MDI HS AND AOS BUDGETS
CHRIS DOUGHERTY'S FIRST MONTHS AS MULTI-LANGUAGE LEARNER IMPLEMENTATION COORDINATOR BUSY AND FULL
BAR HARBOR—The AOS Board approved its budget 15-1 Monday night after the public portion of the meeting began about an hour later than expected because of an executive session for a personnel evaluation.
The proposed budget for the next fiscal year is $2,764,056, an increase of 9.19%. However, with assessment totals and carryover, that becomes 2,394,239, an increase of 6.97%.
Superintendent Michael Zboray passed around the budget summary sheets. It is voted on by the board and then goes to the board’s annual budget meeting in January.
“Our assessment has dropped from 10.33 percent to 6.79 percent. The revenue has also come down,” Zboray said. The main reason for that drop is removing the human resource position. They decided that they needed to first do a deep dive into what the system’s human resources needs are and the way these needs are being already performed by the AOS staff.
As with so many meetings this time of year, the main topic of discussion at the MDI High School Board’s Monday night meeting was also next year’s budget.
The high school’s overall proposed budget for FY 2024-25 is $14,609,192, which is an increase of $1,080,009 or 7.98%. All four island towns are responsible for a percentage of the total budget and the increases. The percentages of responsibility by town for FY 2023-24 are below and should be close to the same for next year.
Bar Harbor – 37.39%
Mount Desert – 35.60%
Southwest – 14.29%
Tremont – 12.32%
The high school population is currently 26% tuition reimbursement students, or 125 students. The tuition rate is $13,000 per year per student and the budget is estimating $1,625,000 in tuition reimbursement but is only budgeting $1,575,000. The school also pays out tuition to the Hancock County Technical Center which has in excess of 50 MDI High School students attending this year. The projected tuition for next year is $75,000, which is a $25,000 increase over last year’s budget.
Below is a list of any proposed budget increases equal to or greater than $10,000.
Teachers’ salaries - $356,495
Substitute salaries - $10,000
Teachers’ benefits - $21,104
Teachers’ health insurance. - $109,816
General school supplies - $10,000
Equipment/furniture - $50,000
Special education coordinator - $100,000
Resource Room (SPED) ed tech - $75,024
Resource Room ed tech health insurance - $27,075
Self-cont: (SPED) teacher salary - $11,840
Coaches’ salaries - $21,946
Director salaries - $24,364
Assessment for curriculum - $17,370
NEASC expenditures - $15,000
Software licenses -AOS 91 - $97,748
Laptop program - $15,000
Dean salaries - $14,183
General supplies, events - $10,000
Bus driver salaries, extracurricular - $17,000
Bus driver’s health insurance - $12,767
Repair and maintenance if buses - $10,000
Bus reserve/purchase of new bus - $40,000
Custodians’ salaries - $60,000
Custodians’ health insurance - $41,880
Building insurance. - $11,726
Haney said that he still had to fine tune some numbers and an even more exact proposed budget will be available at the next High School Board meeting.
OTHER AGENDA ITEMS AT THE HIGH SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
Before going over the proposed budget, Haney gave his principal’s report and updated the board on the high school building project. The approach to selling the building project to the island communities was discussed at the High School Board of Trustees meeting on November 27.
Haney also said that the proposed changes to the bus routes that were supposed to be enacted after Thanksgiving have been postponed due to some logistical and communication issues but did not say when it would take effect.
REGIONAL CONSOLIDATION COMMITTEE AND AOS UPDATES AND POLICY CHANGES OR REVISIONS
Knitting, eating, heads resting in hands, arms crossed, leaning forward, leaning back, sitting up straight, for many of the members of the AOS, they’d been in meetings for almost two hours before the AOS meeting began because the MDI High School Board was held right before it. The bulk of the rest of the public portion of the meeting went rather quickly.
The committee meant to focus on potential consolidation efforts for the school system is getting closer to being populated, Zboray said, with just two areas still needing to send in representatives. Zboray said that he’s in communication with Swan’s Island and Trenton to get members of those town’s onto the regional consolidation committee.
OTHER BUSINESS
The public portion of the meeting began with Zboray conveying sympathy to the Hancock County Technical Center and Sumner Regional High School communities which lost a student this weekend after an accident.
Zboray’s contract was renewed with an effective date of July 1, 2024 for a three-year contract. It passed unanimously.
The district-wide staffing needs are getting shorter, he said. The system is participating in Live and Work in Maine, which is a state initiative meant to recruit people to Maine jobs.
Official actions:
· The board unanimously voted to delete GCBE - Professional Staff Vacations and Holidays for MDIRSS-AOS 91 Central Office Personnel The policy is obsolete and superseded by other policies, according to the chair.
· The board unanimously approved the adoption of revisions to DJH - Purchasing and Contracting: Procurement Staff Code of Conduct Bar Harbor School Committee Vice Chair Marie Yarborough had worried about field trips in relation to the policy.
· The board gave a second reading to the GBI - Staff Gifts and Solicitations policy, and adopted it.
