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By Rebecca Alley and Dick Broom
ELLSWORTH When Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Hancock native, became the first woman elected to the job in December, she told The American how much of an impact her teachers had on her political career.
“Mrs. Johnson was my kindergarten teacher,” she remembered, adding that without the speech therapy she received as a young student at Hancock Grammar School, “I wouldn’t be in politics today.”
The support she received was monumental in “normal” times.
Now, the call to appreciate teachers has reached an all-new level, especially after educators, parents and students navigated virtual learning from within the confines of shared home and workspaces. While many schools have welcomed students back to in-person learning for most of the week, the transition to learning alongside pandemic protocols has still taken a lot of work.
Teachers go âabove and beyondâ in pandemic year
By Rebecca Alley and Dick Broom
ELLSWORTH â When Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Hancock native, became the first woman elected to the job in December, she told The American how much of an impact her teachers had on her political career.
âMrs. Johnson was my kindergarten teacher,â she remembered, adding that without the speech therapy she received as a young student at Hancock Grammar School, âI wouldnât be in politics today.â
The support she received was monumental in ânormalâ times.
Now, the call to appreciate teachers has reached an all-new level, especially after educators, parents and students navigated virtual learning from within the confines of shared home and workspaces. While many schools have welcomed students back to in-person learning for most of the week, the transition to learning alongside pandemic protocols has still taken a lot of work.
Schools OK resource officer renewal
BAR HARBOR A three-year-old agreement that allows a police officer to serve as school resource officer (SRO) at Conners Emerson School in Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island High School and Mount Desert Elementary School has been renewed for another year by the respective school committees.
The agreement between the three schools and the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert police departments is detailed in a six-page memorandum of understanding (MOU).
It states that the mission of the SRO program is “to promote school safety and the educational climate at the school, not to enforce school discipline or punish students.”
No positives in staff, teacher virus testing
BAR HARBOR Of the 352 teachers and other staff members in the Mount Desert Island Regional School System who volunteered to be tested for the coronavirus Dec. 8 and 9, none tested positive; four of the test results were inconclusive.
The testing last week was the first round in the school system’s program of testing school personnel who have no symptoms of COVID-19, the disease that is caused by the virus.
Superintendent Marc Gousse said the initial tests were conducted to establish a baseline.
“From there, we will do weekly sentinel testing with a group of about 100 individuals, which will allow us to see if there is any evidence of community spread [of the coronavirus] in our schools,” he said.