Message from the Superintendent
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the homepage for Maine School Administrative District #51, Cumberland / North Yarmouth, Maine. Our mission is to educate all students to meet or exceed the district's defined academic standards. MSAD #51 has embarked on a journey of transformation through a systems approach of organization development. We encourage you to visit our district and share with us any of your thoughts or ideas.
The annual school district budget is developed within the MSAD #51 community with the involvement of the School Board, staff, students and residents of North Yarmouth and Cumberland. Please take a moment to read my most recent letter to the MSAD #51 community concerning our 2010-2011 budget http://www.msad51.org/Pages/MSAD51_BBoard/04E80602-007EA7AB.
Dr. Robert Hasson, Superintendent of Schools
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From the MSAD 51 School Board Chair - January 7, 2010
A New Year; So How Are We Doing?
As we start a new year, the School Board is recalibrating its efforts to balance the tremendous challenges of the upcoming budget with the need to move forward on supporting and improving the academic and social environment of our schools.
At our August retreat, the School Board set specific goals including:
- planning for declining student enrollments,
- planning for restructuring the use of our buildings/facilities,
- improved communications,
- better board assessment,
- full implementation of Sports Done Right and careful monitoring of the recently adopted athletic fee,
- pursuit of a tangible project for student engagement led by our School Board student representatives,
- solicit ideas from teachers; and
- celebrate our successes
So, as we start this New Year, the School Board will have a period of reflection/review at our January 19 School Board meeting to check in on how we are doing with meeting goals.
As I look back over the past four months, I am proud of the initial work that we have accomplished on these goals.
Our Sustainability Committee is busy analyzing demographic data, grade configurations, and the cost/benefit of each of our buildings. We expect an initial report from the Sustainability Committee by our March 1 meetings.
Our new Communications Committee helped our Finance Committee organize a budget forum this fall and is working on improved communication efforts at presenting this year's budget and other information regarding the schools. A summary of the feedback from the budget forum can be found on the MSAD51 web site. The Communications Committee also organized the Greely High School celebration regarding the renovated high school during the fall, which was a key part of doing a better job of celebrating our successes.
The Administration Team has done a great job implementing the new athletic fee. Substantial efforts were made to ensure that fees were waived where the student and the studentís family could not bear the financial impact of the fee. A review of the athletic fee program at the board level is upcoming.
The Student Representatives have organized a late spring event that will bring the Senior Class together for a Community Service Day. The organizers have invited Governor King to speak about the value of serving your community. The seniors will then have a day of public service with an end of the day celebration.
The School Board leadership and the Administrative Team have met on a regular basis with the Teacher Leadership Team and have discussed a range of issues from the possibility of opening contract negotiations a year early to better communications between teachers, the Administrative Team and the School Board. The members of the Teacher Leadership Team have been regular participants in our School Board meetings. And Bob Hasson has met with teachers at all school levels to keep teachers informed of budgetary and other school challenges and to seek input.
We have met with the leader of the Maine Farm School initiative which is an exciting 'charter school like' program for providing a hands-on, alternative approach to high school. And our administrative team has met with leaders of Thornton Academy to investigate programs for attracting both local and foreign tuition students.
The School Board also recognizes that we have a valuable period of time before the spring budget season in which to focus on a range of non-budgetary topics. Some of the upcoming School Board topics include:
January 19: Presentation from the High School leadership team on developments at the High School. While Principal Chris Mosca has been on leave due to health issues, the high school teachers and administrators have done a fantastic job of making this a very positive year at the high school. So we look forward to the chance to thank the high school team for all their hard work.
February 1: Presentation on Drug and Alcohol issues at MSAD 51 and Programs for Prevention. We hope to have data back from the State on student self assessment on drug and alcohol use by this meeting.
March 1: Presentation on All Day Kindergarten, including analysis of student performance.
Presentation on MSAD 51 Special Education Programs.
Report from the Sustainability Committee.
We invite your input on our progress, either by phone, email or at our next board meeting on January 19. Please join us at our winter board meetings!!
Dave Perkins, Chair.
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