Maine Demographics (Brunswick, Fort Kent, Penobscot: lawyer, purchase, middle schools)

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by mainegrl2011

I think we are headed toward a shortage of teachers, a shortage of young people who go to college to become teachers. We may already be there. This may or not be a problem depending on your beliefs and the availability of going to school online.

We are there. But I predicted that when NoChildLeftBehind came into full practice back in about 2005. To teachers it became NoJoyLeftInTeaching. And then, the special ed requirements and 504 requirements for teacher of even regular classroom teachers became onerous. And then, teacher salary increases started to become indexed to how well their class did on some test that took only three days in the spring, without any reference to the fact that classes of kids vary in their ability and attention. And then governments started eliminating the pensions cause they didn’t want to help. And then throw in the deterioration of the kids who having watched soundbite action TV since childhood had no sense of attention, and parents whose willingness to assist dropped dramatically from 1970 to 2005.

Put all that together, and students in college can see that this isn’t a field where(except in big affluent districts where salaries are much greater) that they were going to be able to pay off their student loans, where it would be fun, and where they would have any money left to put into a retirement account. But the fun and enjoyable factor was eliminated completely.

And so less and less students choose to go into education.

[LordSquidworth]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Maine has hit a wall. In the Lincoln/Millinocket area there were 18 teaching openings in the public schools. They were only able to hire three. We are competing with states like Massachusetts and Connecticut where they pay as much as double what we are able to offer. Maine’s history, heritage, recreational opportunities and low cost of living are not impressive at all to the millennials living in the digital age.

It isn’t just education. It is medical care, transportation, logging, paper making, and manufacturing. We who have been here nearly all of our lives, have seen this coming. We are graduating students from college who do not have useful skills for employment. These folks have $82,000 in student debt and they have been defrauded by the system. No bank would loan these people money for a degree in Sociology, but our government guarantees the loan so the university can keep paying tenured professors who teach two classes a week.

We need qualified immigrants. When Madison Paper was running and owned by Millioski Oy, a Finnish citizen wanted to work at the mill. He had a master’s degree in paper technology. Our government would allow him to work for just two weeks. He had to return to Finland after the two weeks. Let’s make these skilled people legal.

The biggest bang for the buck that we have in public school education is our regional vocational high schools. Their students graduate with employable skills on Day 1.

So start slashing administration, pay teachers more. The Augusta district they're currently trying to kick spouses off teachers off the healthcare plan (administration of course is still welcome).

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by LordSquidworth

So start slashing administration, pay teachers more. The Augusta district they're currently trying to kick spouses off teachers off the healthcare plan (administration of course is still welcome).

drop the high paid superintendents.....why are they needed?? we have principals/vice principals and school boards..

pay the teachers more

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

drop the high paid superintendents.....why are they needed?? we have principals/vice principals and school boards..

pay the teachers more

The super is not an educational position. It's for dealing with the dept of ed and the community, and coordinating all the different schools with each other. Someone has to be in charge of everything.

Getting rid of the superintendent would be like having a business with only department heads. Soneone has to run the whole of walmart, you can't run it on just the produce guy.

You never worked in pubic education, did you? BTW, I didn’t work in administration.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

The super is not an educational position. It's for dealing with the dept of ed and the community, and coordinating all the different schools with each other. Someone has to be in charge of everything.

Getting rid of the superintendent would be like having a business with only department heads. Soneone has to run the whole of walmart, you can't run it on just the produce guy.

You never worked in pubic education, did you? BTW, I didn’t work in administration.

yes we are administrative top-heavy

we have school boards principals and vice principals superintendents are overkill.....they average over 100k per yr..... and not necessary....give the pay to the teachers..

principals are more than qualified for administrators and lets not forget maine's dept of education

yes superintendents and their office are an overkill



According to the 2017-18 report, system and school administration consumed approximately 8.45 percent of school budget expenditures statewide. In the 2017-18 school year, Maine had 129 superintendents, 29 assistant superintendents, 458 principals and 225 assistant principals.


https://www.themainewire.com/2019/07...dministration/

[LordSquidworth]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

The super is not an educational position. It's for dealing with the dept of ed and the community, and coordinating all the different schools with each other. Someone has to be in charge of everything.

Getting rid of the superintendent would be like having a business with only department heads. Soneone has to run the whole of walmart, you can't run it on just the produce guy.

