KidsRSU

RSU2 April Spring 2011 Newsletter

Bids will be accepted until Wednesday, APRIL 27th @ 9:00 AM. See the attachment for full details, and for more information contact:

Katie Spear
Transportation Director
RSU # 2
Monmouth/Richmond
207-485-3556

for_sale.pdf

Forty students from RSU2 high schools and middle schools gathered with 40 students from Messalonskee on March 31st to talk about what makes our schools work well and what needs to improve to make our schools more effective for student learning. Student facilitators helped run the daylong conference, held at the Governor Hill Mansion in Augusta. Following much discussion about schools and learning, the final activity had students working together in groups to create an ideal school. The RSU2 school community can be proud of these student leaders who shared serious ideas about improving our schools and who made a commitment to take on a leadership role in school change. 

Emily and Kyrie, students from Hall-Dale High School, present ideas to improve schools.

80 students gather to talk about school change.

Monmouth students share their ideas.

Students from Richmond explain their ideal school.

When All the World Is Full of Snow
~ N. M. Bodecker

I never know
just where to go,
when all the world
is full of snow.

I do not want
to make a track,
not even
to the shed and back.

I only want
to watch and wait,
while snow moths settle
on the gate,

and swarming frost flakes
fill the trees
with billions
of albino bees.

I only want
myself to be
as silent as
a winter tree,

to hear the swirling
stillness grow,
when all the world
is full of snow.

This information is based on the 2009-2010 NECAP and Maine High School Assessment scores.

Highlights:
> More RSU2 students in grades 3, 5, and 6 scored at the proficiency level in reading than the state average for students in those grades.
> More RSU2 students in grades 5 and 6 scored at the proficiency level in mathematics than the state average for students in those grade levels.
> More RSU 2 students identified with a learning disability scored at the proficiency level in mathematics than the state average for that subgroup of students.
> Only one teacher in RSU2 has a conditional certificate. All other teachers meet the criteria of “highly qualified.”

Challenges:
> Fewer boys in RSU2 score proficient in reading than girls beyond grade 3.
> Only 46% of RSU2 high school students scored at the proficiency level in reading. The federal target is for 71% of high school students to be proficient.
> Only 37% of RSU2 high school students scored at the proficiency level in math. The federal target is for 54% of high school students to be proficient.
> Our economically disadvantaged students in all grades scored lower than our total population of students.

The 2010-2011 NCLB Report Cards are now posted and may be accessed directly through this link:  http://www.maine.gov/education/nclb/reportcard/reportcard10.html
Access to the report card page is also available on the Maine Department of Education home page under Parents and Community. 

A brief summary of highlights and challenges regarding the RSU2 scores are included here. For a brief summary of highlights and challenges of every elementary and middle school in our RSU, please click on the school sites. 

Details of the NCLB Report Cards are available through the link listed above or by contacting the school principals or the Director of Curriculum.

Two years ago, the New England Common Assessment Program replaced the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA).  Listed below are the scores of our students on the October 2010 test.  This test is given annually to students in grades 3-8.

Please read all the news in the latest newsletter:

Promoting 5-2-1-0 Schools
Boost Your Energy and Brain Power!
Contact Information
Upcoming Meeting Dates

5210 CSHP March NL

The M.A.D. Players (Monmouth Academy Drama Players) invite everyone to a production of “Mars Needs Women, But Not As Much As Arnold Schecter” this Saturday, March 12, at 1:15 p.m. at the Winthrop Performing Arts Center at Winthrop High School.

The afternoon session (3 plays total) begins at 1:15.  Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for students.  The show is SCHEDULED for 1:15, however, in case of schedule changes, please arrive around 12:30-12:45 to make sure you get to see the show. See you Saturday!

We have had lots of teacher training during the past 18 months.  These training sessions are to help our teachers learn new teaching strategies so that our students’ learning will increase.  Many times, the facilitators of these training sessions have come from as far away as Colorado, Alaska, and California!  The good news is that 13 teachers from RSU2 recently learned how to facilitate some teacher training.  Soon we will have a number of teachers so skilled in facilitation that they will lead some of our future training sessions!

RSU2 teachers learning together.

Bette Manchester of the Maine International Center for Digital Learning shares a learning moment with an RSU2 elementary teacher at the recent “Train the Trainer” session.