Too bad we couldn't do the same in the public schools. Lay everyone off and start over!! Get rid of the deadwood "administrators" also.

Wow. spend money on the leeches, junkies, waste money on "fixing" roads that frost will destroy next winter anyway or pay teachers. Toughie.

Are you f_ckin kiddin me?

: please remember to turn the lights { windmill powered } off as you cross the Kittery bridge--

--or vote for fiscal responsibility

She wants the students to be ready to do "green jobs",,,,,,this is their "CIVIL RIGHTS" revolution? No wonder with thinking like that, our educational system is in the toilet. At a minimum, high school graduates or the equivilent should be able to read their diplomas and sign their welfare checks. If parents ,educators and society put a premium on why solid basics, (reading, writing, math , and a civic responsibility) are critical to achieving a decent quality of life ,the taxpayers might believe they are getting a decent return on their investment. These life lessons need to be addressed not in a high school graduation speech, but as soon as kids can comprehend the difference between an IPOD and a happy meal. until that happens, and it won't because we are more concerned about political correctness and self esteem, than achieving classroom excellence , Maine with continue to drift lower until it becomes on an equal footing as some third world hellhole!!!!!!

Lets see: 35 years, 475 graduates, about 13 and a half graduates a year.

Look a little further: Annual budget of about $647,000.

7 students graduated from the residential program., ie, those who live on "campus".

No information was given on the number of graduates from the "Passage" program that educates teen aged parents at home. (Is this computer based or does it use visiting teachers? Nice job BDN!!)

So, if you use the yearly average of 13.5 TOTAL graduates and divide that into $647,000 that comes out to almost $50,000 dollars to educate one student for one year!!!!!!

Sounds a little steep to me.

Seems like the administration is lacking at the C School. They lost funding? Was it because they are not getting results?

“The last few years, there have been deficits,” she said. The school has lost grants, including a major one from the DHS Office of Substance Abuse.

Why they lost funding should be answered here. Why did their board allow them to run deficits for the last few years? Seems like poor management on behalf of the board and administration. They were not guiding the school properly and the teachers are paying the price by having their jobs cut. Why wasn't the Director or the Residental Director combined into one? Shouldn't one of them lose their job?

Moreover to add insult to injury, executive director Dorothy Foote invites the teachers to reapply for their old jobs?! Appalling behavior, sleazy tactics to fire everyone because of their own mismanagement. Once again, Camden is showing it's true colors. Pretty town with very ugly people prone to Macheavellian antics.

That's 475 students that would otherwise have been a much larger burden on the state's limited resources. It is always those most at risk that lose first in any budget crisis.

Is this the same Camden that would be degraded by having a Dunkin Donuts?

jaguarsky wrote: "That's 475 students that would otherwise have been a much larger burden on the state's limited resources. It is always those most at risk that lose first in any budget crisis".

475 students over 35 years.

Wouldn't it be nice if the BDN did a follow up on a dozen or so of different aged graduates to see what they made of their lives?

How many went to college? The military? Have had long term jobs or own their own businesses?

How many are on welfare? Food Stamps? In jail? On methadone? Dead of extenuating circumstances?

Those follow-ups should have a great deal to do regarding whether the school is worthy of staying open.

Seems to me if the majority of their graduates were doing very well....or even average some administrator would be ballyhooing it.

This looks like a great investigative reporting story. Go get 'em Bangor Daily News.

