SeDoMoCha Middle School will go from trimesters to quarters

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — A change will be made in the ranking periods at SeDoMoCha Middle School for the 2014-15 school year as grades 5-8 will have quarters instead of trimesters after the RSU 68 school board approved the switch during a Dec. 10 meeting.
    “This was brought up at our last board meeting to go from trimesters to quarters,” Superintendent Alan Smith said. “It will give staff two more opportunities to connect with parents and it gives students smaller windows to be successful.”

    Under the new quarter periods, students will be graded over an eight-week timeframe instead of 12 with the trimesters. Each ranking period will include student progress reports halfway through, which need to be signed by parents and returned. Under the quarter grading system the number of progress reports per school year increases to eight from six.
    School board member Peter Caruso said he favored the change in grading system, saying students will be better prepared for Foxcroft Academy and the secondary school’s four quarters per year.
    In other business, Smith mentioned an intramural basketball program has been started for seventh- and eighth-graders. “We have tried to create another opportunity for kids to participate in basketball,” he said, with a number of students trying out for the basketball teams but not making the squads. SeDoMoCha has an A and B team for both boys and girls.
    “It’s been a little disappointing so far with small numbers but we are hoping it will grow,” he said. Smith said Athletic Director Ashley Jackins organized the intramural basketball program, which meets twice weekly after school. Smith said the program is for the older two middle school grades, so as not in infringe on town recreation teams which can go up to grade 6.
    In the spring school officials will look at the numbers for baseball and softball, and see if an intramural program would be needed for either or both of these sports.
    “I have been working diligently with the math literacy piece within the school,” Smith said. He said he has been meeting with representatives of the University of Maine at Farmington “to bring a math initiative to our school system.
    “I’m pretty excited about it and I think it’s going to have some good, positive strengths for all our students.” Smith said he has a few more meetings on the math program and will be discussing it more with the school board in the future.
    The Dec. 10 meeting featured several presentations from teachers on technology they have been using with students. The session was held in grade 8 social studies teacher Dyan McCarthy-Clark’s classroom, enabling Technology Coordinator David Bridges to demonstrate several programs from his laptop which were projected onto the wall via the school’s high-speed capabilities.
    Grade 3 teacher Jessica Dunton presented a video showing how her students use laptops in class. She also showed those in attendance her Youtube page featuring various lessons, such as measuring in centimeters.
    Technology teacher Sean Malone discussed the Lego Robotics program, and he demonstrated some of the creations programmed to carry out certain tasks. Malone had a pair of trucks which were placed on a desk and then moved on their own as programmed, with the action projected onto the wall for all to see via a high-definition camera,
    Grade 8 math teacher Ryan Nickerson mentioned how he recently used an added benefit of the school’s technology capabilities. He said the parent of a student who missed several days of class made contact with him, and Nickerson recorded a video lesson of the topics the student missed while absent which he then e-mailed to the parent. Nickerson said the student ended up returning to school fully caught up after the absence.
    Foxcroft Academy Head of School Arnold Shorey provided an update on the secondary institution, saying the Santa and reindeer on the front lawn have now been on display for the 60th year during the holidays. Shorey added that eight of the 12 new inductees into the Foxcroft Academy chapter of the National Honor Society are alumni of SeDoMoCha.
    “It’s amazing the community we live in,” Shorey said, referring to a fire that destroyed a home in Charleston the week before. Shorey said he believed about $5,000 would be presented to the Hanson family by the school, which was raised from the Key Club’s Reindeer Run, benefit concert and other fundraisers.
    “Our student body here is incredible,” Shorey said, saying some of the students “who don’t have much, they gave the most.”
    Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Collaborative (PVAEC) Director Thelma Regan was another presenter to the school board. She said in January the PVAEC council is set to vote on a move of the organization from the Morton Avenue Municipal Building in Dover-Foxcroft across town to the Penquis Higher Education Center, which serves as an off-campus center for Eastern Maine Community College.
    Regan said the PVAEC is also looking at a new location in Dexter. She said another vote of the council is set for next month to move from Dexter Regional High School to former mill space downtown. “It will just give us a new opportunity there to show our importance,” she said, adding that adult education is important for economic development.
    Smith said Regan was nominated for and then selected as the state’s outstanding adult education administrator. He said the week before Regan received the honor in Portland at a gathering of adult education officials from across Maine.
    Pre-kindergarten teachers Elizabeth Bisson and Ellen McBride told the school board about the first Math Night, which was held in September and covered the concepts of shapes, counting, colors and basic measurement through activities for students and parents.
    ‘Our feedback from this was so positive,” McBride said, saying parents liked being able to spend as much time at the various activity stations with the their child as they wanted.
    Bisson said the Math Nights, which were held on two dates with one for the morning pre-K session and the other for the afternoon, “gave parents time to interact with their kids; it worked so well with the Math Night we are going to revamp the Literacy Night.” This spring would be the third year of a night of activities for pre-K families centered around literacy.
    “This has been a really big thing for us to make that connection with parents,” McBride said.
    “We are trying to make a very positive connection early on so hopefully it will continue,” Bisson said.   
    Smith said the school provides the materials for Math and Literacy Nights, but Bisson and McBride gave of their time for the various sessions.