Williams Junior High School, Oakland

Present: Francie Aley, Eileen Broderick, Mary Simpson, Gretchen Asam, Martha Mitchell, Tamara Blesh, Edna Comstock, Fran Haines, Donna Chale, Sylvia Norton, Teri Caouette, Nancy Grant, Margaret McNamee (Gail Garthwait for the afternoon.)

A welcome from Nancy Grant started the meeting, followed by a thank you to Liz McMahon for providing the site. Liz opened the library for our use, but couldn't be present. She is our representative to the New Century Grant team.

Nancy called attention to the hand cutouts on the tables, symbolizing the helping hands of our mentors. Nancy asked us: “Who helped you get started? What did they do to help you or to mentor you?” The answers ranged from our high school librarians, our district colleagues, our Girl Scout leaders, our mothers, Walter Taranko, our self directed inner guides, many public librarians who gave us as children early access to adult collections, Audrey Conant, non-M.L.I.S. librarians, and MASL board members. Our homework assignment was to find someone, especially students, to mentor; to make school libraries a safe place, a place for students to call home.

High stakes testing, Social Security, the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and negative effects on educators were discussed. A lunch order from a local pizza place and a MASL Board address list were distributed.

Nancy reviewed the MASL goals for the upcoming year.

ASSESSMENT
Francie Aley, Eileen Broderick , Suzan Nelson, and Gerry Crocker met over the summer to start the process and some products on assessment. They were charged to create assessment rubrics, but realized that rubrics can not be created without being based on specific standards and curricula. The committee has begun drafting guides to creating rubrics from units in collaboration with specific local curricula, which will be posted on the MASL webpage. They hope to have a final draft on the MASL webpage by year end, perhaps to test, adapt, and present the work as a committee at the Spring Conference.

Also discussed were webpage legal links to chapters 127, 125, and “No Child Left Behind,” ALA Information Power, MASL standards work, K-5 collaboration draft (ideas for collaboration, author study, examples of middle school and high school works in progress). It was noted that Judy Lucarelli has contracted 3 pilot projects for assessment of Maine Learning Results, one may possibly be a research paper. Francie Aley talked about grading first resource choices for junior research papers. Students must justify why they think each source will answer their essential questions. Gretchen Asam also has students justify their choice of Internet sources. Several MASL members noticed that the Internet is giving students keyword access points to print materials. Francie recommends www.debateabase.org as an opposing viewpoints site with pro/cons and essential questions.

PUBLIC RELATIONS
Nancy talked about the New Century Grants public relations work. A Consultant has been chosen, and work has begun. Our representative Liz has been to one meeting. They are planning a kick off in the spring. It was noted that we need to ensure that school librarians are included. MASL members were urged talk to the PR group. The Public libraries are focusing on people who have not been usual library users. Schools are a bit different because there is a somewhat captive audience. Suzan Nelson purchased a 2-sided, professional display unit approximately 4x6. We need to think about who we are and what we want to promote. The organizations to whom we take it may dictate what we post on it. Velcro strips can be used to change what is displayed. It is bulky, but not heavy.

A Motion was passed that MASL pay costs for board members to attend conferences as participants in order to provide the display. We will need to research when/where display space is free. We will need to get dates to Suzan to coordinate moving it. We will also need to see if the board can be sent
by UPS or by Greyhound Bus to the County and to other places. Where/When do we want to take it?

• The Maine Education Association Professional Practices Conference
  Saturday, Nov. 9, Augusta, 7:30 to 3:00 (the weekend after our Fall Conference).
  • We can set up a table for free (Sylvia will help; Tamara might be able to help). Should we redo last year's survey? The survey participants got free books last year. The Maine Principals Association. Suzan will present an Administrator's Award to King Middle School Principal, Mike McCarthy. She will contact them to see about setting up the board.
• ACTEM Friday, Oct 18, 2002 Augusta ($75/per participant)
• MASL Fall Conference, Nov. 2, Presque Isle.
• Maine Reading Association
• ASCD
• English Language Arts
• Right to Read
• Science Conference
• National Teachers Training Institute in the spring
  

MSLN filter issues arose. Librarians need to decide what will not get blocked and work things out with the MSLN board. A suggestion was made to ask Marilyn Joyce to talk about the Washington Conference at our Spring Conference.

The new Librarian Orientation was not held this year, but the date for next year is August 19, 2003 at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast. Thoughts were shared about redoing the notebook before. What resources are available in Maine for new school librarians?

MEMBERSHIP
Ideas for fall conference handouts included bookmark with our website, band-aid magnets, flyers about MASL membership, pins or key chain. (Edna will find some things to put on state's web she will email us a link so we can look and take an email vote

The ACTEM associate membership list will be taken care of in the next week or so. Board members were reminded to invite attendees from the Spring Conference to go to the October Board meeting at Freeport with you.

GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP
The Grant Writing Workshop initial plans had to be revised due to the late breaking eligibility guidelines which were based not on free and reduced lunch, but on poverty levels. There was a nice representation of the approximately 60 school districts which did qualify. MASL sent 5 or 6 checks for completed applications. Even if the grants are not funded, the participants had good conversations with superintendents, excellent planning sessions and valuable experience in tackling grant packages. Those who got comments without funding, will hopefully be able to revise and resubmit. Heidi McGinley did a very nice job providing copies of the application with specifics identified, checklists, the needs assessment process, and components broken down into manageable units. The application is very time consuming and confusing, but the workshop provided an opportunity to wade through it together. Funds will be doubled ($25,000) for the next round. Although Sylvia lobbied hard, eligibility will be determined by the 2000 census poverty figures, again not by free and reduced lunch.

STANDARDS COMMITTEE
The MASL Board thanks Susan Allison for all her hard work on the Standards Committee. We are now looking for someone who will guide the committee through the professional publication of our standards. MASL has funds available to support this process.

Republication of Springboard is tabled for now since it probably won't be doable until after the standards are published.

LAPTOPS
The lap top initiative was discussed (printers, storage cases, programming separate computers with individual student names, extended training, etc.). Hurrah for EBSCO databases this year! It is important for librarians to step forward to teach students how to use World Book and EBSCO, especially the new ones like Novelist. Nancy will send MELibs PR updates on how librarians can teach content to teachers and ideas for collaborating with tech coordinators.

The Sept. 18 SMLD meeting in Freeport will focus on laptops.

STATE BOARD OF ED
Francie Aley reported as the State Board of Ed liaison. She called attention to the Colorado studies linking higher scores to professionally certified librarians. Francie related an excellent illustration of comparing database searches to Internet searches. Specifics will be e-mailed to Board
members.

FALL CONFERENCE
Gretchen Asam reported on Fall Conference issues. A decision was made to set registration fees at $35 for MASL members, $40 for other librarians or library ed. techs, with a reduced rate ($25) for teachers coming with a librarian. People will be encouraged to apply for scholarships if needed. Registration and coffee will be at 8:30. We will have a short business meeting from 9 – 9:30. A book dealer in Presque Isle will have the authors’ books on display and to sell at a discount. Mileage, bus rentals, and carpool vans were discussed without any motions being made or voted. Hotel accommodations, meals, and the Saturday dinner were also discussed. Gretchen will post specifics to ME-LIBS. The registration flyer will have a map.

TREASURER'S REPORT
Donna distributed the financial report; details on handout. Please let Donna know of expected committee expenses. It was suggested that scholarship awards should not have to be given only at the end of the year.

Tamara asked if someone could take care of coffee for the October meeting.

Following the lunch break, the focus was on “What did you learn at the Spring Conference and how are you applying it this year?”

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee

margaretmc@lamere.net