Maine’s schools, in the habit of handing out grades themselves, were on the receiving end last week when Gov. LePage’s administration issued report cards to Maine’s public schools. Statewide, 69 percent of our schools scored C or better, while 31 percent earned a D or an F.

Locally, all four of Lincoln County’s high schools (Boothbay Region, Wiscasset, Lincoln Academy and Medomak Valley) received a grade of C, while elementary schools ranged from an A to a D. Edgecomb Eddy School earned a coveted A.

Most school officials weren’t happy with the grading system, based on the percentage of students graduating from high school, test scores and improved performance, arguing that there were too many extenuating circumstances to use such limited criteria in making the determinations.  Some school systems were of the opinion that student poverty level should have been a major factor in ranking schools, pointing out that schools with a high percentage of students eligible for free lunch, i.e., at or below the poverty level, were clearly among those earning lower grades.

While economic factors no doubt influenced the scoring system to some degree, it didn’t necessarily hold true in all cases, nor did the size of the community.

Some of the “richer’’ towns and cities did well: Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Yarmouth and Greely schools for the most part received grades of A. But, some small, less affluent communities also got the top grade. Elementary schools in both Phillips and Strong earned an A, while closer to home, in addition to Edgecomb, both South Bristol and Dresden got a score of A.

Boothbay Region Elementary, Southport, Great Salt Bay, Nobleboro, and Wiscasset Primary were given a B, while Wiscasset Middle School and Woolwich were handed Cs.  Georgetown got a D and Whitefield a failing grade.

Also proving you don’t have to be a big school to earn a good grade were Chebeague Island, Islesford, Hope and Peaks Island. On the other hand, some small schools earned a D, like Machias High School and Jonesport-Beals elementary school.

What do these school grades prove? Some argue that they don’t mean anything. But, Augusta hopes the grading system will prompt schools to take a good, hard look at themselves and assess whether or not they are doing everything they can to produce students test well, and to encourage a bigger percentage of graduating high school students to continue their education. This new system of grading schools may be beneficial or not. Time will tell.