PIRCTC students surpass state targets
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Presque Isle Regional Career and Technical Center students surpassed targets set by the state in 2010 in a variety of categories.
At the July 20 SAD 1 board meeting, Larry Fox, director of the PIRCTC, shared the positive news with board members.
“The Maine Department of Education puts out a report every year for each of the 27 CTE schools in the state,” he said, explaining that 90 percent of the Center’s students come from Presque Isle High School. “The data table compares the actual levels of student attainment at Presque Isle compared with statewide goals for all CTE schools. This is significant evidence of the performance level of students that elect to take courses in the programs offered at our school.”
Two categories — academic attainment in reading/language arts and math — are based on SAT scores that those students received when they took the test as juniors. Another indicator, technical skill attainment, is specific to CTE and reflects the number of students who meet at least 80 percent of the standards in the curriculum.
“Other categories include course completion, graduation rate, non-traditional participation and non-traditional completion,” said Fox, noting that the state target can either increase or decrease from year to year. “Our students in 2010 surpassed the target in all eight categories.”
For example, PIRCTC had 100 percent of its seniors graduate from the program, while the state goal was 92.01 percent.
“This is all good news. Obviously there are areas where we’re stronger and areas that we’re not as strong, and those are the ones that we’ll continue to work on,” said Fox. “Our students are attaining all of the targets that are set by the Department of Education. Some we are exceeding quite considerably; others are quite close, but we’re very pleased with the recent data. Our goal is to continue to surpass the state’s target figures.”
In other meeting news, Superintendent Gehrig Johnson briefed directors on the chimney repair project at PIHS.
“This was originally an $8,000 budgeted item to top off the chimney, but once the contractor began the project, they realized that the condition of the three-story chimney was worse than expected,” he said.
“The lining is deteriorating and crumbling at the chimney base,” said Johnson. “We have no choice but to repair it. Preliminary estimates are at $60,000 or more to fix it. Unfortunately when the school was constructed in late 1940s, metal liners were not used. We will install a metal liner the complete length of the chimney.”
Johnson said he’s unsure if the project will be completed by the first day of school, which is Aug. 22.
“Contractors will complete it as soon as possible,” he said.
Also at the meeting, directors:
• Were also informed of three staff transfers at Presque Isle Middle School involving math-science teachers. Kevin Malenfant will move from grade 6 to grade 8; Casey Johnson will move from one sixth-grade team to another; and Nancy Watson will leave grade 7 to teach grade 6.
• Accepted the resignation of LeRae Kinney, social studies teacher at PIHS.
• Approved four new hires. George Knox III and Joel Hall were both hired to teach social studies at PIHS, Chelsea Kaiser will teach math/science at PIMS, and Holly Vigue will be the new elementary social worker at both Pine Street and Mapleton elementary schools.
“We’re now in pretty good shape,” said Johnson. “As a result of action at this meeting, we’ll be fully staffed for 2011-12.”
In addition, directors approved the bids of Garelick Farms and LePage Bakeries to provide dairy and bread products, respectively.
The next SAD 1 board meeting will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10 at the SAD 1 Educational Farm.
