Washington County officials can be forgiven for being nervous over the future of their schools. The population of school-age children continues to decline, resulting in the inevitable debate over the economic feasibility of keeping schools open. Recently, Lubec residents voted to shudder the town’s high school. Last year, it was Columbia Falls’ elementary school that closed.
But in the midst of school closing headlines, some county schools have managed to stop the decline in enrollment and even thrive. One school, Milbridge Elementary, managed to be in the right place at the right time when a minor manufacturing boom hit. Another, Washington Academy in Machias, ramped up recruiting and boosted their programs. Both illustrate how Washington County schools may have to embrace new strategies in order to stay afloat.
“I think the schools that are able to survive will be the ones that are able to embody a culture shift” in how they deliver education, said Alan Furth, executive director of the Cobscook Community Learning Center in Trescott.
Milbridge Elementary probably would have met the same fate as the Columbia Falls Elementary had it not been for some serendipity, said MSAD #37 superintendent Ron Ramsay, a recent principal at the elementary school. Enrollment was declining and there was little in the budget left to cut.
“It was a gradual, slow decline,” said Ramsay. “We would have had to look at other options eventually.”
But then Cherry Point Products opened and gave the Latino migrant blueberry labor force a reason to stay year-round. The town began adding population, and school numbers began to climb. The influx of Latino students brought more than a change in enrollment figures, said Ramsay.
“It’s changed [the school] definitely for the positive,” he said.
The school began an English as a Second Language program and teachers began to modify their lessons to make sure they were understood by those with limited English skills. Such lessons often are more inclusive to special-needs learners, as well. And the presence of Latinos helped teachers incorporate more multiculturalism into the curriculum.
Now the school’s population remains stable, even though the population of Maine-born students continues to decline. Ramsay is aware that such an influx may only forestall questions about the school’s future down the road.
“The handwriting is on the wall, the change is upon us,” Ramsay said.
A public school’s existence always has some element of luck to it, since it is dependent on the economic health of the surrounding community. Sometimes, that luck is more evident than others.
Cherryfield voters were faced with a difficult decision when SAD #37 voted to shut down the town’s elementary school. Residents in Cherryfield instead voted to foot the school’s bill themselves, said Ramsay. Shortly after that vote, the school received an anonymous donation of $200,000 for the 2009-2010 school year. Since that donation, SAD #37 has agreed to help fund the school.
Sometimes, schools must manufacture their own luck, and it’s much easier for a school to do that when it isn’t completely beholden to the state. Washington Academy is one of 10 quasi-public academies in the state which, though not dependent on state funding, is eligible for tuition payments from towns. Like other schools in the area, though, it was facing declining enrollment and budget shortfalls a decade ago.
Headmaster Judson McBride remembers that as a painful period when he had to let go a number of friends who were faculty at the school. He said the decline served as a wakeup call to reexamine how the school operated. While the Academy has more flexibility to operate than public schools, said McBride, but it also has to live on its wits.
“Because we don’t have a guaranteed revenue,” he said, “it forces us to continually ask, ‘What can we do to do a better job?”
The Academy focused on its recruiting and created a residential program for students. With a shoestring budget, McBride and other school officials travelled to attract foreign students who could stay in the dorms and improve their English skills in Maine. The influx of foreign students made the school flush again, which allowed it to expand programs. This, in turn, attracted more local students.
School officials from eight other schools, including public schools, have taken tours of Washington Academy’s facilities, and some are planning similar programs. The system isn’t completely insulated from shock; the school lost 20 students recently during a South Korean currency crunch. But it has made the academy the envy of schools in Washington County. What Washington Academy has done, others could replicate, said McBride.
“There are so many Chinese students that want to come to the U.S. that the potential is limitless,” he said.
This proactive approach to enrollment has ruffled some feathers locally. Some Lubec residents who advocated for keeping their high school open accuse the academy of poaching students, a charge McBride denies.
But Furth said that all schools are going to have to embrace the innovative nature of schools like Washington Academy. The standard model for public education has been outdated for over 40 years, said Furth, and is now too expensive to keep in the wake of emerging technologies that make distance learning possible.
Schools also have been struggling with ever-increasing national mandates, which put them in survival mode, rather than looking at ways to embrace change. Instead, in the midst of crisis, they should look at ways to serve students better, he said.
“Everybody stopped looking at the prize and started looking at the hammer,” Furth said. “You got to keep your eye on some of the core qualities of your school, like how much joy there is in the day,” he said.
Coverage of Washington County is made possible by a grant from the Eaton Foundation.
Craig Idlebrook is a freelance writer based in Ellsworth.