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.
AUGUSTA On April 15, the Maine Supreme Court, citing ineffective counsel, vacated a gross sexual assault conviction against a former Tremont Consolidated School teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student.
That was the last remaining conviction for Ben Hodgdon, 53, of Tremont, who spent three years in prison after being found guilty of three charges. Hodgdon was released last summer.
Two other convictions, one for unlawful sexual contact and the other for sexual abuse of a minor, were vacated by the court in March of 2020, after Hodgdon’s petition that he had ineffective counsel.
“I feel pretty good about it,” Hodgdon said Friday. “I know there’s the potential for charges to be brought again, but it really does feel good.”
Former Tremont teacherâs sexual assault conviction vacated
AUGUSTA â
The Maine Supreme Court on April 15, citing ineffective counsel, vacated a gross sexual assault conviction against a former Tremont Consolidated School teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student.
That was the last remaining conviction for Ben Hodgdon, 53, of Tremont, who spent three years in prison after being found guilty of three charges. Hodgdon was released last summer.
Two other convictions, one for unlawful sexual contact and the other for sexual abuse of a minor, were vacated by the court in March of 2020, after Hodgdon’s petition that he had ineffective counsel.
Zero insurance hike saves schools $400K
BAR HARBOR Schools in the Mount Desert Island Regional School System (MDIRSS) will save a combined $399,819 because there will be no increase in the health insurance rate for the coming year.
Typically, in April, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield tells school superintendents across the state how much their rates are going up. But schools must have their budgets set weeks earlier, so they plug in a placeholder amount for health insurance.
For several years now, the MDIRSS schools have initially budgeted for a 10 percent rate increase, with the expectation that the actual increase would not be more than that. However, for next fiscal year, which starts July 1, the schools budgeted for an 8 percent increase.
Virtual Academy student wins speech contest
BAR HARBOR
“I believe animals have the right to live an amazing life, because just like us, we only have one life,” said Madelyn Marks, in the speech that won her first place in the district’s middle school contest on March 4.
A resident of Trenton and a student at the Mount Desert Island Regional School System’s Virtual Academy, Marks was one of 10 finalists who competed via Zoom before their peers and three judges. This year’s theme for the contest, This I Believe, was inspired by the National Public Radio series of the same name.