Preventing summer reading slide is a goal of many Maine educators. Students can lose months of learning gains if their brains do not remain active. During the summer of 2017, the Maine Department of Education partnered with the Freemasons of Maine to sponsor the Read to Ride Summer Reading Challenge.  Over 800 students in over 60 schools across Maine completed the challenge of reading at least 500 minutes during summer vacation—that is 400,000 minutes of reading!  The Freemasons graciously donated 48 bikes and helmets which were awarded to state level contest winners.

School principals noted that the Read to Ride Challenge was motivating and helped accomplish the goal of keeping students actively engaged in learning throughout the summer months.  Schools were also able to coordinate this opportunity with other summer literacy initiatives going on in their schools and in public libraries.  For additional information, contact Lee Anne Larsen, Literacy Specialist at leeann.larsen@maine.gov.

Maine DOE has prepared a summary of major laws related to education enacted by the First Regular Session of the 128th Maine Legislature. This information may prove helpful to educators when planning for the 2017-8 school year.

For each relevant bill, the summary lists the provisions, effective date, action required by the bill and primary contact person at the Department, the State Board of Education, the Maine Charter School Commission and/or other organizations.

A law indicated as an “emergency” is a law that was passed by a two-thirds vote of the Maine Legislature; emergency legislation can take effect immediately upon the Governor’s signature.  For non-emergency laws passed during the First Regular Session, the general effective date is November 1, 2017 unless otherwise noted.

The summary can be found at www.maine.gov/doe/rule/index.html.

Please contact Debra Plowman, Director of Policy, at debra.plowman@maine.gov with questions.

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 fiscal year 2017-18, 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, on a first-come first-served basis to teachers accepted into the certification program.

For more information and eligibility requirements please go to http://www.maine.gov/doe/national-board/scholarship.

If you have questions please contact Maine DOE’s Kelly Colby at kelly.colby@maine.gov or by phone at 624-6793.

Superintendents of a school administrative unit or the director of a publicly-supported secondary school or CTE region, with eligible staff who have attained National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification prior to July 1, 2017, must submit to the Maine DOE the list of those eligible to receive the salary supplement for the 2017-18 school year by November 10, 2017.

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

The amount of the salary supplement for fiscal year 2017-18 is $3,000.00, unless proration is necessary.  The submission form and further information is available at http://www.maine.gov/doe/national-board/supplement.

If you have questions please contact Maine DOE’s Kelly Colby at kelly.colby@maine.gov or by phone at 624-6793; Paula Gravelle at paula.b.gravelle@maine.gov or by phone at 624-6792.