Fulton to pay students in after-school program

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 22, 2008

(excerpt) Fulton County schools want to pay students to stay in school a little longer.

Forty students from Creekside High and Bear Creek Middle schools in Fairburn will be the first to try the "Learn & Earn" program, where students will get paid to attend after-school tutoring programs.

Students will make approximately $8 an hour, and be eligible for bonuses if their grades improve, said Kirk Wilks, district spokesman. The initial students are in the eighth and 11th grades.

Howland: SADs 31, 41 to explore uniting as school unit

Bangor Daily News, January 22, 2008

(excerpt) SADs 31 and 41 might join to form a regional school unit of about 1,340 students if Education Commissioner Susan Gendron approves and talks slated to start within the next month end favorably.

The SAD 41 board of directors voted unanimously on Jan. 9 to explore regionalization talks with SAD 31. The SAD 31 board followed suit with a similar vote Wednesday. SAD 31’s decision does not hinder any other options the board is pursuing, Chairman John Neel said.

Proposal seeks free student breakfast

Bangor Daily News, January 22, 2008

(excerpt) A free, nutritious breakfast would be provided for public school students under the provisions of a bill scheduled for a public hearing this afternoon in Augusta. The measure would require the state to pay at least part of the cost of a healthful school breakfast for any student who qualifies for a free or reduced-price lunch.

The proposal comes with a price tag of more than $1.4 million to be paid out of the Fund for a Healthy Maine, which receives about $50 million each year from the cigarette industry to be spent on public health interventions.

School consolidation repeal fails for 2008

Kennebec Journal (update), January 22, 2008

(excerpt) The head of a group gathering signatures to try to overturn the state’s school district consolidation law said today they will not have enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot this year.

Skip Greenlaw, chairman of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools, said they will continue to collect signatures in hopes of putting the measure forward in 2009.

MDI school leaders defend reorganization plan in Augusta

Bar Harbor Times, January 17, 2008

(excerpt) Three Mount Desert Island school officials told the Legislature’s Education Committee last Thursday that Union 98 works just fine and that the local school reorganization plan, which the state education commissioner has rejected, is consistent with the intent of the school consolidation law that the Legislature passed last year.

Whether the local delegation was persuasive remains to be seen. But they discovered they apparently have an ally in a legislator from another part of the state, Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan.

Union 98 Superintendent Rob Liebow and three members of the local Reorganization Planning Committee (RPC) – Chair Gail Marshall, Vice Chair Brian Hubbell and Paul Murphy – went to Augusta to discuss the RPC’s plan with Education Commissioner Susan Gendron. Also present were Democratic Reps. Ted Koffman and Hannah Pingree and Sen. Dennis Damon, whose districts include all or part of MDI, as well as Sen. Mills, a member of the Education Committee.

SAD 11 mulls 'pointed recommendations'

Kennebec Journal, January 17, 2007

(excerpt) A committee specially formed to review the educational experiences of students at Gardiner Regional Middle School and Gardiner Area High School will reveal its findings to school board members tonight.

The report's findings and recommendations offer an "intense inward look" at multiple aspects of middle and high school students' experiences in School Administrative District 11, according to the report. SAD 11 serves Gardiner, West Gardiner, Pittston and Randolph.

"It is a very extensive piece of work," Superintendent Paul Knowles said Tuesday. "Not many school systems go to the amount of time and effort we have with this."

An academic audit committee of administrators, teachers, school board members, parents and two education experts from the University of Maine formed in 2006. The committee examined ideas on education reform, reviewed the district's academic performance data and interviewed staff members and students and analyzed the findings. A smaller subgroup compiled the report.

The report authors did not shy away from making recommendations on how to change the school system for the better.

"There's some pretty pointed recommendations," Knowles said.

Winslow vying for students

Morning Sentinel, January 17, 2008

(excerpt) Interim Superintendent Hugh Riordan lives in China but his two children both attend Winslow High School.

Riordan would like to see more teenagers from school-choice communities -- China and Vassalboro primarily -- make Winslow their choice, and he is working on a plan to accomplish that goal, which includes promoting the $9 million renovation of the high school.

And that plan is motivated by an important financial reason.

"I think we have to (step up our recruitment efforts)," Riordan said. "In China and Vassalboro, classes out of eighth grade now tend to be smaller every year. With smaller classes, those tuition dollars are very important."

