FY 2023 Leased Space Approvals

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) has completed its review of FY 2023 leased space applications. Approvals can be viewed here: https://www.maine.gov/doe/index.php/schools/facilities/lsp.

Maine DOE’s Leased Space Program addresses the need for additional classroom space due to overcrowding, enrollment fluctuations and new programs in order to improve the quality and condition of learning environments for Maine students.

For additional information about the Leased Space Program contact Ann Pinnette at 207-215-3809 or ann.pinnette@maine.gov.

Professional Learning Opportunity: Teacher Leaders – Planning with the WIDA English Language Development Standards

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers, coordinators/directors, Ed Techs, tutors, and instructional coaches are invited to join the Maine Department of Education and WIDA for a hybrid workshop on planning with the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards!

This hybrid workshop is designed to support ESOL educators in providing local professional development and support for using the WIDA ELD Standards Framework (2020 edition) to plan instruction at the unit level. This workshop is for you if you can answer “yes” to any of these questions:

Have you been asked to provide professional development about the WIDA ELD Standards Framework (2020 edition) to educators in your school or district?
Do you engage in co-planning with content/classroom educators on a regular basis?
Do you have experience evaluating and/or designing content lessons and units?
Do you have a strong background in the WIDA Standards system and in working with multilingual learners?

Participants who complete the workshop will receive an invitation to join a consortium-wide pilot community of practice with quarterly activities and collaborative online discussions.

There will be a live virtual session on 11/30/22 from 3-4pm, followed by an in-person workshop on 12/6/22 from 9am-3pm in Augusta. Register here.

If you have any questions about this professional learning opportunity, contact April Perkins, ESOL & Bilingual Programs Specialist, at april.perkins@maine.gov or (207)441-9043.

Reminder: National Board Certified Teacher Salary Supplement and Scholarship Requests Due October 15, 2022

National Board Salary Supplement

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.

Seeking Applicants for Contracted 21st CCLC Program Specialist (30 Hours/Week)

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is seeking applicants for a Contracted 21st CCLC Program Specialist (30 Hours/Week). The purpose of this position is to provide the Maine DOE with 21st CCLC program management support in the areas of data collection, program monitoring, and professional development. This position will also provide implementation support to local 21st CCLC program providers through ongoing professional learning communities (PLCs), trainings, and targeted technical assistance. The work of this position will be largely independent. However, the position will be part of a team that oversees the successful implementation of 21st CCLC program across the State of Maine.

The 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) program provides competitive grant funding to support before, after, and summer school programming for underserved students and communities.

To learn more about position including responsibilities, knowledge and abilities, minimum qualifications, and salary – click here for the full position description.

The application window is September 30, 2022 through October 14, 2022. To be considered for this contracted position, please submit a cover letter resume to Travis Doughty at travis.w.doughty@maine.gov by October 14, 2022.

Get to Know the Maine DOE Team: Meet Sarah DeCato

Maine DOE Team member Sarah DeCato is being highlighted this week as part of the Get to Know the Maine DOE Team Campaign. Learn a little more about Sarah in the question and answer below.

What are your roles with DOE?

The role of School Nurse Specialist, works directly with the Statewide School Nurse Consultant, to provide school nursing leadership, consultation, and direction across the State of Maine. The School Nurse Specialist works as a team within Coordinated School Health to assist in synthesizing and disseminating information as it relates to trends in health care, school nursing practice, and health related policy changes. The School Nurse Specialist plans and provides educational offerings as they relate to special projects.

Sample focus areas include:

1) Establishing regional Communities of Practice (CoP) for school nurses statewide
2) Establishing communication interdepartmentally and externally with partners around the creation of a Child Care Health Consulting (CCHC) network as it relates to the role of the school nurse

What do you like best about your job?

I love working with the people I work with and having the opportunity to impact student health statewide working alongside school nurses. I enjoy collaborating with other departments within state government to best meet the needs of the populations we serve. Having a job where my expertise can be put to good use, where there is also the opportunity work/life balance is important and I am fortunate to find that here at the DOE.

How or why did you decide on this career?

The bulk of my professional nursing career has been working with or for children. Having worked in the non-profit world a number of years both running one of our former Healthy Maine Partnerships and while managing a 21st Century Afterschool Program grant, I realized I needed to become a nurse to make a larger impact on public health. I received my undergrad in nursing from the University of Southern Maine, and my graduate degree, with a focus in community/population health nursing, from New Mexico State University. I’ve worked with children as both a Public Health Nurse for the MeCDC and as a former Director of Health/School Nurse for a private high school. In my free time, I have served as adjunct faculty in the population health nursing program at the University of New England, helping shape the next generation of nurses.