You never worked in pubic education, did you? BTW, I didn’t work in administration.

Superintendents have a place...

Maine has too many.

From the article above:

Here is a good example of how towns and cities can regionalize administration: The towns of York and Kittery have different superintendents despite the fact they border each other and have under 2,700 students collectively. One of the two superintendents in these towns could manage the operations of both districts, effectively cutting one position and reducing the cost of one of the facilities.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

My wife was a teacher for over 40 years. In her first job out of college she had 165 students in five classes. There was no such thing as a teacher's aide. Many students were legal immigrants from Mediterranean countries.

One afternoon after school, my wife was leaving and some other students were talking in the hall. She stopped and said, "You won't talk in my class. Whey are you talking out here?"

THey said they knew that some of the words they learn on the street are swear words and they did not want to swear in her room. She told them to come in after school and if any body used a swear word she would tell them not to use that word in class, at home or on the street. The next day, eight students came in after school. Then it was twenty. She had to move to a lecture hall.

One day, the principal in that school of 4,400 students came in and said, Are you Miss Pat? She said she was. The principal said he was getting letters from parents thanking him for what she was doing. "Exactly what are you doing?"

"I'm teaching your non-reading students how to read and write in English"

He replied, "We don't have any non-reading students."

She said, "I have 159 here on my sign-up sheet." My wife had the first English as a Second Language in a public school in the nation. There are ESL programs everywhere now.

She got two master's degrees and developed TRICA with a college professor. TRICA is "Teaching Reading In Content Areas". It uses Motor Trend, Boating, Hot Rod, hunting and fishing magazines and magazines that appeal to girls. Publishers donate the magazines. TRICA is used in many states.It prevents students from dropping out of school. I don't know of any Mane district that is using TRICA. It was not invented here.

In out rural district we had a teaching principal for years. He got a stipend for being the principal. We had no superintendent. The state said we had to hire a superintendent or they would cut our aid money. We hired a superintendent and the teacher that had been doing the job got a pay cut.

When Susan Gendron ordered all the local districts to consolidate, we did not take the bait. We became an Alternate Organized System. Our AOS shares a superintendent, purchasing, bus maintenance, bus scheduling and special education admistration.

[mainegrl2011]

Originally Posted by LordSquidworth

So start slashing administration, pay teachers more. The Augusta district they're currently trying to kick spouses off teachers off the healthcare plan (administration of course is still welcome).

I would like to add spouses are not on the employee health care plan for free; the teacher has to pay. What is Augusta suggesting regarding children of teachers and health care? I have heard that the more people who are paying to be covered, the lower the cost (premiums) for coverage. If that is true, then keeping the spouses on the policy should make the premiums lower. ... just a thought.

[mainegrl2011]

Maine likes its small schools, small school systems. If the locals are willing to fund, then I can see the advantages. In small schools, students are all known by teachers, admin, and community. Seems it would be easier to keep students from falling through the cracks in smaller schools. Smaller public schools PreK-12 can be compared to small colleges vs. large universities. When do the students get more individualized attention?

Sometimes schools have teaching principals or part-time principals. Could a couple of small schools share a principal? Assistant principals often have to deal with most of student discipline issues referred to administration. If the school is large, this can become a big part of their day. Could a supt be shared by two school systems?

I'm pretty sure that school board members in Maine participate on a volunteer basis. Does anyone know?

I know a teacher who worked at a charter school. The retirement plan was put the money into the retirement plan of your own choice.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by mainegrl2011

Maine likes its small schools, small school systems. If the locals are willing to fund, then I can see the advantages. In small schools, students are all known by teachers, admin, and community. Seems it would be easier to keep students from falling through the cracks in smaller schools. Smaller public schools PreK-12 can be compared to small colleges vs. large universities. When do the students get more individualized attention?

Sometimes schools have teaching principals or part-time principals. Could a couple of small schools share a principal? Assistant principals often have to deal with most of student discipline issues referred to administration. If the school is large, this can become a big part of their day. Could a supt be shared by two school systems?

I'm pretty sure that school board members in Maine participate on a volunteer basis. Does anyone know?

I know a teacher who worked at a charter school. The retirement plan was put the money into the retirement plan of your own choice.

School boards are paid, Not much, but they get a stipend.