Two Maine School Administrative Units Awarded Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) School Bus Rebate Awards From U.S. EPA

As part of a recent push by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose new, stronger standards to promote clean air and reduce pollution from heavy-duty vehicles and engines, approximately $10 million in DERA (Diesel Emissions Reduction Act) School Bus Rebates were awarded to local schools across the country, include two districts in Maine.

The funds will help with the replacement of old diesel school buses with new electric, diesel, gasoline, propane, or compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses meeting current emission standards.

Two Maine School Administrative Units were among the 444 rebates issued for school bus replacements:

State	Selectee Name	Region	Funding Offered/Accepted	# of Buses to be funded
ME	MSAD 28	1	$65,000	1
ME	RSU#16	1	$20,000	1

See the full U.S. EPA media release which includes a full listing of awardees. Learn more about DERA (Diesel Emissions Reduction Act) School Bus Rebates visit: https://www.epa.gov/dera/rebates.

MSAD 11 Highlighted Nationally for Addressing Gaps in Learning Opportunities with ARP ESSER Funds

Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 11 is highlighted in the White House Fact Sheet for how it is using American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) Funds to target gaps in student learning.

MSAD 11 is addressing gaps in learning opportunities by using ARP ESSER funds to hire nine new teachers and implement a new math, language arts, and social studies program.

The additional teachers permitted the district to reduce class sizes from 22-24 students to an average of 14-16 students. The district has provided external and internal coaching, ongoing professional learning, and planning support to educators and staff.

Check out their story here:

Maine Department of Education and University of Southern Maine Partner to Increase School Psychology Supports in Maine

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) and the University of Southern Maine (USM) Department of Educational and School Psychology announced a new partnership to increase the number of school psychologists within the state and expand school psychology services for Maine’s students and schools.

With support from the Maine Department of Education, the University of Southern Maine has created a new, full-time clinical faculty position to expand internship programs within the state and prepare larger numbers of credentialed school psychologists to provide effective and comprehensive school-based services. School psychologists are trained and prepared to help schools improve academic achievement, promote positive behavior and mental health, create safe and supportive school environments, strengthen family-school partnerships, improve schoolwide assessment and accountability practices, and advance equitable practices for diverse populations.

“School psychologists play such an important role in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of students and creating safe, welcoming, and supportive environments for our young people,” said Education Commissioner Pender Makin. “The pandemic greatly increased the need for these supports in our schools and we’re excited to partner with the University of Southern Maine to provide a pathway to increase the number of school psychologists in Maine schools as well as offering additional supports and resources to current school psychologists.”

Dr. Samantha Blair has been selected to serve in this new role as a Clinical Assistant Faculty in the Department of Educational and School Psychology at the University of Southern Maine.

“I am excited to be a part of this collaboration with the University of Southern Maine and the Department of Education because I am committed to the professional development of school psychologists and working with stakeholders throughout Maine to support the work in the field,” said Dr. Blair. “I am looking forward to continuing to learn about the needs throughout the state, and through collaborative efforts increasing the number of school psychologists and expanding their role to increase access to high-quality comprehensive services to students throughout Maine.”

Blair will collaborate with school psychologists and schools across the state to design, coordinate, and supervise field-based training experiences in school psychology. She will assist with the development of comprehensive practicum and internship programs, support priority initiatives within partnering schools, provide supervision to school psychology trainees, and offer professional development in clinical supervision for school psychologists.

“The recently announced partnership between the Maine Department of Education and the University of Southern Maine is exciting news for the field of education, particularly special education. School psychologists play an integral role in supporting the educational and social emotional needs of students with disabilities,” said Gay McDonald, Executive Director of Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities (MADSEC). “As active members of the student’s educational team and as trained individuals to conduct the required comprehensive evaluations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, school psychologists are greatly needed in our schools. This partnership shows the Department’s commitment to address the shortage of school psychologists across the state and to assist in meeting the individual needs of our students. Such a collaborative effort will have a high impact for Maine students, and we applaud the MDOE and USM on this partnership.”

2022-2023 Maine Education Financial System (MEFS) Budget Upload Now Open

It is that time of the year again for each School Administrative Unit (SAU) and Career & Technical Regions to submit their school budgets. Per 20-A M.R.S. Chapter 606-B, school district budget uploads are due within 30 days of the school budget passing, or by August 15, whichever comes later.

Municipal School Units and Charter Schools must upload the budget expenditure and revenue files to MEFS. Budget backup consisting of the school budget warrant articles, budget meeting minutes, vote declaration of the referendum (if required), and a copy of the successfully uploaded budget expenditure text file, must be sent via email to Denise Towers.

Regional School Units, School Administrative Districts, Community School Districts must upload the budget expenditure and revenue files to MEFS and complete the EF-M-46 in NEO. Budget backup consisting of the school budget warrant articles, budget meeting minutes, vote declaration of the referendum (if required), and a copy of the successfully uploaded budget expenditure text file, must be sent via email to Denise Towers.

Career & Technical Regions must upload the budget expenditure and revenue files to MEFS and complete the EF-M-46V in NEO. Budget backup consisting of a copy of the budget presented at the time of the vote, the meeting minutes approving the budget, and a copy of the successfully uploaded budget expenditure text file, must be sent via email to Denise Towers.

Budget uploads to MEFS must reconcile to the budget warrant articles and other supporting documents.

For more information or assistance, please contact Denise Towers at 624-6863 or Mary Randall at 446-4148.

Comments Sought on Maine’s IDEA Part B Application

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is seeking comments from the public on its annual application for federal funds under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which covers services to children with disabilities, ages 3-22.

The application, which covers Maine fiscal year 2023 (starting July 1, 2022) is posted on the Maine DOE’s webpage at https://www.maine.gov/doe/learning/specialed/director.

