Many students miss vocational classes Education officials cite scheduling conflicts between technical, high schools

AUGUSTA – Too many students are missing vocational classes at regional technical high schools because of scheduling conflicts with their local school districts, members of the Maine State Board of Education agreed Wednesday.

After reviewing Department of Education numbers indicating there is a range of between 2 and 140 days in different vocational regions when students from sending schools aren’t able to attend their vocational center, a subcommittee decided to discuss the problem and report back to the full board in June.

Scheduling conflicts occur because schools in a particular vocational region start the year at different times and have varying days for staff development, parent-teacher meetings and early dismissal. Different class schedules among the sending schools and the vocational schools also may cause problems.

Phil Dionne, who chairs the board’s subcommittee on vocational education, said members likely will recommend that superintendents, principals and vocational directors work out a policy that could result in schools drawing up common calendars.

But since each school district traditionally has created its own calendar, the issue becomes one of local control and is a “difficult political thing to solve,” he said during a break in the meeting.

After a bill that would have legislated a common calendar was defeated last session, the chairmen of the Education Committee wrote to Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese asking the Department of Education to “review the synchronization of secondary and vocational school calendars as part of the annual school approval update process” and report back.

In his March 22 response, Albanese said when the rules for basic school approval are revised to mesh with the Learning Results, superintendents will be required to send in their vocational school’s calendar and indicate the number of days that it differed from that of the district.

The department then could inform the Education Committee, the Legislature and the state board about the discrepancies and draw attention to the problem, he said after the meeting.

Albanese attached to the letter a list of dissimilar instructional days between vocational schools and their sending schools. United Technologies Center in Bangor was on the high end with 30 days. Presque Isle Regional Technology Center had 12, St. John Valley Technical Center in Frenchville, 23, and Caribou Regional Vocational Center, 42. Topping the list was Maine Applied Technology Region in Houlton with 140.

The School of Applied Technology in Mexico had only two, while St. Croix Regional Technical Center in Calais had three, Northern Penobscot Tech in Lincoln, seven, and Waldo County Technical Center, 10.

The schools, whose calendars generally corresponded with their regional vocational schools, “have made a major effort to have as many common days as possible,” Dionne said.

Vocational technical students typically are juniors and seniors who spend half their day at their high school and the rest at a regional vocational school or center, which serves multiple communities.

Members of the state board said things needed to change.

“We’re not doing an adequate job preparing students for the workplace,” said Wes Bonney of Portland. “It’s outrageous to not have kids maximize their opportunities to learn.”

Board member Elinor Multer of Orrs Island said a public relations campaign should be waged pointing out that students are missing valuable learning time.

“We need to get past the local control issue,” she said.