Student leaders of the FFA (formerly known as Future Farmers of America) from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont gathered in South Portland earlier this month for an intensive start-up leadership training conference conducted by the National FFA Organization.
Continue reading “Maine hosts northern New England FFA “Blast Off” training”
Students ages 6-17 are invited to participate in Count ME In’s Second Annual Poster Contest to share their views on why school attendance is important now through July 19. The winning entries will be used to promote Attendance Awareness Month, celebrated in September 2016.
Continue reading “Summer poster contest promotes school attendance”
The Cross Discipline Literacy Network (CDLN) has added eight webinars to its collection with the completion of the 2015-16 season, bringing the total to 71. CDLN is a professional learning network that fosters effective literacy practices across content areas for PK-12 educators.
Continue reading “Cross Discipline Literacy Network adds webinars to collection”
The Maine Department of Education is encouraging superintendents, facilities directors, business managers, maintenance teams and custodial staff to attend the forty-eighth Annual School Facilities Conference at Waterville High School on June 28-29. The conference is free for public school staff; registration is required.
Continue reading “Upcoming facilities conference for school staff”
The Maine Curriculum Leaders’ Association recently selected Assistant Superintendent of Westbrook School Department Dr. Peter Lancia, as Maine’s 2016 Curriculum Leader of the Year. This is not Lancia’s first award, having been Maine’s 2002 Teacher of the Year.
Continue reading “Maine Curriculum Leader of the Year announced”
The Maine Department of Education in partnership with Educate Maine, is pleased to announce eight teachers as semifinalists for Maine’s 2017 Teacher of the Year. They were chosen from the 2016 County Teachers of the Year, who were honored in May at a celebration held in Augusta.
Continue reading “2017 Teacher of the Year semifinalists announced”
AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Education, in collaboration with the Maine State Police and the Maine Association for Pupil Transport (MAPT), is hosting the final Regional Safety Conference of the 2016 year for those across the state working in school transportation.
Continue reading “Final 2016 regional school bus driver conference promotes, teaches safety”
The following Priority Notice was sent on Wednesday, June 15
To better assist the field with planning for the 2016-17 school year, the Maine Department of Education has released testing dates for the Maine Comprehensive Assessment System (MeCAS), including the required Maine Educational Assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The testing dates are as follows:
As a reminder, the Department recently announced anticipated release dates of the 2015-16 assessment results.
Join the MEA listserv for assessment related announcements, and for contact information on individual assessments, visit here.
The Maine Department of Education is in the process of applying for a third, five-year Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant. This latest round of federal grants, called TIF 5, will expand the number of Maine Schools for Excellence (MSFE) districts and offer the opportunity for 20-30 additional high-need schools to gain access to quality educator effectiveness programs, professional development and performance-based compensation.
The following Priority Notice was sent on Friday, June 10
A new and important release of Transfinder school transportation software is scheduled for Saturday June 18. The upgrade maintenance window will begin at 4:00 p.m. and continue to 4:00 a.m. Please be sure to sign off the system for this update. During that time, Routfinder Pro, Infofinder le and Viewfinder modules will be updated to Version 12.2.
Maine DOE provides free student routing and transportation operations software to all Maine public schools and this update is free to Maine public school districts. The software is called Transfinder which offers several modules that include school bus fleet maintenance, field trip management, school transportation communication, emergency preparedness planning and redistricting analysis, as well as bus routing – all with the ability to access data anytime and anywhere.
Maine public school districts that would like to begin using this free transportation software may contact our Maine Transfinder account executive Angela Vitti directly by email at Avitti@transfinder.com to get started.
Case studies about how some Maine schools that have benefited by using Transfinder can be found on the Maine DOE school transportation Transfinder web page.
Details about the transportation software can be found on the Transfinder website.
If you have any questions about the upgrade, contact Maine Transfinder Account Executive Angela Vitti at Avitti@transfinder.com or 800-373-3609.
For information about the Maine DOE school transportation software program, contact Transportation and Facilities Administrator Pat Hinckley at pat.hinckley@maine.gov or 624-6886.
Maine DOE Newsroom 