While the rest of Maine is in the midst of a wrenching political debate over consolidating school districts into larger, arguably more cost-efficient administrative units, the small year round community of North Haven is trying to build a new $7.5 million high school, middle school and elementary school all rolled into one.
Perhaps no other community so clearly illustrates that education issues on islands are different than the mainland — a fact that seems to have been accepted in Augusta by lawmakers, the commissioner of education and the governor when they exempted island schools from the consolidation imperative in their revised cost-cutting plan.
But that does not mean that the state will help North Haven build its new three-in-one school. “It is state policy not to put money into schools smaller than 300,” according to North Haven Principal Barney Hallowell.
The challenges to the construction effort are complicated by the plan to raise $5.6 million of the necessary construction funds through private fundraising, with the remaining $1.9 million from a public bond issue.
Although the new school has been in the design and discussion process for the last six years, there is a clear sense of urgency among North Haven’s school leadership and students evident during a recent visit.
“Academically, students do really well here,” said Hallowell, citing the recent statewide testing results for high school juniors that placed North Haven in the top 10 percent of all Maine’s schools. “But our accreditation report clearly states that `the building impedes the program.’ ”
North Haven’s current school building was built in 1973, says School Board Chair Nancy Hopkins-Davisson, who was a high school student at the time. “We watched the school being built — it was an open space concept — all we had was dividers on wheels.” Whatever the original impetus, the concept was not ultimately practical, recalls Hopkins-Davission, “so we built partitions to make rooms. This was before the energy crisis, and the result is that the school is not energy efficient.”
Students have something of a love-hate relationship with the school’s physical limitations. Kennedy Cooper, an eighth-grader, says, “Our middle school is located in a trailer.” Tenth-grader Natalie Jones says, “We don’t have enough room for our stuff in our class, so everything gets piled on top of other stuff.” The school gym was closed down due to mold issues, so now, fourth-grader Natalie Carrier says, “when we take the bus down to gym (at a community Quonset building), it’s practically a waste of time because we get there so late and have to leave early.” And adds Kennedy Cooper, “When we jump rope, the ropes are always hitting each other.”
The girls basketball team practiced at Vinalhaven’s new school gym, but that meant crossing the Fox Island Thorofare this winter at 5:30 in the morning to get practice time. Nevertheless, Jones says, “I like how close it is when we all sit in the hallways eating lunch — it’s like a family.” But she adds, “the building is so old, you see more faults than the good things.”
The new school design is based on taking some of the positive things from the current school and incorporating them into the new school. “We want to fit with the island architecture so there are three pods,” says Hallowell, all of which look like island capes connected by hallways — but spacious hallways. The design emphasizes the informal contacts — the `community feeling’ that can happen between kids in different grades when students go back and forth to the gym or the arts and crafts room. Abby Campbell, another middle school student, says she looks forward especially to the hallways, “It’s where everyone passes each other and it would be great to have art on the walls and sunlight.”
To date the private fund raising effort that Hallowell has been asked to concentrate on full time for the remainder of the school year is going well. Since January 2006 when North Haven launched its campaign, it has raised $4.3 million in gifts and pledges, enough to encourage the community to break ground the first week of May to build the new road to the site next door and begin pouring the foundation.
Of the total so far, $150,000 has come from 200 gifts from among the island’s year round population of 350, including its students. Kennedy Cooper, reports that to raise money, “I did the polar plunge and sold lemonade with one of my friends. Fourth-grader Natalie Carrier adds that she collected box tops for the effort.
“Islands that stay the same get stagnant,” cautions Hallowell. “You can’t look at one thing. There’s got to be jobs and housing and there’s got to be a great school.”
Superintendent Tom Marx, who has also served as the superintendent for Monhegan’s school, readily concedes, “This is about as small a community that you can operate a high school, one of only three K-12 schools in Maine.” There is always a challenge finding enough students for basketball or to act in plays, but North Haven’ strategy has long been to rely on help from the community. “We have 80 to100 volunteers for various school activities from the community, says Marx proudly.
Pride may be the hallmark of this campaign, for in the words of Natalie Jones, who would be in the first high school graduating class if the new school is built, “We want people to look at the school and be proud of what they see and not see things falling apart.”