from the Portsmouth Herald

KITTERY, Maine — Five Shapleigh Middle School teams are headed to the Odyssey of the Mind state championships Saturday in Waterville. The students qualified at the regional tournament of the creative problem-solving program at Biddeford High School earlier this month.

One Shapleigh team, named “It’s How We Rule,” took first place in Division II. That team consists of Emma Ackerman, Sydney Auclair, Cameron Brayne, Julia Campion, Elias Matso, Nichole Roberts and Molly Stites. They are coached by Kristi Mathieson and Katherine Peternell.

Another Division II team, named “Driver’s Test,” also earned first place. Team members are Killian Campbell, Braeden Cole, Madelyn Battcock-Emerson, Jonah Matso, Jayce Nielsen, Henry O’Shaughnessy and Jayna Wheeler. This team is coached by Jane Bard and Jodie Nielsen.

“Stackable Structure,” made up of sixth- and eighth-graders, earned another first place finish in Division II. That team consists of Sam Battcock-Emerson, Mack D’Angelo, Jacob Gagner, Cole Gilbert, Emma O’Shaughnessy, Cameron Webb and Stephen Whitney, and is coached by Cecilia Gagner and Steve Gilbert.

Another Shapleigh team of fifth-graders, named “The Not-So-Haunted House,” won third place in Division I. Team members are Claire Barbour, Meredith Chase, Annika Huntress, Kathleen McPherson, Cooper Salema and Finnian Shea. Coaches are Kim Storm and Gillian Tierney.

The fifth team to head to the state competition is a Division I team of Yolanda Ares, Gillian Brayne, Julia Durling, Nora Gilbert, Colin Martin and Seamus Reeve. This team is coached by Jessica Brayne and Anne Gilbert.

For information, visit www.meodyssey.org.

The Kittery School Department and the Kittery Police Department are pleased to announce the selection of Officer Jay Durgin as the new School Resource Officer for the Town of Kittery. Officer Durgin will be replacing Officer Horning as she has indicated a desire to return back to fulltime patrol according to Chief Theodor Short.

Short said that Officer Horning did an outstanding job as the SRO and has paved the way for Officer Durgin to succeed when he takes over at the beginning of the new school year.

Officer Durgin, who began his career in Sanford, Maine, has been employed by the Kittery Police Department for over 15 years. Durgin is a graduate of Traip Academy and a resident of Kittery. He also serves as a Canine Officer.

“Our first year in this program has been a success”, said Short, “and Jay is going to be a great asset to the school and the community as a whole. When school is not in session Jay will be working on community relations. He will serve as the liaison between the police department and the community in this new assignment.”

“The partnership between the school and the police department has enhanced safety and opened a strong line of communications between the two departments. This is an invaluable program and the Kittery Police Department is honored to be a part of it”, according to Short.

“ The Kittery School Department is very pleased with the work of Officer Horning over the past year and appreciates her efforts to establish the SRO program in Kittery. We  are looking forward to building on this excellent foundation and are confident that Officer Jay Durgin is the best individual to enhance our continuing effort to provide a safe and secure environment for teaching and learning”,stated Superintendent Allyn Hutton.

Officer Horning will complete this school year before she passes the torch to Officer Durgin, who will be attending School Resource Officer training in April.

Tuesday night, the Kittery Maine School Committee and the Superintendant reworked the budget and reached the 1.5 percent increase.

Keeping the budget spending to a 1.5 percent increase was agreed to earlier in the year.

Superintendent Hutton and the Committee met this goal by creating more cuts. During the meeting, Hutton addressed just a couple of issues of several issues recently raised by citizens.

Earlier in the month, it was declared a miracle when the budget came in at 1.8 percent. Although there were $233,000 in positions and services added as well as an 11.9 percent raise for the superintendent. This incidently was part of a 21% raise over three years based on her performance. Although there were increases, there  was also difficult cuts and concessions.

See the links below for the previous projections of Cuts and Added services.

After the budget was reduced to the requested amount, according to the Portsmouth Herald, Julie Dow said, “I’m glad we came to an agreement, but it’s been an ugly process. It’s sad. There are lots of great things going on in our schools, and we want to continue that good work.”

The Kittery School budget is currently at 14.7 million dollars ($14,700,000.00). This figure represents almost 70% of the property taxes in Kittery. Municipal and County taxes make up the rest.

This post contains a synopsis of the recent meeting. In order to have an accurate account of both recent meetings,  citizens are encouraged to watch TOWNHALLSTREAMS.com for the ON DEMAND streamed meetings.

Meetings to watch on the PC or Smart Phones

Budget Workshop 3-11-2014 

Public Hearing on the proposed School Budget. 3-4-14 

Documents

Letter to parents from Allyn Hutton

Proposed budget prior to this meeting.

Cuts to services

Added Programs

Other interesting links. (click the link)

See the Traip Robo Rangers recognized at the Town Council

Information on Education subsidy Information in Maine

Help the team get to Anaheim

The Traip Academy Robo Rangers, which won a prestigious state robotics championship Feb. 15, are hoping to be California bound.

The team qualifies to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championships in Anaheim, Calif., in April. Between now and then, the five-student team and teacher Joseph Boudreau are concentrating on raising the $6,000 they will need to get there.

Tax-deductible contributions in support of the team can be mailed to Traip Academy, 12 Williams Ave., Kittery, ME 03904, attn.: Joe Boudreau. Checks can be made payable to the Traip Academy VEX Robotics Team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axUlph3fR6I&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKi4ZTOepT8&feature=player_embedded

Robotics team prepares for national contest.

photo by Deb Cram (visit her link)

KITTERY, Maine — There was a lot of Traip pride, not to mention a real sense of satisfaction, when a team of students from Traip Academy recently took home the first-prize trophy at a prestigious state robotics championship.

