Attendance, Behavior, Bullying, and Truancy reports for Quarter 3 (January, February, and March) and the April 1 Enrollment Report open on April 1st.
These reports are due on Monday, April 15th.
These reports need to be reviewed and submitted in NEO Student Data. In preparation for this reporting, please update student data in State Synergy for enrollment, attendance, truancy, and behavior. Update bullying incidents in NEO.
Reporting Resources:
April 1 Enrollment
Webinar: Tuesday, March 26th at 10:00 am (Register Here)
Maine Has More Than 70 Schools Implementing the Building Assets Reducing Risks Model (BARR), With Additional Funding Available for More Schools to Implement the Program
On the latest episode of the Maine Department of Education’s (DOE) “What Holds Us Together” podcast, Education Commissioner Pender Makin talked with Calais Elementary School Principal Sue Carter and Calais Superintendent Mary Anne Spearin about their experiences implementing the Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) model in their district. BARR combines relationship-building and the use of real-time data to strengthen student engagement, wellbeing, achievement, educator wellbeing, and connections across the school community. Listen here.
Calais Elementary School began implementing BARR this school year in fifth and sixth grade through a statewide grant opportunity provided by the Maine DOE through federal funds. More than 70 schools across Maine are now BARR schools, with additional funding available for schools that want to implement BARR in the next school year.
Makin spent the day at Calais Elementary School to experience the successes the school is having with BARR firsthand and taped her podcast onsite with the school leaders. Read more about her visit here.
“I’m so grateful that you hosted us today from the Department. We brought a team and we got to visit all of the classrooms. We also got to sit in on some of the BARR activities, including what’s called U-Time. When I asked ‘What is U-Time?’ she said, ‘Well, it’s an activity that we do where we learn a little bit more about ourselves and about our classmates.’ And it was just so well said. And then we also got to sit in with a group of teachers having a conversation that’s called a small block conversation, where they were discussing students in this particular case, who are appearing to be thriving across the board who are high academic achievers, and they discussed each student in terms of possibilities, ways to be more challenged, and also any concerns that might otherwise have gone unnoticed,” said Makin during her podcast intro.
Makin asked Carter what she and educators are experiencing through their BARR implementation.
“We started BARR at the elementary school in September. We applied for the state-provided program and it has really grown and become part of our school, culture, and climate,” said Carter. “Recently, we looked at our attendance. We usually don’t look at attendance until it’s a problem, and [now we] identified some kids that have been out seven days, taking the opportunity to send a letter home to say, ‘Hey, your kids missed seven days. We don’t want them to be truant, how can we help to make sure that they get to school?’ The data is inputted every week. You talk about and see that data over time.”
Spearin implemented BARR while she was an administrator at the middle/high school and provided a longer-term view of the BARR experience.
“The Calais Middle/High School adopted the program in 2016. I’m a true believer in the program. We originally brought it on because the main focus was grades and the transition into ninth grade. For us, it really made a difference when we could see the number of failures in our coursework had changed significantly in the first year and then changed again the next year. And then as time went on, it went into more of the behavioral and checking in with the students and making sure they had trusted adults and really working on how they created a culture within the ninth-grade cohorts,” said Spearin.
While at the school, Commissioner Makin had the opportunity to participate in a sixth-grade U-Time activity called “What’s on your plate?” Every U-Time is different, and in Carly Davis’s sixth-grade class, it was all about self-discovery. Sixth graders and DOE team members were each given a paper plate, which they folded in half. On one side were the participants’ responsibilities, and on the other were the things they did in their free time. After making the plates, Davis engaged the students through a series of discussion around having a balanced plate, which portions are taking up too much time, which portions they love, which portions they wish they had less of, and so forth. On the back of the plates, students wrote one thing they wished they could add or take away from their plate.
Students learn about one another through these activities, about themselves, and teachers about their students in a deeper way. Teachers also share these valuable insights at their block meetings so the entire teaching team has that information. Block meetings happen weekly, with teacher cohorts discussing not just academic-related data but every student’s strengths, passions, and personal goals. This opens a broader, more positive discussion around the whole student. The team works off a spreadsheet that builds a picture of each student by reviewing a variety of in-school factors, including progress in class, attendance, and behavior. The team also discusses factors outside the school, such as extracurricular interests, personal health, issues with other students, or troubles at home. All this data collection allows the team to flag challenges early and work together to solve problems. Importantly, teachers track not just problems but student strengths to identify achievable goals to get or keep students on track for success. For students coping with the toughest situations in and out of school, BARR’s model requires a weekly Community Connect meeting that involves more specialized staff, such as the school nurse and school psychologist along with school administration.
