MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made; Review Q4’22 Reports by October 15, 2022

The recovery of Q4’22 MaineCare Seed will occur in the October 2022 subsidy payment. The Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by October 15, 2022 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review, and submit disputes, student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q4’22 by October 15, 2022.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO using the link below https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click view report button
export button

Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button. You may export the reports to Excel but, please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

To dispute a claim: If you disagree that a particular student or time period should not be on the report, please send an email with the following information for each State Student ID to stephanie.clark@maine.gov.

State Student ID
The reason that you disagree
Identify the type of report: public or private
Quarter in which the claims are located
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services:

Students must be enrolled for the time period they are receiving educational services. This means that students that are receiving extended school year services in district or extended school year services in an out of district placement must have a primary enrollment for that time period in order for the MDOE to have the most accurate enrollment data to determine SAU responsibility for MaineCare Seed.

If you have difficulty logging into NEO:

Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module, will automatically have permissions to access MaineCare reports. As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Please contact stephanie.clark@maine.gov for more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed.

Opportunity for Cost Sharing on Goods and Services Through State Master’s Agreements

Is your school administrative unit (SAU) looking for cost saving measures? Did you know that schools can use the State’s Master Agreements (MA) to benefit from State pricing on goods and services from a large number of vendors?

Search within this list of State Master Agreements on the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) Division of Procurement Services to discover the many vendors like WB Mason, Grainger, Interpreting services, etc. (Note: In the last column, if there is a Y listed, this vendor does participate in State pricing for schools)

When ordering with the vendor, be prepared to have the Master Agreement number to get the State price.

For further information or questions, reach out to Denise Towers on Maine DOE’s School Finance team at denise.towers@maine.gov.

Reminder: Pre-K Expansion Grant RFA Applications Open

Interested in starting or expanding Public Pre-K in your school administrative unit during the 2023-24 school year? This is a reminder that applications are open for RFA #202207106 Pre- K Expansion Grant. The application along with directions can be found on this webpage. To learn more about this opportunity please refer to the recorded Informational Session.

Dates to keep in mind:
September 22nd – RFA Questions due (all questions need to be emailed to RFA coordinator, jane.kirsling@maine.gov)
September 30th– RFA Questions and Answers posted
October 13th– RFA Applications due

12 Maine School Administrative Units (SAUs) were awarded Pre-K Expansion grants totaling $2.2 million for start-up or expansion of Pre-K programming during the 2022-23 school year. Expansions included adding classrooms to accommodate more students as well as moving existing programs from part day/part week to full day/full week programming. SAUs may apply on behalf of one school or multiple schools within their school system. Funding for this round of Pre-K Expansion will amount to approximately 7 million dollars. The second round of funding is for the school year 2023-2024.

Questions about the RFA should be directed to the RFA Coordinator, jane.kirsling@maine.gov.

Other questions about the benefits of Pre-K or program questions should be directed to the Director of Early Learning, leeann.larsen@maine.gov,or Early Childhood Specialist, nicole.madore@maine.gov.

VIRTUAL TRAINING: New or Recent Maine School Business Manager Training

Please join the Maine Department of Education’s School Finance & Compliance Team for a brief overview of requirements, resources, and contacts useful for all Maine School Business Managers.

September 21, 2022
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Virtual Training

Agenda:

9:05 – 9:20 MEFS System features for Code Combinations – Denise
9:25 – 9:45 MaineCare, EF-S-07/214, Audits – Stephanie
9:50 – 10:05 Coding Handbook, State vs. Federal Codes – Mary
10:10 – 11:10 Website Walk Through – ED279 Explained – Paula
11:15 – 11:35 EPS Formula, Gifted & Talented, Special Ed, and CTE – Ida
11:35 – 12:00 Questions and answers

To register and receive meeting info, or for further questions, please contact Stephanie Clark at stephanie.clark@maine.gov.

National Board Salary Supplement and Scholarship Information FY23

Salary Supplement Request

National Board Certified Teacher Salary Supplement Request Due October 15, 2022

Do you have National Board Certified Teachers on your staff? Awesome! We are sending along a reminder to those fortunate superintendents, or directors of a publicly-supported secondary school, Education Service Center (ESC) as authorized under Chapter 123, or Career and Technical Education (CTE) region, with eligible staff who have attained National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification prior to July 1, 2022. Please let us know so we can provide you with their legislatively allocated salary supplement!

