As part of a scheduled outage, NEO will not be available to users starting at 3pm on Friday May 15th to allow the Department to complete a system upgrade to new servers. NEO will be back and open for business on Monday morning, May 18th.
For questions or concerns, please contact Katherine Warren, Education Data Systems Manager at Maine Department of Education katherine.warren@maine.gov
Maine DOE Team member Katherine Warren is being highlighted this week as part of the Get to Know the DOE Team campaign. Learn a little more about Katherine in the brief question and answer below.
What are your roles with DOE?
I am the Education Data Systems Manager. As EDSM I am a member of the School Finance and Operations Team and the Data Team. I oversee the operations of our MEDMS Help Desk, our Quality Assurance Staff and our education data systems, primarily NEO & Synergy, but also other systems DOE has that use the data we collect form our schools. In addition to that I manage DOE’s relationship with our DOE OIT (Office of Information Technology) Application Development group and our Student Information Systems vendors. It is my responsibility to prioritize the IT work being done for the Department and to see that our data systems are meeting the needs of the Department.
What do you like best about your job?
My favorite aspect of my job is getting things to “run right”. 😊 I am really happy to combine my experience with information systems with my passion for education. Prior to joining DOE I spent 20 years as the School Business manager for RSU 8 – Vinalhaven.
I love the opportunity to support and design systems that support us working together for families, schools & communities and the most responsible and effective use of taxpayer dollars. It’s also amazingly fun to get to join folks here at DOE that I have worked with from the field for all these years. I really enjoy having the chance to interact with all different teams across DOE and OIT and to work with so many other people to align all of our work.
How or why did you decide on this career?
Education is the thing that, if you do it right for people, it will bubble up positively through every other aspect of our lives, our families, communities, culture & world so I am grateful for the opportunity to be involved in changing the world for good every day and supporting people who are doing the same thing (and no I’m not exaggerating 😊 my team will tell you I really AM that much of an optimist !)
I began my career as a Deposit Operations manager for KeyCorp here in Augusta and had the opportunity to do a great deal of project management, business analysis, and call center-customer service work. After that I spent a short time as the Admissions, Billing and Switchboard Operations Manager for Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. When my family and I moved to Vinalhaven in 1998, during the Ice Storm 😊, they were looking for a School Business Manager and my career in education began. I come from a family of teachers, and married to one, so Education has always been the “family business”. For 15 years I got to go to school everyday with my husband and both my kids!
What do you like to do outside of work for fun?
I love to spend as much time as possible with my kids and my family and friends, reading good books, enjoying good food, and making music. I have been involved in choral singing my whole life and always enjoy the opportunity to make music and enjoy music in as many ways as possible. I also love to explore, not necessarily far away, to see new things, follow new roads, try new foods or new experiences and just learn new stuff.
Maine Public, the Maine Department of Education, and Educate Maine have joined forces to create original, educational programming for grade school students in Grades 3 to 5.
Dedicated teachers from across Maine have developed original video lessons, pulling content from their own lesson plans and sources to provide exceptional learning opportunities for Maine students.
The Learning Space will be broadcast on Maine Public Television at 12:30 p.m. each weekday starting on Monday, April 27. As more episodes are developed, the broadcast schedule will expand to run from Noon to 1:00. Episodes of The Learning Space will be archived for later viewing on numerous platforms online including on mainepublic.org. The Learning Space will air through the spring to mid-June.
This project would not be possible without the help from these valued partners:
The Department of Education offers quarterly windows for districts to review, for accuracy and comprehensiveness, the data that has been entered and reported to us. It is our hope that review of this data on a more regular basis will save district personnel time and work at the end of the year, and that it will provide time for analysis and to make any necessary corrections.
The certification period for Quarter 2 (Q2), which includes attendance, behavior, bullying, and truancy, opens January 1st. Review and certification are required by January 15th. Superintendent certification is required for all quarterly reports.
Attendance data certification can be found here, and guidance on reporting attendance can be found here.
Behavior data certification can be found here, and guidance on reporting behavior can be found here.
Bullying data certification can be found here, and guidance on what constitutes a reported incident of bullying can be found here.
Truancy data certification can be found here, and guidance on reporting truancy can be found here.