“The other piece that’s really important about BARR is we always talk about the kids who are struggling or you know, not doing so well. But today we actually talked about four kids who were doing very well,” said Carter. “So it identifies those kids and we talked about those kids as well, which I think you need to have a balance, and the program forces you to do that. [The teachers] are very, very committed to it.”
Makin asked Carter if she is seeing any changes in student outcomes or differences in school culture now that she is more than halfway through her first year of implementing BARR.
“I would say so. Last week, the kids had posters that they wrote on about what BARR has done for them. [And they wrote] it helped me be aware of myself, it helped me to be more friendly, it brought me joy, it taught me empathy. So absolutely, every person, adult and student, is able to vocalize what they are gaining from BARR without having to think about it,” said Carter. “There’s not any way that can’t carry over to outside of school as well because it’s in them. It’s a part of them, and they’ll take that with them and as they move on to middle school, which is very important. It will help them be successful there as well.”
Makin asked what Carter and Spearin would say to other school leaders considering BARR.
“From the superintendent role and perspective, I would say that I am 100 percent in support of BARR. I loved it as a building administrator and as a team member. I saw the changes that it made for our freshmen students coming in. It supports our students. It gives them additional resources because it forces you to bring in resources from your community,” said Spearin. “The other part is the fact that teachers are out there alone and this forces time together. It forces them to look at the kids as our kids, not my kids. It also forces them to really look at the positives. It forces them to look at the challenges and to come up with a community solution to what’s going on with those students in the positive times and in the challenging times. And so it really does give the teachers the ability to have a team to work from and it also allows them to sit and look at the positives that are coming from all the work that they’re doing. We do not have enough time built into the day to do that unless you have a program that really encourages that.”
Makin asked how activities like U-Time, the regular data collection that educators are engaged in, and the conversations in block times create better grades and fewer failures in ninth grade.
“We had kids who would be looking at not doing their homework. You had an entire team of teachers saying I know that the basketball season is coming up and this is really important to this kid. Who knows this kid well enough to be able to go have that conversation about what they need to get that work done so that their grades don’t drop below the athlete eligibility piece? Or I know this student and they’re really having some challenges at home. Who knows a student well enough and has a connection to be able to reach out [to them]? We even had liaisons with the community that came in and we could then open those conversations up with them as well,” said Spearin. “Instead of a student that went through eight different periods in a two-day time and nobody had the opportunity to reach out and say, we know there’s something going on, how do we support you? And it wasn’t doing the work for them. It was saying what do you need to be successful?”
Applications are now open to all willing and qualified public schools that would like to become a BARR school. Click here to apply. Applications are due by March 22, 2024, by 5 pm EST. The Maine DOE will cover all costs of implementing the program for schools new to BARR for the 2024-2025 school year.
The Maine DOE used American Rescue Plan funding to create a competitive BARR grant to help schools invest in the model.
(A Calais Elementary Student celebrates what he’s learned through BARR)
Nestled in the tight-knit community of Calais, Maine, is Calais Elementary, a pre-k through sixth-grade school full of enthusiastic students and dedicated teachers. Calais Elementary is one of more than 70 Maine schools using the Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) education model, and this week, Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin visited to experience BARR in action.
“We started BARR at the elementary school in September,” Principal Sue Carter said. “We applied for the state-provided program, and it has really grown and become part of our school, culture, and climate.”
The BARR framework combines relationship building (staff to staff, staff to student, and student to student) and real-time data to strengthen engagement and wellbeing for all students. By building solid relationships with students and fellow educators, teachers work together to support the whole student.
At Calais Elementary, they are implementing BARR with fifth and sixth-grade teams. Fifth and sixth grade teachers hold weekly block time to discuss student strengths and what they need to thrive. Teachers also engage students through weekly U-Time activities.