In order to qualify for the salary supplement, eligible staff must be currently employed by a Maine public school, ESC, or by a publicly-supported secondary school or CTE region in Maine. Eligible position titles include classroom teacher, special education teacher, literacy specialist, math specialist, long-term substitute teacher, library media specialist, school counselor, and teaching principals who have attained certification with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or its successor organization.

The amount of the salary supplement for fiscal year 2022-23 is $5000 for teachers employed in a school in which 50% + students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, and $3000 for teachers employed in a school in which fewer than 50% of students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, unless proration is necessary.

The submission form and further information is available on our National Board Certification Salary Supplement page.

Scholarship Applications

National Board Scholarship Applications Due October 15, 2022

Are you a Maine public school, or a publicly-supported secondary school, or CTE school teacher who is interested in becoming National Board Certified? Are you a district who is eager to offer this exceptional professional learning opportunity to your teachers? State law, 20-A MRSA Section 13013-A subsection 5 & 6; as amended by PL 2012 c. 702, established the National Board Certification Scholarship Fund to encourage teachers to apply to, and enroll in, the certification program offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or its successor organization.

A school administrative unit, or a publicly supported secondary school or CTE region, may request scholarship funds on behalf of its teachers who meet the requirements.

This fiscal year, the Maine DOE will allocate $75,000 to the scholarship fund, and shall award an amount equal to the cost of the certification program, less any other funds received by the applicant to not more than 30 teachers accepted into the program annually. Priority will be given to teachers who have already begun the process and teachers employed in high needs schools.

For more information and eligibility requirements, please visit our National Board Certification Scholarship page.

If you have questions about the National Board Salary Supplement Program or the National Board Scholarship Program, please contact Emily Doughty at emily.doughty@maine.gov.

Computer Science Professional Development Grant Application

Are you interested in computer science professional development opportunities for your school? Maine’s 130th legislature, through a bill sponsored by Senator Pouliot, created a pilot grant program to provide funding for high-quality, teacher-developed or teacher-led professional development for PK-12 computer science pedagogy and content.

Priority will be given to applicants that:

do not currently offer computer science learning opportunities;
serve socioeconomically disadvantaged school districts;
prioritize student populations traditionally underrepresented in computer science;
demonstrate a commitment to pursuing high-quality educator professional development that emphasizes integration of computer science into other course work and curricula or establishes or expands access to courses that offer college credit and other certificates of value, or both; and
collaborate or partner with other entities, including but not limited to other local education agencies, the business community, nonprofit organizations and private entities.

The application window opens Thursday September 1, 2022. Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received.

There is no limit to the grant amount awarded per applicant; however, funds will be dispersed equitably across all applications based on county and throughout PK-12.

Have questions? Want to learn more? Interested in applying? Check out our website to learn more and submit an application.

Need assistance applying? Contact the Computer Science Specialist, Emma-Marie Banks, emma-marie.banks@maine.gov

SpiritSeries Maine ARP Grant Opportunity to Support Academic and Social Emotional Learning Loss

We are excited to kick off the Maine Department of Education – SPIRIT SERIES partnership with SpiritCorps, their three week, project-based, writing and self-discovery program designed for students from 7th to 10th grade.

“I’ve been having wonderful conversations with teachers and administrators around the state about SpiritCorps and its power to support, engage and inspire students while bringing joy back to teaching. It is a great vehicle to help address both academic and social-emotional learning loss and build 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.” – Christina O’Neal, Director of Program Partnerships for SPIRIT SERIES

The personal stories of Courage, Conscience and Compassion that students craft, record on video and share with their classmates can be a profound experience, building confidence, strengthening connection and fostering community. Our 2022-23 calendar is filling up fast, but plenty of slots remain available. Participating schools are given a 100% scholarship in the first year, thanks to DOE partnership and a federally funded DOE grant. SPIRIT SERIES has successfully delivered programming in Maine since 2014, serving over 6,000 students in more than 20 partner schools. We now look forward to bringing our interdisciplinary storytelling program to schools across the state. “I would absolutely recommend Spiritcorps to any educator. It was easy to use. It was fun for the students. It was great! I think that the process is so well organized…It was so easy from an educator’s perspective to integrate this curriculum into my classroom and have it feel organic.” – Scott Arritt, Gr. 7/8, Durham Community School

To learn more about the program, take a look at this short video Introduction to SpiritCorps. For further information and/or to schedule an engagement at your school, make an appointment with us on our calendar (scroll below video) or email Christina directly at coneal@spiritseries.org.

