Scarborough Public Schools
Weekly Newsletter - April 9, 2021
Message from the Superintendent
Dear Friends,
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate our senior class knowing they will be graduating on June 13. It is so important for us to recognize this amazing class and we are all excited for them as they have many deserved celebrations planned in the remaining months. A hearty thank you to our high school staff, our Project Graduation Committee, parents, and to our soon to be graduates as we celebrate this class on graduation day on June 13.
We continue to be excited that the new State guidelines around capacity limits allow us to host spectacular spring sports events. The link below is a set of Spectator Guidelines for this sports season. Your assistance with maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our students and community is most appreciated. .https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B_Pd4aeX2ZrPDGOEExPsG259VEPjXE-zZztXZ14udiw/edit?usp=sharing
As a reminder, at next week's Board meeting we will be updating our work thus far for the full time in-person student reopening plan to date. We join with you in wanting our students fully returning to school five days a week.
Our proposed FY22 Town and School Budget was jointly presented to the Town Council this past week. To allow you to stay informed please take note of the following dates.
- 4/14/2021 7:00 pm Town Council Meeting - First Reading on FY 22 Budget
- 4/15/2021 7:00 pm School Board Meeting - Public Hearing on FY 22 Budget
We appreciate the generosity of taxpayers of Scarborough in the level of support provided to our school system. I am confident we will continue to provide all students with a high quality educational experience next year.
Sincerely,
Sanford Prince
Weekly SPS COVID-19 Update
In the past two days there have been 7 positive cases of COVID-19 at Scarborough High School, resulting in 147 people at the high school that have been placed into quarantine and several sports teams being affected. There is evidence of linkage between cases and community social contact.
We cannot reiterate enough the need for everyone to continue to follow the CDC requirements, whether at school or in the larger community. We would also strongly advise everyone to pay attention to potential COVID symptoms listed below, and please make sure you make contact with the school immediately if your child tests positive.
Signs and symptoms may include:
• fever or chills • cough
• shortness of breath or difficulty breathing • fatigue
• muscle or body aches • headache
• new loss of taste or smell • sore throat
• congestion or runny nose • nausea or vomiting or diarrhea
Updated Travel Reminders- Stay Safe!
We have been receiving lots of inquiries about travel over the upcoming April break, and thought this would be a good time to remind everyone about current travel protocols. As you may be aware by now, on March 5, 2021, Governor Mills announced changes to the state travel requirements as follows.
Domestic Travel
Effective March 5: Travel from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are exempted from Maine’s test or quarantine requirement, joining Vermont and New Hampshire. If you are traveling to a state not listed here, you must test upon return to Maine per the Governor’s order. Please be in contact with your school and send a copy of COVID test results to your school nurses prior to returning to school on April 26.
People who have either had COVID-19 in the previous 90 days, or are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, regardless of state of origin, are now exempted from Maine’s test or quarantine requirement.
International Travel
For people who are not fully vaccinated who return to Maine after international travel:
Get tested with a viral test 3-5 days after travel AND stay home and self-quarantine for a full 7 days after travel.
Even if you test negative, stay home and self-quarantine for the full 7 days.
If your test is positive, isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected.
If you don’t get tested, stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.
Avoid being around people who are at increased risk for severe illness for 14 days, whether you get tested or not
Please be in contact with your school and send a copy of COVID test results to your school nurses prior to any in person return to school
For people who are fully vaccinated (2 weeks from their last dose) who return to Maine:
Quarantine is not required unless you are experiencing symptoms.
Testing is recommended 3-5 days after arrival in the US.
If the COVID-19 test is positive, isolate.
Avoid being around anyone who is at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness for 14 days following arrival in the US, regardless of COVID-19 test results.
Although vaccination rates are increasing across our state and beyond, risks of virus transmission are increased through travel and vacation activities, and as such please remain diligent about social distancing, hand sanitizing and masking.
We appreciate that we can count on all of you to stay safe for yourselves, your families, and our entire school community. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Vaccination Updates
All Maine residents age 16 and older are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
As with all changes in eligibility, it will take some time for some vaccine clinics to begin to schedule appointments and administer COVID-19 vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine is authorized for individuals ages 16 and 17, but consent from a parent or legal guardian is required to vaccinate children. Get more information here on vaccinations for 16 and 17 year old Maine residents.
FY 22 School Budget
“Minimum receiver” is a term used to describe the low funding Scarborough receives from the state each year as revenue in our budget. It is a catchy term which can be difficult to explain due to the complexity of how the state calculates each district’s subsidy. Under current state statute (Title 20-A, Part 7, Chapter 606-B, Section 15689), all communities must be provided with a minimum amount of GPA funding. The statute provides two methods of calculating the minimum, one based on per-pupil costs and one based on a percentage of Special Education expenses. In Scarborough’s case, the relevant calculation is the percentage of Special Education costs.