“U-Time is the classroom activity part of the BARR Structure where educators and students in their classrooms dedicate a little bit of time to building relationships, deepening their knowledge of themselves as learners, as individuals, and really helping to understand one another,” said Makin.
Commissioner Makin and Chief Innovation Officer Page Nichols working on their “What’s on your plate?” U-Time activity.
While at the school, Commissioner Makin had the opportunity to participate in a sixth-grade U-Time activity called “What’s on your plate?” Every U-Time is different, and in Carly Davis’s sixth-grade class, it was all about self-discovery. Sixth graders and DOE team members were each given a paper plate, which they folded in half. On one side were the participants’ responsibilities, and on the other were the things they did in their free time. After making the plates, Davis engaged the students through a series of discussion around having a balanced plate, which portions are taking up too much time, which portions they love, which portions they wish they had less of, and so forth. On the back of the plates, students wrote one thing they wished they could add or take away from their plate.
Delilah, a sixth grader at Calais Elementary, described U-Time as a class where you learn “about your classmates, the people around you, your teachers, and you.”
Jackie, a fellow sixth grader, said that in U-Time, she has learned “to help people if they are going through a hard time, and that if you see someone crying, you should go over there to talk to them.”
“It really sparked a lot of conversation,” said Commissioner Makin. “I could see how it was creating relationships within the classroom, building trust and knowledge of themselves and others.”
Students learn about one another through these activities, about themselves, and teachers about their students in a deeper way. Teachers also share these valuable insights at their block meetings so the entire teaching team has that information.
For example, after the “What’s on Your Plate?” exercise, Davis brought a few of the sixth grader’s plates to a block meeting. “[Davis] talked about the two plates, what they said, and that was put down,” Principal Carter explained, “and we will come back around to that in our next block meeting.”
Block meetings happen weekly, with teacher cohorts discussing not just BARR-informed data but every student’s strengths, passions, and personal goals. This opens a broader,
Calais Elementary’ s BARR teacher cohort uses recess as an opportunity to hold Block Meetings.
more positive discussion around the whole student. The team works off a spreadsheet that builds a picture of each student by reviewing a variety of in-school factors, including progress in class, attendance, and behavior. The team also discusses factors outside the school, such as extracurricular interests, personal health, issues with other students, or troubles at home. All this data collection allows the team to flag challenges early and work together to solve problems. Importantly, teachers track not just problems but student strengths to identify achievable goals to get or keep students on track for success. For students coping with the toughest situations in and out of school, BARR’s model requires a weekly Community Connect meeting that involves more specialized staff, such as the school nurse and school psychologist along with school administration.
“BARR really does give the teachers the ability to have a team to work from,” said Superintendent Mary Anne Spearin. “It also allows them to sit and look at the positives that are coming from all the work that they’re doing.”
At this week’s block meeting, the team spent most of their time discussing highly successful students. These students can often receive less attention than students exhibiting behaviors or academic performance requiring intervention. Those students still get the support they need, but BARR focuses conversations on all students.
“To see that data over time is pretty amazing,” remarked Principal Carter. “No other programs that we had held us to that level of accountability.”
“BARR offers two things you don’t usually see in other programs and that is a curriculum that you could work from and the data to prove that the curriculum is working,” said Superintendent Spearin.
Calais Elementary is not the only Calais school utilizing BARR. In 2016, Spearin implemented BARR for ninth graders at Calais Middle/High School.
“It really made a difference. We could see the number of failures in our coursework had changed significantly in the first year and then changed again the next year,” recollects Spearin. “From the superintendent’s role and perspective, I would say that I am 100 percent in support of BARR. When I speak to people, I tell them they should consider the BARR method. It is just crucial to the things that are happening in our world right now. Everybody needs somebody.”
One of Calais’s BARR teachers.
When Commissioner Makin asked Principal Carter if she would recommend BARR to other schools, she enthusiastically responded, “Absolutely!”
“Every person, adult and student, is able to vocalize what they are getting from BARR,” Principal Carter told Makin. “There’s no way that can’t carry over outside of school because it’s in them. It’s a part of them, and they’ll take that with them when they move on to middle school.”
Interested in joining Calais to become a BARR school? The DOE is offering additional funding for schools to become BARR schools. To learn more, please attend the DOE’s March 14th webinar.
