Maine Education News

Welcome to this week's newsletter. You'll find inspiration, updates, and ways to get involved—all at a glance. We promise to keep these short, sweet, and worth your time.

Rep. Millett Shares Her Perspectives on Maine Education

Rep. Rebecca Millett of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee shares in the interview above her perspective on the urgent needs in our schools and how YOU can make an impact. Her top three priorities for this legislative session:

• EARLY CHILDHOOD: A bill re: Child Development Services, education services for children from birth through age 4, Part B (ages 2-4) is expected to raise complex questions with high stakes answers. As Laurie Lachance noted in last week's video, investment in education has high returns for students AND communities.

• TEACHER COMPENSATION: Maine has promised our teachers that they will receive stipends if they get national board certifications. Rep. Millett has entered bill LD1716 to ensure that statute remains in place.



• HIGHER ED: To ensure the expertise of adjunct faculty and staff of public higher education institutions is considered, Rep. Millett has entered bill LD1820 to support their representation on the boards of trustees of these institutions.

Visit the Ed & Cult. Affairs website or Ed Forums's Civic Engagement page to learn who serves on the committee, what the issues are, and how to voice your support or concerns. We update our page every day so you know when public hearings and work sessions are happening (all via Zoom) and learn what our representatives are doing to improve education in Maine.

Freeport High School is building a caring, collaborative school culture.

Schools across the country have experienced upticks in student behavioral challenges over the course of the pandemic, and Maine is not immune to these issues.

Freeport High School is taking an unusual approach to solving this problem: Letting students lead the way to real change.

12 students leaders are facilitating small group, youth-only discussions, using a set of student-designed questions, to get at the heart of:

• what students really need to feel they belong,
• what they envision for the future of their school, and
• how the school can best support their vision of a caring community.

The student leaders, with help from Ed Forum, will interpret results and share a report for school and district leadership. Kudos to Becky Foley (Superintendent RSU 5) and Jen Gulko (Principal FHS) for implementing this innovative idea.

For more on this theme, check out Maine Resilience Building Network's Youth Mattering Initiative.

Visit the Maine Education 2050 website.

Ed Forum is thrilled to partner with Educate Maine for Maine ED 2050, a project to create a common vision for the future of education in Maine and the active collaboration to get there.

The first of 150+ Zoom conversations held across all counties are being held in Kennebec County on Jan 27, Jan 28 and Feb 1. More coming soon!

Next week we will let you know what educators from Kennebec County are saying about how education can evolve to meet the needs of our youth and our communities.

** REPORTING OUT **

What have farmers from Aroostook to York Counties told us?

Future farmers need:

• Love for agriculture
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Excellent collaboration skills
• Focus and awareness of subtle changes in their environment
• Spanish language fluency
• Ability to work hard and persevere

Farmers' ideas for schools:

• Flexible school schedules
• Hands-on learning
• Master Gardener HS certification
• Regular experiences with soil, animals, and plants for all students

Let us know if you have a topic you think we should include in future newsletters. Thank you for engaging with us to create the best future for Maine through education.

Jennifer Chace

Executive Director