MECHANIC FALLS – A recently revised state law is requiring Maine educators to meet the needs of kids who learn faster, know more, or have more talent than the average student.

While funding and enforcement for the state mandated gifted and talented programs have yet to be worked out in Augusta, schools in Union 29 have programs already in place or will have them ready this fall.

Schools in Mechanic Falls, Poland and Minot are calling their programs Exceeds The Standards, or ETS, and follow the same guidelines, which were developed by a committee with representation from all three towns. However, the schools don’t follow the same model nor have the same funding and staff. Each school budget receives approval from voters at separate town meetings.

“This is another one of those state mandates without any funding to go with it,” said Terri Arsenault, School Committee member in Mechanic Falls and parent of an ETS student. “But my daughter loves it. It gives her that extra drive and push.”

Poland Community School, a K-6 school, has budgeted $27,480 in salary for next year, and already has a full-time program in place. Poland Regional High School and Bruce Whittier Middle School has $18,902 slated for ETS salary but will not offer a pull-out program. Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls, has proposed $20,311 for its half-time ETS teacher and program.

Minot Consolidated School, which serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade, will spend $12,482 in 2004-05 in ETS salary to meet the state requirement. The school offered ETS this year for grades four through eight and plans to extend the program to students in lower grades this fall, said Colleen Quint, Minot School Committee chairwoman.

“It’s very much a work in progress,” said Quint. “It’s just now getting its feet, and I suspect that things will look different in the fall than they do right now.”

Minot’s school budget was approved last month. However, Mechanic Falls and Poland voters have yet to approve school spending at their upcoming town meetings. Mechanic Falls is already faced with deep school budget cuts and a probable tax hike.

But state officials say there is funding for the requirement. Valerie Seaberg, team leader for Standards, Assessment and Regional Services for the Maine Department of Education, said that schools can receive reimbursement or subsidies for their programs.

However, the state generally has a year’s lag time in reimbursing schools and is currently following an outdated formula. The original state law called for schools to implement gifted and talented programs by 1992, but postponed the date several times, said Seaberg. The state has set a final implementation date for the school year of 2004-05, she said.

In a comprehensive effort to reform state education funding, state officials are developing what they call the Essential Programs and Services model to address required programs with different local financial resources, Seaberg said.

“We’ll be looking at things like gifted and talented programs to ensure equity across the state,” said Seaberg.

The state does not require a specific program model but does call for an extensive identification process, detailed reporting, staff development, and periodic reviews by state officials. Schools are responsible for identifying students who have exceptional intellect, academic aptitude, or artistic talent and meeting individual needs, according to the current regulations.

Union 29 schools are using a variety of national tests that compare students to an average score and that rank students according to overall achievement, said Karen Downing, ETS teacher at Elm Street School. Referrals from parents and teachers, as well as performance on state and local tests also go into the mix, she said.

Downing teaches the school’s top 3 percent of students two and a half days a week. The instruction is meant to replace some of the regular instruction students receive and not become extra assignments.

Downing, who had been teaching since 1969 in Poland and came out of retirement to take the Mechanic Falls job, said she often sees parents who are eager for their children to participate in gifted programs and teachers who feel overwhelmed with meeting so many individual needs.

“Parents always want their kids to be the best and the smartest,” said Downing. “And sometimes kids feel a social stigma and don’t want to be considered smart. The whole point is to meet each child’s needs.”

Two teachers at Poland Regional High School spent much of this year assessing students and identifying who will be eligible to participate in ETS for the first time this fall, said Principal Derek Pierce. The high school is putting its efforts into developing individual learning plans instead of pull-out programs, said Pierce.

“We do a pretty good job with our top kids anyway,” said Pierce. “It won’t be a dramatic difference but we’ll be paying more attention to how best to serve these kids.”

The high school already offers Advanced Placement courses, which is open to all students, and allows some students to take college courses.