Several positions set to be filled for next year
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
MILO — While the meeting lacked a quorum of board members, meaning the nominations could not officially be approved, candidates were presented for two new program teaching positions as well as the principal’s job at Milo Elementary during a May 1 SAD 41 school board meeting.
Over the last few months district officials have been working on a realignment plan in which the Marion C. School in LaGrange would no longer serve as an elementary school for grades K-6 but instead would house both alternative education and behavioral programs. During the meeting Superintendent Michael Wright introduced Kara Taheny as the nominee for the alternative education program and Alton Robbins as the candidate for the behavioral program.
Under the alternate education program SAD 41 would partner with the Carleton Project, a licensed private school approved by the Maine Department of Education, which would serve students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of high school to keep their education going. “She is currently the Carleton Project teacher in Bangor,” Wright said about Taheny.
The Marion C. Cook School would also house a behavioral program starting next year, and Wright introduced Robbins — who currently teaches in RSU 26 in the Orono-area — as the candidate for this position.
For both programs SAD 41 may be able to bring in students from other schools districts, which could create new revenues while also providing more opportunities for the district’s own pupils. Savings would also be realized by no longer having the Marion C. Cook School serve as a K-6 institution, providing funding for the two new programs to be housed in LaGrange.
Last month Milo Elementary Principal Eric Smith announced he would be stepping down at the end of the current school year. Smith’s successor looks to be Julie Royal, who was introduced at the May 1 school board meeting. Wright said Royal “has been with us for years over at Milo Elementary as our literacy and Title I coordinator. I think there is a real benefit to having someone familiar with the school, she knows the people.”
Wright said having a principal come from within Milo Elementary would be advantageous, with several changes planned for the school. As part of the district-wide realignment plan K-5 students from LaGrange would attend school in Milo — all sixth-graders would join their grade 7-8 peers at the Penquis Valley School. Milo Elementary would also house two half-day sessions of pre-kindergarten students starting in the fall.
“Whenever we get to our next meeting, I would have on the agenda these three people,” Wright said. Board Chair Don Crossman said a special meeting may be scheduled for later in the month to vote on the hiring of Taheny, Robbins and Royal.
In other business, Wright said the budget for the 2013-14 school year “is something we are working on every day.” He said the spending plan has some great challenges as district officials are looking at how they can address a $500,00 gap.
“We are looking at what we can do, we are not going to come to you with a budget that recommends a half million dollar increase,” he said. “None of it’s going to be easy.”
The meeting was the first since a grading system of Maine schools had been released by the Department of Education, in which Milo Elementary received a C and the other three SAD 41 schools all received an F. The grading criteria including factors such as student achievement in reading and math, growth in progress and achievement, performance and growth in the bottom 25 percent of elementary students and high school graduation rates.
Wright mentioned one of the reasons Penquis Valley received an F grade was that the SAT testing participation rate for third-year students was 86, below the 90 required despite some of the logistics caused by the test being only offered on Saturdays.
“If you have a student for a fifth year, you are penalized,” he said, mentioning Mount Desert Island High School was dropped a letter grade after keeping some special needs students beyond four years to better prepare them for life after graduation. He also said a student who left Penquis Valley to attend Job Corps is considered a dropout under the grading criteria and thus the high school is penalized.
“Because accountability is so difficult in education people get together and reduce it to something simple,” Wright said. He said the grading system seems to be biased against low-income districts, which are defined by how many students receive free or reduced lunch of which 81 percent of SAD 41 students qualify.
“I encourage everyone to really adamantly reject this notion that you can rank schools and people this easily,” Wright said.
He said SAD 41 is being proactive in improving students’ education. “We have started a pre-K program and we are going to have two sessions of it, and we are going to have an alternate program for kids at the other end,” he said. Wright also mentioned school and community pride was on full display for the entire state to see during the basketball postseason at the Bangor Auditorium as the Penquis Valley boys captured the Class C state championship.
Director of Student Services and Assistant Superintendent Stacy Shorey mentioned the small student population at the Marion C. Cook School as a factor in its grade, saying judging the growth of the bottom fourth is based upon just four pupils. She also said that special needs students are factored into overall academic performances of schools, and 24 percent of the district’s pupils are identified as having special needs with another 15 percent of elementary students falling under Title I.
“It really is representative of just a few pieces of data,” Shorey said about the grading system. She said the district’s teachers are always working to help students improve in their education.
Brownville Elementary Principal Lynn Weston said seeing a grade for a F grade for a school can be demoralizing and “she feels bad for the students who have to look in the paper tomorrow and see their school got an F.”
In addressing his school’s C grade, Smith said the school has made improvements such as in its NECAP scores. “That’s really due to the hard work of our teaches at Milo Elementary,” he said.
Wright reported that a security system, including a camera monitoring a buzzer-activated front door, has been in place for several weeks at Milo Elementary and a similar system will be installed at Penquis Valley. “Our plan is to do all the schools as soon as possible,” Wright said.
He said the safety committee also discussed a method of tones being sounded in the various schools to alert those inside of a lockdown. “We think for a reasonable price we can put one of those in every school,” Wright said, adding that evacuation drills will be held in the four SAD 41 schools before the end of the year. “We need to practice it in case we ever need to do it,” he said.