If you have difficulties navigating to Synergy or NEO, please call the Helpdesk at 624-6896 or email at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov
All due dates for reports are listed on the MDOE reporting calendar. All quarterly reports are based on the following months:
To assist those who are responsible for the important task of reporting quarterly attendance data to the Maine Department of Education, the DOE Data Team will be holding a webinar on Monday January 6th, from 11am to 12pm.
This webinar will be an open session for the DOE and the districts to discuss quarterly attendance reporting. We will review frequently asked questions and common data issues found during previous reporting periods. This is also an opportunity for districts to ask any questions, provide comments, and voice concerns regarding the quarterly attendance reporting process.
To register for the webinar, please click the following registration link and fill out the appropriate fields.
For assistance or more information, contact us at: medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or (207)624-6896.
The Maine Department of Education has just learned that the United States Department of Education (USED) has released proposed revisions to the data required as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), and that the comment period for the proposed revisions closes on Monday, November 18. We wanted all school administrative unit (SAU) and school leaders, and any other interested parties, to be aware of this open comment period, and to have the opportunity to review the proposed revisions and provide feedback directly to the USED.
The most clear documentation of changes we could find are located at the following link or by entering:
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=ED-2019-ICCD-0119-0003
In particular, the files titled Data Groups, Data Categories and Directional Categories provide references to the proposed changes and new expectations for data submission by SAUs and schools.
Is YOUR data done?
We are thrilled to share that 74% of our SAUs made the October 31 deadline, and have their student data submitted! This helps all of us, as it impacts the accuracy and timeliness of the ED 279.
We appreciate that SAUs have been working diligently to ensure the accuracy of their staff data prior to submitting; we are still waiting to receive about 50% of SAU staffing data currently. Please be sure to check that your staff information is updated in NEO, and call us if we can help!
Also, the truancy, attendance and behavior data for Quarter 1 is due, and the bullying reporting window is now open through November 30th. As we are looking at model policies and identifying what supports and resources we can provide for schools as they work to ensure a safe school climate, this data is helpful for the conversation.
THANK YOU to all of our SAU staff who have worked so hard to ensure the data is submitted.
And remember, if we can help please, contact our helpdesk at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov
or call 207 624-6896.
Online Registration Portal for 2019 MAARS Workshop, including an overview of key changes to Maine’s Model of School Support (Accountability) is now available.
FocalPoint K12, in conjunction with the Maine Department of Education Assessment Team, will be holding a workshop for the Maine Assessment and Accountability Reporting System (MAARS). Topics during the session include an overview of the MAARS system, information on User Account management, revised Individual Student Reports (ISRs) formats, New Features, and a Q & A session. Members from Maine’s ESEA Federal Programs team will provide an overview of key changes to Maine’s Model of School Support, as a result of the approval of the amendment submitted to Maine’s ESSA State Plan in December 2018. Each day long session is scheduled from 9 am to 3:30 pm. Lunch will be provided.
Venue and Registration Information
November 19, 2019
Abromson Community Education Center
88 Bedford St
Portland, ME 04101
Click here to register for the November 19, 2019 session.
November 20, 2019
Wells Conference Center
131 Munson Road
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
Click here to register for the November 20, 2019 session.
November 21, 2019
University of Maine – Presque Isle
Grand Ballroom – Aroostook Room
181 Main St
Presque Isle, ME 04769
Click here to register for the November 21, 2019 session.
Additionally, the assessment team and our reporting vendor FocalPointK12 will also be providing a MAARS webinar on November 13, 2019, 2:30 in preparation for the November 19 and 20 training sessions. MAARS Webinar . The audience for this session is returning and new District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) and Career and Technical Education (CTE) Directors. The updated roles within MAARS will be a critical element to prepare for the upcoming November 19 & 20 MAARS Workshops.
The content of the webinar will include:
To access the November 13, 2019 webinar please use this link.
Please direct any additional questions regarding registrations to these sessions to Eric Buckhalter at (207) 624-6770 or eric.buckhalter@maine.gov
To assist those who are responsible for the important task of reporting annual dropout data to the Department of Education, the DOE Data Team will be holding a webinar on Wednesday October 23rd from 10am to 11am.
