Update: November 27, 2017

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PAC Construction Update

The construction for the PAC has continued on schedule.

Masons are on site and have completed the firesafe wall that connects the two buildings together.    The site work is ongoing, however the storm drains have been installed and substantial loads of dirt has been brought in to shore up the site. The foundation walls are almost finished and the digging has been completed for the elevator and orchestra pits.

A safety concern was raised regarding the sidewalk on campus near the construction site. We have extended a temporary sidewalk to ensure student safety around the construction gates.

Over the next few weeks, steel beams will arrive on site and the structure will start being framed. This will provide a visual of the size and scope of the building.


L to R: Firesafe wall, rebar, dig out for the pit, foundation work


Community Dialogue Event


On the evening of November 9, 100 community members comprised of students, parents, citizens and staff came together to dialogue about MSAD #51's next Strategic Plan.

Participants learned about student impact in our 4 goal areas through short videos and engaged in table dialogue about each goal area. At the end of the evening, participants highlighted their top one or two ideas in each goal area. All of this data will be combined and used to inform the creation of the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan.

We are thankful to all who took the time out of their night to come, learn, dialogue, and think about the future of MSAD #51.

For those who were not able to attend, we have added the student impact videos to our website and we plan to have pieces of the evening show on Channel 2 and on our YouTube Channel.



2017 Elementary School Physical Education Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to Becki Belmore for being selected as the 2017 Elementary Teacher of the Year by the Maine Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (MAHPERD). Becki was recognized at their 72nd Annual Conference on November 6.

Challenge Day at Greely High School

For the third consecutive year, Greely High School hosted the full day Challenge Day program for the entire sophomore class. The Challenge Day program goes beyond traditional anti-bullying efforts, building empathy and inspiring a school-wide movement of compassion and positive change. This year was no different, it was another powerful, engaging and humbling experience for all who attended.

While this program is lead by two skillful Challenge Day Leaders, the program would not be possible without the support of 25 adult participants who help facilitate the dialogue and fully participate in the event. Thank you for your support!

Additionally, this year Acadia Hospital picked up a significant amount of the cost of this program. Thank you for adding Greely into your Pine Tree Circle of Change!

Guys & Dolls

Greely Drama presented "Guys & Dolls".  We've got such talented students in all areas of the production from the cast to set design and make up to music. It was an amazing show. Thanks to Liz & Kevin Rollins and Sarah Bailey for their leadership. 


Africa Day

7th Graders celebrated Africa Day Friday with speakers, activities & native food; Shirley Storey-King's class with a speaker on Mali; Engineers without borders in Holly Groom's class & clean water awareness in Yana Davis's class.

Veteran's Day Program



The 3rd grade team at Mabel I. Wilson School partnered up with the American Legion Post 91 for a Veteran's Day Program in their classes.

Students learned fun facts about the flag and flag etiquette, including how to fold the flag. This was particularly interesting to 3rd graders as they help put up and take down the school flag everyday. 

Proficiency Primer

Over the last several blog posts, I have started to dive deeper into the major tenets of a proficiency-based education. Each blog through February, I will talk more about the tenets of a proficiency-based education (PBE). Stay tuned to my "Proficiency Primer" for more details on PBE.

Third Tenet continued: Feedback to students in meeting learning standards (Part II)
My focus in this blog will be on graduation standards, how they are reported, and the two philosophical approaches that exist in determining a student's progress in meeting the expectations of standards.
This is complicated because there are two distinct ways to approach progress on standards.  The first way is to view a standard over the life of a course or even as a thread that overlaps multiple courses.  In this model, most students will be proficient at the end of the instructional time frame, but not until then.  In other words, most students would be considered "partially proficient" or "developing" until much later in the year or the course(s) because they are still learning.  This is the purist approach and in an ideal world, this would be my preference, as I think it would be for many educators because of its emphasis on student growth.

With this in mind, the second approach is to view achievement toward a standard as a "snapshot in time".  In this model, students continue to make progress in meeting the standard, but there are checkpoints, or benchmarks, along the way that break the standard into smaller pieces or chunks.  

This allows a teacher to look at a student's progress toward the standard in this way:  Is this where I would expect a student to be at this point in the year/course with regard to this standard?  If the answer is yes, then the student would be considered proficient, even early on in the process. 

This thinking helps us bridge the proficiency world with the task of regular reporting of grades to families.  This also syncs with the district's middle-of-the-road approach to implementing proficiency-based practices, including grading and reporting.

Next blog I'll further articulate:  More emphasis on transferable skills in addition to content knowledge