· Approval to Set Date and Time for Annual Budget Meeting and Approve and Sign Warrant for Annual Budget Meeting
MULTI-LANGUAGE LEARNER IMPLEMENTATION COORDINATOR
Director of Teaching and Learning Julie Keblinksy said the administration team is continuing to focus on science and math as she gave a rundown of the integration of science and social studies into the curriculum.
Keblinksky also spoke about the work of Chris Dougherty, the multi-language learner implementation coordinator. Within the packet, Dougherty’s three-month update gave a detailed view of all the work she’s done, and also a bit of insight to the human side of her job and the joy it can create.
“One highlight was the response of one of our young culturally and linguistically diverse students who, upon receiving a gift of a classic children's book for vocabulary learning, shouted in English, ‘I love books!’ and hugged me around the knees. Another was seeing how happy a homesick student was in receiving some typical foods from their native country that are impossible to get here,” Dougherty wrote in her multi-page report about the first three months in the position.
Dougherty went up from half-time last year.
“To date I have screened seven students; two have qualified for ESOL services. We also received a new student who qualified in another Maine school, and there is a recently arrived student who will be screened after break. Students are generally identified for screening based on responses to the Home Language Survey that should be completed during school registration, although students may be referred for screening,” she wrote.
“It was amazing and I think you can appreciate. This is her first three years in this capacity,” Keblinsky said of Dougherty’s work so far. Bar Harbor Chair Lilea Simis also applauded Dougherty’s work.
There are currently 17 students in the schools who qualify as multi-language learners.
Some of Dougherty’s work included (all directly excerpted from her report):
School-based work
“Visited every homeroom teacher of an MLL student at the start of the year.
Met with a new-to-the-district CLD student to obtain information about prior experiences and schooling in the absence of documentation.
Provided two levels of bilingual visual dictionaries to four grade school and high school students (two families).
Created a visual guide to booking an appointment with a high school guidance counselor.
Met with the Conners-Emerson literacy specialist.
Consulted MDI English Learning Area Leader, District Writing Specialist, and guidance counselor about a high school student's credits.
Met with several high school students' teachers and guidance counselors about progress and supports. As a result of one meeting, I conducted a formal observation and after a discussion with the content teacher, created original bilingual class notes, translated review handouts (example here: Review #1), and adapted formative assignments to include directions in the student's heritage language in preparation for the summative assessment, for which I provided directions in the student's heritage language that mirrored the directions in English.
Met with a Conners-Emerson case manager to go over mutual students and receive advice on test groups for the WIDA ACCESS test.
Checked in with the Assistant Director of Special Education about a CLD student who has been referred for special education evaluation and the student's homeroom teacher.
Informal in-person check-ins with teachers at Conners-Emerson and MDI H.S. teachers about student progress and needs.
Weekly and bi-weekly in-person check-ins with high school students as needed and provide tutoring in and assistance with content material and assignments at the high school, primarily during Flextime. Progressing monitoring through Schoology and teacher conversations.
Consulted with a student who is on monitor status, classroom teacher, and guidance counselor about supports and possible language barriers.
Conducted several informal observations of K-Grade 4 and Grade 7 CLD students.
Scheduled two formal observations at two schools for upcoming special education meetings and one informal observation of a new student.
Worked with Luis Jones-Rodriguez to obtain four dedicated computers and headsets on which the testing software was installed and updated. I also updated the permissions on the testing and reporting platform.”
Other
“Subbed for three classes at the high school due to a sub shortage.
Mentoring a French student who needs to finish an online class by the end of December.”
Family engagement
“Liaised between parent and district/school personnel to establish a new school bus stop, communicate pick up and drop off times, and explain what needs to be done so a student can take a different bus to a different location at the end of the day.
Liaised with teacher, parent, and student so the student could participate in a community-based organization.
Provided translations of school and district documents in parents'/guardians' heritage language to parents and high school students: Rank One; Storm Cancellation Policy Language 1; Storm Cancellation Policy Language 2.
Sent information and reminders about the school calendar (first day, cultural holidays, vacations, early releases), news about school events, and updates or changes to school schedules via email in parents'/guardians' heritage language.
Currently working with school personnel and family to obtain specific required information for school enrollment.
I have chatted with the high school computer and IT specialists and Luis Jones-Rodriguez about creating greater accessibility to school documents and platforms with built-in translators, Chrome extensions, and/or links. This is an ongoing conversation. I made a short video explaining the use and limitations of the built-in translation functions in Schoology and plan to make one about installing and using the Google Translate extension and the site for translating pdfs.
Provided bilingual books of stories from the families' countries of origin and classic children's vocabulary-learning books in English to elementary students to read at home with parents/guardians and siblings.
Provided the two of the youngest students who have the lowest WIDA proficiency levels with hand-held devices that read aloud special cards with visual illustrations, words, letters and sentences. This enables the students to learn and practice at home by "playing" with the device and is something they can show off to their families.”
NEXT MEETINGS
The next meeting of the MDI High School Board will be January 8 at 5 p.m. in the high school library. The next meeting of the AOS Board will be at the same location on January 8 at 6 p.m.
Photos of MDI High School Board: Shaun Farrar. All other images from packet materials or superintendent’s office.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vu3TtI61I1F2krGiKGby5I7Jqn0XfEyfp-u6NSJXne8/edit