Applications are now open to all willing and qualified public schools that would like to become a BARR (Building Assets, Reducing Risks) school. Click here to apply. Applications are due by March 22, 2024, by 5:00pm EST.
The Maine DOE will cover all costs of implementing the program for schools new to BARR for the 2024-2025 school year. (Note: if you are already a BARR school with an existing contract, your costs will be covered for the 2024-2025 school year as well, and you do not need to reapply.)
The Maine DOE used American Rescue Plan funding to create a competitive BARR grant to help schools invest in the model.
The Week of the Young Child is a national event promoting the importance of high-quality early learning sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). This year the Maine Department of Education and the Office of Child and Family Services are teaming up to support early childhood educators across the state to join the celebration and promote the vital work they do every day in their child care programs and Pre-K through 3rd grade elementary school classrooms.
The event takes place during the Week of April 6th – 12th with a kickoff on Saturday and interdisciplinary daily themes for the following week.
We hope that you will join us in celebrating the Week of the Young Child! To help elevate the importance of high-quality early learning and care for the great community, please share photos through this form to show how your early learning program/classroom celebrates the Week of the Young Child by utilizing high-quality practices and strategies to build positive relationships and a sense of community in your early care and education setting.
We can’t wait to see the positive impact Maine’s early educators are making with the children and families in your program or classroom! To celebrate your efforts, we will be running a raffle for each day of the week. Your name will be entered once for every submission you make on the link above and the winner each day will receive a package of SWAG with items provided from the Office of Child and Family Services, the Early Learning Team at the Department of education, Maine Roads to Quality and the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children!
Don’t forget to mark your calendar for Early Childhood Education (ECE) Day at the State House on Thursday, March 21, 2024. This is an opportunity for early childhood educators, families, and ECE supporters to work together to elevate the need for high-quality early care and education opportunities and for the importance of a strong ECE workforce. Join us to celebrate the successes and call attention to the ongoing needs. For more information visit the events section of the MaineAEYC website.
If you have questions or would like more information on the Week of the Young Child, please reach out to one of the members of the Early Learning Team and/or a member of the Office of Child and Family Services listed below.
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is seeking public comment on the following two transportation rules Targeted Revisions to Rule Chapter 83: School Transportation Operations Program and Full Repeal of Chapter 84: School bus Refurbishment Program. Find details on each rule below.
Targeted Revisions to Rule Chapter 83: School Transportation Operations Program
The purpose of Rule Chapter 83 is to determine who is eligible for access to the School Transportation Operations Program and provide a process for eligible schools to access the software subsidy. This rule has been revised to make clear the role of the Department of Education in providing the subsidy, the technical start-up process, and the distribution of state payment of approved subsidies. These changes are indicated in underlined text.
Full Repeal ofChapter 84: School Bus Refurbishment Program
Rule Chapter 84 established procedures for school administrative units (SAUs) to contract for school bus refurbishment services through the Maine School Bus Refurbishment Program.
The program provided subsidy to school administrative units (SAUs) in order to offset the partial cost of refurbishment for school buses used to transport students to and from home and school and school events. This program was operated the Maine State Military Authority which no longer refurbishes school buses. As a result, the Department of Education is proposing a full repeal of the rule.
These rules will be published and receive the same public comment dates since they deal with the topic of transportation. As required by law, a period of public comment opens for both of these rules on March 13, 2024, through April 15, 2024. Written comments may be submitted to DOE Rulemaking Liaison Laura Cyr, State House Station #23, Augusta, Maine 04333; 207-446-8791 or laura.cyr@maine.gov until 5:00 pm April 15, 2024. For documentation purposes, written comments are preferred.
Contact person for these filings (include name, mailing address, telephone, fax, TTY, email): Laura Cyr, laura.cyr@maine.gov, (207) 446-8791
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is excited to launch Phase 2 of the climate education professional development grant pilot program. The grant application is due on May 3rd, 2024. The program window runs from July 1st, 2024 until June 30th, 2025. There is $750,000.00 in funding available for local education providers to apply to partner with a community-based organization for climate-related, interdisciplinary professional development. This grant program was designed out of LD 1902 which passed in the spring of 2022.
There have been minor refinements from Phase 1 of this grant program in the fall of 2023. Overall clarity and simplicity of the application have been improved as well as a focus on applicants demonstrating increased access to historically underserved communities. The full RFA and application can be found by following the link below.
