SAD60 Students to Take Standardized Testing or Risk Graduation

 

 

Re-Posted from the Truth in American Education Webiste.

You can find more HERE:

 

http://truthinamericaneducation.com/

 

Maine Students Warned Assessment Opt-Out May Cost Graduation

June 3, 2015 By Shane Vander Hart

A.P. Dillion pointed out this disturbing article out of Maine.  The Bangor Daily News reports that the Maine Education Commissioner says students who opt-out of Smarter Balanced may not graduate.

As debate over standardized testing ramped up in the Legislature, the Maine Department of Education again cautioned parents and school administrators this week about the possible fallout from opting out of statewide assessments. Among the potential repercussions — a school could withhold a student’s diploma.

“No one is going to force a child to sit and take the test,” Acting Commissioner Tom Desjardin said in a written statement released Wednesday. “[Parents and students] do not, however, have a right to be shielded from the consequences of that act, which could range from action by the school district or loss of federal funding for the school.”

The article notes several school districts who make taking the standardized test a graduation requirement.  This is mainly done to make sure a school district achieves the 95% participation benchmark required under No Child Left Behind.

In SAD 60, if parents want to opt their children out of the Maine Educational Assessment, they must sign a form stating that they understand that all schools in Maine are required by federal law to have 95 percent of their students tested or the school could face financial penalties.

It’s unclear how many other districts in the state have similar graduation requirements. Neither Desjardin nor the Maine School Management Association could name others off hand, and no reliable record exists on the varied graduation requirements in districts across the state.

However, student handbooks available on school websites indicate that Old Town High School and Lake Region High School in Naples also require students to take the state assessment in their junior year in order to graduate.

Lake Region Principal Ted Finn said Friday that in his five years at the school, which has had the requirement since the 1990s, no student has failed to graduate because they didn’t take the test. Students have failed to graduate, but never solely because they didn’t take the state test, he said. As of Friday, no juniors at Lake Region had opted out of this year’s exam.

The Maine Legislature is considering a bill, LD 1276, that would end the state’s participation with Smarter Balanced.  A bill, LD 695, that would codify and clarify a parent’s right to opt their student out from standardized assessments will be considered by the full House and Senate even though it was not recommended by legislative education committee.

The Lebanon Voice Shares Information on Bumping Up Hours for Town Employees to Receive Benefits.

Policy change ends transfer station boss' vacay pay

Harrison Thorp

Published: June 3, 2015

Comment     Print

Former selectman and transfer station boss Ronal Patch (Lebanon Voice file photo)

LEBANON - A policy change approved by selectmen in 2010 that allowed full-time benefits for town workers who put in just 25 hours a week has been reversed unanimously by the current board.
The decision was made on Thursday and changes the number of hours needed to trigger full-time benefits to 35.
The change in 2010 was instituted after transfer station manager and then-selectman Ronal Patch asked to have the policy changed so he could work fewer hours and maintain town benefits.
In a March 23 article, Patch told The Lebanon Voice, "I wrote to selectmen and wanted them to cut it down and they said OK."
When asked if he remembered signing the document back in 2010, Patch said no and added he couldn't remember if he was selectman at the time of the change, either.
In fact, Patch, along with former selectmen Robert Frizzell and Jason Cole signed the document, which became effective on May 4, 2010.
Patch doesn't put in for health or dental benefits from the town, but does get annual leave, or vacation pay. He is also entitled to 12 paid holidays yearly.
In fiscal year 2013-14 he pocketed roughly 167 hours of vacation pay for almost $2,700.
Patch has defended his request to reduce the full-time benefits hourly threshold, and declared he didn't see it as any conflict of interest.
Current Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson said there were no minutes that indicated selectmen in 2010 had discussed and voted on the change, just a personnel policy file that indicated the change and was signed by all three.
Patch, who as transfer station manager oversees a handful of employees, including his wife, a brother and occasionally a grandson, gets $16 an hour. The other workers get $13.28
Thursday's policy change actually increases the threshold three hours from the 32 hours required prior to the 2010 decrease.
A phone message left Patch at the transfer station today by The Lebanon Voice was not immediately returned. Patch normally works about 29 hours a week.

Thank you to Harrison Thorp for allowing us to share his work. The Lebanon Voice can be followed on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lebanon-Voice/325841647482468?fref=ts

June 20^th New Hampshire Dairy Day Saturday 10 am- 4 pm
Barn tours, cows, goats, NH cheese tasting, butter making demonstrations, horse-drawn wagon rides, haymaking and historic farm house tours. Free ice cream donated by Lone Oak Ice Cream served at 12 noon until it runs out.
Admission: $7 adult, $4 child 4-17 yrs/ members free

Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers: Maine Bigfoot Society.... They Really DO Exist!!

Well, THIS was an interesting find!!

 Did you know that Maine has it's own Maine BIGFOOT SOCIETY??

 TRUE!!

You can find them HERE:  https://www.facebook.com/MaineBigfootSociety?fref=pb&hc_location=profile_browser

DID You Know that JC Penney at the Lilac Mall has a Hair Salon Inside??

DID YOU KNOW??
That JC Penney at the Lilac Mall has a hair salon inside??

You learn something new every day!!!

The Alliance For Solar Choice Looks to Stop Legislation Preventing the Use of Solar Panels on Maine Residences.

Stop legislation that will kill your right to energy choice and eliminate solar in Maine

Mainers, speak out against utility attacks on solar energy. Stop legislation that will eliminate rooftop solar and threaten your ability to generate your own power.

 

Right now, utility backed legislation is pushing an end to critical solar policies and pushing more taxes on Mainers to stomp out energy choice and competition in Maine.

You can stop utility attempts to keep Mainers captive to their constantly rising rates. Call on your elected officials to oppose anti-competition amendments that kill net metering and add more taxes in LD 1263.