Riordan is confident that Winslow has the right stuff to get a larger share of that smaller student pool and not just because of the high school improvements.

The key, he said, is being more aggressive at marketing the high school's long-standing strengths.

"We have not been as good as we should have been," he said, "at informing families about what Winslow High School offers as far as programs, academics and extracurricular activities. We want to do a better job of that."

Campaign to repeal school law lacks support

Portland Press Herald, January 17, 2007

(excerpt) With less than two weeks to go, the organizer of a campaign to repeal the state's school-district consolidation law does not yet have enough support to force a referendum on the issue.

"The numbers aren't all that encouraging at this minute," Lawrence "Skip" Greenlaw of Stonington said Wednesday. He has a Jan. 28 deadline to submit at least 55,087 voters' signatures to the state.

Greenlaw wants a statewide referendum Nov. 4 on the law passed last year, which is designed to shrink the number of school districts in Maine from 290 to about 80.

The law mandates mergers among small school districts by requiring that each district have at least 2,500 students, with some exceptions.

Greenlaw said he has 26,000 signatures and another 18,000 have been "promised" by petition circulators.

He said still more are likely to come in, but the 44,000 signatures that he has or is confident of getting leave him more than 11,000 shy of what's required by the Maine Constitution.

Analyst advocates cuts in schools, Medicaid

Portland Press Herald, January 15, 2007

(excerpt) Silkman laid out his plans to cut about $700 million from the state budget during a conference organized by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a liberal think tank based in Augusta. He was part of a panel discussion on how Maine spending compares with neighboring states' and what Maine has done to control spending in recent years.

Silkman said Maine spends more per pupil than most other states, has too many teachers and puts 18.3 percent of students in special-education classes, while the national average is 13.9 percent.

NONPROFIT GROUP'S PRIME TARGETS
Cuts proposed by Maine Public Spending Research Group:
- $40 million saved by school district consolidation
- $117 million saved by cutting teachers
- $63 million saved by reducing the number of students enrolled in special education
- $167 million saved by reducing the number of people enrolled in Medicaid
- $300 million saved by reducing services provided to those on Medicaid

High-tech board enhances learning

Portland Press Herald, January 14, 2008

(excerpt) Winslow High School physics teacher Corbin Brace last week flashed concepts and equations about electricity in rapid fashion on the classroom whiteboard.

He did so without the use of a marker and without getting within arm's length of the board. Instead, he spent most of the class walking randomly among his honors-level students.

One of the latest types of computerized, interactive whiteboards, the Promethean Board gives teachers such as Brace the ability to deliver lessons in the PC or Apple-based way that appeals to today's technologically savvy teens.

He can do so on the go, thanks to the dinner plate-size tablet that he holds in hand.

"This really allows me to tie everything together in a way modern students think," Brace said. "(Students) aren't linear thinkers anymore."

Schools try new approach to detention

Kennebec Journal, January 14, 2008

(excerpt) At Howard Middle School, restorative justice practices are used not only to address misbehavior but to improve communication between students and teachers throughout the school.

Buckheit said the school's former after-school detention program was based on the traditional model used at most Maine schools. If students showed disrespect to a teacher or another student, the offending student was assigned an afternoon detention and that would be the end of the matter.

"The kid put in his hour of time staring at the clock or doing homework," she said.

Now students may choose to attend a community resolution circle led by a teacher. Each student must tell the other students in the circle what they did. The other students and any victim who agrees to participate discuss how the student's misbehavior impacted other people at the school.

The student must come up with a way to make restitution through some sort of community service, such as cleaning a teacher's classroom or - in the case of a food-throwing incident - helping the janitors clean the lunch room. The student must also make a verbal or written apology.

Education panel backs consolidation changes

Bangor Daily News, January 12, 2008

(excerpt) Norton said a significant change gives the education commissioner flexibility in accepting school administrative units of fewer than 1,200 students. The existing law sets a minimum size of 1,200 with no exceptions.

Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said that change and others approved by the panel improve the law and she will recommend that Gov. John Baldacci support them.

"What this does is to bring clarity to the law," she said. "It also recognizes some of the geographical isolation that there is in the state of Maine."