Now they’re hoping to go to the national competition in California in April, and they’ve set their sights on raising the $6,000 necessary to get there.

The “Robo Rangers” and their partners from United Technologies Center in Bangor bested 28 other high school teams at a competition at Hampden Academy on Feb. 15.

“I was about 3 feet off the ground,” said senior Joe Lombardi, the primary mastermind behind the robot’s design, who will be attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s robotics engineering program in the fall.

“After a really tough basketball season, it was nice,” said junior Chris Bailey.

The team, which also includes seniors Sean Evans and Jacob Sisk, were all classmates in a robotics class taught by technology and engineering teacher Joseph Boudreau.

Boudreau and volunteers from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard have worked for the past four years with students entering a separate competition, called FIRST Robotics. This is an after-school activity, and Boudreau offered the robotics class during the school day for those in sports or who had other after-school obligations and couldn’t be part of FIRST Robotics.

The entire class has been built around entering what is called the VEX Robotics competition. VEX Robotics, sponsored by the nonprofit Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is held at the state, national and international level each year.

The competition is different each school year. This year’s contest involved a 10-foot by 10-foot playing field, with a tube at each end and a goal area. Robots had to be 18-inches square, and 18-inches high. Beach-ball and Wiffle-ball sized spheres had to be moved into the goal area. Extra points were earned for placing the smaller balls in the tube.

The competition is played with two teams, or “alliances” as they are called, four teams per match.

Although the students built their own robots, it was understood that the one built by Lombardi, a four-year veteran of FIRST Robotics, would be the one to go into competition.

He designed a robot that scooped up the small balls, raised them up in the air via a scissor lift, and dropped them into the tube.

“We did a lot of prototyping before we came up with this design,” Lombardi said.

A qualifying competition was held at the Augusta Civic Center in December, where the Robo Rangers placed second.

“After the first couple of matches, we realized we were doing pretty well,” Lombardi said.

“There was definitely a point where we knew we could get to the next level,” Bailey said.

The class made modifications to Lombardi’s robot in preparation for the state competition Feb. 15.

The students said they had come to know and trust the team from United Technologies Center, which chose the Traip team to create an “alliance” at the states.

“We had a lot of synergy. We were both very team oriented,” Lombardi said.

“We were fairly confident going into the finals that we would win, but you can never be sure,” said Sisk, who will be a mechanical engineering student at the University of Maine this fall.

The alliance toppled the No. 1-ranked alliance for the past several years, two teams from Cape Elizabeth High School.

“It was a lot of fun. It was one of the most fun things I’ve done in my life,” Sisk said.

On Tuesday night, March 4th, the Kittery School Committee is holding a public hearing on the proposed FY2015 budget and is seeking public comment either supporting it, rejecting it or hearing other opinions. The School Committee would like to adopt the budget on March 18th after hearing public comment and on March 24th, present it to the Town Council.

The budget is proposed at 1.78 percent which was greater than the FY’14 budget. The budget as proposed contains added positions and programs as well as concessions.

As you are aware, the Council has asked all Kittery Department heads to bring their budget in at or under 1.5 percent.

According to the Portsmouth Herald, Kittery Superintendent  Hutton stated, “This is an opportunity for community members to come and share their opinions regarding the FY’15 budget”, she also told the School Committee members that parents are mobilizing to support the budget.

As you are aware, this budget as well as others affect our taxes and should concern all the residents of Kittery and public input is very important.

(See the email everybody button below to express your opinions)

This School Committee’s hearing will be televised on Channel 22 as well as streamed on the pc or your smart phone at townhallstreams for those who wish to watch the event and not come.

However the public is encouraged to review the budget and supporting documents to educate themselves on the budget prior to the School Committee meeting or the public vote in June. The proposed budget is available for you to download and review at https://sites.google.com/a/kitteryschools.com/budget-fy15-news/

If any resident have any specific questions or comments, press this button to email the entire Council and School Committee.  

or you can find your representative below and share your concerns.

Remember the March 4th, hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Kittery Town Hall.

Kittery Town Councilor Contact Information

From the Portsmouth Herald.
Tonights workshop is open to the public.  AGENDA

By Deborah McDermott

KITTERY, Maine — The Kittery School Committee will meet for the second time to discuss the fiscal year 2015 budget tonight.

Kittery school administrators presented a preliminary budget Feb. 11 that adds more than $233,000 in positions and services, with a net increase of 1.8 percent from the current fiscal year.

The Town Council had asked the School Department to come in with an increase of 1.5 percent, but Superintendent Allyn Hutton said that wouldn’t be possible in order to meet students’ needs.

Included in the budget is an 11.7 percent increase in Hutton’s salary, bringing it to $129,000 under terms of a recently signed three-year contract.

Also included are, among other items, increases in co-curricular stipends, a part-time Spanish teacher at Shapleigh Middle School, an 80-percent-funded internship coordinator at Traip Academy and a pilot pre-kindergarten readiness program.

To accommodate additional teacher training, administrators are suggesting an increase in student days from 175 to 177.

To offset increases, administrators anticipate a $100,000 reduction in special education costs, among other cuts.

The budget workshop gets under way at 6:30 p.m. today, Feb. 25, at Town Hall. A public hearing on the budget will be held March 4.

Click for emails for Kittery school committee members

School Committee Minutes