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Executive Order Details Key Education Issues During COVID-19

The following information is from an Executive Order issued by the Governor detailing information as it pertains to public schools.

Health and Safety Mandate Maine schools that receive a state subsidy must meet the health and safety requirements of the Maine Department of Education's (DOE) Framework for Reopening Schools and Returning to In-Person Instruction. Those that do not, will not qualify for state subsidy, or in the case of approved private schools, publicly funded tuition. The DOE framework, among other things, requires everyone to wear masks with adults maintaining 6 feet of distance from others, to the extent possible. Maintaining 3 feet of distance is acceptable between and among students when combined with the other measures outlined in this list of safety requirements. Six feet of physical distancing is required for students while eating breakfast and lunch, as students will be unable to wear masks at that time.

School Attendance Attendance under this executive order is defined and counted as it normally is for in-person schooling. For partial or fully remote learning, attendance is more loosely defined as "regular contact and engagement" each school day and the DOE directs schools to establish "reasonably reliable" measures that can be used to address truancy.

Support for teachers working remotely The Maine Department of Education (DOE) is authorized to allow districts to hire persons who are at least 18 years old and have successfully completed a Learning Facilitator training course to assist teachers who are working remotely. The DOE says these trainees will be able to work as supervised support staff in PreK-12 classrooms this year.

As an example of the course, DOE pointed to a training offered by Eastern Maine Community College. EMMC describes the program as a mix of supervised in-classroom training and remote online instruction. Trainees will be supported by mentors from the college and in their host school district. A DOE news release states that the trainees will be eligible to become paid school staff – either educational technicians or substitute teachers – but should not be used to supplant current employees.

Teacher Certification While rules as to who can now be certified to teach have been temporarily relaxed, the rules for those to recertify have not changed. Educators at Baxter Academy in Portland received their first union contract, two years after initially reaching out to MEA to organize a union. While negotiations were ongoing, the Board of Directors announced it would terminate several teachers in the spring of 2020 as a cost saving measure. The Baxter Educators' Association filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board arguing the Board was obligated to bargain any changes in staffing with the union. The board of directors rescinded the terminations and agreed to bargain any changes to the number of employees with the union. Negotiations continued through the spring and summer of 2020 through Zoom with an agreement reached and ratified by late September. The agreement preserved three teaching positions which otherwise would have been eliminated and is scheduled to deliver Baxter teachers the largest raises they have received while employed at the school.

Mt. Blue Huge Membership Gains

Sixty-seven new people are now members of the Mt. Blue Education Association. The teachers' unit, while in the middle of negotiations, focused on gaining members to show the district there is strength in numbers. How did they do it? Local leadership asked existing members to volunteer and reach out to at least three potential members in their buildings and talk to them (not just an email, a masked-face to maskedface conversation) about why membership matters —now, more than ever. The proof is in the pudding: it’s working!

MEA Pushes for Teacher Evaluation Waiver/Modification

The MEA is meeting with the Maine Department of Education to push hard to get a waiver or modifications to the requirements around teacher evaluations for the current school year.

MEA has heard from teachers in some districts who have raised concerns that they will be subject to summative evaluations based on their performance while teaching remotely or in hybrid models. The MEA believes this would be ineffective and an inappropriate application of the local Professional Evaluation Professional Growth plan.

Few Maine teachers have been adequately trained in remote or hybrid instruction models, and the state has not adopted a set of standards by which to measure performance in those models. MEA believes that any observations of teaching in these models should be formative and not used to make employment decisions. Additionally, evaluators who have not been trained to observe those models should not be making summative assessments of a teacher's performance in them.

The purpose of Chapter 508 of Title 20-A of the Maine Revised Statutes is to support educator professional growth and development with the goal of improving educator effectiveness. Summative evaluations based on a teacher's performance in remote or blended learning prior to effective training would invalidate the process and hamper professional growth.