As part of the Maine Department of Education’s efforts to streamline certification processes for Maine educators; align certification rules with current statute; and ensure that new and conditionally certified teachers have access to high quality peer support, the Department is proposing revisions to Rule Chapter 180: Performance Evaluation and Professional Growth Systems, revisions Rule Chapter 115: Certification Authorization and Approval of Educational Personnel; and repeal of Chapter 118: Purposes, Standards and Procedures for Educational Personnel Support Systems.

Find the details for proposed changes for Rule Chapters 115, 118, and 180 on the Maine DOE Website. Provided below are hearing dates, details about the comment period and highlights about the proposed changes.

Hearing for Rule Chapters 115 and 118:
December 27, 2017 from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
Room 103 A and B in the Cross State Office Building, 111 Sewall Street, Augusta, Maine
Comment periods:
Chapter 115 Proposed Section 14: November 17, 2017 – December 18, 2017
Full revisions for Chapter 115 and Rule Chapter 118: December 6, 2017 – January 18, 2018

Hearing for Rule Chapter 180:
December 27, 2017 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM.
Room 103 A and B in the Cross State Office Building, 111 Sewall Street, Augusta, Maine
Comment period:
Rule Chapter 180: December 6, 2017 – January 18, 2018.

Comments can be submitted to Jaci Holmes at jaci.holmes@maine.gov

Highlights:

Chapter 180
Some of the more significant changes are contained in a new Section (11): Peer Support and Feedback, and accomplish the following:

1. Retain a peer level of peer support and feedback for all teachers and principals.
2. Establish a mentor/coach component for all newly hired and conditionally certified teachers.
3. Differentiate peer support requirements to provide greater support for new and conditionally certified teachers.
4. Provide greater, more structured support for conditionally certified special education teachers.
5. Provide the SAU with flexibility in establishing mentor and coach qualifications as well as assigning mentors and coaches to better target educator needs.
6. Sharpen the line between peer support components and evaluation components

Chapter 115
The Department has updated the rules consistent with recent statutory changes and removed redundancy and unnecessary language. The format is being refined to be clear and concise. In brief, the following are some of the more significant changes:

• Consolidates the number of credentials available to three: a clearance, a certificate, and a conditional certificate.
• Eliminates Rule Chapter 118: Education Personnel Support System. Rather than having two different support systems under two different rules, there will just be one under Rule Chapter 180. Also, some aspects of Rule Chapter 118 will be merged into Rule Chapter 115.
• Creates a pathway to become a teacher based on work experience. A person will be able to use work experience to address knowledge areas that are required for an endorsement.
• Refines and reformats the rule to be more logical and sequential. There has been confusion about sections of the rule and this should help to make it more clear and efficient.
• Part I will be repealed and replaced, Part II will be revised in legislative format

Chapter 115 (Regarding Administrative Hold)
This rule creates a category within Section 14 of Chapter 115, Part I for Administrative Hold. The agency proposed rule would require all credential holders to provide the Department with an address at which the Department may contact them with respect to their credential. An administrative hold will be used in cases where information about certified individuals comes to the attention of the Department and the Department contacts the credential holder at the address on file and receives no response.  In those situations, the Department will place the credential on administrative hold until such time as the holder responds. Emergency Rulemaking for Chapter 115 (Regarding Administrative Hold) went into effect November 20, 2017.

 

School Administrative Units (SAU) that canceled school days due to circumstances surrounding the recent storm should treat those cancelations the same as any other weather related school cancelation.

The state of emergency issued by the State of Maine was expressly to provide utility work crews relief from federal highway regulations in order to restore power to those who have been impacted – it does not result in an automatic excusal of missed school days.

As part of the standard procedure for meeting requirements for instructional days, written requests for waivers for storm days may be submitted by the district school board in the Spring when districts have a better sense of storm days used.

Resources:

• Guidance about rescheduling and requesting waivers for storm days.
• Statute governing school days. The guidance regarding Instruction Days can be found in Rule Chapter 125, 6.01 and 6.02.

The Maine Department of Education responds, point-by-point, to a recent article in the Sun Journal that contains numerous inaccuracies about regionalization. Many stakeholders agree that finding efficiencies through regionalization efforts is a good idea for students and school communities. We hope that our clarifications will allow the positive conversations to continue.