The Part B budget is estimated/projected on the basis of Maine’s award for the State’s current award, pending the State’s receipt of the finalized federal award for the coming year. Both documents will be posted from March 1, 2022 through May 6, 2022.

Written comments will be accepted from March 1, 2022, until 4 p.m. on Friday, April 15, 2022. Please send comments to Erin Frazier at erin.frazier@maine.gov or 23 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333.

WEBINAR: MEMA Homeland Security Grant Overview

Maine Department of Education’s Maine Schools Safety Center (MSSC) is hosting a webinar to provide an overview of the State Homeland Security Grant Program’s purpose, grant details, current application process.

Date: 03/22/2022
Time: 10am-11am
Facilitator: Rachel Bethea

Outcomes: Grant purpose and process, allowable projects and expenses, grant contact details

Audience: Public and private school administrators and other applicable personnel, local and county officials and emergency managers, and all other individuals or organizations involved in school hardening measures.

Register here

For more information, contact Melissa Condon at melissa.a.condon@maine.gov.

Registration is Now Open for the 2022 MLTI Virtual Student Conference

Registration is now open for the 2022 MLTI Virtual Student Conference! MLTI wants all 7 & 8th grade students to join this innovative conference! This year’s virtual conference will have a brand-new, classroom-centered approach in an effort to make it more collaborative for students and teachers to join sessions together as a class during the school day.

Session Style

Sessions will be delivered directly into your classroom where the workshop leader will act as a type of guest teacher. Workshop leaders will teach the class new skills, provide time for students to practice these new skills, and then support them as they create something new with what they have learned. Check out our video with different scenarios to help you plan!

Teacher Role

Teachers can sign up the entire 7^th and 8^th grade from their school. Then MLTI will send registered schools the sessions to choose from. Next, you can divide students up so that one classroom is participating in a session. All the teachers need to do is share the session live in the classroom and support students as they learn, practice, and create!

Session Times & Materials

The sessions will be 90 minutes with the morning session running from 9:30am-11:00am, and the afternoon session running from 12:00pm-1:30pm. All necessary materials will be provided to schools before the conference so students will have them to create with during the conference.

The 19th Annual MLTI Student Conference will be held virtually on Thursday, May 26, 2022 from 8:30am-2:00pm, and will be open to all MLTI 7th and 8th grade students

For questions, please reach out to Brandi Cota-MLTI Project Manager brandi.m.cota@maine.gov.

MaineCare Seed Adjustments to be Made, Review Q2’22 Reports by April 15, 2022

The recovery of Quarter 2, 2022 MaineCare Seed will occur in the April 2022 subsidy payment. The Maine DOE is asking Districts to review their reports by April 15, 2022 to ensure accurate adjustments to subsidy. School Administrative Unit (SAU) staff must review and submit disputes, student by student, for claims on both the public and private MaineCare reports for Q2’22 by April 15, 2022.

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

Log into NEO using the link: 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 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.

DATA WEBINAR: April Enrollment Certification Report – April 5th

The April Enrollment Certification report opens on April 1 with a certification due date of April 15^th. The Maine Department of Education’s Data Team will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday April 5^th at 10am to go over the April Enrollment Details report and the April Enrollment Certification report.

Please follow the “Join Live” link at the time of the training to join us. Thank you.

For questions, contact the Maine DOE Helpdesk at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov.

Visiting Teachers from Spain Program

Is your school anticipating difficulty in securing a licensed Spanish teacher for the 2022-2023 school year or beyond? Do you want to expose your students to a proficient Spanish speaker and cultural expert? Are you trying to figure out how to staff a Spanish immersion program? Then the Visiting Teachers from Spain Program may help.

Maine’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education of Spain was created to promote strong cross-cultural ties between the citizens of Maine and the people of Spain, and to help address the uneven distribution of qualified instructors of Spanish in our state. Under this agreement, educators from Spain can be brought to teach in Maine schools for a period of up to three years (a two-year extension may be possible after the third year), depending on the availability of each individual teacher, his or her willingness to stay for an extended period, and the School Administrative Unit’s (SAU) interest in extending their visiting teachers’ contracts beyond the initial year.

Visiting International Teachers are licensed to teach in Maine while holding the cultural exchange status described above.

The process of securing a Visiting Teacher from Spain is comprised of a few simple steps. An interested school or SAU must first determine that they have a guaranteed position. Teachers on J-1 visas cannot be procured for openings that are uncertain or subject to elimination. Next, a detailed application must be completed and signed. New schools or districts also must sign a program contract, indicating a commitment to abide by all of the program’s requirements.

Both documents must be submitted together to the Embassy of Spain by April 15, 2022. Maine DOE representatives will conduct remote interviews with Spanish teachers and select a pool of highly qualified candidates whose skills and backgrounds may fit the needs of Maine schools. The next step is to put their visiting teachers under contract in accordance with any local bargaining unit agreements. Visiting teachers must receive the same salary and benefits that any other teacher would receive, based on their educational attainment and years of experience. Visiting teachers arrive in Maine in mid-August and undergo an intensive pre-service orientation provided by the Spanish Ministry of Education prior to their arrival in their Maine communities.

Participation by the visiting educator in a strong, year-long novice teacher mentoring program in his or her school or district is a requirement for securing a teacher through this program. The school or district also should be willing to assist the teacher with all aspects of getting settled. Again, the application deadline is April 15, 2022. Please secure the approval of your local board of education/sponsor to hire a teacher from Spain before the April 15th deadline. Hiring after this date might be possible but we cannot guarantee availability of candidates.

See the program brochure for more details.

If you have any questions, please contact Manuel Collazo, Education Advisor at the Embassy of Spain, at manuel.collazo@educacion.gob.es or 617-678-5920.