Gendron said there are several areas of the state that will benefit from the change. She said communities in Washington, Aroostook and Somerset counties have proposed districts that fall just short of the 1,200 minimum.

Committee votes to support new cost-sharing formula

Kennebec Journal, January 11, 2008

(excerpt) The cost-sharing formula would keep all the debt local -- such as when a town decides to build a new school. For the first year, the agreement would make it so towns' additional local share over state funds would not be greater than 1 percent more they are currently paying.

Manchester, Mount Vernon, Wayne, Readfield, Winthrop and Fayette agreed to partner in order to comply with a state law aimed at shrinking the number of school districts in Maine from 290 to 80.

Committee members stressed Thursday that the tentative cost-sharing formula they approved Thursday is legal only if approved by the Legislature. The Legislature is considering LD 1932, which would allow districts that face a cost shift to develop their own local cost-sharing agreements instead of using the state formula.

The measure also would allow some school units that currently receive a minimum subsidy to keep that subsidy.

One of the biggest hurdles for districts looking to partner with neighboring school units has been blending finances. How costs are shared between consolidating districts is determined by a state formula that factors in student population, property values and other factors.

Ellsworth, Dexter school projects given OK

Bangor Daily News, January 11, 2008

(excerpts) The state Board of Education has approved school construction projects in Ellsworth and Dexter that each will involve consolidating smaller schools into larger buildings.
...

SAD 46’s Dexter Elementary School project will cost $30,587,000. The state will contribute $29,905,000 toward its construction and the local share will be $562,000.

The pre-kindergarten-through-grade-eight school will be located off Fenn Road in Dexter. It will be on a 50-acre site that was formerly part of the Finn Farm, a family farm that has been part of the community for more than a century. When completed, the school district will close two smaller schools in Dexter and elementary schools in Garland and Exeter.

The Dexter Middle School has 235 pupils, Dexter Primary School has 287, the Exeter Consolidated School has 49, and Garland Elementary School has 79 pupils. When the new school is completed, SAD 46 will be left with three school buildings: Dexter High, the Tri-County Technical Center and the new consolidated school.

The two-story building will have separate wings for younger and older students, with pre-kindergarten through second grade in the first-floor wings and third- through eighth-graders in the upper wings. It will be heated with wood chips with an oil furnace serving as backup. Seventy-three percent of the district’s voters approved the project in a March referendum.

Design and bidding documents are expected to be completed by the end of January. The project is expected to go to bid in February and construction is scheduled to begin in April. The 115,000-square-foot school is designed to hold 800 pupils and is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in June 2010.

SAD 53 approves sharing superintendent with SAD 59
Bangor Daily News, January 9, 2008

(excerpt) SAD 53 directors Monday night approved a job-sharing agreement for Superintendent Michael Gallagher with SAD 59 and cut his salary by $5,000. Gallagher said Tuesday that the cut does not mean he will be doing less in his role in Pittsfield, but rather that he will be additionally compensated by SAD 59 for the increased responsibilities there. Under Gov. John Baldacci's school consolidation plan, SADs 53 and 59 have already agreed and submitted a plan to unite.

"I would guess this means some longer days," he said with a laugh, not willing to guess how many hours a week he will be working. "I shall complete everything that needs to be completed."

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School contract issues may modify consolidation plan

Bangor Daily News, January 9, 2008

(excerpt) What became apparent as regional planning committees worked through the process was that the mergers and the requirement for a unified contract would result in an equalization of salaries and benefits for teachers and support staff. But those salaries and benefits in some cases vary widely among the merging school districts. Bringing lower salaries and benefit packages up to the higher levels, planning committees said, would create significant cost increases for the new school units.

"In the best-case scenario, you bring everybody up to the best position of the several contracts," said Robert Webster, superintendent of Union 76, which includes Brooklin, Sedgwick and the Deer Isle-Stonington CSD. "That assumes that those at the best positions would be willing to freeze their benefits and salaries to allow everyone else to catch up. That’s not a terribly realistic scenario given the nature of collective bargaining."

Each of the three school districts in Union 76 now negotiates its own contract with a local bargaining unit, so the salaries and benefit packages vary. According to Webster, equalizing salaries and benefits for teachers and staff within the union, and assuming no staffing or other changes or increases, would result in a cost increase of $358,039.

