School News

SAD 15 news
Superintendent's report

Budget work: Administrators have been compiling their draft 05/06 budgets during the month of December. Superintendent Burns and Mr. Towle, Director of Finance and Operations, will meet with each administrator and supervisor to review their budgets during the next two weeks.

Evaluations: The Superintendent will be scheduling an observation with each second year teacher who is being considered for continuing contract. She will be using the new observation template designed last summer by Karen Caprio, Director of Teaching and Learning, and a team of teachers.

Negotiations: A meeting to set ground rules for the Teachers' Association negotiation is tentatively scheduled for January 13.

High School
High School principal Paul Penna reported to the School Board on December 15 that Merrill Auditorium is no longer available for graduation. He has been calling different venues and checking dates. The Cumberland County Civic Center is available for June 11, 2005 which is a Saturday. He will look at the sports schedules and check a few other things to make sure there are no conflicts. The Board approved this change in the calendar at their Board meeting on Wed., January 5.

Memorial School
Card of thanks from principal Donna Beeley: Parents, teachers and staff had a great time at the holiday craft fair on December 4th. Thanks very much to Julie Ricardi, Jan Wilcox, Deanne Thompson, Tracey Valente, Flo Eslinger, Betty Haymon, Wendy Ordway, and numerous others for helping with the craft fair. The donation to the school was approximately $750. A special thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Gavett for donating six tables. Many thanks once again to Mr. & Mrs. Wilcox for donating the LL Bean toboggan for the raffle.

Central Office card of thanks
SAD15 Central Office sends a special thanks to Sally Warren, a Middle School parent, who has agreed to serve as the parent representative working with the school and the Department of Education on improving the adequate yearly progress of G-NG Middle School.

Report from Karen Caprio, Director of Teaching and Learning
Ms. Caprio reports that she is part of the Middle School team working with the school coach from the Department of Education on the Middle School's adequate yearly progress. This team has talked about short-term interventions such as practice tests and schedules, and identifying students from this year's class that might not meet the targets and develop additional learning opportunities for them.

The team has also defined some long-term strategies for improvement centered on increased professional development. Because the Middle School is a priority school, the state and federal government have given $40,000 for the Middle School staff to utilize in the area of professional development in math and ELA. The kind of staff development that is required will be course work during the summer months, followed up throughout the 05/06 school year as well as a professional coach in the area of math or ELA actually working in the classroom observing and critiquing teacher practices. Caprio said that this type of staff development is very expensive and she welcomes the infusion of money to help with this requirement. The money and the plan are for the Middle School only.

Special Education
Director of Special Education Christina Manikas reports that John Stewart, psychologist at the Collaborative School, is offering a three part lecture series to educational technicians. Thirty-six educational technicians are participating in the three lectures: Understanding and Responding to Oppositional Behaviors, An Educator's Guide to Understanding Psychiatric Diagnoses, and Avoiding Common Mistakes in Managing Oppositional Behavior.

Director Manikas also reports that SAD15 special education enrollment is currently at 17%, and serves 356 students with disabilities.