In-person learning suffers as COVID-19 quarantines deplete Maine school staffs
As more teachers and staff are forced into quarantine due to coronavirus exposure, schools are increasingly switching to remote learning because of staffing shortages.
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Donald Hilton, a bus mechanic for the Brunswick schools, sits in the bus on Friday that he has been driving when the district is short on drivers. Brunswick’s schools, like many others, are facing staffing challenges because of COVID-19 exposures and quarantines.
Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
Michelle Caron doesn’t usually pick up and drop students off in her job as transportation director of the Brunswick school department, but when a few bus drivers went into quarantine due to coronavirus exposures recently, she did what she had to do to keep the department running.
A Holocaust survivor who lives in Maine, Edith Pagelson, says educators have to do their part to teach about this moment in history and to 'never forget.'
Central Maine schools consider options for next round of federal coronavirus relief funding
With the state set to receive more than $183 million for schools from the latest COVID-19 relief package, school officials across central Maine are discussing best uses for the money.
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With Maine set to receive more than $183 million for schools from the latest federal coronavirus relief package, there is much discussion on how the funding should be used.
Kelli Deveaux, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Education, said schools can get up to four times the amount they received from the two previous rounds of coronavirus relief funding in the spring and fall of 2020.
Four of Maine’s 16 counties remain ‘yellow’ in school reopening advisory system
The state released its latest set of county advisories for schools on Thursday, and Androscoggin, Cumberland, Oxford and York remain yellow as infection rates continue to tick upward.
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Four of the Maine’s 16 counties remain in the “yellow” category for reopening schools, while increasing COVID-19 positivity rates in two other counties have them under watch by state officials.
Androscoggin, Cumberland, Oxford and York remain in the yellow category, the Maine Department of Education said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
Schools have been on holiday break since before Christmas, but will resume classes Monday with many of them offering in-person learning. Although schools have kept COVID-19 case numbers relatively low, the remote learning method adopted widely as a safeguard against exposure has been a challenge with some districts reporting rising failure rates.
Special needs preschool to close, leaving parents searching for alternatives
The class has just four students, but waiting lists for other programs are lengthy.
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Madison White, 4, enjoys the playground outside the preschool class at the Morrison Center in Wells in this family photo, but the class will close Jan. 15, leaving her family and the families of three other children looking for other schools. The director of the Morrison Center said the class is closing because of staffing shortages.
Courtesy Photo/Danielle White
ARUNDEL – The mother of a 4-year-old with learning disabilities said she was told by phone on Dec 18 that the small preschool class her daughter attends will close in mid-January. Danielle White said she is concerned about the short notice, lack of communication, and the dearth of alternatives.