Laptop expense just doesn't compute

Bangor Daily News, January 8, 2008

(excerpt) The Legislature, the governor and the Department of Education should look closely at the state’s laptop program. While the objective of the program has value, has the state’s way of meeting that objective ever been fiscally valid? As far as we can tell from talking with educators around the state, the initial cost of providing laptops for Maine’s seventh- and eighth-graders was approximately $37 million. Replacement costs to date have been approximately $41 million. With additional replacements, over a 10-year period costs will probably exceed $100 million.

The Department of Education proposes expanding the laptop program to ninth through 12th grades (it has already expanded the program to high school teachers at a cost of $2 million per year for four years). On the basis of previous costs for seventh and eighth grades, initial costs for expansion to students in grades nine through 12 should exceed $80 million. Over a 10-year period the cost should exceed $200 million. With all these expenditures, kindergarten through grade six (arguably the most important) will still be uncovered. Is this the wisest use of scarce state revenues? How else might these dollars be spent?

Report: Money trumps learning

Bangor Daily News, January 4, 2008

(excerpt) Money is trumping educational concerns as communities continue to run into conflicts while grappling with school consolidation.

That was the finding of a new report from the Maine Children’s Alliance released Thursday. The white paper found that budget preoccupations were crowding out educational concerns in the state’s push to consolidate school districts. The Maine Children’s Alliance is a nonpartisan, statewide, multiissue child advocacy organization.

The white paper reviewed the process that produced the consolidation law in the state’s biennial budget, explains how the legislation took this particular form and how it has worked for the local school districts charged with implementing it.

"Consolidation is a worthy thing. It’s a goal that has to be reached in order to improve the quality of education and contain taxes," alliance president and chief executive officer Elinor Goldberg said Thursday. "There are huge benefits to making things more efficient."

The Consolidation Debacle

Ellsworth American, January 3, 2008

(excerpt) One of Gendron’s biggest problems is the mounting evidence across the state that the major savings envisioned by Gov. John Baldacci’s school reorganization push are not there. In fact, the consolidation plans are proving to be more, rather than less, expensive for many communities. Yet Gendron continues to talk about the “efficiencies” to be gained from forcing the creation of regional school units with at least 1,200 students, no matter what the other consequences of such mergers may be. Of course, she really has no choice. To do otherwise would be to admit the failure of her grand design.

The commissioner’s rejection of so many reorganization plans also is having spinoff effects. When they learned of her opposition to what she calls the “super union” concept contained in MDI’s plan, officials in the western Hancock County towns comprising proposed Regional School Union 10 put their efforts on hold. The observed that “having each town with its own K-8 school board was the only direction that seemed to hold any promise.” The Brooksville School Committee took things one step further, voting unanimously to support the petition for a referendum seeking outright repeal of the school consolidation law. That same position has been taken by the Penobscot School Committee, which also has signed the petition.

Veazie, Glenburn address consolidation details

Bangor Daily News, January 4, 2008

(excerpt) Union 87 includes Orono and Veazie, but since they are a school union the state decided they are allowed to have separate consolidation plans.

While Veazie continues to explore options with RSU 15, which includes SAD 63 (Holden, Eddington, Clifton), Brewer, Orrington, Dedham and CSD 8 (Amherst, Aurora, Great Pond and Osborn), Orono is moving forward with its plan to form RSU 16. That unit would join Old Town and Union 90, which includes Bradley, Greenbush, Milford and Alton, Clenchy said.

Orono has decided to review the financial data of what a merger of Orono, Veazie and Glenburn would look like, but the consolidation and school committees previously indicated they favor the larger school unit.

In Glenburn, the school reorganization planning committee met Tuesday to review the three options they face.

The options include joining RSU 16, combining with SAD 64 in Corinth, or doing nothing, committee co-chairwoman Cheryl Hoover said Wednesday.

School consolidation foes make final push in petition drive

AP Wire, January 3, 2008

(excerpt) The Maine Coalition to Save Schools faces a Jan. 28 deadline to collect 55,087 signatures from registered voters for the proposal to be considered by the Legislature this session. The group has about 40,000 signatures so far.

"We´ve got 15,000 to go. There are still a lot of petitions out there, and I´m still hopeful that we´ll have enough signatures to file the petition on the 28th," said Lawrence P. "Skip" Greenlaw, who heads the coalition.