It Takes A Whole-Community Approach

 

Rural school has formula for success

A web of support keeps teens from dropping out, and almost all of them go on to college.

By Kelley Bouchard kbouchard@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

JACKMAN — While school officials across Maine search for ways to reduce the state's 20 percent dropout rate, Forest Hills Consolidated School regularly graduates all 15 to 20 of its seniors and sends them off with college or career plans in hand.

It might be easy to dismiss this rural outpost, on the western border with Quebec, as an example of how to keep kids in school. After all, Jackman and Moose River, the two tiny towns served by the K-12 school, don't have many of the challenges and distractions faced by larger, more urban districts. The nearest McDonald's is 75 miles away in Skowhegan. Crime is so rare that there's no local police department. The local telephone directory is a pamphlet.

Except that these towns have taken a unique, whole-community approach to education that observers say is a valid example for large and small districts across the state. In the past seven years, residents of Jackman and Moose River have willfully developed a web of support for their school that includes every facet of the community, from business people to social service agencies to civic groups.

 Continue reading->>