Gibson receives national recognition, SAD 1 to receive less financial aid from state

    The Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) Honor Roll, a prestigious national award, provides national and local recognition to educators and schools that have demonstrated a commitment to serving the needs of a gifted child.
Since 1981, SENG has been dedicated to fostering environments in which gifted adults and children, in all their diversity, understand and accept themselves and are understood, valued, nurtured, and supported by their families, schools, workplaces and communities.
School board director Torry Eaton nominated Gibson for the award.
“Ms. Gibson has always exceeded our expectations by going ‘to bat’ for gifted children. She knows that gifted children are not always the children who do well in school and get good grades. She recognizes highly gifted children even when they don’t ‘perform’ and recognize themselves,” wrote Eaton on her nomination form. “She realizes that it is important for children to receive academic challenges that will require them to learn how to study, to cope with grades less than an A, and to interact with intellectual peers before they go to college.
“She encourages them to discover the correlation between effort and results,” Eaton said. “She makes the goal of having a child who is happy, loves to learn, and receives a good education a worthwhile journey. Ms. Gibson truly deserves this recognition.”
Educators who are nominated to the SENG Honor Roll receive the following benefits:
• Placement on the SENG National Honor Roll Web page (http://www.sengifted.org/getting involved_honorroll.html.
• A listing in the 25th annual “Silver Anniversary” SENG Conference Program.
• Important information about SENG resources and about the SENG Honor Roll.
• Automatic entrance into a drawing for one of three, free registrations for the SENG Conference. Winners will be honored at a dinner, and the conference will take place July 18-20 in Salt Lake City.
• A one-year subscription to The 2e Twice-Exceptional Newsletter, a gift from Glen Ellyn Media.
A modest Gibson thanked the board for their support and said she greatly appreciated the honor.
Also at the March 19 meeting, Superintendent Gehrig Johnson notified directors about a grant proposal SAD 1 is involved with.
“It’s called the Central Aroostook Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative,” said Johnson. “The Central Aroostook Council on Education [CACE] organized a team to create and submit a grant application on behalf of the CACE schools (SAD 1, SAD 20, SAD 42, SAD 32, Easton, Limestone and Caribou), as well as Union 122. The grant applies only to public pre-kindergarten to grade 12 school districts and SAD 1 will be the official applicant and fiscal agent if we’re awarded the grant.”
By submitting a consortium application (over 5,000 students), CACE is eligible to apply for $1.5 million per year for four consecutive years ($6 million total). The purpose of the grant is to create a variety of research/evidence based school and community programs designed to improve the health and safety of children from birth to grade 12.
Each application must address the following five elements:
• Element One: Safe school environment and violence prevention activities.
• Element Two: Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention activities.
• Element Three: Student behavioral, social and emotional support.
• Element Four: Mental health services.
• Element Five: Early childhood social and emotional learning programs.
Johnson said some of the programs/projects included in the application include after school programs, Olweus Bullying Prevention Training, a half-time traveling resource officer, expanded Aroostook Teen Leadership Camp Social Detox Program so that addicted youth do not need to travel to Acadia, an Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Treatment designed to assist addicted youth who do not need hospitalization, a program designed to assist at-risk eighth-graders in making a successful transition to high school (Reconnecting Youth), an extra teacher at the SAD 1 Alternative School and Caribou Alternative School to enable the programs to accommodate middle level students, Developmental Assets training for the communities, assistance to at-risk families with newborns, professional development for teachers dealing with disruptive students, and part-time contracted social workers to assist schools.
“This is a federal grant, and one organization per state will receive funding,” said Johnson. “We should know by June, and I think we have a decent chance. If we do receive the grant, it will be a big deal.”
In other news, Johnson told directors that SAD 1 is “flat funded” in terms of preliminary general purpose aid figures from the state’s Education Committee.
“Based on their numbers right now, SAD 1 will receive approximately $11,573 less than we did last year, or a 0 percent gain,” he said. “Our goal is to try to keep the student-teacher ratio the same, but this will involve a tax increase, plain and simple. The size of this cut is large enough to merit a tax increase.”
Recognizing that student enrollment plays a part in determining general purpose aid, Johnson said the district will look to make changes in administrative programming before making cuts that would impact students.
“We’ve been told that another reduction in general purpose aid funding is coming,” said Johnson. “There are definitely some winners and some losers, and it’s difficult for us to understand how these figures are reached.”
• Directors also accepted the resignations of four Presque Isle High School teachers.
Richard Lord, biology; Marcia Lord, French; Winnie Schmidt, social studies; and Nicola Lallande, Spanish, will all be retiring at the end of the current school year.
“With these four teachers alone,” said Johnson, “there is 121 years’ of teaching experience. This is a big loss to us, and three of them are department heads, so we’ll miss them in those capacities, as well.”
The district will begin posting and advertising the positions shortly.
The next regular SAD 1 board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 in the board conference room at Presque Isle High School.