Scarborough became a minimum receiver in 2017, when the state refactored their apportionment of educational funding, largely as a result of our high townwide property valuation, and with this, an expectation by the state that the local taxpayers will shoulder the bulk of the funding of public education. While we do typically receive an increase in subsidy every year, that amount is representative of 50% of our special education costs from two years prior, and, therefore, doesn't cover the increased costs to support our programming for the current budget. The fact is, this “extra money” we get really isn’t extra at all, it is a repayment for money already spent by the district. The $4,484,570 in funding allocated for FY22 from the state is based upon our expenses from the FY20 budget. This is an increase of $358,683 over last year’s allocation and represents 8.04% of our overall budget.
Our status as minimum receivers is something that we have no control over and it has, unfortunately, increased our need to rely on local property taxes to fund our schools. On the positive side, we have achieved some stability and predictability with state funding knowing that we will remain minimum receivers for the foreseeable future. For comparison sake, below is a table showing what some other area school districts will be receiving for state subsidies in FY22.
From the State of Maine website: “School funding in Maine is based on essential programs and services (EPS), which are defined as the programs and resources that are essential for students to have an equitable opportunity to achieve Maine's Learning Results. The EPS formula determines both the state and local share of funding needed for each School Administrative Unit (SAU) to have Essential Programs and Services. The funding formula is designed to respond to student needs and is based on years of research and information gleaned from high performing, cost-effective school units.” For more information regarding ED279 and how the calculation of this funding formula is determined please click this link
CALLING ALL SUBSTITUTES!
2021-2022 Kindergarten Pre-Registration
We are eager to welcome our newest Kindergarten students to Scarborough Public Schools! We are currently planning for Fall 2021 and will be able to release more information about what school will look like later this spring. If you have a child who turns 5 on or before Oct. 15, 2021 and you are considering sending them to school in the fall, please complete this form. Formal registration packets will be available on our website at a later date.
The information you provide is important for us to accurately plan for the number of classrooms, teachers and materials we will need in the fall. Please complete the form so we can contact you through email with updates and news about the 2021-2022 school year as the situation evolves and decisions are made. We will hold registration appointments at each school later in the Spring.
Spring Assessment News
- i-Ready Diagnostic for grades K-9: the window for this math and reading assessment is schedule for May 10 to 28. Planning is underway to identify whether or not to assess onsite at school or remotely as was done this past fall.
- Panorama Social and Emotional Learning Student Surveys for grades K-11: tentatively scheduled for April. This data will provide information on where we will target our efforts this spring and next fall. Survey information will be shared with parents.
- The Maine DOE has announced that the state testing, the MEA (Maine Educational Assessment) will be taking place this spring. Reading and Math for grades 3-8 and 11 and Science for grades 5, 8 and 11. For Reading and Math, the test is the NWEA MAP test which is much shorter in duration with only two testing sessions required, both of which can be done remotely as they are online tests. The Science test even though it is online, will need to be done on site. There is more flexibility this year with special considerations for students available given the COVID-19 pandemic. The reporting will look different as well. We will keep you posted as additional information becomes available.
Data Corner
Adding to this, we have also begun to review our fall 2020 to winter 2021 data as well. While we did not require winter testing with i-Ready, we had close to 30% of our students in grades K-5 take the assessment. Here is a description and additional links to that data:
Upcoming SPS Events - Mark Your Calendar!
- April 14 - Town Council 1st Reading of FY22 Budget
- April 15 - School Board Meeting & Public Hearing on FY22 School Budget
- April 16 - No School
- April 19 - Patriot's Day - Central Office Closed
- April 19 - 23 - Spring Break
Fully Remote Preparedness Plans
Health & Safety
Please make sure you review the UPDATED Student Health Self Assessment questions EVERY DAY before sending your child off to school.
TOGETHER, we can make our schools as safe as possible!
Links to Our Schools
Services & Information
Spec. Services | Alison Marchese, amarchese@scarboroughschools.org
Food Services | Peter Esposito, pesposito@scarboroughschools.org
Athletics & Activities | Mike LeGage, mlegage@scarboroughschools.org
Curriculum I Monique Culbertson, mculbertson@scarboroughschools.org
Community Services | Todd Souza, tsouza@scarboroughmaine.org
Tech Support
For technology assistance with SPS student laptops, please send a message to techsupport@scarboroughschools.org and someone from Technology will be in touch to assist you.
Scarborough Schools
Website: www.scarboroughschools.org
Location: 259 U.S. Route 1, Scarborough, ME 04074, USA
Phone: (207) 730-4100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarbmeschools/
Twitter: @scarbmeschools