SKOWHEGAN, Maine — Construction is underway on a new community school in Skowhegan.
The school will provide education and care services for kids from pre-school right up to middle school.
According to the Associate Commissioner of Education for the state of Maine, and Skowhegan leaders, the proposed Margaret Chase Smith Community School will be the first of its kind in the state that will serve kids as young as six weeks old, and as old as eleven years.
“This education is exhibitive innovation. You are doing something nobody else in our state has yet achieved. It will be an example for our colleagues for future construction builds,” Chelsey Fortin, associate commissioner of education, said.
According to Sam Hight, chair of the Building Better Beginnings Fundraising Committee, the town of Skowhegan raised $2.8 million by bond issue out of the required $4.4 million required to complete the project. The town hopes to receive federal funds to relieve the debt entirely.
Skowhegan School District Superintendent Jonathan Moody expressed that the goal of this new community school model is to provide continuity of education and care for kids at one location.
“Part of the vision for this school is really to have kids come in and have this be their school and have them move through it. You have that continuity of instruction. Where they are with teachers, they’ll move on. And teachers can collaborate down the hallway with one another. You have the opportunity for kids who are going to know this school right through to grade five, and they come back and be a part of the school through our tech center program," Moody stated.
Suzanne M. Walsh, chief executive officer for the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, has been partnering with the Skowhegan School District for almost 30 years. KV-CAP provides early education Head Start services and childcare to toddlers from ages six weeks through to kindergarten.
“It’s a game-changer for families and the community,” Walsh said.
Organizers say the new early education center at the community school will add sixty new slots for childcare to the one hundred already allocated.
“To have this sort of educational wing within a new school just provides a family with that continuity right from the time their kids enter childcare and then preschool and then right up through elementary school,” Walsh stated.
The proposed community school as one of its kind, is embraced by partners of the school district and parents who are hopeful the new addition will help solve the daycare shortages in the area.
“Since the pandemic a lot of places closed down and a lot of people stopped going to childcare or even to school, but now people are coming back. It kind of takes away that angst that sometimes parents have when you have all those transitions from one location to another. And for kids, too, it's going to be wonderful,” Walsh expressed.
Construction of the Margaret Chase Smith Community School is set to be completed in 2025.