Friday, September 16, 2016

New Co & Extra Curricular Policy Simplified


The MSAD #27 School Board passed a new Academic Eligibility: Athletic and Co-Curricular Participation policy (JJIC) at the July 26, 2016 School Board meeting.  There have been many questions about what it means so we put together a handy and helpful guide for students, parents, staff, and community to understand what it all means.



The entire policy can be found at the following url: Policy JJIC .

Finally, you will notice a small change to the blog title.  As many of you know we had some reshuffling of administrator duties.  Mr. Caron was named  Dean of Students for both VRMS and FKCHS and I was named Principal of the two schools.  With that being said that is why you see the name change because over time you will start to see more posts that pertain to the Middle School. I am also attaching the visual that helps define our division of duties.


Sunday, September 11, 2016

Laptops - Important Information!

We finished Friday of last week distributing laptops to all our students from grade 7 to grade 12! It took 2 weeks and the help of 7 different people to make it happen.  Each laptop had three steps to go through for set-up taking about 40 minutes to be ready for student use! It was a long slow process getting 400+ laptops out to the students but we did it! Thank you to the students and staff for being so patient and flexible during this time!

Our position here at VRMS and FKCHS is that the laptops (leased from and property of the state of Maine) need to be used for educational purposes.  It is not provided or intended to be used as a personal entertainment device. With that said here are some stop-gaps that we have put in place to emphasize this to all students.

1) All laptops are loaded with a program called LANSCHOOL.  It is a monitoring software that all teachers and administrators have access to view, message, and if necessary to shut down student laptops. This software provides "live" views of the work students are doing with these laptops while at school.
2) VRMS does NOT have access to the app store. Any applications that needs to be downloaded will be done under teacher direction only.
3) FKCHS students do have access to the app store.  Non-educational downloads are discouraged and we ask students to make smart decisions on what is downloaded.
4) Parents you may call at anytime to request the laptop stay at school.  We have carts in the library with charging capacity to pick up the laptop at the beginning of the day and to drop off the laptop at the end of the day.  Contact Mr. Charette or Mr. Caron to make arrangements.
5) Insurance is $40.00 and mandatory to cover damage both in and out of school. (It comes with a $100.00 deductible per occurrence.) This insurance has nothing to do with the capability to bring it home - bringing it home is purely a parental decision.
6) Students will be issued a NEW Apple ID shortly - this ID should be used at all times when at school. (Personal Apple ID's maybe used away from school for all students.)
7) All laptops have a protective case AND a carry case.  These are not to be changed and are expected to be used at all times.
8) Review the acceptable use policy paperwork - there are a few new and updated rules and procedures.

Incentive: (Found in acceptable use policy paperwork!) - Any student with no computer infractions and no damages will be allowed to keep the laptop over the summer! (Senior students will be returning the laptops before graduation.)

Finally, please understand that having a laptop is a privilege NOT a right. It is a very expensive resource to enhance and supplement the learning done in the classrooms - treat it with respect and use it responsibly, as you would any other school provided resources.