to host Commissioner Bowen in Caribou; a few inches of springtime snow did not deter our efforts to share and engage in conversation about our mutual desire to ensure high quality education for all students.

Alana Margeson, an English teacher at Caribou High School, was Maine’s 2012 Teacher of the Year. She can be reached at amargeson@rsu39.org.

Resources

• Promising Practices Tour

This year’s keynote presentation, titled The Human Side of Leadership, will be presented by George Manning, Professor of Psychology and Business at Northern Kentucky University. Dr. Manning is an internationally known speaker, author and consultant to business, industry and government. Honored by university and alumni, he was selected “Outstanding Professor” and received the “Strongest Influence Award.” Manning’s unique approach and magic for connecting with people includes a blend of humor, interesting facts and practical applications.

Training for maintenance and custodial staff is especially important as school facilities are becoming more complex. Technology, building science, security and data management are now key knowledge requirements for staff to manage environmental quality, which is crucial to facilities programs that support the learning environment for all students. Title 20-A, Section 4001.7 sets standards for school maintenance programs and capital improvement programs. Information related to these programs will be addressed at the conference. This conference is sponsored in collaboration with the Maine Department of Education.

Visit the Educational Plant Maintenance Association of Maine website for more details and to register for the conference.

Resources and more information

• Pat Hinckley
  Maine Department of Education
  207-624-6886
  pat.hinckley@maine.gov
• Maine DOE School Facilities Maintenance
  
• Professor Manning’s Northern Kentucky University website