 

For More Information, and to add your name to the list of Maine residents who oppose this bill, please visit this website for The Alliance for Solar Choice:

http://action.allianceforsolarchoice.com/page/speakout/stop-legislation-that-will-kill-your-right-to-energy-choice-and-eliminate-solar-in-maine

 

Summer Resident Question........WHAT is Going On In This Town?

SUMMER RESIDENT QUESTION..........

 

 

 

We received this question via Private Message..........

I have decided to keep their name confidential because I can tell they are truly concerned.

 

 

Jun 3rd, 2:42pm

I camp in one of the campgrounds in Lebanon and have been for many years. I have to ask; What is going on in town? Some will say that I don't have a right to ask since I am not a resident. Well, I may not be able to attend town meeting, I may not be able to vote in town elections, but through the campground, I do contribute to the town coffers. Many of us come from larger towns and cities with full time fire and rescue crews and have concerns (perhaps unjust) regarding volunteer departments. After following the various Facebook sites regarding Lebanon's Fire and Rescue crews, these concerns are growing. If there is an emergency in the campground, what level of service can we count on? Or should we just drive the injured (if possible) into Rochester and call them?

 

Here is our answer: 

 

Hi there Summer Resident!! Well, let's see. I suppose to make a long story short, I should start with a little history. We had an Assistant Rescue Chief who grew up in town. He was sort of like everyone's golden boy. The entire town sat on their duff and allowed him to take control of everything in town. They elected him Selectman, made him in charge of our town festival, made his wife the Rescue Chief, made him Assistant Chief, and then he had everyone vote to make the Rescue Department a separate entity, in charge of their own cash flow, so that no one had the right to ask any questions because it was not a town funded department. To be fair, no one in town should have EVER been handed that much "power" or "freedom" and I attribute part of that to the laziness of people in town who could just sit back and let that one person do everything, and they could relax, cause they trusted him to do it ALL. Now, to give that person credit, he did a fine job. Almost too good. They would sit out and listen to State Police Calls and jump the gun and be on the scene quicker than anyone could ever imagine. They did all KINDS of FREE stuff, the festival was free, you could pay $40 a year and all your ambulance service co payments would be free, they had Christmas gifts delivered via Santa on the Fire Truck free to under priviledged kids in town and the Easter bunny would arrive similarly in the ambulance at Easter time with goodies...........everything was FREE..........but you know how that works, don't you?? It doesn't. Just because someone SAYS something is FREE, there's always SOMEONE who must foot the bill. What happened was that acting as Selectman, he was able to access the town's General Fund and pay for everything with taxpayer dollars by screaming FREE, and FUN......So, eventually the poop hit the fan and the gig was up......we've had 3 Rescue Chiefs within the year since the old Chief and Selectman and Asst Chief resigned or retired or whatever they call it these days......not one of them would stay as there was BIG trouble with Maine EMS (the governing body for Rescue Departments), OSHA was in the middle of fining our town $8,000 a day for the past year as they had sent things that needed to be done and the former Rescue Chief and Asst Chief were too busy doing the FUN and FREE to pay attention to OSHA. There were 2 years worth of certifications missing for ALL of our EMTs which could have cost them their license, AND the heavy duty schedule 1 narcotics lock box was ALL messed up, with drugs missing and drugs signed in for other departments appearing in our lock boxes mysteriously. In short, it was a MESS. So now we have a new Chief. He lives right in Rochester and his Dad and Grandpa were Chiefs as well. He's been a Rochester Firefighter for AGES and he KNOWS HIS STUFF, I guarantee you that. In the meanwhile, our Fire Chief retired. Not out of anything bad, it was just his time. So the Selectmen asked this new man, Chief Daniel Meehan, to take over BOTH Fire and Rescue. You are in GOOD hands with this guy. Not only has he managed to clean up EVERYTHING so that OSHA is not fining us, not ONLY does he have all the EMT's certifications in order and has worked with Maine EMS to stop them from shutting down the Rescue COMPLETELY, not ONLY has he boosted the amount of volunteers on the Department, BUT he had done so making FULLY 1/3 of the money that the former folks were making. He's only been our Chief since January and he's got that Rescue building cleaned up (It was like a kids club house in there), he's got the fire engines and ambulances in the best working condition possible for their age, and he has secured a grant to send 12 more volunteers to EMT school without charge. He has also bolstered relationships with the towns that come when we are understaffed.....the Mutual Aid community who had all but stopped responding before his arrival. The "other pages" are all run by our former Rescue Chief and Asst. Chief. ALL of them, and many different Facebook pages with aliases. It's scary, actually. He has put photos of people's children and grandchildren on these pages and said VERY unkind and VERY untrue things about them. Thus Rochester has acted and banned him from their schools. There is also the fact that when husband and wife retired, there was over $200,000 missing from the Rescue Department kitty.......YEAH, that's a big one.....MY guess is that it was used to pay for all the FUN and FREE.....but that's only my guess. You have folks in town that will stand by them to the death because THEY were the recipients of the FREE and the FUN.......and then you have the taxpayers who are mad as all get out that there is $200,000 of OUR money GONE........ Anyway, anything else I can answer for you, feel free to ask. Summer residents pay their way and SHOULD be able to trust that they have services available to them just as the year round people do.

No matter what the outcome of the REST of the garbage, you can rest assured that you do NOT have to drive ANYONE to Rochester and call for them to respond. Should you need services and our volunteers are on another call, our Central Dispatch folks (you know them as 911) know the score and they will have Rochester respond under the Mutual Aid agreement our town has with them. Thanks to our new Fire and Rescue Chief, that relationship is in good order and good standing.

Thank you for taking the time to ask.