KINGFIELD — The Regional School Unit 58 board of directors faced a no-win situation, deciding to accept a Maine Department of Education $31,000 penalty, rather than partnering with another school district to develop a regional service center.

The state has provided a highly flexible, locally-driven regionalization opportunity that every district should be able to participate in and thereby receive the incentive funds.

The problem wasn’t that the district couldn’t find a partner district and develop a plan, Superintendent Susan Pratt told the board Thursday night. The problem was that they were facing a six-week deadline to find another school willing and ready to form a long-term agreement without receiving any guidance from the state. 

The current deadline is only for regional centers slated to be operational as of July 1, 2018. In these cases, in order for the Department to include the incentive funding for the 2018-19 school year, we must stick to a tight timeline. Districts can pursue a regional partnership for 2019 or later if the current deadline is not feasible. Also, while the regional partnerships are meant to be long-term and durable, the programs and services can start small and be expanded over time.

She and other district administrators attended a Sept. 8 presentation at the Augusta Civic Center hosted by the Maine School Management Association and the Drummond Woodsum law firm. The MDOE proposal was reviewed and explained, but she waited nearly another month for the actual MDOE application form to become available online, she said.

“I just got the application last Friday,” she said.

The application has been divided into two sections; Part I is due by November 30, and Part II is due by April 15. The first part, which asks for concept-level information, allows districts to notify the Department of their intent to form a regional center. The second part asks for a longer, more detailed plan, including the interlocal agreement.

Similar to consolidation efforts begun by former Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron in January 2008, the MDOE’s goal is to save money by reducing the administrative costs and to take advantage of shared services, including transportation, special education, professional development and financial services.

The Department’s goal is more precisely to improve educational services for students. This can be achieved by repurposing savings to enhance existing educational programs or to develop new programs, which can save more money in the long run by better serving students.

Gendron’s plan was to reduce the number of school districts and local school committees from 290 to 26 by July 2008. Many districts chose to pay penalties rather than give up local control, and by July 2008, 215 individual school districts remained.

The state is not asking districts to pay penalties; we are giving districts who regionalize additional funding. This is not mere semantics. All districts will see incremental reductions in state funding for district-level administration as a result of legislation prompted by the Citizens Initiative. These reductions will occur regardless of whether a district participates in a regional center. At the same time, however, more state money will be directed to teaching and learning; this along with other changes in the biennial budget will result in nearly all districts in the state seeing significant increases in funding. Forming a regional center is an opportunity to earn an extra incentive allotment.

With this 2017 regional services plan, Pratt explained, each new interlocal partnership in the state would have to screen and hire its own executive director, who would not be part of the Maine State Retirement System.

The Department believes that it is in the best interest of regional center members to define the role of the executive director based on the services provided, and to retain local control over hiring an executive director.

The MDOE will pay for 55 percent of the employee’s salary and related financial expenses, but the partnering districts will be responsible for benefits and obligations that are as yet unknown, Pratt said. Without the MDOE providing guidance for the executive director’s job description, she said, each interlocal partnership’s new board would have to that job on its own. 

These details all have to be decided before the new partner districts can send the application to the MDOE, Pratt said.

Chapter 123 of the biennial budget states that the State will pay 55% percent of the executive director’s salary and benefits. The Department is actively looking into addressing concerns about participation in MEPERS for employees of regional centers.

The MDOE has awarded grants in 2017 to encourage cost-saving initiatives. Enabling Maine Students to Benefit from Regional and Coordinated Approaches to Education, known by the acronym EMBRACE, was launched in response to Executive Order 2017-001, issued by Gov. Paul LePage, for promoting Regional Efforts to Achieve Efficiencies in Delivering Educational Services. 

Although Pratt said she agrees with LePage’s goal of sharing resources with other districts, RSU 58 already does something similar. The district is part of the Western Maine Educational Collaborative, which provides its 13 member school systems with opportunities to share professional development, purchasing power and educational resources.

The MDOE plan would not recognize the nonprofit WMEC as a regional services partner, Pratt said.