What do you like to do outside of work for fun?

I enjoy being a chicken farmer, gardening, kayaking, hiking, biking, skiing, and going on camping adventures with my family. I also enjoy listening to live music and reading (but not at the same time).

Book Study – Finding Your Blind Spots: 8 Guiding Principles for Overcoming Implicit Bias in Teaching

Join the Maine Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of School and Student Supports (O3S) as they read and reflect on Finding Your Blind Spots: 8 Guiding Principles for Overcoming Implicit Bias in Teaching, by Hedreich Nichols. Members of the Maine DOE not only introduced this book study to participants at the Educator’s Summit in early August, but they also introduced participants to the author! Hedreich Nichols is an educator, writer, and passionate advocate who is sharing her lived experiences with readers and participants of this book study so that we can be reflective practitioners and can truly understand bias. You can also find her work at #Smallbites. The O3S first heard Nichols’ work on Jennifer Gonzalez’s podcast: Uncovering Your Implicit Biases: An Exercise for Teachers | Cult of Pedagogy.

This opportunity is open to all Maine educational personnel. Sessions are being held on Thursdays – either at 3:30 in the afternoon or 7:00 in the evening. Participants are welcome to join for both! October 6th is our first offering, and we will be reflecting on chapters 1-3.

Check out the authors website to learn more about the book. For any questions about this opportunity, please direct those to O3S Director Julie Smyth at julie.a.smyth@maine.gov.

Department of Education Family and Community Needs Analysis Survey

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is inviting all families to participate in our “Family and Community Needs Analysis Survey” by October 14th, 2022.

The survey responses are confidential, and names of respondents will be anonymous. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary. This survey will ask family members questions about how COVID-19 has impacted the learning and development of their children and youth. The survey is designed to be completed within 15 minutes.

The survey responses will be used to identify additional projects and initiatives that the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds may be used to support. The ESSER funding can support activities and interventions that respond to students’ academic, emotional, aspirational, and social needs while addressing the impact of COVID-19.

Please take some time to complete the anonymous survey here.

If you have questions about the survey, please contact Shelly Chasse-Johndro at (207) 458-3180 or by email at shelly.chassejohndro@maine.gov. Thank you very much for your time and support.

Maine DOE Celebrates Newly Named ‘Community Schools’ Grant Awardees

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is pleased to announce that four Maine schools have been awarded $50,000 grants to support their ‘community schools’ work. Community Schools is a local engagement strategy that creates and coordinates opportunities with its public school to accelerate student success. It is an effective, evidence-based, and equity-driven strategy for school improvement included under section 4625 of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The grant awardees and the projects supported by the funding are as follows:

Biddeford Schools/Biddeford Primary – Increase mental health supports; provide access to legal services; create community garden; host vacation-week camps
Portland Public Schools/Talbot Elementary School – Add positions (i.e. stipends) for After-School Coordinator, Homework Diner Coordinator & Interpreters, and Walking School Bus Coordinator; increase materials to support these enrichment opportunities
RSU 9/Cape Cod Elementary – Hire Community School Coordinator; provide Social Worker and Nurse stipends; increase after-school academic and enrichment support; support adding a service animal; increase dental care access
RSU 34/ Old Town Elementary School – Add after-school enrichment; continue food security/insecurity support; add Homework Diner

Supported by the Maine DOE’s Office of School and Student Supports, last spring a Community Schools Request for Applications (RFA) process resulted in these four schools receiving $50,000 each in grant funding to support their work. So far two of the awardees have implemented a Community School Coordinators position to create a community of practice (COP) including Jennifer Goodwin, RSU #34/Old Town Elementary School; and Kristin Hanna, Portland Public Schools/Talbot Elementary School. It is anticipated that Biddeford and RSU 9 will be able to use grant funding to add such coordination throughout the school year.

“To be able to fund four districts at the time we did is a great start heading into what we hope is a post-pandemic school year,” said Director of the Office of School and Student Supports Julie Smyth. “Community School models are receiving so much attention nationally – the Biden administration is committed to adding 25,000 new community schools, which will impact over 300,000 students,” added Smyth, who is committed to working with state partners to grow Maine’s understanding and support for Community Schools.

