LIVERMORE FALLS – SAD 36 directors approved the superintendent’s request to move forward with other superintendents interested in an alternative education program for students.

The program will be modeled after the successful Carlton Project in Aroostook County that has helped students get engaged in learning, Superintendent Terry Despres said Thursday.

The program would be held at the Cedar Street learning complex where Central Office, adult education and Head Start is located.

The Carlton Project, according to its Web site, has served 89 students throughout Aroostook County since 2001. With a waiting list since it opened, an outreach program was recently started in Houlton.

Most students attending The Carleton Project are high school dropouts trying to rectify their situation.

A one-year plan after graduation is a requirement in the program.

Ninety-five percent of students who identified full-time employment as a goal following graduation succeeded, and 65 percent of the graduates have gone on to post-secondary education.

The project boasts that it serves a need in the community: the educational of a population of young people who have learning challenges and have not been successful in traditional settings, but who still have the capacity and the will to achieve.

They use the Maine Learning Results curriculum with school operating year-round, four days a week.

Many of the students hold jobs and need 200 hours of workplace experience as a graduation requirement, the Web site states.

There are about 150 people, age 20 and younger who don’t have diplomas in this area, Despres said, and more than 500 regionwide.

Some people think students in alternative education have behavioral issues, but that isn’t the case.

Many students he witnessed at The Carlton Project, he said, were gifted and talented but frustrated and left the traditional program.

Every student recaptured represents $6,500, Despres said.

Despres said the program would not cost the district anything to run; it would be income in and income out.

SAD 36 adult education Director Carrie Castonguay said the program in Presque Isle serves older teens, and the one in Houlton serves younger ones.

When she visited, she said you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet, and the students worked independently.

Students she spoke to told her that one reason they liked the program was because of the way they were treated as adults, she said.

Both Castonguay and Despres said they were impressed with what they saw.

Every student had to take college credit courses as a senior and had to do 20 hours of community service.

Several school systems have been working together for 18 months to put together an alternative education program to serve students.

It was time to act, Despres said, “We have too many kids out there.”

Director Mac Haynes, a retired school teacher and adult education director, said, “Don’t let it become what the last program became: a dumping ground for students who didn’t get along with others.”

“It will not be a dumping ground,” Despres said. “This is not a teacher referral program.”

He said they will find the students in need and get them engaged in learning.

Despres said he would like to get the program up and running by Oct. 1.