Maine ASCD Weblog

Thank you, teacher!

It's become cliche, "...if you can read this, thank a teacher..." but that is exactly how columnist John Kelly from the Washington Post starts his piece today. It might be a syrupy kind of tribute, but I sense it was sincere, and sadly, I'm certain the message will be lost on many.

Today, I watched as all of the teachers and staff at the Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham stood out in the parking lot in front of the school and cheered and waved as their precious brood of young teens happily piled onto the school buses for the last time and cruised on home to begin their summers of bliss. I remember when I first saw this done about seven years ago I was amazed at the scene. No one ever did that for me when I was in school.

Bette Manchester, who was principal of MAMS at the time, told me it was a old tradition. What a fine tradition.

I'm reminded of a scene I witnessed about ten years ago on another "last day" of school in a pizzeria on Stevens Avenue in Portland near Lincoln Middle School. It involved a young boy who had come into the pizzeria and noticed his now "former teacher" standing in line ordering a slice. The kid was a little put out seeing a teacher in this setting but then, apparently remembering he had forgotten to say good-bye to her for the summer, walked up to her and thanked her for the good year. It was a brief, tender moment - one witnessed by few - but again sincere and heartfelt. And sadly, all too uncommon.

I ended up writing about the scene in a newsletter we published for our UNE Masters in Education program. In my reflection, I again spoke of how so many of us forget to acknowledge the hard work that teachers do day in and day out. I took the opportunity to thank my readership and told them to take care of themselves during the brief interlude we call "summer vacation."

Unbeknownst to me, the newsletter was circulated to the president of the university and a few days later I received a hand-written note from her thanking me for taking the time to write the reflection and for my hard work as the director of the program. I guess it was a bit of "pay it forward."

It felt good.

So, on this, the last day of school for many students and teacher around Maine - and hopefully for the rest of you real soon - I say thank you to all the teachers in the world. Take care of yourselves and enjoy that all too brief interlude we call summer vacation.

~John Brandt

PS: The Maine ASCD Blog goes not take a vacation. Please stop back frequently to read about what we're thinking. And of course, please feel free to leave your comments.

Subcommittee Approves Education Funding Increase

From time to time we will post information from the ASCD Educator Advocate office. If you are interested in becoming an ASCD Educator Advocate and receiving this kind of information via e-mail, please sign up here:

Here is the news . . . 

On Thursday, June 7, 2007, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education (also known as the LHHS Subcommittee..thankfully) marked-up the 2008 funding bill for education. This bill includes an increase of $4.2 billion (7.4%) overall for education. No Child Left Behind programs receive an overall increase of nearly $2 billion (8.4%). Title I Grants to LEAs will receive an increase of $1.5 billion (nearly 12%), and Title II Teacher Quality was increased by $300 million (10.4%).  This bill also provides increases for Head Start.

ASCD sent a letter to the subcommittee in support of funding increases for NCLB programs and Head Start. This bill represents a strong step forward in assisting schools to improve the education of the whole child.

The next step is for the full committee to consider the bill.

If you would like information on specific funding programs, please contact Dan Fuller at dfuller@ascd.org

~John Brandt

Voting night...the day after...now the fun begins

The word on the street this afternoon is that the State Senate will like accept the amendments offered up in the compromise budget package that was voted on by the House last night. Folks who met with the governor this morning indicated that he was ready to sign the bill.

So, the long road to school district consolidation now apparently starts in earnest. According to my spies, the deadlines for starting the ball rolling were delayed slightly, but the consolidation plans will be implemented in this next biennium to get the reported $36 million in savings. As I understand the latest compromise, district will have to propose a plan by this December and then have their local citizens vote to approve it with the plan ready to go in action by Fall 2008. If their plan is not approved by the Commissioner, districts only gain six months of wiggle room, but the new district still needs to begin in fall 2008.

There was some mention in the press about penalties being reduced for those districts who choose not to join into a new regional district, but it is not clear what those are. And keeping School Unions as a possible governance form, Libby Mitchell's pet goal, is apparently still in. This despite some strong testimony and evidence against them.

The big issue is the question of savings. Most of the folks I talked to think that the state will simply calculate the administrative/transportation/special education costs and reduce that amount from the state subsidy. So, the real work will come as districts around the state struggle to do all this work with less money.

~John Brandt

Voting day...night

As of 9:20 this morning, it's not clear what happened in last night's vote on the state budget. TV News reports at 11:00 pm last night indicated that the House was going to be voting later in the evening on the budget but that some amendments were in the works to "water down" (my words) the school consolidation plan to appeal to the Rural Caucus. The state newspapers are not reporting anything this morning, but website of WCSH-6 in Portland is reporting:

AUGUSTA (AP) -- Representatives mowed down a string of proposed changes to a $6.3 billion state budget before overwhelmingly passing a compromise amendment early Wednesday that alters the two-year spending plan put before lawmakers.

By lopsided votes Tuesday night, the House rejected amendments that addressed narrow issues in the budget proposal that was unanimously endorsed by the Appropriations Committee.

That set the stage for debate on an amendment addressing a portion of the budget that is regarded as critical to the whole package: a plan to consolidate Maine's school systems. The plan calls for a reduction from the current 152 school administrative systems down to 80.

By a 114-27 vote, representatives then approved the compromise and sent the budget bill to the Senate.

The amendment appeared to satisfy concerns of a bloc of lawmakers known as the Rural Caucus, who want to ease both the deadline for meeting the district consolidation requirements and penalties for not meeting them.

Not exactly sure what this means, but it sounds like the rural people got what they wanted from the House. The budget now goes to the Senate for approval and then to the governor. The state constitution requires the budget be passed by a 2/3 majority and before the new fiscal year starts July 1st. Failure to pass, or a veto by the governor will close down state government. We'll have to see what happened.

~John Brandt