Smyth and her team have already begun convening a community of practice (COP) group among the grant recipients this week. The purpose of the COP is to build community to support each other, to learn together, and to leverage existing knowledge to support more schools in moving forward with Community Schools work.

Although the next Community Schools RFA will not be available until SY 2024-2025, it will have the potential to provide up to 10 additional school administrative units with start-up funding. In accordance with Title 20-A, §9923: Designation of community schools (maine.gov), the Maine DOE hopes to biannually designate 10 additional community schools.

For more information on Community School Coordinators and Community Schools visit any of the following websites:

For further information and questions, reach out to Julie Smyth, Director of the Maine DOE Office of School and Student Supports at julie.a.smyth@maine.gov.

600+ Devices Deployed to Mt. Ararat Middle School Students: a look at how one school implements the 1:1 device portion of MLTI 2.0

Thanks to the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), every September, with the excitement of a new school year just beginning, the Learning Commons Team at Mt. Ararat Middle School (MAMS) prepares, organizes, and deploy 600+ laptops for student to use as critical tools for their learning throughout the school year. It is a group effort by Karen Silverman, Candy Wright, and Kat Campbell to get every kid their laptop. MAMS asks for all hands on deck, so they also are lucky to have the help of the IT team, Ryan Palmer, Corrie Calderwood, and Kate Greely.

The groundwork for laptop deployment starts in the summer. Each machine is cleaned, charged, and fitted with a student name sticker. These stickers are placed not only on the machine but also on the charger and case so that if anything is lost throughout the school year it can be returned.

There were many brand-new devices this year and Karen shared student reactions.

“Students were excited when I…showed them that all our laptops flip into tablet mode. They loved that! And then I would do my best Vanna White and tell them ‘but wait there’s more!’ MAMS students all have touchscreen laptops this year.”

MAMS was able to choose a Chromebook model from CTL for their students, one of the six choices available through the new and reimagined MLTI 2.0. Karen, who served on the 2020 MLTI Advisory Board, is now able to work with a program that is not just devices, but also offers the opportunity for teachers to develop their craft around technology. The program’s long-term goal is to provide the equitable integration of technology for engaging and effective educational experiences.

Students at MAMS are excited for the opportunities and most students have begun using their devices, and many students will be taking them home this week if their parents opted them in. Throughout the year, the Learning Commons Team will support students in troubleshooting problems, or if a student has lost their laptop, they will help locate it. This will keep the team busy until June when the same type of organization goes into collecting the devices and preparing them for the following year, until then the devices will help students at Mt. Ararat Middle School be engaged in learning.

Health Ed. and Physical Ed. Inclusive Teaching Practices and Learning Workshop to be Held in December – Register Now!

The September Health Education and Physical Education Inclusive Teaching Practices and Learning Workshop dates are being postponed. The first sessions will now be held in December.

HE & PE Inclusive Teaching Practices and Learning Professional Development

Have you taken a look at your curriculum and teaching practices with the lens of inclusion?
Are your materials representative of all students and their families?
Are your practices and the language you use inclusive of all your students and their families?
Do you even know what to look for?

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) Health Education & Physical Education (HE & PE) Program will host a professional development opportunity this year focused on learning more about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and the impact on teaching practices. The training will start with an exploration and understanding of foundational concepts in DEI then teachers will be led through a process for doing a deep dive into their own curriculum, instructional strategies and classroom management practices. Following the trainings, video sessions for follow-up conversations and technical assistance will be held.

We are excited to have Dr. Sarah Benes (she, her, hers), as our co-trainer and consultant on these trainings. Sarah is an assistant professor at Southern Connecticut State University in health education and physical education, co-owner of Lighthouse Wellness and Health Education Consulting, and SHAPE America President-Elect. We are pleased to have some of Maine’s HE & PE Teacher Leaders also co-training with us this year.

This is a two-day training and attendees must commit to both days. There will be at least three opportunities offered throughout this school year. The first one is open for registration. Thursday and Friday, December 1 & 2 in Augusta (Please note we may change the training format due to the shortage of substitutes.)

The fee for this training is ONLY $40 to cover the cost of food. All other expenses are being funded by the Maine DOE.

A book study will be held this fall to begin to explore and understand issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. This is not required to attend the two-day workshop.

For further information and questions contact Susan Berry at susan.berry@maine.gov and/or Jean Zimmerman at Jean.zimmerman@maine.gov.