The Western Maine Education Collaborative is a great model for a regional center. We do not know the source of the information that the WMEC would not quality as a regional center if it meets the requirements. It’s possible that this misunderstanding is a result of confusing the regional center opportunity with the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Educational Services (FEDES) grant, a separate regionalization opportunity. WMEC could not be the main applicant for the FEDES grant; however, they could be part of a regionalization project as a contracted service provider.

The board approved delaying any partnership plans with other school districts and accepting the $46-per-student penalty for the coming budget year. 

Districts that do not form interlocal partnerships in 2018-19 will pay a $92-per-student penalty.

Some neighboring school districts’ boards have not even seen the MDOE plan, Pratt said, and she’s hearing that many superintendents and school boards are voting not to participate in the governor’s mandate.

Many school boards rely on their superintendents and association to inform their decisions. To support the dissemination of accurate information, the Department launched its EMBRACE information center shortly after the biennial budget was passed and continues to add and update information. Many of the resources added to our website are in response to conversations that superintendents have had with Commissioner Hasson and his team during the Commissioner’s Continuing the Conversation Tour. Several districts are eager to begin discussions and have requested one of our trained expert facilitators to help potential partners brainstorm and plan. School Board members and others are encouraged to visit the site to learn about the funding opportunities and be inspired by the exciting regional programs other districts have implemented in the first round of EMBRACE initiatives.

Please feel free to contact Jennifer Pooler, Regionalization Project Manager, to set up a meeting or ask questions. And we encourage you to meet the Commissioner at the 44^th Annual MSMA Fall Conference and attend the Department’s clinic on Friday, Embracing Regionalization: The Options. We welcome all conversations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a reminder, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) has announced a partnership with TransACT Communications to support compliance with the new Parent and Family Engagement requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and to help schools meet the civil rights obligations of schools in working with English Learners (EL) and their families. TransACT Parent Notices gives you unlimited access to an online library of ESSA compliance resources. Your subscription, funded by the Maine DOE, includes access to guidance on required notifications, recommended timelines for distribution, and more than 100 legally reviewed parent notifications across 21 categories, including:

• Parent and Family Engagement
• Teacher and Paraprofessional Qualifications
• English Learners
• Title I and Title III Programs
• Migrant Education
• Homeless Education
• Foster Care

TransACT will be providing schools with professional development and training including online live help, phone and email support, webinar trainings, and two (2) in-person trainings.  These trainings will be held on November 2nd in Lewiston at Green Ladle and on November 3rd in Brewer at Jeff’s Catering. Please visit the following URL to register for one of these in-person trainings:  https://goo.gl/forms/3AxrjYdOmU2rkTb62

At the time of this notice, your district subscription to TransACT is live.  If you need to distribute required parent notifications prior to next month’s training or simply wish to explore this new resource, please follow the instructions below to activate your district subscription:

1. Visit http://www.transact.com/;
2. Click on “LOGIN/REGISTER” at the top of the screen; 3. Find the TransACT ParentNotices logo and click the “Login” link below it;
3. Click “New User? Register for Access!” and continue with the required information prompts; 5. Discover what new resources are available to you! You will receive a registration confirmation email which includes the login link, your username, and password. If you have any questions or run into any trouble, please be sure to contact TransACT Customer Support at (425) 977-2100, option 3, or via email at support@transact.com.

If you have additional questions, please contact Janette Kirk at Janette.kirk@maine.gov or (207) 624-6707.

The Maine Department of Education, the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3), and the Maine State Approving Agency for Veterans Education sponsor the following message:

Some of your high school students may be eligible for thousands of dollars of GI Bill benefits while attending high school.

Maine has nearly 130,000 veterans, many of whom have service-related disability ratings from the Veterans Administration or have suffered a service-related death.

If a veteran has a 100% Permanent and Total service-related disability rating, or is deceased as a result of military service, their spouse and children may qualify for Dependents Educational Assistance. This is also known as Chapter 35 of the GI Bill.

Many are aware that this benefit can be used for colleges, trade schools, adult education programs, and apprenticeship programs. However, many are unaware that an eligible child can use these same benefits while attending high school, once the child reaches the age of 18.

The Chapter 35 benefit currently pays more than $1,000 per month (full time rate). The benefit is non-taxable. Additionally, up to five months of benefits can be used while in high school without being charged against the basic 45 months of full-time eligibility. This benefit often provides an amazing “nest egg” to cover day to day household costs or additional costs associated with obtaining a post-secondary education.

