SKOWHEGAN — Shared decision-making, staff collaboration and the freedom to fly by district administrators — all that has added up at Skowhegan Area Middle School, where teachers have been named Somerset County Teacher of the Year the past three years.

It’s called teacher leadership, the new buzz word in education, but not a new concept when it comes to education policy making and standards, the Skowhegan teachers said last week.

“Teachers need to be at the table when educational decisions are made,” reading intervention teacher Jennifer Dorman said. “We’re the experts in the classroom. You wouldn’t be making a medical decision without a doctor or nurse at the table, and educational decisions should not be made without a teacher at the table.

“At Skowhegan Area Middle school we are at the table. We’re not just on the menu. We are at the table participating in the dinner.”

Dorman was the 2015 Maine Teacher of the Year as well as the 2014 Somerset County Teacher of the Year.

This year, Tammy Ranger, also a middle school reading intervention teacher, was named Somerset County Teacher of the Year. Ranger was recognized in a ceremony at the State House May 13 as one of 15 County Teachers of the Year honored by the Maine Department of Education and the nonprofit group Educate Maine.

Last year, Debora Tanner, a math teacher at Skowhegan Area Middle School, was the 2015 Somerset County Teacher of the Year.

This is the third year of the Maine County Teacher of the Year program as part of the Maine Teacher of the Year program, and Principal Zach Longyear said the fact that a teacher from the middle school has been selected each year is no coincidence.

“The building itself is exceptional. It’s team-based,” Longyear said. “It’s shared decision-making. A lot of teacher leadership through a professional learning community and a team leaders group. No decision is made without input.”

Students in seventh and eighth grades form into teams that follow the same teacher for two years before going to high school, so team leaders have time to talk about the students and their successes and their needs in all academic areas where a child needs remediation to get on grade level.

“I think the reason why the three of us were chosen is because we like to be involved in the leadership in the building,” Tanner said. “We are the movers and the shakers. We like to get things done.”

The women lead a group called the Professional Learning Community, which shapes professional development at the school and shapes the direction and designs where the teams are going, she said. In the intervention teams, the teachers target students who are struggling in reading, writing and math and help them to get to grade-level standards, Dorman said.

“It’s the school that makes us who we are,” Tanner said.

“Exactly,” Ranger agreed. “The shared decision making is crucial to the success of the school and to the students’ success.”

Dorman concurred. “It’s our co-teachers and the administration together that really support teacher voice and student voice. We really do a great job here at looking at each child and designing a program that’s appropriate for that child.”

Skowhegan Middle School students also know a good teacher — a Teacher of The Year — when they see one.

In supporting Dorman’s nomination in 2014, student Tyler Ring wrote that Dorman gave him the gift of reading, and for that he was definitely teacher of the year for him.

Tyler wrote that when he entered seventh grade, “I hated to read.”

“Mrs. Dorman showed me how reading is more than an adventure,” he wrote. “It’s a gift that I can give myself. It’s a free pass into other people’s lives.”

Taking the adventure to the next level, current seventh-grade student Jaydan Bussell said Tammy Ranger, his reading teacher, is “awesome.”

“It’s cool for her — she’s an awesome teacher,” Jaydan said. “She takes books that I’m into. I’m into danger stuff.”

Ranger interested him in two books in particular, he said: “Danger is My Business” and “Bear Attacks.” Now, he said, he likes to read and is doing well in class.

Eighth-grader Gabby Martin, a student in Tanner’s math class, said Tanner “is amazing” and “definitely deserves” teacher of the year designation.

“The way that she teaches is great,” Gabby said. “She teaches slow enough that most of the kids get the lesson she is teaching. I think she’s one of the best math teachers that I’ve had. She’s definitely my favorite teacher that I’ve had. I knew her before school, so it made it easier to come to eighth grade.”

Superintendent of Schools Brent Colbry said the freedom the teachers have in forming their teams and programs also is an essential ingredient in the school’s overall success.

“There’s a culture here within the school that values and promotes student achievement but also empowers teachers to work together,” Colbry said. “It’s collaboration.”

Colbry said the successes also follow his own philosophy of allowing school staff the freedom to do just that — to collaborate and make their own teams.

“I allow these people to do that,” he said. “I’m not a micro-manager and I try not to reach down and manipulate those things. There are different styles of leadership.”

Dorman said the intervention teams sit down together in the spring and look at every student that they will be coming into contact with in the coming year and design an individual program for each student. Remedial students are achieving one- to three-years growth with the individual programs within a single year, Dorman said.

The key word, Longyear said, is proficiency — advancement in knowledge and skill — which shows how well a student meets the standard rather than focusing on grade point average for seventh and eighth graders. Class size is about 20 students, he said.

“Right now we’re looking at what can a student do, how well they can do it. Are they meeting standards, and what we are expecting them to meet for standards,” Longyear said. “This is where we’re moving as a district, as a school.”

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow