AOS 43 developing professional growth plan

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    MILO — In part to meet the state’s Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Law, teachers and administrators with SAD 41 and its AOS 43 partner SAD 31 of the Howland area have been working on a professional growth plan. During a school board meeting on Jan. 8, AOS 43 Superintendent Michael Wright provided an update on the plan developments.

    “At some point in the next few months we will ask the board to approve a pilot program for next year,” Wrights said as he presented SAD 41 officials with several related handouts. The school board saw that for teachers, the professional growth plan included administrative, required and choice components.
    The evaluation component would be made up of 50 percent professional growth, 45 percent classroom observation and 5 percent student achievement.
    “This would be an example of a portfolio a teacher would have and all of the items listed would be required,” Wright said about the second professional growth plan component. Among the portfolio items are standards met, a self reflection, meetings with administrators, examples of student work, peer observation and reflection on goals.
    For choices, educators could take part in peer coaching, self-directed learning and/or action research. “We would hand that out to everyone and they would choose which direction they want to go.” Wright said.
    Assistant Superintendent Stacy Shorey said self-directed learning could be taking a class or working on a specific topic, spelling for example, in the classroom. She said action research could involve the teacher looking into an area of education and then presenting their findings.
    The professional growth plan also includes a component for an educational leader. “What it does is emphasize the principal is the instructional leader of the school,” Wright said, as this aspect of the plan has evaluation, portfolio and choice components.
    “We think it’s something that in the past is assumed happens,” Wright said, but having the principal be responsible as the instructional leader of their school may not always have been taking place.
    In other business, four Penquis Valley High School Jobs for Maine’s Graduates (JMG) participants gave a presentation on their November trip to Washington, D.C. for the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) Student Leadership Academy.
    “We had the opportunity where we were allowed to apply for this program,” Penquis Valley JMG Specialist Shannon Bishop said. She explained she could recommend four students, and Peyton LaBelle, Nicole Padilla, Ian Perkins and Sha-Lynn Trafton joined a JMG representative from both Lewiston High School and Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield as Maine students at the academy on Nov. 21-23.
    Bishop said three of the four Penquis Valley students had never flown before, and the trip was one’s first outside of Maine. In Washington, D.C., “Each were put in different groups” as Bishop said this gave the four the opportunity to meet students from across the country in various group leadership workshops and events.
    When describing some of workshops, Trafton said, “We learned this motivational rap.”
    “We had to go to other team’s rooms and ‘battle’ them,” Padilla added. “Every team had a room named after a president and ours was Lincoln.”
    Responding to what they each thought was their best experience, LaBelle said, “The leadership conference that was a competition.” He explained one competition consisted of the group creating a poster without the topic in advance.
    Trafton said she noticed the much greater diversity of the attendees in Washington, D.C., compared to the SAD 41 area. “We took a twilight tour, we got to see everything in D.C. at night,” she added.
    “I think the best part was the Holocaust Museum,” Padilla said. “You know how bad it is but when you walk in there and see the shoes and the clothes they had to wear it hits you hard.”
    Perkins said for him the best experience at the JAG Student Leadership Academy “definitely was the networking and leadership sessions.”
    Bishop said the group from Penquis Valley had essentially “won” the trip to Washington, D.C. from JAG, and therefore the school district did not have any costs nor did the students have to conduct numerous fundraisers.
    “We have a couple of schools that have new titles,” Shorey said as both Brownville and Milo Elementary have been identified as FOCUS schools under the state’s new No Child Left Behind waiver. Shorey said a FOCUS school has a large, more than 15 points on the NECAP testing, discrepancy between two groups of students — such as the total group of pupils and those identified with special needs.
    “We are looking at the programs we have now and making changes,” Shorey said. She said SAD 41 has a consultant and she and the two principals will be meeting with the consultant moving forward. In her report Shorey wrote the good news is the scores for the total student group are high and this is what caused the over 15-point discrepancy.
    Wright said eight firms have responded to a request for proposals for an SAD 41 facility study, with the portfolios to be reviewed.