Chronic Absenteeism Still Plaguing Maine Schools Including Mount Desert Elementary
MDES Proposed School Budget
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Paradis Ace Hardware.
MOUNT DESERT—During the January 2 meeting of the Mount Desert Elementary School (MDES) Committee meeting, MDES Principal Heather Dorr said that the attendance rate for December was 92%, which is better than November’s, and brings the school to an overall of 93% for the year.
Dorr also said that the chronic absence rate for the year at MDES is 24%. Chronic absence is defined by the Maine Department of Education as “being chronically absent if the student is enrolled a minimum of 10 days and absent 10% or more of the days enrolled. All absences (excused and unexcused) are used to make this determination.”
This issue is not limited to MDES and a February 2023 Bar Harbor Story article showed that Bar Harbor’s Conners Emerson had 33% of its students absent for 10 or more days after 96 days of school that year.
According to a November 2023 article in the Portland Press Herald by Lana Cohen, “Chronic absenteeism nearly doubled during the pandemic and has yet to taper off.”
That same article also states that “during the 2018-19 school year, 16.8% of Maine students met that definition. In the 2021-22 school year, the year most schools resumed regular scheduling following the height of the pandemic, that jumped to 31.5%. Attendance rates improved during the 2022-23 school year, dropping to 27.3%, according to Maine Department of Education data.”
However, a June 2024 Maine Public article by Sequoia Carrillo makes the argument that parents may play a large part in those rates of chronic absenteeism due to a lack of knowledge about the importance of school attendance, an overabundance of caution when a student feels sick due to COVID, and other social issues.
In the article, Carrillo quotes Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee as saying, “One very prominent explanation here that meets the evidence is that during the pandemic many children and parents simply began to see less value in regular school attendance.”
MDES PROPOSED FY25/26 BUDGET
While the MDES school budget for FY25/26 has not been voted on and approved by the board, that will most likely take place at the board’s next meeting on February 5 and the current proposed budget is below.
The overall proposed FY25/26 budget is $5,778,349 which is a 6.98% or $376,985 increase over the FY24/25 budget of $5,401,364.
This equates to a proposed town appropriation (the increase for Mount Desert taxpayers) of $5,208,742 for FY25/26. This is an increase of 3.37% or $169,664 over the FY24/25 town appropriation of $5,039,078. This increase would be an increase of $6.79 per $100,000 of property valuation.
Almost all of the articles on the school’s budget warrant are showing a proposed increase with “system administration” (article 66) being the highest by percentage at a proposed 18.14% increase. This article is “MDES’s share toward AOS 91, school board stipends, legal and audit fees, and advertising.” In terms of dollars, this is a $21,833 increase over the FY24/25 budget of $120,349 to the proposed FY25/26 budget of $142,182.
Article 61, “regular instruction,” is the highest increase in terms of actual dollars with a proposed increase of 9.24%. This is a $210,501 increase of the FY24/25 budget of $2,277,445 to $2,487,946 proposed for FY25/26. This increase is largely due to increases in teacher salary and benefits but also creates a proposed full-time teaching position that would be 50% focused on “gifted and talented” students and 50% focused on intervention with a math focus. Students identified as “gifted and talented” make up approximately 13% of the student population while students needing some sort of support, special education services, or intervention have been identified as making up approximately 55% of the student population.
Article 62, “special education” has a proposed increase of 16.69% or $130,378. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $781,366 to a proposed $911,744 for FY25/26.
Article 64, “other instruction co-curricular/summer school” has a proposed increase of 14.43% or $15,843. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $109,785 to a proposed $125,628 for FY25/26.
Article 65, “student and staff support” has a proposed increase of 5.39% or $35,096. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $650,906 to a proposed $686,002 for FY25/26.
Article 67, “school administration” has a proposed increase of 9.65% or $31,778. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $329,223 to a proposed $361,001 for FY25/26.
Article 68, “transportation and buses” has a proposed decrease of 1.04% or $3,022. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $289,640 down to a proposed $286,618 for FY25/26.
Article 69, “facilities maintenance—operations and maintenance of the plant/capital outlay” has a proposed decrease of 8.84% or $67,422. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $762,650 down to a proposed $695,228 for FY25/26.
Article 71, “other expenditures” has a proposed increase of 2.5% or $2,000. This brings the FY24/25 budget of $80,000 to a proposed $82,000 for FY25/26.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) BETWEEN MDES AND NORTHEAST HARBOR LIBRARY
As the only school in the district, with the exception of some outer island schools, to not have its own library, MDES has an MOU with the Northeast Harbor Library to allow students access to the library during school hours during the school year.
The MOU for the 2024-25 school year was unanimously approved by MDES School Committee and signed by Superintendent Mike Zboray on January 2. For this current MOU, MDES will pay the library $59,000 for librarian services. The MOU also states:
“The library will be responsible for selecting and collecting books and other library materials that are intended to be suitable for students of the school with prior input from the school’s principal/designee. The board’s policy and procedures for challenging educational materials will not apply to any other materials that are selected and maintained by the library.
“The library will be open to students on days that the school is open to them per the school calendar set by the board and on weekdays during school breaks (other than holidays or unexpected closures). The hours of operation will include hours that the school is open to students, from 9:00 to 3:00. Library staff will be responsible for supervising students in the library unless students are present with a staff member from the school.
“The library will ensure that a qualified librarian is always available from 9:00 am to 3:00 p.m. to provide support for students and staff of the school. To be qualified, a librarian must be certified by the Maine Department of Education as an Educational Technician III (or a teacher) and cleared to work with students via a criminal history records check and fingerprinted.”
The next meeting of the MDES board is scheduled for February 5 at 4 p.m., in the science room.
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