(My bet is that the majority of these graduates never amounted to anything)

How many are hooked on coffee brandy?

testing

Interesting and sad account deserving deeper investigation. According to material we in the community have read of The Community School year after year, their mission statement explains the school's approach to education is based on relationship: staff with students and staff with one another. Person-to-person. This staff from the perspective of the community had what it took to guide the students and also function without leadership on and off for over two years. With tutors teaching, what's the fuss about certification when the full time staff is all about mentoring and supporting these kids 24-hours a day, though every twist and turn of adolescence? This is a highly qualified, committed (long term) staff compared to turn over in the past. Wasn't it just recently that this very staff hired the director and executive director? What is the meaning of relationship to them? Seems a different version than what the community has observed over these last 36 years. Some things even the community at large has observed and knows- but you who are new hires at the school have 36 years ahead to catch up to this point from which you've cut yourselves off. We know this school as one that educates students in every aspect of life, living, as well as scholastics; from my understanding half go to college, 100% are gainfully employed. There has been a relationship with students who've graduated since the school began from which this feedback is collected. How has relationship like this been sustainable? By having long term staff to whom students could turn during their LIFE education. How do the new directors presume to substitute this unique connection? Seems there's a loss greater than the wonderful staff you've let go.

I can't believe that some of the teachers at this school weren't even state certified! This is like a slap in the face to a lot of teachers that can't find jobs and there are teachers at this school that are not even certified to teach. Thats nuts! I am a highly qualified teacher with four years experience and I still can't get a job in the state of maine because I don't have enough expereince. At least myself, and all the other teachers in the state that don't have a job, would be qualified to teach here. I think this school, and many others, need to do some "weeding" out of teachers and hire the ones that are certified to teach.

Cherbear - sorry for you, but maybe if you spelled correctly, you'd get hired faster! Remember - i before e except after c or when it says 'a' as in neighbor and weigh. (experience) Sorry, this just jumped out at me, and nope, I'm not state certified!!

ShirleyMillsgirl, Cut Cherbear a tiny bit of slack; she spelled experience correct once and then committed the mortal sin of mis-spelling it on the next line. Other than that, I'm sure we can get you certified (cetified NUTZZZZ).

Where the heck is Shirley Mills?

They are laying off everyone or eliminating their current positions so that there will be no discrimination lawsuits when they hire back teachers with new "job descriptions". Corporations have been using this same tactic for years. They way the can hire someone with lesser pay to do the same job with a different name. This suprises people how?

Shirley Mills

Up by Greenville.

This is an awesome example of "Green" employment! No more teachers burning fossil fuels clogging up the highways just to babysit spoiled moron kids and feed them a poor lunch. Since jobs are a thing of the past, I think our money will be better spent just buying the kids an annual copy of "Mother Earth News". Go forth my children and grow taters! Or fish lobstah!

I know several students who were helped greatly by this school and did gone on to college and make something of themselves. They were given a second chance to get their diploma and actually make something of their lives. This school took them in and helped them when they had no where else to turn, yes many of them had troubled pasts, and had made mistakes, but the school still took them in and helped them to turn their lives around. Obviously not everyone given a second chance will make the most of it and change for the better but even if they change one life with the program then that's one more person who becomes a productive member of society instead of filling a bed in the already overcrowded jails and prisons in Maine. I don't think ppl should put a price tag on changing the lives of young ppl for the better, if these kids didn't get a second chance then just think about all the taxes you would be paying for them when they commit a crime and are sent to prison just because no one was there who actually cared enough to help them.

State Certified Teachers...not here...I found out my son got behind in the next year of math because the teacher did not know the math lessons for 6th graders..she was never taught or missed classes or something in College that she had to take the math home first learn it and then teach the kids...she taught it for one day and then there was no homework on it..when my child got into school in 7th grade...he had to be taught what he was supposed to be taught in 6th grade!

Because of a lack of ability from a teacher...my son got behind...granted I probably could of helped if I had knowledge of it..but when I was in school math was not a big thing for us...basics pretty much we did not have to take Calculus, Algebra, Trignometry.. or any of the other levels of these classes in my school.. I was not in Maine for schooling...it was not required..and I did not challenge it much as Math was not my thing...but it did not please me to find out a teacher/parent conference that his 6th grade teacher was not up to date on her math skills, but yet they hired her! CherBear nothing surprises me anymore in Maine..I think you could of done more for my son's 6th grade class then what this current teacher could ever do!

