New programs pave way for students’ futures
Reporter Staff South Berwick Reporter
This story was co-written by Amy Miller and Mary Elizaberth Everett.
Whether the next step is college, work or an apprenticeship in the trades, Marshwood High School is working to let students follow their passions and focus on future plans.
“Classrooms are wonderful, but if we are doing our job students will say, ‘what now?’” said Robert Scully, coordinator of a program started last year at the high school that allows students to get credit while they learn from experiences outside the classroom.
Marshwood’s new Extended Learning Opportunities Program is working hand in glove with the Career Center created this school year, also to help students with future plans.
Through the Extended Learning program, students can get high school credit for everything from independent study to internships and job shadowing.
“Students grow and learn as they interact with the world,” Scully said.
Meanwhile the Career Center, based in what was known as the Learning Center, has been organizing a host of activities that pave the way for students after graduation. Guidance counselors working through the Career Center have arranged student tours to local employers, held career and college fairs, and created courses that offer college credit.
Marshwood began the ELO program in the fall of 2022 with a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Education. It pays for Scully’s salary as well as stipends for student placements and transportation and other costs. Marshwood is one of 26 Maine schools given a total of $5.6 million from federal pandemic funds for the ELOs .
“A student comes down and tells me their interests and we try to make connections to cultivate their learning,” Scully said.
ELOs help them “gain a better understanding of their career opportunities, acquire valuable foundational and 21st century skills, as well as create meaningful connections to employers in our state,” he said.
Some 90 Marshwood students have signed up for the program; the goal is to increase that number in years ahead.
Among those who are involved, one student has done an independent study to learn sign language, for instance, and another has been working at Cammie Lush Boutique. Others have worked at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital and Piscataqua Animal Hospital or volunteered at the Center for Wildlife in York or Seacoast Science Center in Rye.
Scully envisions more students in all of these settings as well as partnerships with such places as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Pratt & Whitney, the Piscataqua Youth Sailing Association and the CanWe? Project, an organization focused on civil discourse.
When the state grant runs out at the end of this school year, the program is likely to continue as part of the school’s operating budget, according to Scully, who believes local employers will want to contribute financially as they gain employees through the program.
Covid’s effect on education has made the program more important as educators work to engage students, suggested Scully in a recent talk to the local Rotary Club.
“We have to get students to find their passion after three years of just looking at the screen,” said Scully, who was hired as high school principal just before the pandemic with visions of moving the school in the direction of experiential learning.
He had announced he would be leaving the principal position when he learned Marshwood had received the ELO grant, and he applied and was hired for this position.
The program started by serving disengaged students, but it is now open to all students, he said.
The high school’s new Career Center, with its focus on both preparing students for the college application process and for creating connections to local employers, works closely with the ELO program.
Classes in college-level math and English composition will give students credits at many colleges, according to Kyle Lontine, a guidance counselor now in charge of the Career Center. Describing the program at a school board meeting, Lontine noted that teachers for these courses develop curriculum with regional colleges. Marshwood hopes to add science and music appreciation courses soon, she said.
These courses save students and their families about $660 in tuition by reducing the number of credits the student has to pay for in college. Some 148 students will take 210 courses this year, saving a total of about $140,000, she said.
The school has broadened access to college and career fairs, allowing students to leave classes to attend these fairs, something previously prohibited, Superintendent John Caverly told the board.
Marshwood also is now hosting on-the-spot application days, where seniors can show their applications to college admissions staff and get an immediate decision from any of five regional schools: York County Community College, Southern Maine Community College, University of Southern New Hampshire, University of Maine, and University of Southern Maine.
The Career Center has joined the ELO staff in working to create relationships with local employers for students interested in the trades. It has set up tours with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pratt & Whitney that have been led by Marshwood alums, Lontine said.
The school also hosts all branches of the Armed Services at career and college fairs, and is again offering the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a test to predict military readiness that had not been offered for several years. Marshwood’s next college and career fair on April 3 will be coupled with a financial planning seminar, open to students and their families.G