Supt. Maine On Charters And More
By Darlene VanRiper
The United Way hosted a Community Conversation event with Martin County School Superintendent Michael Maine on April 24th. With a year under his belt, he remains enthusiastic and optimistic regarding the direction the district is heading as well as the goals it has reached so far.
Although the District maintained its “B” ranking in the new FLDOE state accountability system, it did earn enough points to have maintained an “A” under the previous system. Over half of the County’s schools were able to increase a grade. Martin County now has 5 “Schools of Excellence” which is a statewide competitive recognition. That’s up from only 1 in previous years.
It was both refreshing and surprising to hear Superintendent Maine’s comments regarding charter schools. (Charter schools are public schools and some believe that they siphon money from the other public schools as they are funded by the same tax dollars.) Mr. Maine remarked that the three charter schools in Martin County are very cooperative with the district and their principals regularly attend the monthly district principal meetings. He welcomes the friendly competition and feels that schools can learn from each other. “Afterall”, he declared, “If they’re successful, we’re successful”.
In order to address teacher retention, Mr. Maine meets with teacher representatives from each school once a month for an entire day. From those meetings come good ideas. Mr. Maine would like to incorporate one such idea which is that the schools begin to diversify, each having their own niche.
He wants educators to be able to answer, “What’s attracting students to your school?” Each school would specialize in one of the following: –Eco School, Cambridge AICE Elementary Program, Leader in Me Program, Communication Academy, Marine Industry/ Middle Years International Baccalaureate, Jensen Beach High– TE²AL (Tech, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Arts, Learning). This may help retain students who would otherwise move to programs outside the district or online homeschooling venues.
To address the homeschooling issue, the Superintendent has instituted a virtual option. Starting next year 3 courses will be offered and so the program will grow with use. In this way he hopes to recapture some of the voucher money that has left the district.
Mr. Maine admitted that truancy must still be addressed and that the graduation rate, although at 90.3% needs to be higher.
As far as the new law signed by Gov. DeSantis which will open schools to volunteer chaplains for counseling, Mr. Maine feels it could be handled as an after-school club arrangement. He is in the process of formulating a policy which will go to the School Board for consideration.
