The Legislature’s Education Committee is winding down its work this week, with final discussions on charter schools and other legislation set for Friday. The House and Senate will be working late for the next few weeks to pass a two-year budget and take final action on legislation. And next week I will make my next-to-last listening tour visit – this time to Washington County.
Things are racing to a crescendo here in Augusta, not to mention in your schools, where students, teachers and administrators are focused on a successful finish to the school year.
Soon we’ll have time to step back and focus. I’m looking forward to using the summer to review what we’ve heard from the field, from legislators, and from the public, then building consensus around a strategic plan to improve Maine education and the Department of Education.
For now, we take a deep breath and plunge in for the final lap.
— Stephen Bowen
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE
Administrative Letters
- No administrative letters this week.
- Past Administrative Letters
Reporting Requirements
- Watch next week for an improved calendar of reporting requirements.
Dispatches
Gilbert students eat up nutrition lessons
It’s not every day that students laugh and smile when the subject is table manners and sanitation, but Gilbert Elementary School in Augusta has found a way around that rule. By Tim Follo | More
DOE program pairs math and trades
Nearly 20 pairs of mathematics and career-and-technical school teachers have teamed up over the past year to work on integrating more math into the vocational classes where students apply it. | More
- Maine schools receive Nellie Mae awards
- DOE testimony supports charter schools
- Telling Room called ‘Imagination Intensive’
- More Dispatches
From the Commissioner
Toward a literacy of learning
The students I’ve met in classrooms using a standards-based model of education have shown me they have an unparalleled understanding of what it means to learn. By Stephen Bowen | More