This program is overseen by Teddy Lyman, the Maine DOE’s Climate Education Specialist. Teddy will coordinate this program including the application, awards, and contracts. During the RFA application window, Teddy cannot communicate directly with anyone who might benefit from direct communication that is not publicly available.
Questions about the RFA should be emailed to Teddy at: Theodore.Lyman@maine.gov by 11:59 pm on March 29th, 2024. Questions and answers will be posted publicly at the link below. The Climate Education Action Taskforce was also launched this spring to design the future of climate education (more information can be found below).
Preschool education is the essential foundation in a child’s developmental and educational journey. Neuroscience has demonstrated that the greatest period of brain development occurs in the preschool years, making high-quality experiences during this time pivotal for supporting life-long learning. The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is proud to celebrate National Preschool Teacher Appreciation Day on March 15, 2024, honoring Maine’s amazing public preschool programs and especially the backbone of these high-quality programs which are teachers themselves.
In Maine, preschool represents a lot of different programs funded by the state and federal government including Maine’s Child Development Services (CDS), which provides special education services to preschool and school-aged children through a network of nine regional sites, in addition to Head Start, a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children from low-income families with currently 11 programs across the state, as well as the 255 schools in over 165 school administrative units throughout Maine enrolling students in Maine’s amazing public pre-K programs.
“In preschool, children are beginning to develop their identities as lifelong learners, to love school, and to be curious,” said a pre-K teacher at Brunswick School Department. “They become curious about themselves, curious about each other, and curious about the world. Being the first stop in a child’s educational journey is part of the magic of being a preschool teacher.”
Maine is fortunate to have such a robust system for preschool children that is growing larger and stronger every year. The strength of these programs and the very reason they are successful is because of the preschool teachers and their dedication to meeting the needs of Maine children and their families. The return on investment in early education is larger than investments made in adolescence and adulthood, making the impact of preschool educators even more significant.
Here are what some of Maine’s preschool program coordinators had to say about their preschool teachers:
“Our preschool teachers are consistent and caring with the children at the CDS Preschools,” said Heather West, one of Maine’s Child Development Coordinators. “The kids light up when they see their teachers at arrival time, and it shows how important they’ve become to each other. You can tell that the teachers truly care about each child and family they work with!”
“SKCDC is so grateful to have an amazing team of early educators,” said Southern Kennebec Child Development Corporation (a Head Start program) Agency Director Cristina Salois. “They bring joy to their work, and children benefit from exploring, experimenting, and discovering indoors and out!”
Child Development Services Coordinator Deb Mullis shared what a parent told her recently, “My child lights up when we pull into the parking lot, and she sees her teacher ready to greet her.”
“Our children have been making tremendous progress toward their IEP [individualized education plan] goals due to the hard work and consistency of the teachers,” added West. “It wouldn’t be possible without the preschool teachers!”
Here are some pictures from preschool programs across Maine:
(Through BARR, Mt. Blue High School students McKylee and Kenzee developed a strong bond with their ninth-grade counselor and BARR Coordinator, Anna Peterson, that continued into their sophomore year.)
For five years, Mt. Blue High School in Farmington has used the BARR (Building Assets Reducing Risks) model to ease ninth graders into high school. As a result, they have seen increased attendance, lower failure rates, and stronger bonds between educators and students and among educators.
“Freshmen have always been a demographic of students who have struggled,” said ninth-grade Earth Science teacher Kerry Schlosser, “I think BARR leads to just an additional level of support. Especially when you go from middle school to high school, it’s such a vulnerable year, a vulnerable time.”
The ninth-grade educator team at Mt. Blue know their students deeply. They greet them by name in the hall, know who their best friends are, and their dreams for the future. BARR helps facilitate those strong relationships.
Mt. Blue High School is one of more than 70 schools across Maine implementing BARR. Last summer, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) provided an opportunity for any school in the state to become a BARR school and join schools like Mt. Blue that have been experiencing incredible success through BARR.
BARR is a model that combines relationship building (staff to staff, staff to student, and student to student) and real-time data to enable schools to strengthen academic outcomes and wellbeing for all students. By building strong relationships with students and fellow educators, teachers can work together to support the whole student.
