MEXICO – Two bright, airy classrooms with their own separate entrance and a spacious office at Meroby Elementary School is now home to SAD 43’s new day treatment program for special-needs elementary school students.

The project, a year in the making, is aimed at keeping special needs students in the district rather than taking them to day programs in Wilton or Lewiston.

“This is a huge undertaking for this district,” said special services director Paige Coville.

Staff for the program, which initially will serve six students in kindergarten through grade five, includes a newly hired assistant special services director, Diane Taylor-Moore, who will manage the day treatment program, two special education teachers, a licensed clinical social worker, and four educational technicians.

Coville said plans are to keep the student population at 10 during the first year. The Meroby site is temporary while the district searches for a permanent home. Eventually, plans are to extend the program to include all special needs youngsters from kindergarten through grade 12. And in the future, the district may include such students from nearby SAD 21 and SAD 44.

Although establishing the program may save money in the long run, Coville said educating special-needs students in the district is better for those students.

Currently, they must be taken each day to the Renaissance program in Wilton or the St. Mary’s Renaissance program in Lewiston, which sometimes requires 90-minute bus trips for students.

The abundance of mental health agencies in the River Valley is also an advantage to the program, said Coville.

The day treatment program will have slightly different hours from those for the rest of the district. The new program will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Regular class hours are 7:30 a.m. to 2:10 p.m.

Taylor-Moore holds a doctoral degree in educational administration and has set up similar programs for special needs students in the state.

The new program provides academic instruction in line with the Maine Learning Results and the district curriculum, while also providing psychological/social work assistance for both the student and family, if necessary.

“These students need to learn how to adapt to the community, to the classroom, to friends and family,” said Taylor-Moore.

Classes for all students begin on Sept. 1.