Student leaders of the FFA (formerly known as Future Farmers of America) from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont gathered in South Portland earlier this month for an intensive start-up leadership training conference conducted by the National FFA Organization.
Continue reading “Maine hosts northern New England FFA “Blast Off” training”
Students ages 6-17 are invited to participate in Count ME In’s Second Annual Poster Contest to share their views on why school attendance is important now through July 19. The winning entries will be used to promote Attendance Awareness Month, celebrated in September 2016.
Continue reading “Summer poster contest promotes school attendance”
The Cross Discipline Literacy Network (CDLN) has added eight webinars to its collection with the completion of the 2015-16 season, bringing the total to 71. CDLN is a professional learning network that fosters effective literacy practices across content areas for PK-12 educators.
Continue reading “Cross Discipline Literacy Network adds webinars to collection”
AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Education, in collaboration with the Maine State Police and the Maine Association for Pupil Transport (MAPT), is hosting the final Regional Safety Conference of the 2016 year for those across the state working in school transportation.
Continue reading “Final 2016 regional school bus driver conference promotes, teaches safety”
The following Priority Notice was sent on Wednesday, June 15
To better assist the field with planning for the 2016-17 school year, the Maine Department of Education has released testing dates for the Maine Comprehensive Assessment System (MeCAS), including the required Maine Educational Assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The testing dates are as follows:
As a reminder, the Department recently announced anticipated release dates of the 2015-16 assessment results.
Join the MEA listserv for assessment related announcements, and for contact information on individual assessments, visit here.
The following Priority Notice was sent on Friday, June 10
A new and important release of Transfinder school transportation software is scheduled for Saturday June 18. The upgrade maintenance window will begin at 4:00 p.m. and continue to 4:00 a.m. Please be sure to sign off the system for this update. During that time, Routfinder Pro, Infofinder le and Viewfinder modules will be updated to Version 12.2.
Maine DOE provides free student routing and transportation operations software to all Maine public schools and this update is free to Maine public school districts. The software is called Transfinder which offers several modules that include school bus fleet maintenance, field trip management, school transportation communication, emergency preparedness planning and redistricting analysis, as well as bus routing – all with the ability to access data anytime and anywhere.
Maine public school districts that would like to begin using this free transportation software may contact our Maine Transfinder account executive Angela Vitti directly by email at Avitti@transfinder.com to get started.
Case studies about how some Maine schools that have benefited by using Transfinder can be found on the Maine DOE school transportation Transfinder web page.
Details about the transportation software can be found on the Transfinder website.
If you have any questions about the upgrade, contact Maine Transfinder Account Executive Angela Vitti at Avitti@transfinder.com or 800-373-3609.
For information about the Maine DOE school transportation software program, contact Transportation and Facilities Administrator Pat Hinckley at pat.hinckley@maine.gov or 624-6886.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has named a Maranacook Community High School educator as Maine History Teacher of the Year. Shane Gower has been teaching at the school in Readfield since 1998 where he currently teaches U.S. History and Advanced Placement U.S. History, serves as the Social Studies Department Learning Leader, and is a senior class advisor. He is a Maine Social Studies Community Teacher-Leader, Vice President of the Maine Council for the Social Studies and was selected to participate in the prestigious Understanding Sacrifice Teacher Institute.
AUGUSTA – Imagine! Learning by making and doing, storytelling, programming and coding; that’s what students love and there is a hands-on learning conference designed just for them. Maine’s Learning Technology Initiative is holding its 2016 MLTI Student Conference on Thursday, May 26 at the University of Maine, Orono. Students from over 50 schools across Maine will gather for experiential, hands-on sessions for students to learn with their MLTI devices.
AUGUSTA –School food service staff from RSU 61 and a combined team of Five Town CSD/MSAD 28 and RSU 13 will compete to become the 2016 Maine Farm to School Cook-off Champion. The final cook-off will be held today, Tuesday, May 17 at the Kennebec Valley Community College, Harold Alfond Campus in Hinckley at the Averill Building.
The competing teams are the top winners from the regional cook-offs which were held in April at the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center and the Capital Area Technical Center in Augusta. This is the first annual Maine Farm to School Cook-off to promote locally grown products in school meals.
Each team will prepare two meals within a specific time frame using at least three ingredients that are grown, raised, caught, or manufactured in the State of Maine and meet National School Breakfast and Lunch Program requirements. All recipes will later be shared in a Maine farm to school cook-off recipe book.
A panel of judges consisting of a Kennebec Valley Community College culinary arts student, school nutrition director, and professional chef will score the dishes based on presentation, taste, creativity, and feasibility to be used in a school breakfast or lunch program. The winning team will be awarded a plaque and have the opportunity to be spokespeople for the second annual cook off in 2017.
The cook-off is part of the State’s child nutrition projects and follows legislation to support healthy meals in schools. For more information on Maine’s Local Foods to Local Schools program, visit www.maine.gov/doe/nutrition/programs/localfoods/.
Members of the media are welcome to attend the May 17 final cook-off but need to confirm prior to the day of the event.
For more information and to confirm coverage, contact: Anne Gabbianelli at anne.gabbianelli@maine.gov or call 624-6747/592-4439.
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The purpose of this notice is to address the issue of full certification for special education teachers under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and amended some provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to reflect changes made by ESSA. The amendments to the IDEA related to personnel qualifications impact Maine schools in significant ways.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) amended IDEA by reinstating a pre-NCLB requirement. That requirement (34 CFR Section 602(10)(B)) mandated that a person employed as a special education teacher in elementary school, middle school, or secondary school must have obtained full certification as a special education teacher. The teacher must not be working under certification or licensure requirements that are waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis.
In their respective applications for IDEA Part B (Local Entitlement) funds, states were required to assure that for the 2016-17 school year, in accordance with section 612(a)(14)(C), that any public elementary or secondary school special education teacher has obtained full certification. Maine was not able to give that assurance because of our use of conditional, targeted needs, transitional and waived certificates.
As a result, Maine was required to submit an assurance that the State will revise policies and procedures no later than June 30, 2017 which will address special education teacher certification to bring us into compliance with the provisions of IDEA.
The Maine Department of Education will move ahead in the next year with the development of statute and/ or rules that eliminate the above mentioned less than fully certified credentials for special education teachers.
We wish to inform Maine school administrators that effective July 1, 2017, you will not be able to employ a special education teacher who is not fully certified. Please encourage your staff to work towards full certification between now and July 1, 2017.
If you have questions, contact Janice E. Breton, Director of Special Services atJanice.breton@maine.gov.