I wish you luck with your job search..and hopefully you land something soon!

LQQKatme, Shirley Mills is a hamlet located near Greenville, ME.

Regarding certified teachers not finding teaching positions (which doesn't really have a lot to do with the laying-off of teachers at The Community School): Schools are turning out graduates who are not proficient in the subjects they wish to teach! In Cherbear's post there were eight mistakes in either grammar, usage, or punctuation. Yes, "experience" was spelled correctly, then passed with a typo, but those who wish to teach others to read and write must also know how to edit themselves. Check for the typo before passing the post! Yes, there are math teachers who must learn the lesson on Monday in order to teach it on Tuesday, then don't assign homework they are unable to correct. This is a problem. Teachers have long been underpaid and overworked. The best and brightest go into other professions because there is more respect and better paychecks. We need to look at this and remember who it was who taught all the doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc. how to read and do their research.

About The Community School? Some deeper research on the success of their program would be an interesting article. Go, BDN!

Maybe President Obama will bail them out.

LQQKatme - gotcha beat to it - I've been certified as a NUTZZZZ for a LONG time!!!!!

Everyone be sure to read NY's 1991 Teacher of the Year's book...Dumbing Us Down :The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto. Best book ever written on the US' public school system. Please read it...It's only 100 pages or so. Just read Chapter One...The Seven Step School Teacher....tells it all.............and I should know. I spent 13 years...K-12....5 years in college and 30 years teaching.... Did you that in Maine some superintendents of school make $125,000 a year? Outrageous.

However, Cherbear, I do humbly apologize for my harsh coments, no excuses. I do hope you will be able to find a teaching job without having to relocate. The way things are these days, you have to really love children and teaching to want to be a teacher. I wish you the best.

It costs roughly $32,000 per year to house one inmate. Add to that the cost of a crime, court, court-appointed attorneys and associated documents, giving a troubled kid a place to stay out of trouble and an education with the opportunity of doing well in their lives, the difference is probably not a bad investment.

As the mother of a special education student and another non-traditional learner, these kinds of resources are valued. Neither of mine attended Community school.

The article is a little vague in terms of the teachers' certifications. State certification, which is not required in some private schools, is not the same as the degrees these professionals may hold. Why would you give any more money to this state in terms of a license you do not need?

As for the six-grade teacher having a difficult time teaching the Math, well, thanks to No Child Left Behind, our math curricula have changed so dramatically, it is more of a wonder that ANY of our teachers can teach sixth grade math. The books used in our district are used for four years. The National Teachers Association has given a thumbs down to this entire series, which means that for as long as these books are being used, kids from 5-8 are being cheated. We are very lucky to have one of the best math teachers in our area for our 7th and 8th graders. They will have some foundation as they move into high school.

Usually each school district sends ONE teacher per subject to learn the new material and that person comes back to teach all the others. When my son was in sixth grade, another mother and I sat in my kitchen trying to catch our kids up at the end of one quarter. It took us nearly four days to figure out how they were SUPPOSED to arrive at their answers. For us, and for our kids, the answers were a breeze, but trying to help them "show their work" was a nightmare. I might add that both of us are college educated with degrees in science.

At the beginning of each new school year I examine every textbook my children use, go online and try to make sure I can understand the course material so I can help them stay up to date. Most of them have websites where parents can learn what we need to help our kids.

For those of you who want to fight over spelling, I have a disorder which causes serious hand tremors, so you should see some of my posts before they are spell checked. Just download the Google toolbar and there is form spell checker in it. Problem solved.

LQQKatme-Thanks, I guess ShirleyMIllsgirl never made a typo in her life!

On the other hand, ShirleyMillsgirl, thanks for thinking of me, but I will have to relocate to get a job, where I'm from, you need to have a certain last name or have a husband, wife, mother or father in the school system to get a job here, its wicked crooked! They hired 3 people for the upcoming school year, a mother, son and her daughter-in-law. Its totally fair, I love it!