LIVERMORE FALLS – Jakelynn Crosby thanked SAD 36 directors and former Superintendent Terry Despres on Thursday night for establishing the Progressive Learning Institute, where she earned her high school diploma and was inspired to attend college this fall.

Crosby also thanked Adult Education Director Carrie Castonguay for leadership and oversight of the program, and Alan Morris, who started the Carleton Project in Aroostook County, which the institute is modeled after.

The program offers one-on-one support and hands-on activities for students between the ages of 16 and 20 who have dropped out of a traditional school setting.

If it wasn’t for the people who have helped her in the program, she said, “I would still be a high school drop out.”

“It’s people like each of you who make the world a better place,” Crosby said.

Crosby left Livermore Falls High School in 2007 and was not planning to return. But then she applied to the institute and was accepted, she said.

She graduated in 2008.

Castonguay said as of Thursday, there were 27 students enrolled in the program and 12 more on a waiting list. Ten students have completed the program. Only one of those is not in post secondary school or work.

Institute teacher Chris Ellingwood also read a letter from another student who completed the program. She, too, expressed her thanks for the program and said without it she wouldn’t have finished school, Ellingwood said.

Institute teacher Bryana Chapman said she has five middle school students enrolled.

“The kids are coming to school,” she said, which is quite a difference from before.

They are completing PowerPoint presentations, asking questions and are very excited coming to school, she said.

In other business, directors approved a 10-day trip to London for high school students and an overnight humanities trip to New York for students to see the Broadway show “Mary Poppins.” Students are covering the cost of the trip and tickets, with the board agreeing to cover substitutes for teachers.

The board also accepted the resignation of longtime bus driver Loretta Maxwell with regret. The position will be filled by a substitute, interim Superintendent David Wallace said.