The real challenge is identifying these people and putting them in contact with an agency to assist them through the paperwork. The Maine State Approving Agency for Veterans Education can assist eligible family members and school officials with completing the necessary paperwork. But they need help in identifying those who are eligible. There is no “magic list” identifying eligible veterans and their family members. That’s where our school partners can help.

If you become aware that a high school student may qualify for this benefit, worth over $50,000, please have them contact Robert Haley of The Maine State Approving Agency for Veterans Education at 207-582-2100 or via email at Robert.haley@maine.edu.

 

As a reminder, the Maine Department of Education’s new online certification system, Maine Certification Information System (MCIS), is scheduled for a soft release to staff and educators at pilot schools, and will be available to administrators, and local support system chair people statewide on Monday, October 30th. MCIS is targeted to be available to all educators and the general public by mid-November.

MCIS will completely replace the Maine DOE’s current paper certification application system. Highlights include a simple account creation process, electronic notifications about actionable items for both educators and administrators, and the ability to pay fees online.

To help with the transition, the certification office will be closed to educators from 10/16/2017 – 10/27/2017. The office will re-open on Monday, October 30^th with MCIS fully operational for all staff at pilot schools, and to administrators, and local support system chair people statewide.

As a reminder, once MCIS is in place, educators and administrators will need to create an account in order to use the system. The Maine DOE’s Certification team will be sending out individual notices to the email addresses that are on file in the NEO staff system to initiate this process. Additional training and guidance will be forthcoming.

For more information contact Ángel Martínez Loredo at 207-624-6603 or email cert.doe@maine.gov.

TO:               Private School Administrators
FROM:          Dr. Robert G. Hasson, Jr., Maine Education Commissioner
DATE:           October 10, 2017
SUBJECT:     Reporting 2017-18 Student Information – Due Date October 31, 2017

The Synergy State edition is online for school year 2017-18 updates. The updated 2017-18 student information will be utilized to meet State and federal reporting requirements (Graduates, Dropouts, AYP, etc.) as well as the calculation of State subsidy for 2017-18 for Maine’s public school administrative units.

All private schools with publicly funded students must report all “publicly funded students” in the State of Maine’s Synergy State System. The private schools that receive publicly funded students must report these students in the Synergy State Education system in order for the public school administrative units to receive a subsidy count for these students in their future State subsidy. The State subsidy to a public school unit is often the source of funding that a school administrative unit uses to pay the tuition for these students to attend the private schools.

Student Enrollment Reporting – Due Date October 31, 2017:

October 1, 2017 Student Count – all publicly funded students should be enrolled in Synergy State Edition by October 31, 2017 so that the resident public school administrative units may review the data and verify the October 1st student count.

• For private schools enrolling “ALL” students in the Synergy System, please fax (1-866-219-8344) or mail the completed Signature Page of the October 1st Enrollment Report (EF-M-13) indicating that all students have been enrolled in the State Education system. There will be no need to complete the remainder of the EF-M-13.
• For private schools enrolling only publicly funded students in the State Education system, please complete the October 1st Enrollment Report (EF-M-13 – Sections 2 and 3 only) and email the Excel spreadsheet form to the Department at GPA.DOE@maine.gov. In addition, please fax the completed Signature Page to 1-866-219-8344.
• For private schools that have no publicly funded students, please complete the October 1st Enrollment Report (EF-M-13 – Sections 2 and 3) for the non-publicly funded students and email the Excel spreadsheet form to the Department at GPA.DOE@maine.gov. In addition, please fax the completed Signature Page to 1-866-219-8344.

The EF-M-13 Form can be downloaded from the Department of Education’s website at:
http://www.maine.gov/education/forms/misteam/enrollment/october/octprv.htm

60% Publicly Funded Private Schools

These 11 private schools must complete both the EF-M-13 and the EPS October Enrollment Certifications.

If you have any questions regarding the Synergy State Edition please contact the MEDMS Help Desk at (207) 624-6896 or e-mail medms.helpdesk@maine.gov.

If you have any general student questions, please contact Travis Wood at (207) 624-6742 or e-mail travis.wood@maine.gov.