Effective with the 2012-13 school year, Public Law 2011 Chapter 477 Part D (LD 1816) has repealed the Minimum Teacher Salary Supplement (20-A MRSA §15689 sub-§7 and sub-§8 have been repealed). This action by the legislature repealed the law that had required the State to provide the funding to school administrative units to pay the difference between the locally established salary and the statutory minimum amount of $30,000.
Continue reading “Minimum teacher salary supplement repealed”
Final 2011-12 ED279 subsidy printouts have been posted at http://www.maine.gov/education/data/subsidy/subsidyprintouts.htm.
The Maine Environmental Education Association is seeking proposals from schools, non-profit organizations, community groups and local or state agencies for environmental education grants up to $5,000.
Continue reading “$5,000 environmental education grants available”
ADMINISTRATIVE LETTER: 2
POLICY CODE: DI
UPDATED: School districts that are interested but do not think they can make the Friday, July 13 deadline should contact Scott Harrison by Friday to give notice of their interest and discuss plans for submission.
As Commissioner Stephen Bowen announced last week at the annual Superintendents’ Conference, and based on the strong indication of interest by superintendents in attendance, the Department will work with school districts to apply for the current Teacher Incentive Fund 4 grant cycle.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education has placed an extremely short (July 27) deadline on applications. Despite the short window of opportunity, if the response from districts is as strong as it seemed it would be, we will proceed with the application.
Maine DOE encourages interested school districts to notify us by next Friday, July 13.
Continue reading “Districts invited to participate in Maine’s TIF 4 grant application”
Being identified as a Continuous Improvement Priority School in 2009 was devastating for staff at Laura E. Richards School in Gardiner.
Too few students were meeting the targets in mathematics according to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Now, after two years of hard work by Principal Karen Moody, her staff and the entire school community, students at Laura Richards have surpassed the targets in both math and reading.
Continue reading “Laura Richards School overcomes CIPS status, surpasses standards”
The Maine Department of Education recently issued notice that applications would be accepted for the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Educational Services. However, upon further review of the program’s structure, the Administration has decided to rework the program’s focus. The administration would like to further investigate how the fund could be used to encourage systemic reform in underperforming schools and districts, and will propose changes to the fund’s configuration in the next legislative session.
The Department of Education will be accepting applications for funding of school renovation projects through the School Revolving Renovation Fund. The Department will be able to approve approximately $10 million in SRRF loans. A portion of each loan will be considered a grant and will be forgiven, and the remaining portion will be paid back over five or 10 years at zero percent interest.
Continue reading “Funding available for building renovations”
The debt limit deal enacted by Congress on August 2, 2011 calls for about $900 billion in cuts in discretionary programs over the next decade and would impose further automatic, across-the-board spending cuts in many programs if Congress were to fail to enact an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures by January 15, 2012. These automatic cuts are known as sequestration. Because Congress did not agree on the additional measures, the automatic cuts – the sequestration – are scheduled to go into effect.
Continue reading “Sequestration of federal funds possible in FY 2013”
Updated 6/19/2012: Please see updated information on the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Educational Services
Maine DOE Newsroom 