Aroostook County Teachers of the Year (CTOY) Leslie Marquis (2017), Bill Guerette (2018), Kim Barnes (2019), Jocelyn Saucier (2020), and Heather Anderson (2022), along with Maine Teachers of the Year (TOY) Elaine Hendrickson (2001) and Alana Margeson (2012) came together to plan, The Future of Aroostook County Education Symposium, or otherwise known as FACES, on November 17th at Caribou Community School.
Current teachers, ed techs and paraprofessionals, interested high school students, pre-service teachers, administrators, career/guidance counselors, community partners, policymakers, and higher education representatives enjoyed an evening of conversation, collaboration, and visioning to address the critical need to both draw and keep dedicated educators in our schools as we face an unprecedented time of teacher workforce shortages in Aroostook County, Maine, and nationally.
Maine DOE Educator Excellence Coordinator Emily Doughty, Educate Maine Program Specialist Kaitlin Young, and Valley Unified School District Superintendent Ben Sirois served as keynote speakers to ground conversations about teacher recruitment and retention. Delta Kappa Gamma Society of Women Educators also supported the evening event.
“In true Aroostook County fashion, we ‘rolled up our sleeves’ and dug into the what, why, and how of teacher recruitment and retention,” said 2019 Aroostook CTOY and 8th grade Teacher Kim Barnes.
