2016 County Teachers of the Year honored

Maine’s 2016 County Teachers of the Year spent some time in Augusta last week learning more about their roles in representing all educators in the state. Maine’s 2016 Teacher of the Year Talya Edlund encouraged educators be connected on Facebook to read all the posts regarding education policy and more. “You don’t know where this journey will take you, but soak in every moment and enjoy the ride,” she said.

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School nurses recognized at the Blaine House

Maine 2016 School Nurse of the Year, along with some retiring school nurses, were honored last week for their years of not only service to Maine’s schools but the nurturing they have given to our children. “The nurses in this room total hundreds of years of nursing,” said Nancy Dube, the Maine Department of Education’s nurse consultant.

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Maine’s U.S. Senators briefed on work of Maine Schools for Excellence grant project

Maine’s Director of the Maine Schools for Excellence (MSFE) grant initiative, Scott Harrison, recently traveled to Washington D.C. to brief Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King on the accomplishments MSFE’s ten school districts have made in their efforts to create collaborative, improvement-focused educator effectiveness programs.

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Team Knox Rocks take State award in Farm to School Cook-off

Apple, maple, oat muffin tops, a spinoff of a banana spilt made with yogurt, a decorated hard-boiled egg, and a beat and berry smoothie were on the breakfast menu as two teams of school food service employees took to the kitchen at Kennebec Valley Community College this week. This was the final round of Maine’s first Farm to School Cook-off designed to promote using local products in school lunches.

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Enhanced student information system to replace Infinite Campus State Edition

The Maine Department of Education is pleased to announce the partnership of Edupoint Educational Systems to bring the power and flexibility of their Synergy Student Information System to Maine. The new Synergy system will replace the current state-level student information and reporting system, Infinite Campus State Edition (ICSE). Infinite Campus will continue as Maine DOE’s student data system in the interim until Synergy is fully installed, configured and tested.

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Geographic Information Systems in classrooms

The Maine Department of Education, Maine Geographic Alliance, and the Maine GIS User Group are collaborating with local teacher-founded organization, Maine GIS Education Partners, to bring Geographic Information Systems to Maine classrooms. GIS is a proven method to help students gain twenty-first century skills and advance their knowledge of geographic science.

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Top teams compete in final Farm to School cook-off

AUGUSTA –School food service staff from RSU 61 and a combined team of Five Town CSD/MSAD 28 and RSU 13 will compete to become the 2016 Maine Farm to School Cook-off Champion. The final cook-off will be held today, Tuesday, May 17 at the Kennebec Valley Community College, Harold Alfond Campus in Hinckley at the Averill Building.

The competing teams are the top winners from the regional cook-offs which were held in April at the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center and the Capital Area Technical Center in Augusta. This is the first annual Maine Farm to School Cook-off to promote locally grown products in school meals.

Each team will prepare two meals within a specific time frame using at least three ingredients that are grown, raised, caught, or manufactured in the State of Maine and meet National School Breakfast and Lunch Program requirements. All recipes will later be shared in a Maine farm to school cook-off recipe book.

A panel of judges consisting of a Kennebec Valley Community College culinary arts student, school nutrition director, and professional chef will score the dishes based on presentation, taste, creativity, and feasibility to be used in a school breakfast or lunch program. The winning team will be awarded a plaque and have the opportunity to be spokespeople for the second annual cook off in 2017.

The cook-off is part of the State’s child nutrition projects and follows legislation to support healthy meals in schools. For more information on Maine’s Local Foods to Local Schools program, visit www.maine.gov/doe/nutrition/programs/localfoods/.

Members of the media are welcome to attend the May 17 final cook-off but need to confirm prior to the day of the event.

For more information and to confirm coverage, contact: Anne Gabbianelli at anne.gabbianelli@maine.gov or call 624-6747/592-4439.

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Full certification for special education teachers under ESSA

The purpose of this notice is to address the issue of full certification for special education teachers under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and amended some provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to reflect changes made by ESSA. The amendments to the IDEA related to personnel qualifications impact Maine schools in significant ways.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) amended IDEA by reinstating a pre-NCLB requirement. That requirement (34 CFR Section 602(10)(B)) mandated that a person employed as a special education teacher in elementary school, middle school, or secondary school must have obtained full certification as a special education teacher. The teacher must not be working under certification or licensure requirements that are waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis.

In their respective applications for IDEA Part B (Local Entitlement) funds, states were required to assure that for the 2016-17 school year, in accordance with section 612(a)(14)(C), that any public elementary or secondary school special education teacher has obtained full certification. Maine was not able to give that assurance because of our use of conditional, targeted needs, transitional and waived certificates.

As a result, Maine was required to submit an assurance that the State will revise policies and procedures no later than June 30, 2017 which will address special education teacher certification to bring us into compliance with the provisions of IDEA.

The Maine Department of Education will move ahead in the next year with the development of statute and/ or rules that eliminate the above mentioned less than fully certified credentials for special education teachers.

We wish to inform Maine school administrators that effective July 1, 2017, you will not be able to employ a special education teacher who is not fully certified. Please encourage your staff to work towards full certification between now and July 1, 2017.

If you have questions, contact Janice E. Breton, Director of Special Services atJanice.breton@maine.gov.

Maine’s 2016 County Teachers of the Year recognized

AUGUSTA – Teachers of the Year for each of Maine’s counties were announced in a formal State House Hall of Flags ceremony today. From Kingfield to Princeton, from Limestone to South Berwick, from a field of 300 nominees, an outstanding Teacher of the Year has been announced for 15 of Maine’s counties.

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Commissioner’s Update – May 12, 2016

From the Maine Department of Education

In an effort to promote summer reading, the Maine Department of Education is collaborating with the Freemasons of Maine to sponsor the Read to Ride Summer Reading Challenge for students in grades PK-8. The 18,000 Freemasons of Maine are pleased to expand their popular statewide Bikes for Books student reading incentive program to now encourage children to read during the summer. The Bikes for Books program provides over 2,000 bikes to Maine schoolchildren each year to promote literacy. The Maine Freemasons have generously donated 48 bikes with helmets as prizes for the Read to Ride Summer Reading Challenge.

To earn a chance to be entered into the state-level drawing, students must meet the challenge of reading at least 500 minutes during the summer vacation period. Any school with students in grades PK-8 may register to participate. Participating schools will collect documentation of students who have completed the challenge. They will hold school level drawings to select two students (one boy and one girl) whose names will be entered into the state level drawing to be held on Sept.23. Schools are encouraged to participate in this challenge, to coordinate it with any other summer reading challenges/programs they offer and to consider soliciting their own local level prizes for students who complete the challenge.

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