National Board Scholarship Application Window Now Open

Are you a Maine public school teacher who is interested in becoming National Board Certified? Are you a school administrative unit that is eager to offer this exceptional professional learning opportunity to your teachers?  State law, 20-A MRSA Section 13013-A subsection 5 & 6; as amended by PL 2012 c. 702, established the National Board Certification Scholarship Fund to encourage teachers to apply to, and enroll in, the certification program offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, or its successor organization.

A school administrative unit, or a publicly supported secondary school or CTE region, may request scholarship funds on behalf of its teachers who meet the requirements.

In school year 2022-23, Maine Department of Education (DOE) will allocate $75,000 to the scholarship fund, and shall award an amount equal to the cost of the certification program, less any other funds received by the applicant to not more than 30 teachers accepted into the program annually. Priority will be given to teachers who have already begun the process and teachers employed in high needs schools.

For more information and eligibility requirements, please visit our National Board Certification Scholarship page:  https://www.maine.gov/doe/cert/nationalstandards/scholarship

Please Note: The application will be open from August 8, 2022 through October 15, 2022. If you have questions about the National Board Salary Supplement Program or the National Board Scholarship Program, please contact Emily Doughty at Emily.doughty@maine.gov.

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made, Review Q3’22 Reports by July 15, 2022

The recovery of Q3’22 MaineCare Seed will occur in the July 2022 subsidy payment and the Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by July 15, 2022 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. SAU staff must review, and submit disputes and student by student claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q3’22 by July 15, 2022.

To access the MaineCare Seed reports, please follow the instructions below.

Log into NEO using the link below
https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/neo/Dashboard
Click on the Student Data tab
Click on the Student Report tab
Select MaineCare in the Reporting Area drop-down
Choose the quarterly Seed report and the report type (private/public)
Click “view report” button
Once the report appears on the screen, choose the export button.

You may export the reports to Excel but, please be aware that there may be multiple worksheet tabs within the workbook. Save the file to your computer.

To dispute a claim:

If you disagree that a particular student or time period should not be on the report, please send an email with the following information for each State Student ID to stephanie.clark@maine.gov.

State Student ID
The reason that you disagree
Identify the type of report: public or private
Quarter in which the claims are located
Service provided dates (From and To)
Total amount of Seed being disputed

Summer services:

If you have difficulty logging into NEO:

Anyone who currently has Special Education Director permissions to the Special Education module will automatically have permission to access MaineCare reports.
As in the past, if a new staff member needs permission to access this module, a request from the Superintendent to the Maine DOE helpdesk will be necessary. The helpdesk contact information is medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896.

Please contact stephanie.clark@maine.gov for more information or technical assistance related to MaineCare Seed

Annual Audit Requirements: An Early Reminder

Annual Audit Reports Due December 30th

Annual audit reports are due within six months after the end of the audit period (e.g., reports for the fiscal year ending June 30th are due on or before December 30th). In accordance with Title 20-A, §6051:

The auditor is required to review the audit with the school board.
It is the school board’s responsibility to submit the annual audit document unless it is stated in the engagement letter that the audit firm will submit the audit to the Maine Department of Education (DOE) on behalf of the school board.
Municipal school units are required to submit either a combined annual audit or a school department audit and a municipal audit to the Maine DOE. The municipal annual report (a.k.a. town report) cannot be accepted in lieu of the complete municipal annual audit.
The Maine DOE must receive a Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards(SEFA), which includes federal award expenditures for all reporting entities, even if a Single Audit (formerly A-133 audit) is not required to be conducted. The SEFA provides information needed by Maine DOE to conduct sub-recipient monitoring as required by the US Department of Education and is due at the time of the annual audit.

In municipal school units where a combined audit is not conducted, Maine DOE should receive two audits: an audit with a SEFA for the school department, and an audit for the city/town including a SEFA.

If a management letter is prepared by the auditor, a copy must be submitted to Maine DOE with the annual audit, as this letter provides us with information needed to conduct sub-recipient monitoring, as required by US DOE.

Extensions and Subsidy Payments

If an extension or exception is needed for the deadline to submit either the municipal or school department audit, the superintendent must contact us to request the extension.

The forms are available on the Fiscal Review and Compliance webpage, under forms on the menu bar.

Initial extension requests will be for a period of 2 months, and 30 days thereafter.
Extension requests will be considered until June 30th (six months after due date); extensions will not be valid after June 30th and all municipalities and school administrative units with overdue audits which have not submitted an extension request before May 31thmay have a delay in subsidy release. Those who have not submitted an extension request will have subsidy withheld until addressed.

Please submit all annual audit documents, reports, information requests, questions and other audit correspondence via email to DOE.Audit@Maine.gov.