This webinar will focus on how to complete, validate and certify the Annual Dropout Report. If you are tasked with editing, validating or certifying the annual Dropout Report for your district or school, you are encouraged to attend. If you have any questions, comments or concerns in regards to this webinar, please do not hesitate to contact us at the MEDMS helpdesk at MEDMS.Helpdesk@Maine.gov or (207) 624-6896.
Please use the Registration URL and the Webinar ID: 785-724-819.
The initial post on 9/26/2019 indicated that the Student Data and Staff Data Certifications would both be due by October 15, 2019; we apologize for this error and have corrected the due dates below to October 31st for both certified reports. The Student Data certification period begins on October 15, 2019 and ends on October 31, 2019. The Staff Data certification period begins after July 1, 2019 and also ends on October 31, 2019.
Please ensure that any revisions to the data collections are completed by October 31, 2019 so that the School Finance & Operations Teams have time to ensure that the collections are accurate prior to the start of the EPS FY 21 subsidy calculations in November.
The table below details data that has a direct impact on the calculation of an SAU’s subsidy. SAU’s can use the table to quickly assess what action they must take and by what deadline. The table also includes the follow up actions SAUs can expect from Maine Department of Education. The information in the table provides deadlines for reporting data errors, asking specific data questions, and when data revisions must be submitted to Maine DOE to be included in the SAU’s FY 21 EPS Funding Calculation. Please contact us with any questions!
| Data Point | SAU Reporting Period | SAU Action Needed | Maine DOE Action |
| NEO Staff Data – Specifically but not limited to EPS positions – Teachers, Guidance, Librarians, Health, Education Technicians, Library Ed Techs, Clerical, School Administration | July 1, 2019 -October 31, 2019 | Enter/Update Staff Data in the NEO Staff Module.
Superintendent must certify the data is accurate Data questions can be emailed to medms.helpdesk@maine.gov |
Close Staff data entry 10/31/19
DOE staff begins data quality checks/data scrubbing 10/15/19 to 10/31/19 DOE contacts SAU staff as necessary to resolve inconsistencies and/or errors |
| Synergy Student Information System –
10/1/19 enrollment (Public Schools) including- attending students, resident students, superintendent transfer students, equivalent instruction (home school) students taking a course(s) in the district, economic disadvantaged students, English learners, special education students |
October 1 – October 31, 2019 | 10/01/19-10/15/19
-Enter/Update Student Data in Synergy – Review data for accuracy and completeness in the October 1st Student Enrollment Count report in the NEO Student Data moduleTop of Form Bottom of Form 10/15/19 – 10/31/19 -Superintendent must certify the data is accurate -Revision and certification/ recertification until 10/31/19 Data questions can be emailed to medms.helpdesk@maine.gov |
Close Student data entry 10/31/19
DOE staff begins data quality checks/data scrubbing by 10/15/19 to 10/31/19 DOE contacts SAU staff as necessary to resolve inconsistencies and/or errors |
| Financial Data – FY19 | August 23, 2019 | Upload to the Maine Education Financial System (MEFS)
FY19 – 7/1/18 to 6/30/19 Actual Expenditures FY19 7/1/18 to 6/30/19 Actual Revenues FY19 Balance Sheet Transactions |
Maine DOE staff reviews financial data submissions
DOE contacts SAU staff as necessary to resolve inconsistencies and/or errors |
| Financial Data – FY20 | August 2, 2019 | Upload to the Maine Education Financial System (MEFS)
FY20 Revenue Budget FY20 Expenditure Budget Budget Approvals – Email Budget Meeting Referendum results including budget expenditure and revenue articles to Denise Towers. More detail guidance on can be found at: https://www.maine.gov/ |
|
| ED279 Public Posting | February 1, 2020 | Post public report, Preliminary ED279 – prior to February 1, 2020. | |
| ED279 Review | March 3, 2020 or 30 days after the public posting of ED279 | SAU superintendent and staff review the Preliminary ED279
Direct questions and notification of errors to the Maine DOE School Finance Team by 3/3/2020. Tyler Backus, Paula Gravelle or Ida Batista |
Maine DOE Newsroom 