STRONG — Several veterans asked the Regional School Unit 58 board Thursday to reinstate the Prisoner of War-Missing in Action flag on the flagpole at Mt. Abram High School.

The meeting drew several members of area veterans groups who wanted to know why the flag was no longer flying.

According to Superintendent Susan Pratt, the flag had been on the pole outside the high school for 20 years, but she could find no records, minutes or policies that explained the decision to approve flying it. Since the district was required only to fly the national and state flags, she suggested that allowing special interest groups to use the flagpole would open options to all individuals and groups.

Pratt said she researched and sought legal advice through the Maine School Management Association, which found no statewide precedent or policy for the third flag.

“Maine School Management, which represents all the school boards in the state of Maine, recommended that we not fly any flags beyond the United States flag and the Maine state flag,” she said.

The school board could approve a flag policy, and veterans will meet with the Policy Committee to draft wording to allow the flag to be flown on a separate pole that veterans can erect on the school grounds, the group decided. 

In other matters, Pratt presented the board with the 2015-16 test results in science, mathematics, English and language arts, with a comparison to scores from several other school districts and the state average of all schools.

The Maine Department of Education requires the testing.

In all subjects and schools, the comparison reflected scores that were close to the state average, with some grades well above those averages and others well below.

“If I look at these, I’d say we’re pretty much in the middle,” she said.

Pratt noted that some comparative results were skewed, because at least two districts had grades three through 12 in the same school, rather than separate high schools and elementary schools. A problem with the Maine Department of Education’s test results is it doesn’t provide accompanying guidance for administrators and educators.

Since the data only provides a single numerical score for the individual school grades and districts, teachers are not able to fine-tune their instruction, Pratt said. The purpose of the state assessment is to drive improvement, she noted.

“This is not helping our teachers, because it’s not telling them what to change,” she said. “It would be nice to have a little more detail.”

Pratt said teachers can turn to other tools to measure students’ progress for more guidance for modifying their instruction methods. The Northwest Evaluation Association tests older students and MobyMax helps those in lower grades fill some of those information gaps by providing individual progress reports during the school year.

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