Educator teams meet in Block Meetings, where they discuss each student individually, focus on their strengths and connections to school, share personal knowledge and observations (e.g., a student’s mental health, family life, goals, etc.) and analyze benchmark data (e.g., grades, attendance, behavior, etc.).
Schlosser explains how Block Meetings work at Mt. Blue.
Mt. Blue’s Community Connect meeting is where school community members meet to discuss at-risk students.
“We have a Big Block at the end of the week where we discuss students as a big team with the administrator, school counselor, and social worker. Then, at the beginning of the week, we have our Small Block meeting, where we as teacher teams and then discuss students and small interventions there,” she said.
Students whom educators identify as at risk are discussed in Community Connect meetings, which involve greater school community members including school resource officers and administrators. At Mt. Blue, they hold weekly Community Connect Meetings, which include Peterson, the ninth-grade Assistant Principal Greg Henderson, school social workers Angelica Levy and Jack Turner, school nurse Vicky Gerstenberger, special education building coordinator Mike Hanson, and school resource officer Matt Brann. During their meetings, the Community Connect team develops strategies to intervene and limit poor behaviors before they result in a suspension.
Makylee, a sophomore, feels that the support she got through BARR in ninth grade set her up to have better relationships with her sophomore teachers.
“Teachers talk and have meetings. They let each other know how you are as a student, so you don’t have to go in as a fresh start,” she shared. “Then, your bond just increases to grow.”
These positive relationships with educators are built during I-Time. Much like Block and Community Connect Meetings, I-Times can vary from school to school. At Mt. Blue, each ninth-grade teacher has twenty freshmen they see during multiple I-Times. I-Times involve everything from relationship building activities to life skills development. Most importantly, these I-Times allow students to meet and bond with peers and teachers, and students are able to bond on a deeper level.
“Not only did your teachers get to know you, you got to know them, and you bonded as a class and a community,” Makylee said.
Before investing in BARR, Mt. Blue saw consistently high suspensions and low attendance rates.
“The year before BARR, suspensions were through the roof, and there were a lot of different behaviors,” remembers Joel Smith, the Mt. Blue Principal. “Hearing that BARR had an impact on academics, attendance, and behavior, that was appealing…especially the behavioral component, and we’ve seen a difference since then.”
Since starting BARR, Mt. Blue’s suspension rates have gone down, their attendance is up, and the failure rate was below five percent in the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year.
“Our failure rate, since implementing BARR, has gone down each and every year,” said Smith.
Dr. Patricia Millette teaches her ninth-grade I-Time students about using critical thinking to decipher manipulative advertisements.
Outside of the data and inside the classroom, educators are experiencing those positive trends firsthand and they are sustained past freshman year. Sophomore English teacher Meadow Sheldon, who has been teaching at Mt. Blue since before BARR was implemented, sees a real difference in her post-BARR sophomores.
“They work hard, and they can advocate for themselves,” Sheldon conveyed. “They have an understanding of what [their grades] mean and ask for help more than students have in the past.”
What’s more, students feel better about being at school. Quinn, a freshman, found school unappealing up until this year. Now, he is an honor student who is close to his teachers.
“It feels like the school actually treats me like a person instead of like a kid,” he said.
Peterson is immensely proud of the ninth-grade team’s work with BARR.
“I love the way that we take care of every ninth-grade student. We notice if their grades are slipping if they’re absent, or if there is a problem,” he said.
Smith and Peterson hope to see the BARR model extended to the entire high school someday.
“We are looking at opportunities whenever possible to implement the BARR model,” said Smith.
Interested in becoming a BARR school? Attend this BARR webinar coming up:
Applications are now open to all willing and qualified public schools that would like to become a BARR (Building Assets, Reducing Risks) school. Click here to apply. Applications are due by March 22, 2024 by 5:00pm EST.
The Maine DOE will cover all costs of implementing the program for schools new to BARR for the 2024-2025 school year. (Note: if you are already a BARR school with an existing contract, your costs will be covered for the 2024-2025 school year as well and you do not need to reapply.)
The Maine DOE used American Rescue Plan funding to create a competitive BARR grant to help schools invest in the model.
