FARMINGTON — In her first administrative report, new Franklin County Adult Education Director Mary Redmond-Luce told Regional School Unit 9 directors Oct. 10 that Franklin County had the lowest number of disconnected youth among five counties in western and central Maine.
Redmond-Luce, who took over for Nancy Allen after her retirement earlier this year, said her data was from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act program, which is working closely with adult education programs across the state to tackle the issue of youth ages 16 to 19 not engaging in work or school.
“There is a national issue with people age 16 to 19 not engaging in work or education,” Erin Benson, executive director of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, stated in the report. “The Central Western Maine Workforce Investment Board will be doing a large campaign to try and locate those young Mainers, to help them reengage in the workforce.”
According to the report, the national number of disconnected youths in that same age range is about 433,164, and the total for Maine is roughly 1,490.
Benson has been working closely with Redmond-Luce and the adult education program in Franklin County to prepare for an influx of new students as a result of the campaign, and is representing Franklin, Oxford, Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Somerset counties on behalf of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
According to Redmond-Luce, the campaign is anticipated to cost roughly $100,000 and will specifically target disconnected youth in those five counties. She said there are roughly 618 of them, according to the Central Western Maine Workforce database. Of the 618, 22 were in Franklin County.
“It was like, ‘OK, so we’re going to have a large influx of people’,” Redmond-Luce said. “Then I look, and we only have 22.
“In the big picture of things,” she said, “this really meant that the schools in Franklin County have done an excellent job in helping students transition to either the workplace, or to college.
“Franklin County is doing a great job,” she added.
Superintendent Christian Elkington said the reason for Franklin County’s lower numbers compared to the other four counties might be due to the student population and efforts to keep students on track.
“Obviously, our population is lower than some of these other counties,” Elkington said. “We kind of know our kids better because of the efforts we made and the size of our schools. We have the resources and they’re being used for our population, so we know our kids probably a little bit better than other places that the overall population is larger.”
Director J. Jeffrey Barnum of New Vineyard asked Redmond-Luce if the 22 students have been identified.
Redmond-Luce said they did not know specifically who they are or what district they attended.
She said she is unsure how the data presented to her was collected.
Elkington said tracking students is difficult unless they report themselves. He said among the number of discounted youths in Franklin County, some who are attending schools in other counties may be counted.
“When it comes up to the dropout prevention committee, this is an area we need to look at and see if there’s another way to identify students, but I know of a few students who’ve left us that are no longer in the county, and they could have been in this count but they’re not with us now,” he said.
Director Carol Coles of Starks added that the dropout prevention committee is working to identify factors that would cause a student to dropout and catch them as early as possible.
“I think that second word is the important one, the prevention piece,” she said. “I think things like (Building Assets, Reducing Risk) really have helped and I’ve been impressed with the people that have been at the dropout prevention committee meetings.
“We try to catch people before they disconnect,” she said. “I think that’s the piece that I think is really important for us, to keep making sure that all of the kids that are here, whether they’re foster tech or in traditional programs or whatever, feel seen on a regular basis.”
Director Janice David of Farmington asked if drug abuse was a factor among the disconnected youths in Franklin County.
Redmond-Luce said the report was based purely on economic factors and did not reflect that statistic.
There is some substance abuse issues,” Elkington said. “I’m not going to say it’s 51%, I’m not going to say it’s 75%, but I’m going to say more than not drop out because of substance abuse issues, either for them or in the home.”
“It is an important factor,” he said.
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