Note: This is a joint letter from Commissioner of Education Jim Rier and Guy Cousins, director of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Continue reading “Schools encouraged to prepare for Alcohol Awareness Day”
Maine schools are encouraged to enter the Verizon Innovative App Challenge, a creative and collaborative competition that offers up to $20,000 in grants for winning middle schools and high schools. Designed to ignite students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), the Challenge shows students exciting new possibilities for their futures, opening doors they may never have known were there.
Continue reading “Maine schools encouraged to enter Verizon Innovative App Challenge”
Commissioner Jim Rier will see how the high achieving district is working toward graduating students with proficiency-based diplomas starting in 2019
BANGOR – Maine’s Education Commissioner will spend Thursday in the classrooms of the state’s third largest school district to see how proficiency-based education is transforming teaching and learning there.
Commissioner Jim Rier will be in Bangor to tour Vine Street School (preK-3), William S. Cohen School (grades 6-8) and Bangor High School with Bangor School Department Superintendent Betsy Webb.
Bangor schools are among the state’s highest achieving and proficiency levels are well above the state average at the middle and high schools that Governor Paul R. LePage’s Education Commissioner will visit. Both schools earned a B on the report cards released by the Maine Department of Education last spring. Continue reading “Education Commissioner to visit Bangor schools Thursday”
Last week I had the honor of announcing Jennifer Dorman as the 2015 Maine Teacher of the Year.
Mrs. Dorman, who dreamed of being a teacher since her very first day of Kindergarten, has been a special educator in Somerset County schools for two decades, most recently at Skowhegan Area Middle School (SAMS) where she is a seventh-and eighth-grade special education and reading intervention teacher.
Continue reading “Celebrating Maine’s 2015 Teacher of the Year”
The final deadline for districts looking for an extension in implementing a proficiency-based diploma requirement is next week.
Earlier this year, the Department released six extension request options to provide the time and support districts say they need to undertake the thoughtful, systemic change needed to ensure quality implementation of systems that support the awarding of proficiency-based diplomas starting in 2018.
Continue reading “Final deadline for proficiency-based diploma extension applications Oct. 18”
Schools in Maine and across the nation are recognizing National School Bus Safety Week, Oct. 20 through 24. During the same week, schools will acknowledge the importance of bus drivers to a student’s education with Bus Driver Appreciation Day.
Continue reading “Schools recognize National School Bus Safety Week, Bus Driver Appreciation Day”
The United States Environmental Protection Agency will again make funds available for the School Bus Replacements Rebate Program beginning this fall. This is the second time the EPA will open the Diesel Emission Reduction Act School Bus Replacement Funding opportunity.
Continue reading “Federal School Bus Replacement Rebate Program announced”
The Maine DOE is proposing changes this fall to the rules regarding the provision of child find, early intervention services, and special education and related services to eligible children with disabilities age birth to 20.
As originally noted in a dispatch dated June 4, changes to the MEDMS Educator Quality and Effectiveness (EQE) Survey are still in progress. The changes discussed in June have since evolved.
Continue reading “Update on new school staff evaluation survey”
School administrative units (SAUs) and private schools approved for tuition purposes are expected to establish regional school calendars in coordination with their local secondary career and technical education school by April 14.
Maine DOE Newsroom 