(Pictured: Emma Witham, a student at BCOPE, RSU 71’s alternative high school program)
Belfast Community Outreach Program in Education is RSU 71’s alternative high school program, which was funded by a grant from the Office of Substance in 1990.
The program began in a small rental space down the street from Belfast Area High School. In 2002, the district built the program their own building, which was designed by students. The campus includes a 4000 square foot building equipped with four classrooms, a full kitchen, a band room, an organic garden and a greenhouse. The program currently serves 33 students 16 of which have a parent or sibling who has attended there.
“Over the years, we have worked with many community partners,” said Helen M. Scipione, BCOPE Teaching Principal. “One of our most recent partnerships is with Village Soup, The Republican Journal, which is our local weekly newspaper. The editor, Jim Leonard, did an article on BCOPE last year and he was so impressed with what he experienced, he offered to mentor a student reporter. We quickly took him up on his offer.”
Emma Witham, one of BCOPE’s current students is a gifted writer and she accepted the challenge. Emma’s mother, Krystal, and her sister, Abby both graduated from BCOPE. Her twin sister, Ava, also attends BCOPE now.
Emma recently had her first article published and it is not only the history of BCOPE, it is her experiences with alternative learning.
“We are extremely proud of Emma and BCOPE and we’d like to share it with you,” said Scipione.
In Emma’s words, “I have been honored for who I am at BCOPE and it’s an experience I’ve never had before. I am extremely grateful for BCOPE.”
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) wants your help designing the future of climate education in Maine. If you are a teacher, student or young adult (under 30), school administrator, or education partner, consider filling out the interest form below to be a part of the Maine DOE Climate Education Action Plan Task Force. | More
As a reminder, Regional School Calendars are due by June 1, 2024 for school administrative units (SAU) and private schools, approved for tuition purposes, in coordination with their local secondary career and technical education (CTE) school. This requirement is part of Public Law 2011, Chapter 686 to promote collaboration among local school administrative units that may benefit from inter-administrative unit collaboration beyond CTE. | More
The Maine DOE and its staff would like to send our heartfelt appreciation to all school social workers for the immeasurable positive impact you have on our students, communities, and school climate. | More
Last summer, elementary school students throughout Madawaska were provided project-based extended educational learning opportunities with a focus on celebrating the region’s French-Acadian heritage. The 2024 ARP Summer Programming and Enrichment grant application deadline is March 29, 2024 | More
The Worthington Scholarship Foundation is offering scholarships of up to $20,000 to high school seniors from any of Maine’s 134 public high schools, who will attend a Worthington-eligible 4-year college or a community college in Fall 2024. | More
Windsor Elementary School educators Kristel Anuszewski and Jana Diket recently collaborated with Maine Sea Grant, Chef Andrew Wilkinson from North Coast Seafoods, and other Maine businesses to bring seaweed to the classroom and cafeteria. | More
Walking into the bright atrium of Lyseth Elementary School in Portland, you are met by giant black-and-white photographs of the 20 students in Leigh Quigley’s 4th-grade class. Hanging from the skylight are even more pictures, pictures that students took after learning photography elements like composition, light, and focal point from professional photographer Liz Bieber. Proud adults gather around, taking pictures of student work. | More
In December, five Maine educators leading school innovations and working towards systemic change to create powerful outcomes for Maine students were featured in a webinar hosted by The Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Northeast & Islands with nearly 100 educators from across the country present. | More
In this discussion-based webinar, Maine Department of Education (DOE) Maine Humanities Teacher Leader Fellows Jim St. Pierre and Dorie Tripp host an exchange among teachers who are gamifying their curriculums or who want to learn more about gamification to improve student engagement. | More
Is your school administrative unit (SAU) interested in starting or expanding public Pre-K with a community partner for the upcoming 2024-25 school year? If so, the Maine DOE’s Early Learning Team invites you to attend an informational session regarding a Pre-K Partnership Pilot Grant opportunity we anticipate releasing this Spring. | More
The Maine Department of Education (DOE) Office of Special Services & Inclusive Education has two upcoming Inclusive Education Webinar Series planned: Inclusive Education Webinar Series: High Leverage Practice to Promote Inclusion for Students with IDD and Complex Needs and Inclusive Education Webinar Series: Dispelling Myths about Assistive Technology (AT) Devices and Services | More
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