LEWISTON – The principal of Poland Regional High School foresees a time when his students won’t have to earn credits to graduate.

He envisions a future when his students are promoted based solely on their mastery of state standards, when that mastery comes not only from the classroom but from internships and sports as well.

And now, thanks to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Principal Derek Pierce will get a chance to turn his vision into reality.

Poland Regional High School and 33 other Maine high schools will share $10 million in grants, teacher training and expert advice to completely reform the way they work.

“Short of graduation, it’s about the nicest way you could end the year,” Pierce said.

The schools were named by the Mitchell Institute Thursday, nine months after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced plans to donate the money to Maine high schools over the next five years.

“This money will help strengthen today’s schools for tomorrow’s Maine,” said Colleen Quint, executive director of the Mitchell Institute, which is managing the grant with help from the Southern Maine Partnership and other groups.

According to Quint, almost half of Maine’s 127 public high schools applied for a share of the $10 million grant money. Although the institute planned only to distribute the money to 20 schools, Quint said, the judges were impressed by the applications and couldn’t narrow it down that far.

“There were so many great ideas in there that the best we could do was narrow it down to 34,” Quint said.

Ten schools will receive up to $400,000 in help each year for five years to implement drastic changes. That help will include $40,000 to $50,000 a year in cash plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff development, training, access to education experts and other support.

Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram, Mount Abram High School in Salem and Poland Regional High School are among that group of schools.

For Poland Regional, a new high school already lauded for its inventive approach to education, the money will help drive future innovations.

In addition to the sweeping changes in graduation guidelines, Principal Pierce hopes to turn the 550-student high school into the center of the community. And he wants to do it all by 2008.

`Houses’ within schools

Thirteen other schools will receive help worth between $20,000 and $400,000 to develop smaller plans to change their schools.

Six of those – including Lewiston High School, Mount Ararat High School in Topsham and Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris – will get at least $20,000 to create small learning communities within their schools.

All six have at least 1,000 students.

“We want to be able to look at the red flags before they get out of hand, said Patrick O’Neill, principal of the 1,400-student Lewiston High School.

With help from the Gates Foundation, he plans to establish four “houses” at the high school, with one administrator each to oversee the same group of students for four years.

O’Neill also plans to establish a mentoring program that will allow small groups of students and one teacher to meet several times a week for four years.

Such changes, he said, will help “give the kids the biggest bang for the buck.”

The remaining 11 schools will receive one-time grants of $10,000 plus access to resources and an opportunity to apply for more money in the years to come.

All 34 schools will form a network to share their experiences with one another and with schools all over Maine.

ltice@sunjournal.com

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