Maine Vocational Region 11’s new Oxford Hills Technical School director is a familiar face in Maine School Administrative District 17.

Going back 15 years, Patrick Carson pioneered experiential education in the Oxford Hills school district, guiding Roberts Farm Preserve from an experiment with raised vegetable beds to a state-of-the-art indoor/outdoor learning facility.

As a middle school guidance counselor he co-developed a program that helps eighth grade students successfully transition to the high school environment. 

Three years ago he transferred to Oxford Hills Technical School, where he has now assumed the role as its director. The school is part of the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School campus that straddles the town line between Norway and Paris.

The technical school is one of 27 career and technical education schools — they are divided into regions — that offer hands-on trade and vocational training to high school students.

As director, Carson is executing a progressive vision for Oxford Hills students: an elective curriculum that allows freshmen to test career and technical education with trades courses before they decide to enroll in a three-year program. 

Freshmen Exploratory is a track that allows ninth-graders to sample vocational courses for elective credits within the building construction, plumbing, electrical and automotive collision/repair programs.

“When I started here, there were no tech classes for freshmen,” Carson said. “And this being a comprehensive high school, it didn’t make sense to me.

“Transitioning to high school is the hardest year for a kid. We wanted to give them another hook. If a student knows back in middle school their interest is in automotive or construction, why don’t we let them test it now? We want to engage these kids and make their learning relevant.”

An apt example of Freshman Exploratory was demonstrated when newly enrolled freshman River Verrill walked into Carson’s office with Kevin O’Reilly, a school guidance counselor.  

When Carson was told Verrill was interested in the automotive technology program, introductions veered into a rapid-fire discussion of dream cars. Verrill’s is a 1969 Chevy Nova. Carson’s is the 1969 Dodge Challenger 500. 

Carson followed it up by singing the praises of tech school automotive tech instructors Erik Arntsen and Mitch Green. “It is the best combination of old school/new school,” he told Verrill and his father, Albert, also an auto mechanic, before giving examples of exactly why the educators are top-notch.

Carson is also working to expand existing programs — exploring new tracks for students to get training in additional fields and planning a strategy to open career and technical education opportunities to homeschooled students.

“We focus on relevant learning, which means looking at existing and new programs,” he said. “Forestry and heavy equipment is combined into one track but we see interest from students in doing one or the other. Or maybe they’d like to do one (exclusively) for two years and then learn the other in their third year.

“We would gain funding benefits from the state by separating into individual programs,” he said.

Cosmetology is a field without a tech school program, but Carson said it is always at the top when students are surveyed about career and technical education goals. It is on his “to-do” list.

Agriculture is another trade he would like to add, a natural progression for students who come up through Roberts Farm programming and wish to continue.

Carson said a big part of Region 11’s growth and success is due to the support of its longstanding board members. Chairman John Poto of Otisfield has served for 25 years and Co-Chairman Steven Campbell of Hartford is closing in on a decade.

“School board directors from our sending school districts sit on the board,” he said. “There are members at large; it’s a good mix of people from the community and people from the trades.”

Region 11 is comprised of the eight towns in SAD 17: Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris, Waterford and West Paris; and Buckfield, Hartford and Sumner in Regional School Unit 10.

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