PARIS — Streaked Mountain teacher Michael Vandermark recognized two recent graduates of the alternative education program at Tuesday’s meeting of Maine School Administrative District 17 directors.

Stephanie Marin and Catlyn Enman finished their senior year and participated in Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School’s graduation ceremonies earlier this month.

Streaked Mountain is designed for at-risk 11th and 12 grade students, providing a smaller and safe setting for those who have had difficulties in traditional school. It is located at 160 Main St. in Norway.

“Some are experiencing academic failure,” Vandermark said. “Some are not, but struggle with social anxieties that come with a giant building. Our high school building is like a town of 1,200 teenagers. Some students can’t function in that environment.

“We create a low-stimulus and highly supportive environment, off campus. You can’t believe the difference when you remove the bells, the hallways, the lines, the cafeteria or the bathrooms, intercom and constant chatter.

“The student who sits in front of us is suddenly a new student. It’s amazing what can happen when you reduce that stimulation,” he said.

Vandermark said the program is relocating to a space that will allow up to 20 students to participate, twice as many as before. He also talked about a new program that has allowed high school students to earn credit by taking online courses.

“This year, we instituted an online platform,” he said. “There is a need for different delivery of instructional sequence for some kids. The platform is available to all high school students. We offered 14 classes this year and had 27 seniors earn 71 credits through online learning, 10% of our graduating class this year. This is a good return on your investment.”

Vandermark also highlighted the two young women’s accomplishments, who were in-person students, as a couple of the program’s success stories.

Marin “is one of the most artistic minds I’ve ever met,” Vandermark told the board. “She can read, analyze and write about anything you put in front of her, and I mean anything.

“She helped us create a template for a graphic novel, it’s as good as I’ve ever seen,” he said. “She is an incredible, incredible student. Recently graduated, and I keep pushing her that she would make an excellent art teacher.”

“When I started at Streaked Mountain,” Marin said, “I had been through the main Oxford Hills high school and Telstar, and neither of them worked for me. Neither had a quiet and welcoming environment like Streaked.

“I’ve become so much more confident, and the teachers have helped me so, so much,” she said.

“This next young lady, Catlyn Enman, when I first met her she said ‘hey, do you mind if I do a backflip?'” Vandermark said. “Before I could answer, she did one in front of me. And I thought, if I can harness this energy towards academics there will be no stopping her.”

Enman told directors that she would not have been able to make it through school without the support of Vandermark. “He helped me emotionally, academically, and any way possible,” she said. “From kindergarten to junior year I never once won any award. But awards is what really pushed me to do my thing and made me 8,000 times more confident in myself. And I won student of the month.”

Enman said when she started the Streaked Mountain program as a junior she had just six and a half credits toward graduation, but with Vandermark’s encouragement she was able to earn enough in one year to graduate.

“I want to thank him for making my dreams come true about graduating,” she said.

In other business, Student Services Director Jan Neureuther advised the board that it is becoming more difficult to hire special education staff. Recently, the state has warned school districts that employees with emergency teaching certification cannot work as special educators, per federal policy.

That mandate, coupled with a trend of employees finding better salaries outside MSAD 17, is making it even harder to hire and retain staff.

“It seems as soon as we hire some employees, we have more taking higher-paying jobs in other districts,” Neureuther said. “We offered a school nurse job position to a person who took a job in a neighboring district for more money instead. We have seven positions that we have not been able to fill.”

One bright spot in Student Services has been the impact of instituting Positive Behaviors and Intervention Supports in elementary schools, which has resulted in 25 to 30 fewer sixth graders transitioning to Oxford Hills Middle School with special education needs than previously.

In another matter, Superintendent Heather Manchester said the building committees for West Paris Elementary and Oxford Hills Middle schools will begin meeting in July on school construction projects. With a new middle school expected to include sixth grade classes, a study is underway to measure the impact that such a change would have on the eight elementary schools in the eight-town district.

Otisfield Director Diana Olsen of the selection committee reported that three of MSAD 17’s liaison seats on Maine Vocational Region 11’s board of directors remain open. Director Lew Williams of Hebron is the one school board representative. Directors Peter Wood of Norway and Anna Gregoire of Otisfield volunteered to apply for the vacancies.

During the public comment period Kelly Adams of Norway read a letter about how special education failures and unreliable transportation are impacting her family. She said that after a year of meeting with officials to find solutions the problems have instead grown worse.

“It has been documented by my child’s developmental pediatrician that she has experienced trauma attending school in SAD 17,” Adams said. After securing placement in a school outside of the district for her child, transportation plans collapsed and were not resolved until she hired a lawyer and education advocate to intervene

“I am asking the board, how are you going to do better?” Adams said. “I implore you to add my concerns to the next board meeting agenda, to have an open discussion and begin problem solving.”

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