RANGELEY — Judy Enright, the state education coach, spoke at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting about the overall strategy behind the state’s Mass Customized Learning plan.
Enright has taught at elementary-, middle- and high-school levels and as a special education technician. She works with Western Maine Educational Collaboration.
“My title is Change Partner,” Enright said, “and I help school systems develop a shared vision with their communities, and develop a plan to achieve it.”
Her agenda with staff is to explain the complexity of names and terms, talk about pressure from state and national mandates, and listen to the staff’s questions and concerns about the move to standards-based education.
She said the state has given a direction but not a template, so every system has to find its own way. The standards should be close in every system, but the paths to reach them may vary. Though standards-based education has been talked about for years, the emerging technology now allows it to be a manageable system, she said.
“Mass Customized Learning is a hard name, a stumbling block for many,” Enright said, “so it’s now mostly called Proficiency Based Learning.”
During the public comment time, Steve Philbrick from Bald Mountain Camps expressed his interest in being part of the committee’s discussion of the next school calendar.
“As a local business owner,” Philbrick said, “it’s expensive for us to have kids who work for us go back to school before Labor Day. In my case there was $30,000 in lost revenue.”
Philbrick stressed that Maine, and the Rangeley area in particular, is a tourist economy, and school scheduling should take that into consideration. Working high school kids stand to lose at least $1,000 from the early start, he said.
Bill Roy said the calendar was set because the teachers said they need the extra time, but Harold Schaetzle said he doesn’t know why business people are not consulted.
The warrant was sent to all the townships concerning the start date of committee member terms. The referendum calls for all newly-elected committee members to take office on July 1. If a town meeting elects a new committee member before that date, the current member will finish out their term.
The committee urged the public to attend a public meeting to discuss the Nov. 6 ballot measure at 6 p.m. Oct. 9 at the school.
Superintendent Brian Foster said nine responses have been received so far to the requests for proposals for a baseline assessment of the facility. He also said the new bus will be in service by next week.
Rangeley Lakes Regional School Principal Sherry Connally passed along a request from the faculty to be allowed to wear jeans one day a week on payment of a fee to go to a local charity. After much banter, the committee noted that teacher dress was a code, not a policy, and agreed to the request. It stipulated that the dress-down could happen every Friday, that the fee would be $2, and that the name of the chosen charity, which must be local, must be posted at the entrance to the school.
The Technology Committee reported it discussed goals for the five-year plan and teacher Web pages, which can be worked on at an Internet campus seminar for teachers on Oct. 2. There was concern that school computers did not have Microsoft Word, but the licensing problem has been identified and solved.
The committee is concerned that the deed for the school remains with the town of Rangeley. Town Manager Tim Kane is deferring to the town attorney, who has concerns with what happens to the title if the school district dissolves. The School Committee has concerns about liability.
Plans discussed were speaking directly to the town manager or to the selectmen, sending an explanatory letter, or visiting the Board of Selectmen’s meeting. School Committee Chairwoman Pam Ellis said her plan is to call the selectmen and show up at the meeting.
The committee held an executive session for a brief update from legal counsel.
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